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Sel
Sel’s friend Muss is a blue mussel in “Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me.” He’s interested in detaching and living life for the experience of it; he doesn’t think life has, or should have, meaning. Muss grew up on a mussel farm on the West Coast and hitchhiked to the Hudson Bay, where he meets Sel and Gallos. He then leads the two mussels on a cross-country journey back to the mussel farm and ultimately, to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Though Muss and the other mussels become good friends, Muss is selfish and is more interested in doing things he finds interesting than in listening to his friends. Fortunately for him, his friends are for the most part willing to follow him. Sel notes that Muss is obsessed with sex; nearly every time the mussels stop, Muss finds a female mussel to spawn with. Muss is the only mussel still next to Sel when Pearl Harbor is bombed. He survives by dropping down to the bottom of the harbor, where the water is cooler. Sel wonders how Muss will live without someone to watch him.
Muss Quotes in Only the Animals
The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Muss or refer to Muss. 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:
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Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me: Soul of Mussel Quotes
Muss said [the zebra mussels] were halfway to covering the whole bottom of the lakes too, that there was not a single native mussel left to tell us stories.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Muss Character Timeline in Only the Animals
The timeline below shows where the character Muss appears in Only the Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me: Soul of Mussel (Died 1941, United States of America)
The mussel Sel first meets Muss after he decides that everything is dead. Sel’s friend Gallos introduces him to Muss; Gallos...
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At first, Muss and Gallos talk for 8 or 10 hours straight. Gallos laps up everything Muss says....
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Spring arrives. As it gets warmer, Sel knows he has to follow Muss across the country to see how he grew up. They’ll go all the way to...
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Muss, Gallos, and Sel hitch a ride on a cargo ship. Muss says they have to...
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The mussels meet Muss’s cousin on an exposed pipe. They’re shocked that there’s no space, just zebra mussels. They’ve...
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...their soft bodies and their unformed philosophies. They hitch a ride to Bremerton, Washington, where Muss grew up. Muss has told stories about his father, who’s been on the farm so...
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Muss and Gallos aren’t certain about attaching to a U.S. Navy vessel, but Sel doesn’t care....
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...gain others. Blue mussel larvae continually latch on. One grows up into a beautiful girl. Muss loves her, but she’s more interested in Sel. Soon, Sel loves her. He’s glad that...
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The girl disappears one day when Muss and Sel get into a fight over the nature of reality. Bluey gets sad and...
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...They plan to tether it, but Bluey insists it’s wrong to starve another creature. Both Muss and Gallos support the cause, but Sel doesn’t know what he feels. He stays put...
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...says that he’s his own little world. The girl moves on and not long after, Muss and Gallos return. They’d tied up the dog whelk and left it to die. Hearing...
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...sharing food with his family and knowing he can latch onto something for good. Sel, Muss, and Gallos don’t understand Bluey’s feelings, but they sadly let him go. After Bluey’s departure,...
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Sel, Gallos, and Muss talk about nothingness. Muss insists they turn bright orange when they’re cooked. He also insists...
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...salty. The ship puts down anchor in a harbor with many other battleships like it. Muss floats around and returns with the news that they’re in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Weirdly,...
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...though, those drifters settle down as juveniles amongst the other mussels. It dawns on Sel, Muss, and Gallos that they’ve wasted their freedom—now, they’re the elders in the colony. The juveniles...
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Then, Muss and Sel meet the lobster. The mussels are frightened at first, but once they start...
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One morning, the lobster gives Sel and Muss a speck of something that will help them “see beyond the here and now.” Sel...
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Muss goes silent, Sel’s drug trip becomes grayscale, and the lobster sings something sad as church...
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...Sel tries to close his shell. He can’t; half of it is gone. He and Muss know what Muss has to do to survive. He must drop off and sink to...
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...panics again when he thinks that he wasn’t supposed to die like this. Where will Muss be without Sel looking at him? He wishes everyone good luck with the “spawning, living,...
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