How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford, and you are not that young any more." (1.2.163)
Is there any truth in Jacques's aphorism? As the story goes on, does it seem that David is taking Jacques's advice or ignoring it?
Quote #8
I ordered black coffee and a cognac, a large one. Giovanni was far from me, drinking marc between an old man who looked like a receptacle of all the world's dirt and disease and a young boy, a redhead, who would look like that man one day, if one could read, in the dullness of his eye, anything so real as a future. (1.3.59)
Here, David is imagining the futures of some of the young boys in the Les Halles neighborhood. Why might he take such a fatalistic view of the boys' lives? What does David's fatalism say about him?
Quote #9
"Maybe everything bad that happens to you makes you weaker," said Giovanni, as though he had not heard me, "and so you can stand less and less." Then, looking up at me, "No. The worst thing happened to me long ago and my life has been awful since that day. You are not going to leave me, are you?" (2.3.23)
Giovanni, like David, has been running from something for a long time. How does the fact that they are trying to conceal something from themselves affect all of their actions? How does it constrain their behavior? If Giovanni's life is "awful" as is, why does he go on with it? What would be the alternative?