How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
All the marines I read about fired their guns like crazy at everything that moved. They even burned the Japs alive with flamethrowers. They killed them every day they could and felt like heroes for wiping them out. (6.80)
So, obviously, Jack is starting to realize that not everything he reads in his history books is true. There are some things that historians leave out, like soldiers not really wanting to kill—and not really wanting to die.
Quote #5
Don't ever go to war. Even if you win, the battle is never over inside you. (6.83)
Here, Jack's dad pulls out one of his rare insights: war never really ends. Maybe this is why he's still acting like such a fool, because he's still battling the demons of his wartime experiences.
Quote #6
At first cavemen bashed each other's heads in with rocks and sticks. By the time of the Crusaders it was long swords and arrows, and at Gettysburg they were blasting each other to bits from cannons filled with lead balls, iron chains, railroad spikes, and doorknobs. And atomic bombs made future wars look even more hopeless. No humans will survive. All the animals will die. Fish will rot in acidic water. All vegetation will wilt in the polluted air. There will be nothing left but enormous insects the size of dinosaurs. (9.30)
Check out Jack's anxiety level with the spiky italics here. Remember that 1962 was the height of the Cold War and atomic anxiety. Many people were fully convinced nuclear war was inevitable between the Soviet Union and the United States, and that the world would be left an uninhabitable pile of radioactive rubble. How much more violent can war get?