How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Nick strode forward in a fury and then found himself pulled up short by the confines of the imprisonment circle. It was like being a savage dog kept on a chain so he would not fly at throats. He felt like flying at throats. He made a sound that was almost a snarl. (14.56)
Snarling, savage, and "kept on a chain." This isn't exactly a cuddly image, and once again, it seems to suggest that Nick has, at heart, a feral nature—a level of ferocity that he has to fight to keep in check. (And that, at times, he has no desire to keep in check.)
Quote #8
Nick knew they were father and son, but he felt as if Arthur was a spectator at the zoo, and he was a tiger in a cage. Arthur looked at him with gentle interest, and Nick only just stopped himself from snarling again. (14.62)
It's almost like the way Arthur is looking at Nick here, as though he's a zoo exhibit, serves to awaken that animal part of Nick and bring it front and center. And of course, that's exactly what Arthur wants to do: awaken Nick to the fact that he's not human, that his essence is wild and destructive. Of course, if we were left in a room with Black Arthur, we might start snarling, too. And come to think of it, what does Black Arthur's treatment of Nick—and everyone else—say about his (BA's) humanity?
Quote #9
Nick looked at his father's eyes, and then looked at his mother's, and saw nothing but blue, blue, blue. Nick's own eyes were an endless, cold black. (15.7)
In the natural order of things, the child of two blue-eyed parents would most likely not have eyes that could be described as "an endless, cold black." But then, Nick's life hasn't exactly followed the natural order of things, has it?