The Death of Justina Quote Response

Cheever, The Death Of Justina
page #544

1) "I must pretend, I must, like an actor, study and improve on my pretension, to have nothing to do with his triumphs and I must bow my head gracefully in shame when we have both failed."

This quote occurs while Moses is talking to his boss MacPherson. What he is saying is even though he is the one who is writing all of the speeches, MacPherson gets all the credit. However, if the speech is bad, Moses is blamed and scolded. He begins to realize how life is and how it may not always be fair.

Cheever, The Death Of Justina
page #548

2) "Then I suppose Cousin Justina will have to gracefully decompose in my parlor until Jack comes back from Paris."

Moses' character is revealed in this quote. He is tired of everything that is happening in his life, and he is full of stress. It causes him to speak with sarchastic anger, such as above. He is upset that he cannot have his cousin buried because she died in the "wrong zone." The manner in which he chose to expalin his annoyance about this expresses his general irritation of life.