Quote 16
"Hush, Weaver, just let it go," I said, wrapping up a chunk of ice in a towel. "A few days in the kitchen won't kill you. It's better than losing your job. Here, hold this against your lip."
"Don't have much of a choice, do I?" he grumbled. He pressed the ice to his lip, winced, then said, "Three more months, Matt. Just three more months and I'm gone from here. Once I get through Columbia, once I'm a lawyer, ain't no one ever going to hand me a suitcase. Or call me boy or n***** or Sam. Or hit me. And if they do, I'll make sure they go to jail." (31.limicolous.26-27)
As understanding as Mattie can be, she doesn't quite get the depth of injustice that Weaver experiences because of his race. Yes, he's angry about being confined to the kitchen, but he's far angrier about the injustice that he is essentially being punished while the trappers are currently roaming free. College is the way for Weaver to right the wrongs of the world, and he's bent on achieving it. Which makes the death of his dream of college even more devastating.
Quote 17
"With just a few words. And then a few more. And then the words turned into insults and threats and worse, and then a man was dead. Just because of words."
Royal was silent, chewing on all I'd said, I imagined.
"I know you told me words are just words, Royal, but words are powerful things—"
I felt a poke in my back. "Hey, Mattie..."
I turned around. "What, Jim? What do you want?" I asked, irritated.
"There goes Seymour! Ain't you going to wave?"
"Who?"
"Seymour, Mattie! Seymour Butts!"
Jim and Will howled with laughter. Royal didn't actually laugh, but he grinned. And I was silent the rest of the way home. (14.monochromatic.97-105)
Right after Weaver gets into the conflict with the man at the train station, Royal gives Mattie a ride home. Whereas Mattie is contemplating the power of words and the meaning of them, Royal and his siblings demonstrate, somewhat insensitively, that words don't necessarily have to be important. In fact, they clearly communicate to Mattie that her words and ideas aren't important because they don't listen to her. So Mattie chooses to be silent.
Quote 18
Voice, according to Miss Wilcox, is not just the sound that comes from your throat but the feeling that comes from your words. I hadn't understood that at first. "But Miss Wilcox, you use words to write a story, not your voice," I'd said.
"No, you use what's inside of you," she said. "That's your voice. Your real voice. It's what makes Austen sound like Austen and no one else. What makes Yeats sound like Yeats and Shelley like Shelley. It's what makes Mattie Gokey sound like Mattie Gokey. You have a wonderful voice, Mattie. I know you do, I've heard it. Use it." (46.9-10)
Although voice is traditionally tied to writing, it's also inherently tied to individuality. But consider too, a different meaning, a comparison between giving voice to something and remaining silent about it. Mattie has a voice as a writer, it's true, but she's trying to decide whether the sacrifices necessary to communicate her voice are worth the life she would have in Eagle Bay if she stayed silent.