How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
You know, just a tick of the clock ago they were teenagers, free and wild. […] Now they come into Mr. Leon's wearing their salesman outfits. (9.4)
It never occurs to Sutter that the guys shopping at his store might be happy about getting a job and growing up, that they might even look forward to assuming adult responsibilities. He projects his own views onto everyone else.
Quote #2
I guess it's different once you get out in the world and you don't have the same experiences every day like you do in school, but these folks don't have any inside jokes or old stories or theories about how the universe works or anything. (14.8)
Well, that's true. But when you put it like that, inside jokes and theories about how the universe works don't seem like much to base a friendship on, anyway. Sutter can't see that there might be other ways of making friends and other priorities in adult life. Typical, typical.
Quote #3
"Like when you're a little kid. Everything is a sparkling wonder." "Oh yeah." I take a long pull on the martini. "Childhood was a fantastic country to live in." (23.22-23)
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Here's Sutter talking like childhood was soooo long ago and he's all sophisticated with his martini, but come on: if you're not willing to take on the responsibilities of adulthood, you don't get to have the privileges, too.
Quote #4
How […] are you supposed to know when you're not a kid anymore in this society? (24.2)
Well, this is a decent point. But just because we don't have any manhood initiation rituals in 21st century America doesn't mean you don't have to become an adult.
Quote #5
These days a kid has to go looking for his own initiation or make his own personal war to fight since the wars the atomic vampires throw are so hard to believe in." (24.5)
Ooh. We have a suggestion: how about fighting his own war to reclaim his life from the shadow of his father—by, say, making a commitment to Aimee and to his future? Just a thought.
Quote #6
I remember reading about these primitive initiation rituals in school. […] When he gets back, he's a man. (24.3)
Look, we're all for rituals. But you don't get to choose the culture you're born into, and it's not much good bemoaning the lack of primitive initiation rituals in your own. You've got to make the best with what you've got, which we're pretty sure does not mean drinking away your life before you even reach the legal drinking age. (Plus, bullet ants. Ouch.)
Quote #7
This is all too heartbreaking. I mean, I quit on heroes by the time I got to fifth grade. (25.46)
No, that's heartbreaking. Everyone needs a hero. Sutter thinks Aimee is immature to have one – but, come on. How are you going to grow up without some role models?
Quote #8
We're all dressed up and celebrating our common bond – youth. […] Nobody's ever been young like we are right at this moment. (50.94)
Interesting. And here we always thought that prom celebrated growing up. Maybe the problem isn't that Sutter's culture lacks adulthood initiation rituals but that he misunderstands the ones that exist.
Quote #9
This idea comes to me that we're all grass blades on the same lawn. […] But you know what happens to grass blades – somebody cuts them down just when they reach their prime. (52.3)
Well, yes. That's why comparing people to blades of grass is probably not the best analogy, since as far as we know there's no cosmic lawnmower motoring across America's high school's every summer weekend.
Quote #10
"This is our last night to be young, or did you forget how that feels?" (52.22)
Okay, so on the one hand this is a mean thing to say to Mr. Aster. On the other hand, maybe Sutter would be able to deal with growing up better if he didn't think it happened overnight. His friends seem to be doing it in stages—why can't he?