How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I really don't think I have anything in common with Mommy anymore. And I don't think you have, either. I don't know why you still stay married to her. I know you're incompatible. (4.29)
Slocum's daughter makes biting comments like this about her home life with her parents, and then Slocum' wife gets angry with him when he kicks her out of his study. But is there some truth in what she is saying? Are Slocum's children voicing what their parents are too afraid to say?
Quote #5
I believe he pulls us together as a family and keeps us together. (I often think of leaving and always have. My daughter can't wait to get away, or says she can't.) I think we will fall apart as a family when he grows up and moves away. (4.67)
Slocum finds his son to be the glue that holds his family together and feels he would be at a total loss without him. And then it turns out—spoiler alert—that Slocum's son is even better glue for the family…when he's dead.
Quote #6
I begin to perceive what a stereotype I am only when I realize how often my daughter and my boy can predict and mimic my remarks with such verbatim precision. Have I really become so calculable a bore to them without my knowing it? (5.101)
Not only has Slocum's work-to-home routine become totally boring, but even what he says to his family has become predictable. The other members of the Slocum family are the only people who get to witness to his most scathing remarks.