How we cite our quotes: ("Story Name," Paragraph)
Quote #7
Who is this, he thought, in need of love as much as we? Who is he and what is he that, out of loneliness, he comes into the alien camp and assumes the voice and face of memory and stands among us, accepted and happy at last? ("The Martian," 109)
Here LaFarge imagines that loneliness is so bad that the Martian would pretend to be someone else just to avoid it. But here's the question: do we have to change who we are to avoid being lonely?
Quote #8
Now, tonight, he drifted up and down, seeing the wax women in every colorful shop window, pink and beautiful. For the first time he knew how dead the town was. He drew a glass of beer and sobbed gently. ("The Silent Towns," 12)
Poor Walter Gripp. So many women, and all of them are wax. But we do feel sorry for the guy, even if we wouldn't want to marry him. It's probably even lonelier (and super creepy) to look around an empty town and see a bunch of statues.
Quote #9
He looked across the long-dead sea bottoms. Not another living thing on this entire planet, he thought. Just myself. And them. ("The Long Years," 4)
By the end of the story we learn who Hathaway means by "them" and why they don't entirely count as people. (Hint: because they're robots.) But when you first read this, you don't know who "them" refers to, and it creepily makes him seem even more alone.