How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"...I will use this hour of solitude, this reprieve from conversation, to coast round the purlieus of the house and recover, if I can, by standing on the same stair half-way up the landing, what I felt when I heard about the dead man through the swing-door last night when cook was shoving in and out the dampers. He was found with his throat cut. The apple-tree leaves became fixed in the sky; the moon glared; I was unable to lift my foot up the stair. He was found in the gutter. His blood gurgled down the gutter. His jowl was white as a dead codfish." (1b.67-68)
This is one of the most striking early references to death in the novel. Neville seems to have been deeply affected by the news that this man was found in the gutter and mediates upon the gory details of his body. The incident is an interesting thing for a young boy to dwell upon, and it sets the stage for the novel's preoccupation with death and violence.
Quote #2
"They are always forming into fours and marching in troops with badges on their caps; they salute simultaneously passing the figure of their general. How majestic is their order, how beautiful is their obedience! If I could follow, if I could be with them, I would sacrifice all I know. But they also leave butterflies trembling with their wings pinched off; they throw dirty pocket-handkerchiefs clotted with blood screwed up into corners. They make little boys sob in dark passages." (2b.29)
As noted earlier in the section on authority, Louis simultaneously views the "boasting boys" as majestic and rough and violent, which seems like an incompatible mix.
Quote #3
"We are late," said Susan. "We must wait our turn to play. We will pitch here in the long grass and pretend to watch Jinny and Clara, Betty and Mavis. But we will not watch them. I hate watching other people play games. I will make images of all the things I hate most and bury them in the ground. This shiny pebble is Madame Carlo, and I will bury her deep because of her fawning and ingratiating manners, because of the sixpence she gave me for keeping my knuckles flat when I played my scales. I buried her sixpence. I would bury the whole school: the gymnasium; the classroom; the dining-room that always smells of meat; and the chapel. I would bury the red-brown tiles and the oily portraits of old men—benefactors, founders of schools." (2b.25)
This is where we learn that Susan is a liiiiitle scary. If the worst thing Madame Carlo did was reward Susan for playing her scales properly, then we'd hate to see how Susan would feel about someone who was actually mean. Also, this whole burying people in effigy thing is creepy. How is this the woman who morphs into the sweet maternal figure?