How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Unless you obey my instructions, I shall be forced to disconnect you." (26.35)
The best evidence you get that Hal is alive is that he's afraid to die. Death defines living—and where does that leave the immortal aliens?
Quote #5
It was impossible to tell that the sleeping man was not dead; there was not the slightest visible sign of vital activity. (26.43)
The hibernating folks seem dead. Blurring the line between living and dead emphasizes the extent to which Bowman and all humans are just living on borrowed time. Could an alien tell the difference between a live human and a dead one?
Quote #6
To Hal, this was the equivalent of Death. For he had never slept, and therefore he did not know that one could wake again….(27.9)
Again, you feel sorry for poor Hal…and again, he often seems more human than Bowman, who never seems all that worried about death. (There's a long tradition of artificial monsters being more human than their creators—see Frankenstein, for example.)