Versions of Reality Quotes in The Girl on the Train

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

I am better than I was a few years ago […] I wouldn't have been able to come to a park like this, to sit near the playground and watch chubby toddlers rolling down the slide. (7.121)

Rachel also imagines what Tom and Anna's life is like, with a child that she herself could never have. This makes her depressed and borderline unable to function in public.

Quote #8

Megan is not a mystery to be solved, she is not a figure who wanders into the tracking shot at the beginning of a film, beautiful, ethereal, insubstantial. She is not a cipher. She is real. (9.51)

This is a revelation for Rachel. At this point, as readers, we know that Megan is a real person, not a fantasy. But Rachel has to work her way to that point because Megan is practically a fantasy princess to Rachel.

Quote #9

I keep thinking about the day I saw Kamal, about the way he kissed her, about how angry I was and how I wanted to confront her. […] What would have happened if I'd gone round then, banged on the door and asked her what the hell she thought she was up to? (17.13)

Rachel's imagination got her into this whole mess, and now she's wondering what it would be like if she did things differently. What would have happened if Rachel had interfered sooner?