How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As a child, Günberk Braun had often daydreamed of how, in an earlier time, he might have prevented the firebombing of Dresden, or stopped the Nazis and their death camps, or kept Stalin from starving the Ukraine. (Prologue.19)
Like Alfred, Günberk identifies himself as a potential hero, which is one of the reasons why we feel bad for him. Here's a guy whose identity as a spy is wrapped up with this childhood wish to be a savior. Moreover, as we see in the prologue, he's got the skills to do that. That doesn't seem so bad. So why doesn't it work out for Günberk Braun?
Quote #2
"I wager he's fourteen years old and desperately eager to show off." He glanced at Vaz. "Is this the best you could come up with, Alfred?"
"His reputation is not a fraud, Günberk. He has managed projects almost as complex as what we have in mind for him." (1.47-8)
Rabbit is our most mysterious character. After all, his other major identity is as The Mysterious Stranger, so yeah: we don't know who he is (which is why he's a stranger). We can only judge by his personality and by his ability/reputation.
Quote #3
He suspended his question queue and dropped the external session. At the same time, he played back the last few minutes of her talk, desperately trying to summarize. Most times, Chumlig just asked embarrassing questions; this was the first she'd sminged him with a threat.
And the amazing thing was, she'd done it in a short pause, when everyone else thought she was just looking at her notes. Juan eyed her with new respect. (4.125-6)
Louise Chumlig is not simply what she appears to be, unless she appears to you to be a very perceptive teacher and an accomplished techie. Juan doesn't see that at first, so when she catches him not paying attention in class and sends him a quick sm like an expert, he begins to suspect she might have skills. And this is really the first hint of it, though pretty soon we'll see more.
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?
Quote #7
"Rabbit is everything we could want."
"He is more, Alfred." Günberk's gaze was steady. For all his youth, Braun had the stolid aspect of a turn-of-the-century German. He moved from point to point slowly, inexorably. "In setting up this operation, Rabbit has performed miracles on our behalf. His ability demonstrates that he himself is a threat." (17.13-14)
a) Although Braun may think of himself as a potential hero/savior, from Vaz's POV, Braun's identity is that of a stolid German. There's a lesson in there somewhere about how people see us differently than we see ourselves. b) Note how Braun's feelings about Rabbit have changed: Braun used to think Rabbit was a fourteen-year-old showoff twit; but now that Rabbit has demonstrated some real skill, Braun thinks his identity should be "threat."
Quote #8
For Robert Gu, these new exams were hard. It was not a foregone conclusion that he would max the tests and outdo everyone around him. The only similar situation from his past was in undergraduate school, when he had been briefly forced into real science courses. In those classes, he had finally met students who were not automatically his inferiors—and he had also met teachers who were not impressed by his genius. Once past the mandatory science curriculum, Robert had avoided such humiliation. (19.2)
It's sadly all too predictable that Robert, who used to love humiliating and hurting other people, would have "avoided such humiliation" himself. He could dish it out but not take it. That aside, we can see how much of Robert's identity was tied up with how other people treated him.
Quote #9
Juan looked back and forth between them. There was the beginning of shining pride on his face, though he seemed to guess that there were words unspoken going between Winnie and Robert. (34.11)
If Braun and Mitsuri have tragic stories, Juan's is something of a victory: he started out as a kid who thought of himself as a loser and a chump; and now he ends up with "the beginning of shining pride." Not only that, but he's gained a fair bit of skill, both in writing poetry (as shown by his final project) and in dealing with oldsters.
Quote #10
"Do you think your talent and your malevolence were a package deal?" Sharif leaned forward, engaged in a way that Robert had not seen since their interviews of weeks before. "I... doubt that. But researching the issue would be intriguing. For that matter, I have long wondered—and been too timid to ask—what really changed in you? Were you a decent fellow from the time of your dementia cure? Or was the change as in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," with new experience making you kindlier?" (35.25)
Right up there with "Who is Rabbit?" this is the question about identity that keeps us up at nights. What was it that made Robert into a non-jerk? (We won't go too far and say he's nice.) Was it the sickness? Or being alone and powerless in the new world of 2025? And was his poetic ability tied up with his jerkiness? These questions seem open (and possibly worth a paper).