How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
He began. "They say, if you put a pea under a mattress, a queen can feel the bump in the bed and will scream holy murder. And if you pile ten mattresses on top of that one, the queen will still feel the bump. So it is with a black woman. She knows when something's not right. She's not evil, she's queenly." (5.17)
This is the start of Strong's story of Patience tucking a diaper into his suit pocket instead of a handkerchief when he refuses to take her out partying with him after Abyssinia's born. The moral of the story? Women are not to be trifled with.
Quote #5
"Stuck my wedding band in my pocket and went to the party. The women there!" Strong rolled his eyes. "Chocolate-drop beauties! Caramel-colored wonders! Cinnamon babies! Nutmeg numbers! They had all the women!"
"What you say!" the winos commented.
"Well, I picked out this apricot, light-skinned chick. Had some legs on her big as Georgia hams. talk about shapely!"
Strong licked his lips. (5.38-40)
As we near the end of Strong's story of Patience pulling one over on him, women are repeatedly compared to food. Strong is ready to be unfaithful to the woman who only recently gave birth to his child, and talks about the women at the party as things to be consumed—"chocolate," "caramel," "cinnamon," "nutmeg, " and more.
Quote #6
"I know it was rosebay," Mother Barker said.
"Rosebay!?" said the astonished Abby. "Why, that'll kill you!"
"How could you tell it was rosebay?" someone asked.
"By the way it smelled," said Mother Barker.
"Oleander does have a peculiar smell all right," one of the women agreed.
"Then I saw the petals," Mother Barker revealed. "The children kept arguing over who had the most blossoms floating in their teacups."
[…]
"She might really harm somebody someday," the snuff dipper said.
"She bears close watching," Mother Barker said quietly to the concerned woman. (19.2-11)
Trembling Sally is a problem in town. Sometimes she tries to kill Abby, sometimes she tries to kill the Lightsey kids, but pretty much all the time, she's up to no good. And who mulls over how to handle her? Why the women, of course. Here they are talking through Sally's behavior, trying to figure out just how to handle her.