How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
When Giovanni wanted me to know that he was displeased with me, he said I was a "vrai americain"; conversely, when delighted with me, he said that I was not an American at all; and on both occasions he was striking, deep in me, a nerve which did not throb in him. And I resented this: resented being called an American (and resented resenting it) because it seemed to make me nothing more than that, whatever that was, and I resented being called not an American because it seemed to make me nothing. (2.2.12)
Why does Giovanni constantly harp on the fact that David is an American? Why doesn't David lash back and refer to Giovanni's Italian roots in the same way? If David is not an American, then what is he?
Quote #8
"Yet I also suspected that what I was seeing was but a part of the truth and perhaps not even the most important part; beneath these faces, these clothes, accents, rudenesses, was power and sorrow, both unadmitted, unrealized, the power of inventors, the sorrow of the disconnected" (2.2.13).
After judging the Americans that he sees in Paris, David has this sympathetic moment of realization. To what extent is he describing the Americans that he sees and to what extent is he just describing himself? Why might he hit on the phrase "the power of inventors"? What does this have to do with the fact that they are Americans?
Quote #9
"He waves his hand. 'I said we would not fight any more. The Americans have no sense of doom, none whatever. They do not recognize doom when they see it.' He produced a bottle from beneath the sink" (2.4.218).
Think about American and European history over the last century, specifically the World Wars. What makes Giovanni say that, "Americans have no sense of doom whatever?" How might the fact that America is isolated from the rest of Europe affect Americans' sense of doom?