How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"I never liked lobster in my life, and mainly because I'd never tried it. On my eightieth birthday I tried it. I can't say I'm greatly excited over lobster still, but I have no doubt as to its taste now, and I don't fear it. I dare say death will be a lobster, too, and I can come to terms with that." (28.110)
We love Helen Loomis's philosophy of death here. Add "eating the lobster" to euphemisms for death like "pushing up daisies," "having coffee with Elvis," and "answering the bone phone."
Quote #8
With no fuss or further ado, she traveled the house in an ever-circling inventory, reached the stairs at last, and, making no special announcement, she took herself up three flights to her room where, silently, she laid herself out like a fossil imprint under the snowing cool sheets of her bed and began to die. (32.6)
Fossils are the relics that allow modern humans to travel the farthest back in time. In comparing Great-grandma Spaulding's death to the creation of a fossil, Bradbury is subtly showing us her acceptance of her contribution to the great human time machine.
Quote #9
YOU CAN'T DEPEND ON PEOPLE BECAUSE…
… they go away.
… strangers die.
… people you know fairly well die.
… friends die.
… people murder people like in books.
… your own folks can die. [33.14-15]
A little pessimism from Doug's notebook, here. We're especially intrigued by "people murder people like in books." You know—like the book Doug appears in.