How we cite our quotes: (Entry. Paragraph)
Quote #7
I congratulated them on such a fine family. The mother told me they had been truly blessed. "Ours are all in good health. When you think of so many people with crippled or blind or not-right children, you just have to thank God." I praised the children until the father's tired face animated with pride. He looked at the children the way another looks at some rare painting or treasured gem. (15.76)
To put this in context, this family has a house full of six children who are so excited about the idea of sharing tiny slivers of Milky Way bars that saliva falls out of their mouths. But still, their parents feel that they are blessed just because they're healthy. That's some love.
Quote #8
While we spread tow sacks on the floor and then feed sacks over them, the children asked questions about my own children. Did they go to school? No, they were too young. How old were they then? Why, today is my daughter's fifth birthday. Would she have a party? Yes, she'd certainly had a party. Excitement. Like we had here, with the candy and everything? Yes, something like that. (15.95)
Quote #9
It was thrown full in my face. I saw it not as a white man and not as a Negro, but as a human parent. Their children resembled mine in all ways except the superficial one of skin color, as indeed they resembled all children of all humans. Yet this accident, this least important of all qualities, the skin pigment, marked them for inferior status. It became fully terrifying when I realized that if my skin were permanently black, they would unhesitatingly consign my own children to this mean future. (15.111)
Ah, that's what it took to get Griffin to realize how insane it is that some people's fates are determined by something as stupid as the color of their skin. Don't mess with Griffin's kids' future: he's one protective Papa Bear.