Bliss
Quoyle “believed he was a newspaper reporter” and the mere thought that he was a part of something, a sense of belonging made him happy. He “wrote his pieces, lived in his rented trailer watching television” and even “dreamed of love.” The irony was that Quoyle was anyone but a true reporter. The man “managed to ignore terrorism, climatological change, collapsing governments, chemical spills, plagues, recession and failing banks, floating debris” and other important topics. He also ignored “volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes, religious frauds, defective vehicles and scientific charlatans, mass murderers and serial killers, tidal waves of cancer, AIDS, deforestation and exploding aircrafts.” To cut a long story short, if Quoyle was a reporter, he was a rather unprofessional journalist.
Filled with fear
Little Quoyle “feared water.” Unfortunately for him, the place he was unlucky to call his home was rather “watery.” His father was probably convinced that to teach Quoyle how to swim was his obligation. “Again and again” the father broke his son’s “clenched grip” and threw him “into pools, brooks, lakes and surf.” The irony was that Quoyle’s inability to learn how to swim was his father’s fault. The man knew that the boy had aqua phobia but refused to acknowledge that. He could show him that there was nothing to be scared of, could try to show him some swimming techniques, but he resorted to the extremely cruel but useless measures.
The difference between
Just like other kids, Bunny and Sunshine couldn’t fully understand what death is. Being a good father, Quoyle tries to protect the girls from a psychological trauma cause by their mother’s death. The man follows the recommendations he finds in a book “A Child’s Introduction to Departure of a Loved One”, but it proves to be a bad idea. Quoyle says that Petal is asleep and is not going to wake up to which Bunny says a simple phrase, “if I was asleep, I would wake up.” The irony is that Quoyle’s euphemisms only confuse the girls. Sooner or later they will find out that death and sleep are two completely different things.
