How we cite our quotes: Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #7
I was a prisoner after all. Amy had me forever, or as long as she wanted, because I needed to save my son, to try to unhook, unlatch, debarb, undo everything that Amy did. I would literally lay down my life for my child, and do it happily. I would raise my son to be a good man. (63.19)
So Amy's plan to land Nick on death row doesn't turn out the way she initially hopes—but all's not lost. She can still gain control of his life using the one thing she knows he wants: a son. The last thing Nick would do is abandon a boy the way his father emotionally abandoned him, and the announcement of Amy's pregnancy forces him to sacrifice his own happiness for his child.
Quote #8
"Go! You really need me to feel more impotent than I do right now?" I snapped. "I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. There's no 'When Your Wife Goes Missing 101.'" (7.139)
It's interesting that Nick chooses impotence as a metaphor for his frustration in this conversation with his sister. In his struggle to prevent negative emotions from leaking through, he's becoming completely ineffectual and useless. The fact that Nick doesn't take control the way the husband of a disappeared woman is expected to only makes his situation with the general public and cops worse.
Quote #9
The Blue Books, they all made themselves a nice little town over in the mall. Squatting. Drug deals. The police run them out every once in awhile, but they're always back the next day […] some of them, they gang-raped a girl there a month ago. I mean, you get a bunch of angry men together, and things aren't good for a woman that comes across them. (13.50)
It's true that groups of men bent on revenge and letting out aggression aren't usually the most friendly people in the world, but a lot of Nick's observations of the Blue Book Boys—and the men he encounters in general—are most likely rooted in the damage his father did. He already knows what one angry man can do to a woman. Imagine eight or nine of them.