How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
In the family in which I live there are four people of whom I am afraid. Three of these four people are afraid of me, and each of these three is also afraid of the other two. Only one member of the family is not afraid of any of the others, and that one is an idiot. (5.219)
Slocum's home is much like his office: both are places where each person is afraid everyone else. Maybe only Derek is immune to the hatred, but that's because he has no idea what is going on (much less who and where he is, according to Slocum).
Quote #8
All of us live now—we are very well off—in luxury with him and his nurse in a gorgeous two-story wood colonial house with white shutters on a choice country acre in Connecticut off a winding, picturesque asphalt road called Peapod Lane—and I hate it. (6.2)
Talk about suburbia. What seems on the surface like the American Dream is something of a nightmare to Slocum. Why does he hate the sight of his own home? Maybe he recoils from the house itself because he believes it is as fake as the people in his own life.
Quote #9
I'll buy another house. My wife wants that. It will please my daughter, who is keenly sensitive to friends in families with more money and not mindful at all of those with less. (6.216)
Slocum's promotion will mean he can move to a bigger house, something he believes may make the members of his home more cheerful and happy. But as we soon come to find, they are more concerned about Slocum taking Jack Green's place than they are delighted by the financial perks that will come with such a promotion.