Connections and Quotations: Pages 17-34

The scene in which Nel and Helene are boarding the train and are confronted by the conductor reminds of a scene from one of the books in The Little House on the Prairie Series. In this scene, Ma and her daughters are boarding a train, just like Helene and her daughter. However, in this scene, the Ingallses are traveling toward their future while Helene is traveling toward her past. The Ingallses have a pleasant, adventurous journey on the train, while Helene and Nel are harassed by the conductor, insulted and are treated extremely poorly at all the stops they make. Although both of these scenes center around train rides, they are complete opposites of each other.

Major Quotes
1) “Helene sat down, fussily, her back toward the men. Nel sat opposite, facing both her mother and the soldiers, and ashamed to sense that these men, unlike her father, who worshipped his graceful, beautiful wife, were bubbling with a hatred for her mother that had not been there in the beginning but had been born with the dazzling smile. In the silence that preceded the train’s heave, she looked deeply at the folds of her mother’s dress. There in the fall of the heavy brown wool she held her eyes. She could not risk letting them travel upward for fear of seeing that the hooks and eyes in the placket of the dress had come undone and exposed the custard-colored skin underneath. She stared at the hem, wanting to believe its weight but knowing that custard was all that it hid. If this tall, proud woman, this woman who was very particular about her friends, who slipped into church with unequaled elegance, who could quell a roustabout with a look, if she were really custard, then there was a chance that Nel was too. P. 22
This passage describes the scene right after Helene has been accosted by the train conductor and said nothing, only smiled at him. In this passage, Nel realizes for the first time that being black is considered something to be ashamed of. She realizes that her mother has weaknesses that she has no power over. Nel now understands that if such a regal woman as her mother is looked down upon for her skin color, then she will be too.
2) The wagon was so low that children who spoke to her were eye level with her, and adults, sitting or standing, had to look down at her. But they didn’t know it. They all had the impression that they were looking up at her, up into the open distances of her eyes, up into the soft black of her nostrils and up at the crest of her chin.
This quotation is so important because it portrays the strength and presence that Eva has. Even though she has such a glaring disability and is physically tiny, she is larger than life. The incredible impact Eva has on all who meet her is clearly visible in this passage. This passage is also notable because it is another example of Toni Morrison’s style of inverting words; people in reality look down at Eva but are convinced they are looking up to her.