How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She had no joy. She looked into the mirror and saw the unmistakable lineaments of womanhood coming into her girlish face. Her long beautiful neck seemed to her like an ungainly stalk upon which was perched a sad-eyed ridiculous head of a whore past her prime. (11.6)
Evelyn starts to see the effects of time on her looks, and is not too pleased with the result. It's one thing to be a teenaged beauty, and another to age and fade into obscurity. (And of course plastic surgery hadn't been invented yet.)
Quote #2
It was apparent to them both that this time he'd stayed away too long. (14.1)
Father and Mother usually benefit from the time away from each other, but the Arctic trip, both in terms of the length of time and its effect on Father, make it obvious that this was one trip he maybe shouldn't have taken.
Quote #3
He found he preferred to sit in the parlor, his feet near a small electric heater. Everyone in the family treated him like a convalescent. His son brought him beef tea. The boy had grown taller. [...] Father felt childlike beside him. (14.2)
Father has rapidly aged during his trip, becoming an old man, while his son has matured. It's almost as if Father didn't just go to the Pole but to another planet. Time has aged them in very different ways while he's been gone.
Quote #4
But the boy's eyes saw only the tracks made by the skaters, traces quickly erased of moments past, journeys taken. (15.7)
Little Boy is keenly aware of time, and the way we are constantly traveling forward through it. Every moment is a moment we're creating history, as well as leaving impressions of ourselves for those who come after us.
Quote #5
After work he'd walk with her for an hour through the dark streets. She became thoughtful. She held her shoulders straight and walked like a woman. He was torturing himself anticipating her maturity. (16.1)
Here Doctorow shows the passage of time and its effects on Little Girl, who is becoming a woman—much to the worry of Tateh. He is also concerned for the future, if her difficult life will make it hard for her to accept a husband when the time comes.
Quote #6
Standing next to the proprietor he held the book at arm's length and expertly flipped the pages. The little girl skated forward and skated away, did a figure eight, came back, went into a pirouette and made a graceful bow. (17.7)
What Tateh has created with his movie book is a way to trap time. Rather than losing a moment as soon as it's happened, the book lets us see that moment of time, that skater, over and over. It's magic, and it foresees the moviemaking business and why even today movies are magical to us. They trap a moment of time forever.
Quote #7
In the clear blue light of the moon he heard from a native guide of the wisdom given to the great Osiris that there is a sacred tribe of heroes, a colony from the gods who are regularly born in every age to assist mankind. (19.6)
Yup, that's reincarnation. Morgan is fascinated with it and the time of the Egyptians, since he thinks that's where he started, as part of this tribe. He becomes convinced Henry Ford is part of this tribe, too.
Quote #8
The cortege moved slowly. Children ran behind it and people on the sidewalks stopped to stare. [...] The sun shone. Gulls rose from the water. They flew between the suspension cables and settled along the railing as the last of the cars went by. (26.1)
This is Sarah's funeral procession, which moves into Brooklyn more like a parade than a funeral. The point being made here is that time moves on even in death... even when, to those who are grieving, it seems like the world has stopped.
Quote #9
He was upside down over Broadway, the year was 1914, and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was reported to have been assassinated. It was at this moment that an image composed itself in Houdini's mind. The image was of a small boy looking at himself in the shiny brass headlamp of an automobile. (40.21)
Time and memory. Back in the beginning of the book, Houdini is told by the Little Boy to "warn the duke." He pays the comment no mind, and then spends half the book looking for evidence of the supernatural. With the image of the boy in his headlamp, it all comes together for Houdini, who we find out tries to visit the Little Boy after this but is unsuccessful.