“At least she made the papers, departing as she did. A small note in the big News Extra about a daredevil flyer called Howard Hughes: ‘Among the press mobs, a foreign correspondent was injured and female acquaintance killed in a collisions while speeding to the site on the Calzada de la Piedad.’ Her mark on history: the female acquaintance.”
This quote is reflective of Harrison’s mother Salomé and the life she led. She constantly strove for the finer things in life and always wanted to be at the centre of attention. Harrison believes she would have been pleased at having made it into the papers, which also shows a stark contrast between the two, since Harrison detests the fame that he eventually attains. This quote also displays the sad fact of Salomé’s life in that she was always at the mercy of whichever man she happened to attach herself to. Despite wanting freedom to do as she pleased, she always needed a man to support her because of the time period she lived in and therefore, was always known in connection to a man, rather than just for herself.
“Sóli, let me tell you. The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don’t know.”
This quote reveals a sentiment that Frieda was always fond of reminding Harrison about. She teaches him to look beneath the surface of how people try to portray themselves as a better means to understand them and their motives. This in turn, can help us be more empathetic toward others as well as have a better understanding of how the world works.
“But this boy in a French or British factory, standing in his leather overall welding the casing on a metal bomb: what can he see? That thing will fly through the air, fall hundreds of miles away, and kill boys in leather overalls in a German factory. The reports will roar victory or defeat, and boys will never know how alike their lives have been.”
This quote shows the innocence of the young people fighting and working in WWII, all for a political powers above them. It also reveals Harrison’s antipathy toward the war. Harrison recognizes that the everyday people working towards winning the war are all the same, no matter what side they are on. They are all at the mercy of their political leaders that have brought them into this war, with little personal choice in the matter themselves. Because of propaganda and the press, they believe they are fighting on the right side and are not aware that those on the other side are just like them.
“It always begins somewhere, one howler waking up the others. They pass it on, embellished, not through any creative drive but only a pure slothful failure to verify a fact. If the reporters made any calls, it would have been for soliciting a denial. Failing that, they run it as truth, upping the ante just enough to put their own byline on it”.
This quote shows Harrison’s frustration with the press and how quickly it can turn on you in order to sell stories. He saw it before when he lived with Lev and how unfairly he was treated in the press and now it is happening to him as a famous author. He laments the fact that the articles aren’t based in fact, with reporters only writing stories that will sell regardless of their veracity.
