How we cite our quotes: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #7
It was too late and we were too tired to carry out our project of visiting the Pigeon House. (An Encounter.20)
Exhaustion and weariness are symptoms of inertia: it's like the boys' bodies just don't want to follow what their minds dreamt up. This whole day was about the Pigeon House visit, and suddenly they're just kind of meh about the whole thing. Bummer, right?
Quote #8
All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing. (Eveline.22)
Sometimes staying inert is a choice, as in the case of Eveline. It's a little weird when you think about it. Isn't choosing not to do something still, well, doing something?
Quote #9
Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. (The Dead.459)
If Ireland is like a patient lying etherized upon a table, snow is like the anesthetic: it numbs everything all at once.