Death and the King's Horseman Primitiveness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Act.Line

Quote #7

How can you be so callous! So unfeeling! You announce your father's own death like a surgeon looking down on some strange… stranger's body! You're just a savage like all the rest. (4.127)

When Olunde fails to show any outward emotion when he believes his father has died, Jane is just totally unable to understand his reaction and decides that he is "just a savage." In her view, there's no other reason you could have this attitude about death.

Quote #8

Well he'd better learn to answer civil questions when he's asked them. These natives put a suit on and they get high opinions of themselves. (4.137)

When the aide-de-camp realizes that Olunde has upset Jane (but before finding out why), he rushes in and lashes out at Olunde with a racial epithet. Jane tries to get him to calm down, but as you can see, he thinks he's completely justified in punishing Olunde for potentially getting a "high opinion" of himself.

Quote #9

I wish to ask you to search the quiet of your heart and tell me—do you not find great contradictions in the wisdom of your own race? (5.37)

Jane is still trying to get Olunde to see contradictions or problems in his own traditions. Mind you, she hasn't admitted any in her own, which kind of implies that she's still thinking of Yoruban traditions as not simply different from her own, but actually lesser and, at the very least, flawed.