How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
It was surely wrong to dress, and to behave most of the time, in a way that was so un-prim when you were really so proper all of the time. (7.31)
Jim's objecting here to Margaret's "arty get-up," another sign of what he sees as posturing. This is another of Jim's rules: you shouldn't dress just to make an impression. You can tell who the good guys are in the book because they don't do this.
Quote #8
His evening suit, too, was not as spectacularly "faultless" as might have been predicted. His large, smooth face, surmounting a short, thin body, was the least symmetrical, short of actual deformity, that Dixon had ever seen, giving him the look of a drunken sage trying to collect his wits, a look intensified by slightly protruding lips and a single black eyebrow running from temple to temple. (10.15)
Here's the exception we promised. What to make of this description of the wealthy Gore-Urquhart? It's as vivid and detailed a description as we've seen in the book, and makes him out to be an ugly, almost deformed, man. What's interesting is that Amis/Jim doesn't say this makes him look like a monster or a fool—only a drunken sage. That's not too bad, right? Why does Uncle G-U escape Jim's tendency to think the worst about homely people?
Quote #9
One of them was clearly the effeminate writing Michel, on stage at last just as the curtain was about to ring down. He was a tall pale young man with long pale hair protruding from under a pale corduroy cap. (25.63)
Notice the repetitive use of "pale"? (We knew you would.) It emphasizes Michel's pasty look but also suggests that he, like the rest of the family, doesn't have much substance as a person. He's barely there. The use of the term "on stage" adds to the impression of the Welches as all overly concerned with appearances.