How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Cotton and gulls in the half-light and the way she’d [Janice would] come on the other girl’s bed, never as good as their own. (1.134)
It would be interesting to know if Janice feels this way, too.
Quote #2
So that when it was over he was hurt to learn, from the creases of completion at the sides of her and the hard way she wouldn’t keep lying beside him but got up and sat on the edge of the metal-frame bed looking out the dark window at the green night sky of Texas, that she faked her half. (1.167)
Does it make Rabbit more sympathetic that he cares about the prostitute’s orgasm? Or is this just more of his competitive spirit?
Quote #3
"I had forgotten," she says.
"Forgotten what?"
"That I could have it too."
"What’s it like?"
"Oh. It’s like falling through."
"Where do you fall to?"
"Nowhere. I can’t talk about it." (3.120-126)
This passage suggests that men and women experience orgasm very differently. It’s possible that if Ruth had been able to go on, they would have found their experience similar, or not. It would have been an interesting conversation anyway. Too bad Ruth was embarrassed.