How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph). Though the story has no explicit divisions, we created "sections" to make the paragraph numbers more manageable. Section one is the scene in the hotel room. Section two is the scene on the beach to the end of the story.
Quote #1
She washed her comb and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang her room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand. (1.1)
Muriel's materialism sets her markedly apart from Seymour. With such fundamental differences, we wonder how close the two of them are.
Quote #2
"Mother," the girl interrupted, "listen to me. You remember that book he sent me from Germany? You know – those German poems. What'd I do with it? I've been racking my – " (1.36)
Seymour is clearly quite earnest in asking Muriel to read the poems (Rilke, we can infer). But she doesn't take his request seriously at all, and instead misplaces the book he so valued.