The Diamond as Big as the Ritz Braddock Tarleton Washington Quotes

"This is the golf course," [Braddock] continued, as they strolled along the velvet winter grass. "It's all a green, you see—no fairway, no rough, no hazards." (6.7)

Except that what makes a golf course a golf course is its hazards. A plain fairway would be a boring game. Washington seems to miss the point here – flawless isn't always best or even preferable.

[Braddock:] "How absurd. How could a man of my position be fair-minded toward you? You might as well speak of a Spaniard being fair-minded toward a piece of steak." (6.37)

Washington makes the argument that it is natural for men of wealth and power to exploit those beneath him. Later, his daughter Kismine will make the same argument to John. Fitzgerald seems to be saying that this is the ideology which allowed early Americans to justify their own brand of exploitation.

[Braddock:] "All these negroes are descendants of the ones my father brought North with him. There are about two hundred and fifty now. You notice that they've lived so long apart from the world that their original dialect has become an almost indistinguishable patois. We bring a few of them up to speak English—my secretary and two or three of the house servants." (6.6)

Many of the prisoners in "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" don't even know that they're prisoners – and the slaves aren't the only ones.