How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Priscilla Lapham. Ever since Rab had taken her home and left Johnny to eat six fried eggs by himself, he had felt differently about Cilla. She had been his best friend during the years he worked at the Laphams'. And then for some months she had been a drag on him. He had not bothered much with her. Overnight that had changed. He was always looking forward to Thursdays and the seed cakes and the half-hour sitting out under the fruit trees with Cilla. (7.4.3)
So Johnny and Rab and Cilla are all friends, and maybe there's kinda sorta also a half-hearted love triangle going on here. We don't know because the three of them don't seem to know, but we get the sense that Rab pays attention to Cilla because another guy hanging out with her is the only thing that will alert Johnny to his feelings for Cilla. Rab is a good friend like that. This passage gives us the feeling that Johnny would like to be more than friends with Cilla, but now they have that old I'd like to try dating, but I don't want to ruin our friendship, which is based on our previously arranged marriage thing going on. Awkward.
Quote #8
Even in the old days of the Lapham shop Dove would have been Johnny's friend if Johnny would have had it. The enmity between them was the younger, and smarter, boy's fault. As soon as Johnny began to cultivate Dove, he was surprised at the response. Dove had always been lonely and he still was. […] But Johnny's feelings toward Dove had changed. Dove was garrulous, indolent, complaining, and boastful, but it hurt Johnny when the other boys bullied him and his masters beat him. He was like a man who owns a dull, mean dog. He may punish it himself, but resents it if anyone else punishes it. For better or worse Dove was now his own private property. (9.2.1)
Dove crosses Johnny's path again in the stables at the Afric Queen, where Dove is a horse boy for the British officers. Johnny befriends Dove in order to get him to give up pertinent information, but he also ends up taking Dove under his wing a bit. Is it us, or is this a big change from when Johnny was threatening Dove's life after the accident? What caused this change?
Quote #9
"And there's not one reason why I can't leave for Lexington too, except you don't want me."
He knew this was not true, but he could not help badgering Rab, trying to make him say, "I'll miss you as much as you'll miss me." (10.2.11-12)
This makes us think of all those scenes in Harry Potter where Harry and Ron are fighting and then they make up. Johnny and Rab are saying goodbye before Rab leaves Boston to join the militia in Lexington. They are coming to the end of living together at the newspaper office, one way or another, but neither of them can express their feelings about this, so they end up snapping at each other. Why can't they just say they'll miss each other? Does Rab understand why Johnny picks a fight with him? Does Johnny understand why Rab doesn't respond in the way he wants?