How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Death was his little sister one morning when he awoke at the age of seven, looked into her crib, and saw her staring up at him with a blind, blue, fixed and frozen stare until the men came with a small wicker basket to take her away. (10.44)
This sounds a lot like SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as crib death. Of course, people died far more frequently in 1928 than they do today, because now we have the knowledge, equipment, and medication to cure and prevent common illnesses. Do you think the fact that people died younger in 1928 made the death of a child seem less traumatic to other children, or more so?
Quote #5
"Tell me," she said quietly. "If that machine is like you say, has it got an answer to making babies in it somewhere? Can that machine make seventy-year-old people twenty? Also, how does death look when you hide in there with all that happiness?" (13.36)
More deep thoughts from Lena Auffmann. One way to understand this is that happiness is only possible because we know it's opposite: unhappiness. Life, after all, is arguably more meaningful because we know it will end.
Quote #6
"Yesterday a whole lot of dust settled for good. And I didn't even appreciate it at the time. It's awful, Tom, it's awful! What we going to do without all those soldiers and Generals Lee and Grant and Honest Abe; what we going to do without Ching Ling Soo? I never dreamed so many people could die so fast, Tom. But they did. They sure did!" (26.6)
These are Doug's words to Tom on the day after the death of Colonel Freeleigh, a.k.a. the human time machine. It's true: When we die, our stories, and the people in them, die with us. All the more reason to live your life in such a way that your stories are awesome.