How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In 1947, on Capitulation Day, he had more or less gone berserk. Hating the Japs as he did, he had vowed revenge; he had buried his Service weapons ten feet underground, in a basement, well-wrapped and oiled, for the day he and his buddies arose. However, time was the great healer, a fact he had not taken into account. When he thought of the idea now, the great blood bath, the purging of the pinocs and their masters, he felt as if were reviewing one of those stained yearbooks from his high school days, coming upon an account of his boyhood aspirations. (1.48)
This is Frank Frink, who used to hate the Japanese and planned to rebel against them. And then… nothing. History has totally changed his identity from "angry ex-soldier" to "craftsman." By comparing that change to the transformation of growing up ("his boyhood aspirations"), the book makes that change seem natural.
Quote #2
And, he thought, I know why. They want to be the agents, not the victims, of history. (3.121)
Baynes likes to tell us what's wrong with the Nazis (as if we don't know). But what does he mean here when he says they want to be "agents […] of history"? Is it that the Nazis want to control history? That doesn't sound so bad to us at first, but it's clear that Baynes thinks it is. Why is this bad?
Quote #3
I'm too small, he thought, I can only read what's written, glance up and then lower my head and plod along where I left off as if I hadn't seen; the oracle doesn't expect me to start running up and down the streets, squalling and yammering for public attention.
Can anyone alter it? he wondered. All of us combined... or one great figure… or someone strategically placed, who happens to be in the right spot. Chance. Accident. And our lives, our world, hanging on it. (4.66-7)
Frank has just gotten a warning from the I Ching, but he's just one guy. Depending on your opinion, this is either exactly what's wrong with Frank (he's so fatalistic, he hardly even tries to change the world), or what's right about him (he recognizes that history is a big thing). So Frank's view on history tells us about history and about him.