How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
They were waiting, and yet they were not waiting. Rather as if what they were waiting for was already with them. There and not there, he thought. Being and not being. Absent presence. (14.80)
At the cemetery, Jacob is both there with Tessel, and not there at the same time, just like how his grandpa is there (literally, in the ground), but he's not because he's already dead. It makes Jacob think about life and how to live, not just exist.
Quote #8
Another lesson, one of the most affecting of my life, in how fragile is human nature. In the moment it took to read her son's letter this mature, experienced, dominant woman disintegrated as if the yarn that held the garment of her self together had been pulled out and she had unravelled into a tangle of twisted thread. (15.2)
We feel for Mrs. Wesseling when her son runs off to war without so much as a goodbye—it changes her into someone more delicate and makes us think that life is the same way. You've probably heard the old saying "life is fragile, handle with care." That definitely rings true here.
Quote #9
"Dead. Life would be dead. If there weren't any ifs we wouldn't be here. Nobody would be. We would not be. So we'd be the same as dead."
"You mean, all life is just one big if?"
"Isn't that obvious?" (15.36)
In his discussion with Hille, Jacob thinks over the idea that all of life is one big question mark. The book certainly makes us think about what the meaning of life is, and if the answer is… that it's an ongoing question. Life really makes us scratch our heads.