How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Shin is the one with the long fingers wrapped around a spiral-bound, nine-by-twelve-inch sketchbook.
He is never without it. (1.42-43)
If you look at paintings of Catholic saints, you'll see the people are usually holding something, or posed with a symbol. These are their icons, and over time the objects themselves have come to identify the individual.
We're not saying that Shin is a saint, but we are saying that Shin is never without his sketchbook—if there were a painting of him, it would include the sketchbook, and we would know it was Shin because of the inclusion of the sketchbook. Shin as scientist, as Pod God, comic book illustrator, and First Keeper of the Sacred Text are identities represented at various times by that sketchbook.
Quote #2
My mother is convinced that I am suffering from […] disease (2.16)
What kind of a sense of self is a guy gonna develop if his mom is constantly hovering and interpreting, basically convinced there is something wrong with him?
Quote #3
"How come only men can be priests? I mean, who wants to be a nun?"
Magda asks, "Do they let women be priests in the Ten-legged church?" (3.16, 42)
Why do you think Magda would rather be a priest than a nun? We think it is probably because she'd prefer more power and influence instead of less.
Quote #4
Naturally, the Reverend Grant expects his only son to follow in his hallowed footsteps. Dan would rather be a firefighter. (5.3)
What is it about parents wanting their kids to do the same things that they do?
Quote #5
[Shin] says that to really understand something, you have to become whatever it is you are studying. He says he knows exactly how it feels to be a snail.
"You have to get to the point where you really believe you're a snail," he once said to me. "If you don't believe in your own snailness, you'll never understand them." (4.57-58)
If this is the case, what happens to you? What becomes of your identity if you become a snail? We admire Shin's commitment, but wonder about how much his obsessive exploration is a way to lose himself a bit.
Quote #6
Being Catholic is hard. Being ex-Catholic is even harder. (6.115)
Identity labels can bring lots of baggage with them. They can also mean different things to different people.
Quote #7
Mrs. Jack is fussing over a plate of hors d'oeuvres. (8.27)
This is the sum total information we have on Jack Bock's wife. We don't even get her name. Her identity is his wife, and her focus is on being hostess. Good grief…
Quote #8
I listen to [Henry] name his favorites […] and I am more amazed with each writer he names. Do I know this guy? What ever happened to Henry Stagg, the illiterate psychotic fiend? (9.50)
Is Jason guilty of pigeon-holing Henry—boiling him down to one or two characteristics—or has Henry been projecting one identity and hiding the other? What clues in the text support your assessment?
Quote #9
Milt nods, flicks his cigarette toward the pumps, and goes back to work on somebody's minivan. I go to the pumps, stepping on his smoldering butt on the way (11.44)
What we do when no one is looking can say a lot about who we are.
Quote #10
I'm surprised by how different Henry seems. This is not the sadistic, dangerous Henry who punched me in the face. It is not the serious, bookish Henry who talks about sci-fi novels. It is not the confident, tower-scaling Henry. This Henry is outnumbered, a little suspicious, and he wants us to like him. (15.52)
It's usually a good thing to be considered to be multi-faceted… but not two-faced. If we have different personas we bring out for different situations, does it mean that sometimes we are being real, and sometimes we are being fake?