How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #7
She avoided the villagers and meeting places in her efforts to be blind and deaf. (59)
Ah, the old ignorance is bliss trick. Delia tries super hard to not get mixed up in the Sykes-Bertha affair, but it's impossible not to, especially when Bertha comes calling at the front door. Talk about no class.
Quote #8
Ah'm goin' tuh de white folks bout you, mah young man, de very nex' time you lay yo' han's on me. (82)
In the 1920s, threatening to turn your African American husband over to the white police was a dangerous claim. In some places, it might even carry some clout today.
Quote #9
Perhaps her threat to go to the white folks had frightened Sykes! Perhaps he was sorry! Fifteen years of misery and suppression had brought Delia to the place where she would hope anything that looked towards a way over or through her wall of inhibitions. (86)
This quote shows us just how segregated life was back in the time this story takes place—going to the white folks is literally one of Delia's last resorts. It might be hard to imagine for some of us, but the rampant and implicit segregation reflected in this story demonstrates just how much things have changed in the last 90 years.