How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
They swooped suddenly from the lilac bough or the fence. They spied a snail and tapped the shell against a stone. They tapped furiously, methodically, until the shell broke and something slimy oozed from the crack. (4a.2)
Well, the birds are at it again, pecking at small defenseless creatures until they ooze. We're never looking at birds in the same way. The Waves is second only to The Birds in destroying our faith in our feathered friends.
Quote #8
"The early train from the north is hurled at (London) like a missile. We draw a curtain as we pass. Blank expectant faces stare at us as we rattle and flash through stations. Men clutch their newspapers a little tighter, as our wind sweeps them, envisaging death. But we roar on. We are about to explode in the flanks of the city like a shell in the side of some ponderous, maternal, majestic animal." (4b.1)
Here, Bernard envisions his train as a kind of missile about to explode into the "ponderous" and "majestic" animal of London. Why do you think is Bernard imagining the relatively mundane event of a train arrival as a violent act?
Quote #9
"We who yelped like jackals biting at each other's heels now assume the sober and confident air of soldiers in the presence of their captain. We who have been separated by our youth (the oldest is not yet twenty-five), who have sung like eager birds each his own song and tapped with the remorseless and savage egotism of the young our own snail-shell till it cracked (I am engaged)…" (4b.18)
This quote is rich in interesting, violent imagery. In an image reminiscent of the chapter intros, Bernard asserts that he and his friends pecked at their "snail-shell till it cracked," and he follows that thought by proclaiming "I am engaged." So wait, how are these two things related? He also thinks of himself and his friends as "jackals biting at each other's heels" who have now become "sober" and "confident" soldiers.