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Jesse McNulty
Ronnie is Tom’s neighbor. He is a cellist, whose playing Tom can hear through the walls. He also enjoys using his rifle to shoot cormorants on the rocks from his balcony. When Tom visits him for the first time, Ronnie lets Tom look through the sniper rifle, but Tom is uncomfortable and unable to pull the trigger. At the end of the novel, when Ms. McNulty’s husband kidnaps Jesse and forces him into a boat, Tom rushes to Ronnie’s flat and uses his rifle to shoot the kidnapper.
Ronnie McGillicuddy Quotes in Old God’s Time
The Old God’s Time quotes below are all either spoken by Ronnie McGillicuddy or refer to Ronnie McGillicuddy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
He hadn’t been obliged to shoot his rifle for many many years. There seemed to be a component of light also in this scope that he couldn’t see the origin of. There were the cormorants right in front of his nose, it seemed like, and the very barnacles on the black rocks, and the heavy skirts of dark brown seaweed, shrugging in the late tide. It had an aspect cold and wild. The cormorants looked like they had been carved violently out of the dark rocks. He wondered what it would be like to pull the trigger softly, ease his index finger through the small arc of it, and peg a bullet into a breast, and watch the bird fall, far far off and yet so near. But he knew in his heart he would never pull the trigger.
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Explanation and Analysis:
He had the wild sense that, despite the tyranny of dates and time, she was there, not in memory but really, and he was careful not to open those eyes. He knew the second he did so he would be gone. […] They were both away with the fairies and June was alive, she was alive, beautiful and wise, and she would always be there, bursting with life, calm as any old painted Madonna, as long as he did not open his eyes. He lifted both his hands and reached out to hold that longed-for face. To hold it, the soft cheeks, the dark skin, to hold it, to hold it.
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Ronnie McGillicuddy Quotes in Old God’s Time
The Old God’s Time quotes below are all either spoken by Ronnie McGillicuddy or refer to Ronnie McGillicuddy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
He hadn’t been obliged to shoot his rifle for many many years. There seemed to be a component of light also in this scope that he couldn’t see the origin of. There were the cormorants right in front of his nose, it seemed like, and the very barnacles on the black rocks, and the heavy skirts of dark brown seaweed, shrugging in the late tide. It had an aspect cold and wild. The cormorants looked like they had been carved violently out of the dark rocks. He wondered what it would be like to pull the trigger softly, ease his index finger through the small arc of it, and peg a bullet into a breast, and watch the bird fall, far far off and yet so near. But he knew in his heart he would never pull the trigger.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
He had the wild sense that, despite the tyranny of dates and time, she was there, not in memory but really, and he was careful not to open those eyes. He knew the second he did so he would be gone. […] They were both away with the fairies and June was alive, she was alive, beautiful and wise, and she would always be there, bursting with life, calm as any old painted Madonna, as long as he did not open his eyes. He lifted both his hands and reached out to hold that longed-for face. To hold it, the soft cheeks, the dark skin, to hold it, to hold it.
