How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Eighty! The sheer weight of it pressed in on [Lily]: half a century with another thirty years tacked on—almost five times as long as Lily had lived on earth. Perhaps that explained why he was such an old bigot, so backward in his opinions. (11.21)
To be fair, not all elderly people are "backward," but many do find it hard to change with the times. Stan's definitely one of those. It may well be, for example, that his racist attitudes come from being raised in a time when society was less tolerant of difference. This doesn't excuse racism, but it does shed light on why Stan is who he is.
Quote #5
Stan could never find words for the way the world kept changing on him these days, so that, standing on the once-familiar corner of his old beat in the city […] Stan would feel like some kid in a fairy tale, a kid who'd been asleep inside a mountain for a hundred years and then woken in some foreign, unfamiliar land. (21.8)
One thing's for sure: Today's world is really different from the world our grandparents knew. Imagine going to sleep in the 1950s and waking up in the present day and how totally confusing that would be. You'd probably be kind of lost on a lot of things.
Quote #6
He was old and out of touch these days; he didn't know the city as he had years back when he was young and on the force. He didn't know where such a girl might go to get help, proper help, not people who'd push her around. (35.11)
It's interesting how despite of his age and out-of-touch-ness, Stan feels a real kinship with Lucy and wants to help her. We can't explain why for sure, but having been a cop, it's possible that he once felt this compassion for people in trouble before. Now, though, the world around him feels so different that he's not even sure how to help the girl.