How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"It wasn't really a house, but half of a barracks where German prisoners of war had been quartered." (8.7)
Because nothing says "loving home" like a place where they used to chain Nazis to their beds.
Quote #5
"He brought home a trunkful of paint in five-gallon cans. All of it was white." (11.37)
"Eye-frying white," in point of fact. The symbolism here is pretty obvious. Dwight wants to erase the abuse and dysfunction and general family ickiness in order to start a new life with Jack's mom. So paint the house over white. Now it's all clean and shiny, and none of that awful rot can ever creep in again.
Quote #6
"Dwight got the spirit that year. He made a wreath for the door and hung pine boughs all over the living room." (17.6)
Dwight's efforts to make a perfect home echo Jack's attempts to reinvent himself as a new person. Could that be part of why Jack hates Dwight so much: that he sees a lot of himself in Dwight and doesn't like it?