How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #4
"I was a model citizen," he told them. "I was a hero of the state," he added, and then stepped through the door in his new boots, out into a matterless place, and from this point forward nothing further is known of the citizen named Pak Jun Do. (175)
How many times have we heard this one? Jun Do is in the last moments of occupying his life as an orphan from Long Tomorrows; he's about to embark on his journey as a nameless prisoner—and then as Commander Ga. He has a long way to go before he's able to control his destiny or choose an identity for himself.
Quote #5
As an experiment, the biography was a failure—where was the me in it, where was I?—and of course it was hard to get past the feeling that if I finished it, something bad would happen to me. The real truth was that I couldn't stand the pronoun "I." Even at home, in the privacy of my own notepad, I have difficulty writing that word. (188)
It's really no wonder that a man without a proper name would also have a problem finding the "I" in his own life story. The Interrogator has fallen in lockstep with party-line communist philosophy, which say that the desires of the individual pale in comparison to the needs of the state—there is no "I" in team, yo. Another problem might be his lack of self-awareness: the Interrogator seems a bit mystified as to why he should have a bad feeling about finishing his biography. He seems to forget what happens to his "subjects" when their biographies are completed.
Quote #6
Seeing Comrade Buc—his smile, his thumbs-up—had opened a void in Commander Ga between the person he used to be and the person he'd become. Comrade Buc was the only person who existed on both sides of Commander Ga's void... (225)
This awkward water-cooler moment in the office has Imposter Ga wondering how to tread the fine line between believing his own charade and falling apart in front of the Dear Leader. If he's going to pull off his usurpation, he has to own it. His friendship with Comrade Buc—hatched on the trip to the U.S.—will be both valuable and devastating to him as he continues in his newly gained identity. Outside of Sun Moon, Comrade Buc and his family are his only pressure points—and the Dear Leader will have no problem pushing them.