Sunset Limited Suffering Quotes

How we cite our quotes: In consultation with my editor, we decided (against standard practice) to go with page numbers—since The Sunset Limited is one long act and it would be unwieldy and impractical to number all the lines.

Quote #7

WHITE: The darker picture is always the correct one. When you read the history of the world you are reading a saga of bloodshed and greed and folly the import of which is impossible to ignore. And yet we imagine that the future will somehow be different. I've no idea why we are even still here but in all probability we will not be here much longer. (112)

Black doesn't disagree with this—it's just that his response is to take pity on people, while White's response is to abandon them in disgust.

Quote #8

WHITE: […] It's that the world is basically a forced labor camp from which the workers—perfectly innocent—are led forth by lottery, a few each day, to be executed. I don't think that this is just the way I see it. I think it's the way it is. Are there alternate views? Of course. Will any of them withstand scrutiny? No. (122)

It seems like the point of life, from White's perspective, is just to lead to death. He wants to speed that process up by committing suicide—reaching the end goal long before life naturally puts him there.