Chapter Ten ends with a brief coda. There are three similar short passages in the novel, all of them composed mostly of dialogue between peripheral or unnamed characters. The first comes at the end of Chapter Five and is a bedtime conversation between a father and son, who clearly belong to Amity's underclass. The boy asks his father to tell him a story about sharks, but the father worries that it might give him nightmares and opts for Peter Pan instead. The second - at the end of Chapter Seven - is an exchange between a boy and his date. The boy has lost his summer job because of the downturn in the tourist trade and is thinking of making a quick buck by dealing drugs.
The third - which brings Part Two to a conclusion - is a coversation between deli owners Paul Loeffler and his "plump, pretty" wife Rose. Their speech - peppered with interrogative cadences ("They don't have fish in Pennsylvania?") - identifies them as a Jewish couple in Amity's WASPish community. Having sold eighteen pounds of bologna and probably similar quantities of Swiss cheese as sandwich fillings to curious tourists, they decide to close up fifteen minutes early.
These three bite-sized vignettes are served on the side of the main order of the narrative and mix local colour with social commentary. Beyond the worries of the main characters (Brody's fears of emasculation, and Larry Vaughn's stuggles to get out of hock) there are other citizens of Amity who have been affected by the presence of the shark.
