Quote 4
"Let us assume," Papa said patiently, "that Dave Teller, who is a bachelor and cooks his own meals, suddenly stopped buying meat from Mr. Thompson. You can bet Mr. Thompson would have made it his business to find out why. And let us assume that Dave Teller suddenly stopped buying groceries from the Z.C.M.I. store. You can bet Mr. Harmon would have worried enough about it to find out why. And let us assume they found out Dave Teller was broke. You can bet they wouldn't have let Dave Teller starve to death. And if Dave Teller had fainted three times, you can bet the people in this town would have insisted on taking Dave to a doctor whether he wanted to go or not. But Abie was a Jew and so nobody worried about him. May God forgive us all." (6.72)
We have to agree with Papa here. Abie fainted three times and everybody just kind of shrugged? Is nobody in this whole town a Good Samaritan? The community doesn't look nearly so kind and inclusive when we consider their treatment of Abie.
"Are you afraid?" Papa asked.
"Heck, no," Tom said as if becoming impatient with Papa. (3.159-160)
Afraid of the dark, scary cave? Nope. Afraid of losing his investment in the Jensen brothers and their dog? You betcha.
Quote 6
I expected the crowd of grown men and women to throw rotten eggs at Tom after the way he had insulted them. Instead they cheered and applauded.
Papa looked at Mamma and smiled. "What a modest son we have," he said. (3.210-211)
Papa knows how to throw down the verbal irony, otherwise known as sarcasm, or saying one thing and meaning another. Do you detect a bit of pride in his son here, too?