How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"[…] don't you feel bad for them? A little?"
[Alan] looked at Nick with a testing, expectant air. Nick didn't know what to say.
He felt angry with [Mae and Jamie]. If it hadn't been for them, Alan would not be marked. Nick didn't think expressing this would go over well, though.
"I don't feel anything for them."
That answer made Alan look so unhappy that Nick almost wished he had told him about the anger. (3.200-204).
Nick says here that he doesn't feel anything for Mae and Jamie, but that's not the truth—he feels anger at them. How do you think Alan would have responded if Nick had been honest instead of pretending not to have any emotion at all?
Quote #5
There was a crawling sensation of dread in Nick's stomach just looking at it, but when Alan beckoned, he bowed his head and let his brother slip the talisman around his neck. He felt like an animal going back into a harness. (9.174)
Here's another animal comparison, but there's another thing we find significant in this quote, too: the fact that Nick does what his brother wants him to do, what he knows he has to do, even though it makes his skin crawl. So what is that? Love? Obedience? Morality? We'll let you decide.
Quote #6
She pushed open a door and led him into a little sitting room, with cream silk fittings and picture frames glinting brightly on every surface. Nick hovered in the middle of the room, feeling like a clumsy animal who should not be allowed in here, and who would break something in a moment. (11.13)
Once again, Nick = animal. This time, he's a bull in a china shop, but the point once again is that he's out of place, a lumbering animal in a delicate human setting. He doesn't fit, and he knows it.