"There is no traffic."
The Long Island Express is characterized by heavy traffic. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator hints that the significant challenge is heavy traffic on the roads. Similarly, Benji narrates how, together with his sibling, he manages to beat and slap-up traffic a little by using tricks. Benji's father is more tactical because he leaves the house with his family at five in the morning, and during this time, the highway is dead clear to the extent that the narrator's mother thinks that it is a miracle that there is no traffic!
"He rode into town. He lost his CAT Diesel Power cap at the beach and went to get a new one at the five-and-ten."
Benji and his brother love doing most of their things together. For instance, they go out together to have fun. People are used to seeing them together to the extent that they confuse them as twins. When people meet Benji alone, they think that he is incomplete, and they often ask him about his brother's whereabouts. He gives an excuse that his brother has gone to town to replace his CAT cap. Benji says this statement to show the reader his close connection to his brother and their will to do things together.
"Aren't we all just ants under the magnifying glass?"
Benji's statement depicts one of the main themes of the novels. The predominant whites believe that they are bigger and superior beings because they treat the African-Americans with contempt. Everywhere the black person is going, his or her moves are monitored. When Benji's mother goes to buy clothes for her sons, surveillance cameras were directed towards her. Benji thinks that both the predominant whites and the African-Americans are just like ants, except that others believe that they are superior because of magnification.
