How we cite our quotes: Paragraph
Quote #7
[…] then he laughed and lifted his gun and pointed it at Phoenix. (52)
Phoenix does not imagine the hunter pulling his gun on her—dude does it. And this action would almost certainly not happen if Phoenix were white. Instead, it is a representation of the violence that was tolerated against black people in the Jim Crow era. The world Phoenix faces is not the same version of the world a white person would face. Isn't that an interesting thing to think about? Also, in the hunter's reality, this action is funny. Not so much in Phoenix's reality.
Quote #8
Old Phoenix would have been lost if she had not distrusted her eyesight and depended on her feet to know where to take her. (59)
We so often think that we need our eyes to understand and navigate the world. Phoenix demonstrates that eyes can deceive us and that there are other ways of knowing the world beyond what we can see.
Quote #9
She entered the door, and there she saw nailed up on the wall the document that had been stamped with the gold seal and framed in the gold frame, which matched the dream that was hung up in her head. (67)
Phoenix can't read because black children were not allowed to go to school when she was a young girl. In the city, though, the world expects people to be able to read documents like the one posted on the wall. For someone who can't read, the environment is disorienting, seeming more like a dream realm with mysterious codes rather than real life. Imagine trying to follow directions written in Chinese if you only speak English. What Phoenix is feeling is kind of like that.