How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
But that was to speculate about nonentities: Margaret with Christine's face and body could never have turned into Margaret. All that could logically be said is that Christine was lucky to look so nice. It was luck you needed all along; with just a little more luck he'd have been able to switch his life on to a momentarily adjoining track, a track destined to swing aside at once away from his own. (19.140)
In an unfair world, is luck all you have to hang onto for any hope in changing your life?
Quote #8
There could be no doubt about it; this article was either a close paraphrase or a translation of Dixon's own original article. At a loss for faces, he drew in his breath to swear, then cackled hysterically instead. So that was how people got chairs, was it? (23.12)
Here's a pretty obvious case of injustice: Caton stole Jim's article and published it under his own name. Jim sees that some people get ahead in academia by stealing other people's work. But by this time, Jim's so beaten down by the unfairness of everything that he can't even get angry.
Quote #9
For the first time, he really felt it was no use trying to save those who fundamentally would rather not be saved. To go on trying would be to yield to pity and sentimentality, but wrong and, to pursue it to its conclusion, inhumane. It was all very bad luck on Margaret, and probably derived, as he'd thought before, from the anterior bad luck of being unattractive. (24.53)
Once again, Jim says it's the luck of the draw that makes you happy or not. When you're lucky to be born beautiful, you become a different person. Jim's saying that Margaret's personality formed around the fact that she's unattractive. It's easier for beautiful people to be happy.