American Pastoral Religion Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Put your money on it, bet on it, worship it—bow down in submission not to Karl Marx, my stuttering angry idiot child, not to Ho Chi Minh and Mao Tse-tung—bow down to the great god Loneliness! (5.74)

This is the Swede's response to Merry's earlier comment that "Everything is political" (3.146). Loneliness, according to the Swede, trumps everything in life, and loneliness drives all our decisions.

Quote #5

She had become a Jain. […] The Jains were a relatively small Indian religious sect […]. Whether Merry's practices were typical or of her own devising he could not be certain […] (6.1)

This is a nice disclaimer that hopefully alerts the reader not to come to any specific conclusions about Jainism from this book. We also point it out because it's the end point of the religious trajectory we see Merry on throughout the book. It would be nice know if she stays a Jain for the rest of her life or goes on to something else.

Quote #6

She wore the veil to do no harm to the microscopic organisms that dwell in the air we breathe. (6.1)

Merry is now trying to practice extreme nonviolence, the flip side of bombing people. This connects with her job at the animal hospital as well.