How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph). Though the story has no explicit divisions, we created "sections" to make the paragraph numbers more manageable. Section one is the scene in the hotel room. Section two is the scene on the beach to the end of the story.
Quote #7
"The lady?" the young man brushed some sand out of his thin hair. "That's hard to say, Sybil. She may be in any one of a thousand places. At the hairdresser's. Having her hair dyed mink. Or making dolls for poor children, in her room." (2.20)
What does this tell us about Seymour's perception of his wife?
Quote #8
"Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. They're very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas." He edged the float and its passenger a foot closer to the horizon. "Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door." (2.35)
Some critics have claimed that this metaphor refers to the way humans gorge themselves on material pleasures. We'll talk about this more in "What's Up with the Title?"
Quote #9
He got off at the fifth floor, walked down the hall, and let himself into 507. The room smelled of new calfskin luggage and nail-lacquer remover. (2.108)
This is an entirely different environment than the outdoor setting of the story's first half. There's something artificial and materialistic about the hotel room.