Maybe it was all that CONELRAD stuff on the radio, tests of the Emergency Broadcast System, pictures of H-bombs in Life magazine, strontium 90 in the milk, the times in school when we'd crawl under out desks and cover our heads in practice for the real thing. Or maybe it was rooted deep inside me. In my own inherited fears, in the genes, in a coded conviction that the world wasn't safe for human life.
-- William (narration) (chapter 2)

Importance: This passage describes William's thoughts and anxieties as he created the improvised fallout shelter out of his family's Ping-Pong table in 1958. Note how William is very sensitive to a number of inputs from the world, all of which cause him anxiety. This tendency to be affected by seemingly small inputs will repeat itself shortly in the novel, when William feels betrayed when he learns that pencils are made with graphite, instead of actual lead. Additionally, this...