"It was his one eccentricity." - p. 111 That's an absolute, which isn't a lit term, so I won't go too much into it, but I think it ought to be a lit term.
"In many ways he was like America itself, big and strong, full of good intentions, a roll of fat jiggling at his belly, slow of foot but always plodding along, always there when you needed him, a believer in the virtues of simplicity and directness and hard labor. Like his country, too, Dobbins was drawn toward sentimentality." - p. 111
That there was a simile, for sure. It was a simile so convincing it was almost a metaphor, except he used "like" because he isn't pretentious. Thank you, O'Brien. Every time I read that quote, I think more about what it means for America than what it means for the Dobbins fellow. I can't decide if it's a positive image. I think, more than anything, it's just realistic.
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I believe I spotted an allusion on page 113: "...though the younger one performed a washing motion with his hands. No one could decide what it meant." The fact that nobody could decide what it meant sort of destroys any say I have on the subject, but it made me think of Pontius Pilate and also the conspirators in Julius Caesar. That idea was also sort of destroyed by the smiling and hand washing on page 114. Also, Henry Dobbins does it on 117, but he hasn't a clue what it means more than anybody else does. I guess he thinks it's good manners.
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