How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Patiently, in the window of the fruit store, a man with a scoop spread crushed ice between his rows of vegetables. There were also Persian melons, lilacs, tulips with radiant black at the middle. The many street noises came back after a little while from the caves of the sky. (5.1)
What does this metaphor suggest to you? Are the "caves of the sky" the spaces in between the tall buildings and skyscrapers, or are they simply the rounded contours of the sky itself? What might each of those possibilities suggest about the city Saul Bellow is trying to describe?
Quote #5
From the carnival of the street—pushcarts, accordion and fiddle, shoeshine, begging, the dust going round like a woman on stilts—they entered the narrow crowded theatre of the brokerage office. From front to back it was filled with the Broadway crowd. (5.3)
The brokerage office is a microcosm of the city itself, packed full of the same carnivalesque cast of characters that Wilhelm sees out on the street. What other buildings/locations in the novel seem like little vignettes of NYC-in-miniature?
Quote #6
"But fifteen grand is not an ambitious figure," Tamkin was telling him. "For that you don't have to wear yourself out on the road, dealing with narrow-minded people. A lot of them don't like Jews, either, I suppose?"
"I can't afford to notice. I'm lucky when I have my occupation. Tamkin, do you mean you can save our money?" (5.21-22)
Wilhelm's evasive response to Dr. Tamkin's question suggests that Tamkin is right: Wilhelm did notice anti-Semitism amongst his customers when he worked for the Rojax Corporation.