How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It wasn't, he thought, that he was afraid to tell her what had happened to him that first time [. . .], but about the miserable years after that, when everything, everything he tried somehow went to pot as if that was its destiny in the first place, a thing he couldn't understand. (5.47)
Wow, talk about bleak! Roy is talking to Memo here, and we find out what his big problem is with people finding out about his being shot by Harriet. It isn't the shooting itself, but its consequences. It seems like Harriet somehow found a way to change Roy's destiny, so that after the shooting he couldn't make anything work out like he wanted it to.
Quote #5
"What I started to say," he went on, "is that although she is not really a bad person, yet she is unlucky and always has been and I think that there is some kind of whammy in her that carries her luck to other people." (5.123)
Pop seems to think that Memo (kind of like Harriet Bird) has some sort of magical power to change other people's luck. Pop calls it a "whammy," a spell, but he really just means some negativity that brings down the people around her.
Quote #6
He laughed harshly. "I sure met some honeys in my time. They burned me good."
"Why do you pick that type?"
"It's like they say—they picked me. It's the breaks." (7.105-07)
Roy and Iris are talking about his woman troubles, which he chalks up to bad luck. Iris hits the nail on the head, though, asking why he picks the kind that will get him into trouble. But Roy is unable to see his own role in making his life, and still believes that he is fated to suffer. Do you think some people are just magnets for bad-news people? Can you imagine some behaviors or traits that might make this happen?