How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"He asks her, "What do you want?"
"A daiquiri."
"You sure? You sure it won’t make you sick?" He’s noticed that, that she seems a little sick sometimes, and won’t eat, and sometimes eats the house down. (9.3-9.5)
Rabbit’s pride in noticing Ruth symptoms of pregnancy is both touching and ironic. Touching because he notices, ironic because he doesn’t get it. It is also a comment on the lack of sex, alcohol, and pregnancy education among 20-something Americans in the late fifties.
Quote #8
Eccles comes back in, looks him in the face and offers him a cigarette. The effect is somehow of a wafer of repentance and Rabbit accepts. (12.20)
What? Smoking in the maternity ward waiting room! Into what dark world have we fallen? This is the first smoke Rabbit’s had since the beginning of the story, two months ago. The "wafer of repentance" takes on ironic and tragic connotations on that Sunday we’ve talked about before.
Quote #9
"It’s all right now, now you’ll make better love to me." She giggles and tries to move in the bed. "No, I didn’t mean that, you’re a good lover you’ve given me a baby."
"It seems to me you’re pretty sexy for somebody in your shape." (12.89-12.91)
Janice has literally just given birth, and is under the influence of a tranquilizer "Meprobamate." Rabbit is pleased by her sexiness, and it sets his mind up to think she’s ready for sex sooner than she is. We just keep coming back to education on this stuff.