How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
HALLY. [. . .] I bet you I could still find my way to your room with my eyes closed. (He does exactly that) Down the corridor…telephone on the right, which my Mom keeps locked because somebody is using it on the sly and not paying…[. . .] around the corner into the backyard, hold my breath again because there are more smells coming when I pass your lavatory, then into that little passageway, first door on the right and into your room. How's that? (715-724)
Hally demonstrates the power of memory in this little exercise. His childhood home is buried back in the past, but he remembers the sights and smells of the old Jubilee Boarding House. But notice all the drama that floods his memory – thievery, nasty smells – Hally really, really hated it there.
Quote #5
HALLY. [. . .] Our days in the old Jubilee. Sad in a way that they're over. I almost wish we were still in that little room.
SAM. We're still together. (940-943)
Sam's living in the present, but Hally's stuck in the past. Just after all of his complaining about how awful his childhood home was, he suddenly gets nostalgic for it. He can't appreciate what he has, which is a relationship with Sam, because he's always looking backward or forward. Sam knows that "home" isn't a place. It's people.
Quote #6
HALLY. [. . .] Don't misunderstand me chaps. All I want is for him to get better. And if he was, I'd be the first person to say: "Bring him home." But he's not, and we can't give him the medical care and attention he needs at home. That's what hospitals are there for. (989-994)
Do you buy what Hally's saying?