How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Ed Dunkel said to me, "Last night I walked clear down to Times Square and just as I arrived I suddenly realized I was a ghost - it was my ghost walking on the sidewalk." He said these things to me without comment, nodding his head emphatically. Ten hours later, in the midst of someone else’s conversation, Ed said, "Yep, it was my ghost walking on the sidewalk." (II.5.4)
Ed presents his visions in a matter-of-fact manner, as though he were announcing what he had for breakfast. This casual attitude makes his visions seem absurd – until we realize that our reliable narrator, Sal, has the same sort of visions.
Quote #5
Big long Ed Dunkel sat looking out the window, talking to himself. "Yes sir, I thought I was a ghost that night." He was also wondering what Galatea Dunkel would say to him in New Orleans. (II.6.16)
Ed faces the same problems as Dean: reconciling his madness with the woman (or women, in Dean’s case) in his life.
Quote #6
"Damn!" said Bull. "I should have known better, I’ve had experience with this before. Oh, when will we ever learn?"
"What do you mean?"
"Big Pop is what I mean. You had a vision, boy, a vision. Only damn fools pay no attention to visions. How do you know your father, who was an old horseplayer, just didn’t momentarily communicate to you that Big Pop was going to win the race? The name brought the feeling up in you, he took advantage of the name to communicate. That’s what I was thinking about when you mentioned it. My cousin in Missouri once bet on a horse that had a name that reminded him of his mother, and it won and paid a big price. The same thing happened this afternoon." He shook his head. "Ah, let’s go. This is the last time I’ll ever play the horses with you around; all these visions drive me to distraction." In the car as we drove back to his old house he said, "Mankind will someday realize that we are actually in contact with the dead and with the other world, whatever it is; right now we could predict, if we only exerted enough mental will, what is going to happen within the next hundred years and be able to take steps to avoid all kinds of catastrophes. When a man dies he undergoes a mutation in his brain that we know nothing about now but which will be very clear someday if scientists get on the ball. The bastards right now are only interested in seeing if they can blow up the world." (II.7.12-II.7.14)
Although he recognizes the fact afterwards, even Bull Lee, the wise sage among Sal’s friends, is unable to act according to visions.