| Quote #1 Moreover it is confusing to come across a youthful photograph of some one known in a rounded maturity and gaze with a shock upon a fiery, wiry, eagle-eyed stranger. Best to be reassuring – Dick Diver’s moment now began (2.1.15). |
The first sentence of this passage had to be omitted when the novel was revised, according to his notes, after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s death. Would the contrast between Dick at 34 and Dick at 28 seem too stark if we didn’t see the older Dick first? Does the novel’s chronology disorient us in a way that helps us understand the novel, or does it seem like a cheap trick with no real purpose?
| Quote #2 "You’re going where?" Dick asked Nicole. |
Nicole is referring to the time she’s been ill – probably from the moment her father raped her to when she starts to feel recovered five years later. Does Nicole ever get back the time she’s lost?
| Quote #3 "Is Mr. Warren dead?" Dick demanded. |
As far as we know, Nicole hasn’t seen her father in like ten years. Dick keeps asking if he’s dead because he’s terrified of what seeing her father will do to Nicole. Suddenly ten years doesn’t seem like such a long time, does it?