How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
His grandfather was the oldest of eight boys and the only one to live past the age of twenty-five. They were drowned, shot, kicked by horses. They perished in fires. They seemed to fear only dying in bed. (25)
What does this passage say about men in the Grady family? Does it suggest any ideas about manhood in general?
Quote #2
She held out her hand. At first he didn't know what she was doing.
I dont wish you anything but the best, she said.
He took her hand, small in his, familiar. He'd never shaken hands with a woman before. Take care of yourself, she said.
Thank you. I will. (405-8)
Why is John so taken aback by his ex-girlfriend offering him her hand? Is he just afraid of cooties? Why might the way she's treating him here be odd to him?
Quote #3
There was no back to the bench and Blevins flailed wildly for a moment and then crashed to the floor behind him…the two girls stood instantly and clapped with delight […]. The woman had leaned forward to right a cup, to quiet the children. She could not laugh for the impropriety of it but the brightness in her eyes did not escape even Blevins. (821-2)
How would you describe the woman's mannerisms in this passage—why the restraint, and why the difference between the girls and the older woman? What might McCarthy be trying to say about gender roles in Mexico here?
Quote #4
He said that war had destroyed the country and that men believe the cure for war is war as the curandero prescribes the serpent's flesh for its bite. He spoke of his campaigns in the deserts of Mexico and he told them of horses killed under him and he said that the souls of horses mirror the souls of men more closely than men suppose and that horses also love war […]. His own father said that no man who has not gone to war horseback can ever truly understand the horse and he said that he supposed he wished that this were not so but that it was so. (1641)
Straight out of Gender Stereotype City in some ways, this passage portrays men—and also their horses—as perpetual warmongers. It contains striking connections between men, horses, and a perpetual, sad cycle of violence, not altogether different from the history of the men in the Grady family or that of Blevins' male predecessors.
Quote #5
I grew up in a world of men. I thought this would have prepared me to live in a world of men but it did not. I was also rebellious and so I recognize it in others […]. You see that I cannot help but be sympathetic to Alejandra. Even at her worst. But I wont have her unhappy. I wont have her ill spoken of. Or gossiped about. I know what that is […]. In an ideal world the gossip of the idle would be of no consequence. But I have seen the consequences in the real world and they can be very grave indeed. They can be consequences of a gravity not excluding bloodshed […]. What Alejandra dismisses as a matter of mere appearance or outmoded custom… (1948-9)
Alfonsa trails off here while recognizing the power that gender roles have in her society even when one consciously chooses to flout them. Many different and sometimes conflicting impulses in her character are on display here: concern for Alejandra and disgust at her society, regret for the past, and perhaps a hint of self-recrimination.
Quote #6
I want you to be considerate of a young girl's reputation […]. There is no forgiveness. For women. A man may lose his honor and regain it again. But a woman cannot […]. It's not a matter of right. You must understand. It is a matter of who must say. In this matter I get to say. (1956, 1960, 1964)
In contrasting the role of honor for men and women, Alfonsa also raises the issues of how class and family dynamics intersect with gender: while she may be limited in her role as a woman in mid-20th-century Mexican society, she does have some power through her role in the wealthy family.
Quote #7
Why do I bother myself? Eh? [Alejandra] will go [to France]. Who am I? A father. A father is nothing. (2083)
Despite being Alejandra's father and the head of the ranch, Don Héctor here defers to Alfonsa's decision to send his daughter to France. The way he downplays his role as a father highlights both his inability to stop John and Alejandra's romance as well as Alfonsa's positional power within the family, adding another layer of complexity to the gender relations that confer small areas of control while setting in place severe restrictions for women of class in the novel's portrayal of Mexico.
Quote #8
To a boy [losing fingers on a hand] would have been an event of consequence. To a girl it was a devastation. I would not be seen in public. I even imagined I saw a change in my father toward me. That he could not help but view me as something disfigured. I thought it would now be assumed that I could not make a good marriage and perhaps it was so assumed. There was no longer even a finger on which to place the ring. I was treated with great delicacy. Perhaps like a person returned home from an institution. (3406)
This passage captures the harsh centrality of looks to how women like Alfonsa were positioned socially, as well as the slight cushion afforded her by her class status—her family status still required people to treat her with deference. That may not necessarily be the case for someone not born to a high station.
Quote #9
When I was born in this house it was already filled with books in five languages and since I knew that as a woman the world would be largely denied me I seized upon this other world. (3421)
Alfonsa's retreat into books here suggests that her intelligence and understanding come from being denied standing in the world, and perhaps offers a reason as to why she can be sympathetic to John yet ultimately will deny him in order to maintain what standing she and her niece have through their status. It is a precarious position, not unlike that of a bear on a unicycle.
Quote #10
I will make it right. You have to let me.
She shook her head. You dont understand.
What dont I understand?
I didnt know that [my father] would stop loving me. I didnt know he could. Now I know. (3545-8)
As Alfonsa predicted, Alejandra's rebellious ideals confront the sheer power of entrenched prejudice surrounding propriety for women: after going against these rules, her own father now doesn't love her anymore. Three cheers for repression.