How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.[Part].Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[…] the scrubbed table in the kitchen where his dinner simmered on the stove and the galvanized tub of hot water and the baking powder can of soft soap and the towel made of scalded flour sacks sewn together and his clean overalls and shirt waited […] (3.1.8)
This is what Rider finds every day when he gets home from work. Mannie made a warm and welcoming home despite their obvious poverty. Kind of reminds us of what Tomey's Turl told young McCaslin about how women can do it all. You can see how Mannie's death left a huge hole in his life and his heart. Come to think of it, all the women like this in this book are black. Think about it: Isaac's wife? Sophonsiba? The deputy's wife? Nope, nope, and nope.
Quote #8
She already knows more than I with all the man-listening in camps where there was nothing to read ever even heard of. They are born already bored with what a boy approaches only at fourteen or fifteen with blundering and aghast trembling. (5.4.200)
Isaac sees his wife, and women in general, as natural carnal beings who know about the power of sex from the day they're born. His wife (we never learn her name) supports this stereotype. She seduces him, he enjoys it, and she cuts him off sexually for the rest of their marriage. There's something, well…ewww, about this whole episode. But it has tons of importance for the rest of the story, because by refusing him sex forever, Isaac loses the chance to have a son to carry on the male McCaslin line.
Quote #9
"It's a good time to mention does," the old man said. "Does and fawns both. The only fighting anywhere that ever had anything of God's blessing on it has been when men fought to protect does and fawns. If it's going to come to fighting, it's a good thing to mention and remember too." (6.18)
We're sure old Isaac means well, but the idea that the only honorable reason to fight a war is to protect women and children—the helpless—is kind of patronizing.