How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
If the growing Danny preferred to sleep in the forest, to work on ranches, and to wrest his food and wine from an unwilling world, it was not because he did not have influential relatives. (Preface.6)
In this quote, we can see the what-might-have-been of Danny's life. He has important relatives who could have hooked him up with a house and job (okay, they did hook him up with two houses), but he rejects that lifestyle and prefers to live like a bum. We wonder if he would have that preference if he didn't come from a rich family and didn't have the choice.
Quote #2
Danny moved cautiously into the house. He had bitter memories of the viejo. (2.6)
Aha. We don't know much about what Danny's problem is with his family, but here we get a tiny glimpse of the fact that he has a bad relationship with his grandfather, the one who left him the houses. For whatever reason, Danny doesn't have good memories of the old man, so that may be why he doesn't want to be a landowner like him.
Quote #3
Sweets was not content. Her house was up the hill from Danny's house, in a direction he did not often take. Sweets could not go looking for him. She was a lady, and her conduct was governed by very strict rules of propriety. (9.6)
Danny isn't the only one who is dissatisfied in Tortilla Flat, but Sweets' discontent has to do with her inability to trap Danny and the fact that social norms won't let her do what it takes to get him. She is a woman, and so she can't go out hunting Danny or people will talk about her, and not in a good way, so she has to wait for him to pass by, and hope that he'll take an interest in her when he does. It's not a fast method, but it's all she's got.
Quote #4
Teresina went often to confession. She was the despair of Father Ramon. Indeed he had seen that while her knees, her hands, and her lips did penance for an old sin, her modest and provocative eyes, flashing under drawn lashes, laid the foundation for a new one. (13.8)
Here are a couple of dissatisfied souls looking for the complete opposite of each other. Teresina can't seem to get enough of men (she's constantly hooking up with guys and ending up pregnant). In the meantime, Father Ramon is dissatisfied because she keeps on getting pregnant; he would rather she change her ways and straighten up.
Quote #5
"You took my candles," she thought [...] And sullenly she transferred her allegiance to Santa Clara. She told Santa Clara of the injustice that had been done. (13.37)
The vieja, Teresina's mother, seems to be mostly a quiet, uncomplaining woman, taking care of her millions of grandchildren without a peep. However, when the bean crop fails, she breaks down. She used to trust in the Virgin Mary, and she spent her scarce resources to buy a candle for the Virgin and pray for the beans. When it doesn't work out, her dissatisfaction leads her to try out a new Saint, forsaking the Virgin. How does this compare with the Pirate's relationship with Saint Francis?
Quote #6
When Danny thought of the old lost time, he could taste again how good the stolen food was, and he longed for that old time again. (15.5)
Although Danny has everything he needs—a bed to sleep on, a roof to sleep under, and friends and food aplenty—that isn't what will satisfy him. Material goods are nice and all, but they're not enough to make him happy. He would rather have to wander in the woods, find a place to sleep, and steal his dinner, which gave his life an exciting touch.
Quote #7
In the end he gave up to his longing. One night he ran away. He went into the pine woods and disappeared. (15.9)
Danny's dissatisfaction is characterized here as "longing," which suggests that what Danny is looking for is something like meaning. His dissatisfaction is based on an unquenchable desire to find something better and more meaningful than the humdrum life of a landowner. It seems ironic that Danny runs away from his life in order to find meaning in it, but the point may also be that the landowner's life, at least as Danny understands it, is actually kind of meaningless. Maybe Danny is trying too hard to find meaning outside of himself?
Quote #8
He began to live listlessly, arising from bed only to sit on the porch, under the rose of Castile; arising from the porch only to eat; arising from the table only to go to bed. The talk flowed around him and he listened, but he did not care. (16.1)
Talk about the depths of despair. The sentence flows from one activity to another, and none of these activities is very active. Danny is just going through the motions in his life, just as this sentence goes on and on with its repetitive "arising."
Quote #9
The despair that lay on their hearts was incalculable. They cursed their fate. (17.6)
Danny's friends are sad because they don't have any nice clothes to wear to his funeral, and they can't even borrow or steal any because everyone in town is already wearing their own best clothes. The "incalculable despair" they feel is probably close to what Danny was feeling before he died, as if he transferred his dissatisfaction onto them.
Quote #10
But it was only half, less than half, to see the funeral. Being seen at the funeral was the more important half. This was the best that could be done. (17.14)
Get out your calculators: we're going to discuss ratios. Just kidding. The friends do divide up their actions into halves when it comes to Danny's funeral, though, because they feel like even though they are going to take part in the ritual, they're not going to be part of the community, which leaves them feeling dissatisfied with their participation.