Quote 1
Then the screen would light up, and I'd move right on in them pictures. White men taking such good care of they women, and they all dressed up in big clean houses with bathtubs right in the same room with the toilet. Them pictures gave me a lot of pleasure, but it made coming home hard, and looking at Cholly hard. (3.7.23)
Pauline constantly compares her life as an African-American woman with the lives of the white women she sees onscreen. Movies have the ability to show us other worlds and create feelings (in this case, envy) that may not have existed otherwise.
Quote 2
Then the screen would light up, and I'd move right on in them pictures. White men taking such good care of they women, and they all dressed up in big clean houses with bathtubs right in the same room with the toilet. Them pictures gave me a lot of pleasure, but it made coming home hard, and looking at Cholly hard. (3.7.23)
Pauline envies the lives of white people, as seen at the movies.
Quote 3
Pauline felt uncomfortable with the few black women she met. They were amused by her because she did not straighten her hair....Their goading glances and private snickers at her way of talking (saying "chil'ren") and dressing developed in her a desire for new clothes. (3.7.18)
Pauline's jealousy is aroused by other black women judging her. Like her daughter, Pauline believes that if she alters her appearance people will treat her differently.
Quote 4
She came into her own with the women who had despised her, by being more moral than they....She joined a church where shouting was frowned on....She stopped saying "chil'ren" and said "childring" instead. She let another tooth fall, and was outraged by painted ladies who thought only of clothes and men. (3.7.25)
There is a trend in the novel of characters starting in one emotional state (say, Cholly's anger at the white men who humiliate them) and sublimating those emotions into ones that are easier to handle. Here Pauline takes her jealousy of other women and turns it into martyrdom.
Quote 5
Then the screen would light up, and I'd move right on in them pictures. White men taking such good care of they women, and they all dressed up in big clean houses with bathtubs right in the same room with the toilet. Them pictures gave me a lot of pleasure, but it made coming home hard, and looking at Cholly hard. (3.7.23)
Pauline envies the lives of white people as she sees them portrayed in the movies. In particular, she envies the monetary security, comfort, and romance she finds in them.
Quote 6
She regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit. (3.7.22)
Love is a kind of ownership for Pauline.
Quote 7
Pauline and Cholly loved each other. He seemed to relish her company and even to enjoy her country ways and lack of knowledge about city things. He talked with her about her foot and asked, when they walked through the town or in the fields, if she were tired. Instead of ignoring her infirmity, pretending it was not there, he made it seem like something special and endearing. For the first time Pauline felt that her bad foot was an asset. And he did touch her, firmly but gently, just as she had dreamed. But minus the gloom of setting suns and lonely river banks. She was secure and grateful; he was kind and lively. She had not known there was so much laughter in the world. (3.7.14)
Cholly is Pauline's dream come true. Having always felt detached from her family and left out of their fun, the laughter and innocence Cholly provides makes her feel safe, young, and vibrant.
Quote 8
He would rather die than take his thing out of me. Of me. Not until he has let go of all he has, and give it to me. To me. To me. When he does, I feel a power. I be strong, I be pretty, I be young. (3.7.30)
Pauline associates sex with power.