How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
What did I, out of all this, want for myself? I couldn't have told you. (6.1)
Augie is like a soccer player who loves kicking the ball around the field but is oblivious to the goal. He gets the ball a lot, but he doesn't know where to take it.
Quote #2
But Mrs. Renling wanted me to become a rider and refine and school me in every way. […] She played terribly on my vanity. "I'll make you perfect," she said. "Completely perfect." (8.36-7)
Mr. and Mrs. Renling don't have children. They like Augie and want to adopt him. Mrs. Renling plays on Augie's vanity to try to convince him, but the goal serves her own vanity as well. Sounds a bit narcissistic, if you were to ask us.
Quote #3
And the unvarnished truth is that it wasn't a fate good enough for me, because that was what came out clearly when it became a question of my joining up. As son. (9.2)
Augie doesn't know exactly what he wants out of life, but he knows he doesn't want to settle for something less than "good enough," whatever that is. Trouble is, he doesn't know what that is.