How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #22
"See? See?" whispered Dean in my ear. "He doesn’t drink any more and he used to be the biggest whiskyleg in town, he’s got religion now, he told me over the phone, dig him, -- dig the change in a man - my hero has become so strange." Sam Brady was suspicious of his young cousin. He took us out for a spin in his old rattly coupe and immediately he made his position clear in regard to Dean. (III.6.28)
Dean recognizes the extraordinary changes that time has wrought on his hometown.
Quote #23
Dean hopped in his chair convulsively. "Well yes, well yes, and now I think we’d better be cutting along because we gotta be in Chicago by tomorrow night and we’ve already wasted several hours." The college boys thanked Wall graciously and we were off again. I turned to watch the kitchen light recede in the sea of night. Then I leaned ahead. (III.8.25)
Dean brings up the notion of "wasting" time, an interesting idea as the reader could easily accuse Dean of such an activity at nearly every moment of the story.
Quote #24
We had come from Denver to Chicago via Ed Wall’s ranch, 1180 miles, in exactly seventeen hours, not counting the two hours in the ditch and three at the ranch and two with the police in Newton, Iowa, for a mean average of seventy miles per hour across the land, with one driver. Which is a kind of crazy record. (III.9.26)
Sal frequently lists numbers – hours, days, minutes, miles – and these lists become his own private accounting of time, and in a way similar to Dean’s madness.