“Maybe I seem just like one of those yellow arrows falling on the tablecloth to someone,” he mused to himself, “and life is nothing but the dirty window that I’m flying through: and here I am falling, falling for God knows how many years already on the table, right there in front of the plate, while someone looks at the menu and waits for breakfast…”
This quote outlines Andrei’s outlook on life and displays his feelings of hopelessness and anger at his situation. He feels that his life is pointless, mundane, as repetitive as the sun’s rays shining on his table. This is a common musing of his, and these ideas which he emits help us to better understand his character and outlook on life compared to the different opinions of other characters. Additionally, this quote also foreshadows the later revelation in which he finds out that he is travelling on the train called the Yellow Arrow.
'Andrei pulled Khan's hands off his jacket and gave a puzzled frown, then he realised he could hear the regular rhythmic hammering of steel on steel, which had been there all the time, even though he wasn't consciously aware of it.'
This section of prose is a pivotal point in the revelation of the main allegory in the text, and gives Andrei’s character a new trait ‒ bitterness. Soon after his enlightenment takes place, his viewpoints become increasingly more hopeless, and his desire to leave the train becomes stronger and stronger. As well as this character development, this quote also helps develop important themes in the text; the movement of the wheels represents the movement of life, and those who can hear the movement are the ones who are self-aware.
“...I’ve got a wife, and soon we’ll have a child. That’s really serious stuff, Andrei. I can paint anything I like, it’s all just different cultural games. I only stop the cars now on these empty cans ‒I have to think about my child, and he’ll be riding on this real car here. You understand?”
This is a quote from Anton, an old-time friend of Andrei’s, who is speaking to him. Using the clever allegory and metaphors of the train, Anton’s attitude displays common struggles which many people have with maintaining bonds. Anton can no longer relate to Andrei, especially now that Andrei is self-aware, when he is not. People that we bond with in youth often change when they become adults, especially when they become caught up in the obligations of life. Anton has become completely caught up, and no longer even realizes that he is a passenger anymore. Thus, his character displays these themes in a clever way, without being too obvious for the reader.
“Is the past history of locomotion pulled on into the future? The past always used to be someone else’s or your own. Looking backwards, things seem to have disappeared from sight. Where is the key held, and who can you show it to? The pounding wheels write our journey’s story. The postscript is the squeaking of the door.”
This piece of prose was presumably written by Khan, given to Andrei after he disappeared. While still using metaphor to convey its messages, this quote displays the core philosophical musings that many have of life. It shows our ignorance of the past, and how it goes by so quickly that we forget about it, the meaninglessness of our statuses and endeavours, and the question of what we will leave behind when we are gone.
“It’s not so easy to describe. It’s just about this person riding across India in a train and writing about what happens to him. It’s not even really clear whether he actually is riding across India or simply imagining it. You’d enjoy it.”
This quote from Andrei, describing a book to Anton, is a clever jab at literature and how strange it seems when taken out of a familiar context. It also examines how the stories we write are always about our own lives, or in this case, about trains, and that we’re constantly analyzing life, creating so many things out of it in futile hopes to understand it.
