How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #4
He sought his own features in those of their life-giver,/and saw two worlds mirrored there: the hair was surf/curling round a sea-rock, the forehead a frowning river,/as they swirled in the estuary of bewildered love,/and Time stood between them. (XXV.iii.136)
Achille recognizes that he and his father belong to two worlds: St. Lucia (that's the surf part) and Africa (symbolized by the river). The confusion comes from the complex love and loyalty they bear to both places.
Quote #5
I knew they all knew/about my abandonment in the war of love:/the busboys, the couples, their eyes turned from the smell/of failure, while my own eyes had turned Japanese/looking for a letter, for its rescuing sail/till I grew tired, like wounded Philoctetes,/the hermit who did not know the war was over,/or refused to believe it. (XXXIII.ii.171)
Things aren't going well in the love department for our narrator. Note the terms of war and surrender that he uses to describe his feelings of rejection. Bummer.
Quote #6
All I had gotten I deserved, I now saw this,/and though I had self-contempt for my own deep pain,/I lay drained in bed,/like the same dry carapace/I had made of others, till my turn came again. (XLVIII.i.241)
This sounds quite bleak, but it's actually a positive breakthrough by our narrator. He's finally learned to see the destructive role he's played in past relationships—something he can only do because he's ready to move past selfish and isolating behavior.