How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
But he took the letters and returned to his dark place, where the counter made an angle, where the great parcel-rack came to an end, and where there were three doors in the corner. He sat on a high stool and read the letters—those whose handwriting was not too difficult […] Many of these letters, some of them in French or Norwegian, were a great puzzle to the boy. (5.252, 5.254).
Already, in 1913, you can see Paul Morel confronting the forces of globalization. Orders come across Paul's desk in many different languages, confusing the boy when he barely knows what his job is to begin with. This sort of sink-or-swim environment isn't made for a sensitive fourteen-year-old like Paul, but, as the novel suggests, the guy doesn't seem to have many alternatives. Poor Paul. Poor us. Poor sad, modernized world.