How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"A substitute, then. Your recommendation, Mr. Childan?" Tagomi deliberately mispronounced the name; insult within the code that made Childan's ears burn. Place pulled, the dreadful mortification of their situation. Robert Childan's aspirations and fears and torments rose up and exposed themselves, swamped him, stopping his tongue. He stammered, his hand sticky on the phone. (1.10)
We're only a few paragraphs in and already we see people using power against each other. We love this example because it's such a minor muscle flexing on Tagomi's part—he's just mispronouncing a name, so it could be an accident. Oh, but it's not, and Childan is just crushed by this "social" power.
Quote #2
It horrified him, this thought: the ancient gigantic cannibal near-man flourishing now, ruling the world once more. We spent a million years escaping him, Frink thought, and now he's back. And not merely as the adversary ... but as the master. (1.62)
Childan may have to deal with Japanese social power, but Frank Frink has another worry, which is that the savage Nazis can get him wherever he goes. It might seem like a flight of imagination to imagine the Nazis as cavemen (oh, whimsical), but this expresses Frank's anxiety as clearly as Childan getting tongue-tied.
Quote #3
And yet old W-M was really very powerful. He owned controlling interests in a variety of enterprises, speculations, real estate. As well as the W-M Corporation factory. (4.2)
Frank Frink thinks of Wyndam-Matson purely as an economic power, owning a bunch of real estate and businesses. But as we see later, W-M also has connections with the government and the police, though they may be secret. (That's real power, when no one knows.)