How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I see India," said Bernard. "I see the low, long shore; I see the tortuous lanes of stamped mud that lead in and out among ramshackle pagodas; I see the gilt and crenellated buildings which have an air of fragility and decay as if they were temporarily run up buildings in some Oriental exhibition. I see a pair of bullocks who drag a low cart along the sun-baked road. The cart sways incompetently from side to side… But now, behold, Percival advances; Percival rides a flea-bitten mare, and wears a sun-helmet. By applying the standards of the West, by using the violent language that is natural to him, the bullock-cart is righted in less than five minutes. The Oriental problem is solved. He rides on; the multitude cluster round him, regarding him as if he were—what indeed he is—a God." (5b.53)
Bernard imagines India as a place where time is endless and problems go on indefinitely. He then inserts Percival into this fantasy as the Westerner who speedily solves this imagined problem of the bullock-cart. While Bernard implies Percival's fantasy actions are admirable, he also notes that the process of inserting his "standards of the West" on the "Oriental problem" involves "violent language." Hmm… maybe colonialism ain't such a great thing after all?
Quote #2
"And, what is this moment of time, this particular day in which I have found myself caught? The growl of traffic might be any uproar—forest trees or the roar of wild beasts. Time has whizzed back an inch or two on its reel; our short progress has been cancelled. I think also that our bodies are in truth naked. We are only lightly covered with buttoned cloth; and beneath these pavements are shells, bones and silence." (4b.3)
Here, Bernard seems to be contemplating time and the potential for human progress while acknowledging that we are only really bones (and other gooey things) covered in cloth.
Quote #3
"With infinite time before us," said Neville, "we ask what shall we do? Shall we loiter down Bond Street, looking here and there, and buying perhaps a fountain-pen because it is green, or asking how much is the ring with the blue stone? Or shall we sit indoors and watch the coals turn crimson? Shall we stretch our hands for books and read here a passage and there a passage? Shall we shout with laughter for no reason? Shall we push through flowering meadows and make daisy chains? Shall we find out when the next train starts for the Hebrides and engage a reserved compartment? All is to come." (4b.70)
As the friends meet up for dinner before Percival deploys for India, they share a moment in which Neville imagines that time for them is infinite. Ah, the power of good friends.