How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
So saying he presented me with a pair of canvas trousers and blouse, a kind of miniature of what the crew wore – garments he himself had made.
While I thanked him kindly, in fact I took the gift as a warning that I had been forgetting my station. I told him – rather stiffly, I fear – that I thought it not proper for me, a girl – a lady – to wear such apparel. But, so as not to offend too deeply, I took the blouse and trousers to my cabin. (8.24-8.25)
Being the clothes horse that she is, Charlotte has some very definite ideas about what a girl, er, a lady, is not to wear. But what does Charlotte mean when she says she's been "forgetting her station"? Is being friends with Zachariah also something that Charlotte would deem unladylike? Why?
Quote #5
With fumbling, nervous hands I put on the seaman's clothing. The trousers and shirt felt stiff, heavy, like some skin not my own. My bare toes curled upon the wooden floor.
I stood some while to question my heart. Zachariah's words to Fisk, that I was the "very soul of justice" echoed within me. (12.108-12.109)
As Charlotte's role on the boat changes, so too does her wardrobe. And from all the fuss she's made about clothes, we know that there must have been some big, big changes going on. Charlotte is basically gender bending at this point (i.e., putting on clothing typically reserved for hard-working sailor men), though we should also take note of the passage's emphasis on her body. What does she mean by a "skin" that's not her own?
Quote #6
"I do mean it," I said, finding boldness with repetition, "I want to be the replacement for Mr. Johnson."
"You're a girl," Dillingham spat out contemptuously.
"A pretty girl," Foley put in. It was not meant as a compliment. "Takes more than canvas britches to hide that."
"And a gentlewoman," was Grimes's addition, as though that was the final evidence of my essential uselessness. (13.3-13.6)
The men of the crew are as suspicious of Charlotte's being a girl (her gender) as they are of her being a gentlewoman (her class). How are the two (class and gender) intertwined? The men also seem a bit nervous about Charlotte's physical attractiveness. Why?