October 26, 2015 - 17:06
""Kids, did you know that more than half of the soybeas planted in America are genetically engineered? And a third of the corn, too."
"So?" Pheonix asked.
"So? That's over sixty million acres! Nature's own varieties are slowly dying out. Soon all we'll have are genetically modified mutants."" -Page 173
In this first quote, the idea of what is an "appropriate" mutant is influenced by the perceptio of the individual. The children think that any mutant is to be celebrated, while Geek believes that the only mutated plants that should be grown are those derived from nature. This is a fallacy, given that almost all food crops are mutations of their wild cousins.
"Yummy and thid sure-looking man, bodies inclined, like two trees with shallow roots, tipped by the wind so that their upper branches touched..." - Page 195
"He was my great leap forward, and I had loved him, and he had fallen short, landing me smack in the gulch." -Page 213
In these two quotes, the language of environment is used to denote the significance of the moments being described. The organic language of the first of the quotes denotes the relationship between Yumi and Elliot, and the changing nature of it. The second quote uses the idea of a gulch, a natural formation, to emphasize the inevitability of Elliot's abandonment.