How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"I'm a man, Sheriff," Charlie said. "I want the world to know I'm a man. I'm a man, Miss Candy. I'm a man, Mr. Lou. I want you to write in your paper I'm a man."
"I'll write it, Charlie," I said, looking up at him. He was three or four inches taller than I, and outweighed me, I'm sure, by at least a hundred pounds.
"I'm a man," he said. "I want the world to know it. I ain't Big Charlie, n***** boy, no more, I'm a man. Y'all hear me? A man come back. Not no n***** boy. A n***** boy run and run and run. But a man come back. I'm a man." (15.34-6)
It might be hard to imagine that somebody as massive as Charlie can feel like a child, but there you have it.
Quote #8
"I'm ready to go now, Sheriff," Charlie said to Mapes. "I'm ready to pay. I done dropped a heavy load. Now I know I'm a man."
"After you, Mr. Biggs," Mapes said, and nodded toward the door.
"What's that you called me, Sheriff?" Charlie asked him.
"Mr. Biggs," Mapes said, and with sincerity.
Charlie grinned—a great, big, wide-mouthed, big-teeth grin. It was a deep, all-heart, true grin, a grin from a man who had been a boy fifty years.
"Y'all heard that?" he said to the people around him. "Y'all heard that? Mr. Biggs. Y'all heard him, huh? Now y'all go on home. For a bunch of old men, y'all did all right today. Now go on home. Let a man through." (15.68-73)
No matter what you think about Gaines's macho version of manliness, you've just got to love big Charlie Biggs. We mean, you've got to love Mr. Charlie Biggs.