How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Papadaddy was past ninety then, and they say he ain't long for this world, so I come. That be thirteen year ago, and now it look to me like Papadaddy gonna outlive Methuselah." (1.2.84)
While Joel's mother met her fate much earlier than he would have liked, Zoo's grandfather just won't die. When she agreed to take care of him in his old age she thought it would be a short gig, but the comparison to Methuselah, a man from the Bible who lived to be 969 years old, shows that it didn't quite work out like she planned.
Quote #5
"And a man in a red coat, a Canadian Mountie, rescued us...only me, really: Mama had already frozen to death."
[...]
"Uh uh. You Mama die in the sick bed. Mister Randolph say so." (1.2.91-94)
Joel's mother's death is still pretty fresh, so this story telling might be a way of dealing with it so it doesn't hurt so badly. He invents a whole wild tale about being caught in the snow in Canada and his mother growing cold and dying (remember how she felt cold before she died in New Orleans?). Zoo calls him on it, bursting his bubble mercilessly.
Quote #6
On these dangerous evening patrols, Joel had witnessed many peculiar spectacles, like the night he'd watched a young girl waltzing stark naked to victrola music; and again, an old lady drop dead while puffing at a fairyland of candles burning on a birthday cake […]. (1.2.124)
Mortality gets lumped into all sorts of private events in this memory, where Joel and his friends used to peep into strangers' windows at night in the city. For him, death is just as strange as sex. Seeing a naked girl was as memorable as seeing a woman die. All of the mysteries of life are available if you know which window to look through.