How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"You remember, we talked about this when Grandpa came? He is not necessarily a nice fellow" —except when he wants a favor, or he's setting you up for a fall; then he can charm almost any human ever born. (7.43)
Perhaps the biggest question about identity in Rainbows End is, "what kind of a person is Robert?" Here's Bob telling Miri that she shouldn't take Robert seriously when he critiques her: he's not critiquing to tell the truth but because he want to hurt you. Besides the understatement of "not necessarily a nice fellow," we also like Bob's thought here that Robert can be nice if he wants something. So that's what Bob thinks of his dad's identity: he's a manipulative jerk.
Quote #5
Tommie shook his head. "You could be almost anything. You could be a committee. When you want to sound like a lit-lover, we get chat from a member who knows about poetry." Tommie tilted back his chair. "There's an old saying: The beginning of trust has to be an in-person contact. I don't see any usable chain of trust in your biography." (12.139)
Tommie tells Sharif that he doesn't trust his online appearance. (We love the idea that Sharif could be a committee of people because, well, Tommie could be right. If you only meet someone online, they could be a committee.) Unfortunately for Tommie, he seems to be stuck in an older way of thought: that "old saying" might have been right for the past, when you could meet someone and then talk to them online; but here, Tommie can meet Sharif in person—and then meet Rabbit online pretending to be Sharif later.
Quote #6
The first time it happened, Robert almost didn't notice—partly because neither Bob or Miri reacted. Half a minute later—as Alice gestured emphatically about some outstandingly trivial election issue—there was another flicker. For an instant she was dressed in something like naval whites, but the collar insignia said "PHS." PHS? There were lots of different Google hits on the abbreviation. A minute or two passed, and she was briefly a USMC full colonel. That, Robert had seen before, since it was her true rank. (16.48)
Alice should have a pretty clear identity: she's a Marine, wife, mother, daughter-in-law. Sure, that gets complicated, but that's the sort of identity that we have now. But in the future, when she gets agitated (mostly because of the JIT training), look at how her identity seems to go through a number of virtual costumes. How does Alice maintain her sanity when her identity seems so diverse?