How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Story.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
THE last, the under, page of the four-year-old letter was stained a sort of off-cordovan color, and it was torn in two places along the folds. Zooey, finished reading, treated it with some little care as he put the letter back into page-one order. (Zooey.4.1)
This letter shows that, four years ago, Zooey was struggling with the same decisions that Franny now faces.
Quote #8
Whatever her taste in television-play titles, or her aesthetics in general, a flicker came into her eyes – no more than a flicker, but a flicker – of connoisseurlike, if perverse, relish for her youngest, and only handsome, son's style of bullying. For a split second, it displaced the look of all-round wear and, plainly, specific worry that had been on her face since she entered the bathroom. (Zooey.4.46)
Here we see that Zooey's comments are just teasing. The author makes sure we don't dislike his character for the way he talks to his mother.
Quote #9
"You either take to somebody or you don't. If you do, then you do all the talking and nobody can even get a word in edgewise. If you don't like somebody – which is most of the time – then you just sit around like death itself and let the person talk themself into a hole. I've seen you do it."
Zooey turned full around to look at his mother. He turned around and looked at her, in this instance, in precisely the same way that, at one time or another, in one year or another, all his brothers and sisters (and especially his brothers) had turned around and looked at her. Not just with objective wonder at the rising of a truth, fragmentary or not, up through what often seemed to be an impenetrable mass of prejudices, clichés, and bromides. But with admiration, affection, and, not least, gratitude. (Zooey.5.32-3).
Zooey looks at his mother with gratitude because she understands him in a way that no one outside their family ever could. Read Bessie's "Character Analysis" for more.