Cloud 9 Family Quotes

Clive introduces his family by saying that, no matter where he lives in the world, the important thing is that his family stays together. Now that might sound pretty nice, but he backs that up by saying that his duty to serve the Queen also makes him a father to all the "natives" living in the area around him. And that's some racist, colonial logic going on right there. Clive's basically using his role as a father/leader within his family and extending it to give him power over all of the African people who live near him. For Churchill, it's hard to separate the power Clive has as a father from the power he claims as a white colonialist.

Betty introduces herself in the opening song by saying that her only goal in life is to be the lover and wife that Clive wants her to be. She doesn't really have any sense of herself as an individual outside of her role as mother and wife. In fact, the major plot of this play will turn out to be Betty's quest to define herself as an individual with her own desires.

Like his mother, poor little Edward badly wants to be the strong young man his father wants him to be. But unfortunately, that's just not who Edward is. Edward would rather spend time playing with his sister's doll than joining the school cricket team; but he's tortured by the knowledge that he's disappointing his daddy.

When Clive has to confront the fact that Edward (once again) has been caught playing with his sister's doll, Clive decides to use a tried and true technique of all overbearing fathers—live in complete denial. So instead of acknowledging his son's love for the doll, Clive just talks as if Edward was protecting the doll for his sister, and he calls Edward manly for doing so. You can tell that not even Clive buys his own lie, though, which is why he follows by saying, "We'll say no more about it. "

When Clive expresses his admiration for Harry's work as an explorer, Harry says that it's he who truly admires Clive. He says this because he believes that the true work of the British Empire isn't to conquer new corners, but to make everyone fit the Western ideal of the nuclear family.

When it comes time to justify why he would ever go through the hassle of living with a woman, Clive cites "the necessity of reproduction." In other words, the guy ain't exactly romantic about his marriage. He just sees it as a means to an end. And that end is the spreading of the white nuclear family as an ideal.

When Edward confesses to saying he hates his father, Clive remains calm and tells Edward what's what. He says that Edward must respect him, but not because he's a good or admirable man; Edward needs to admire Clive simply because Clive is his father. Clive could be the worst person in the world, but his family still has to respect him because he's the dad and therefore the boss.

Lin tells Victoria she's grateful that she's raising her daughter Cathy on her own. Victoria still has some old-fashioned ideas about the family and says that Lin shouldn't feel grateful about having no husband. Lin counters this argument by mentioning that her husband was abusive.

When Lin first meets Betty, Betty is a little judgmental about Lin's single status. But she does a good job of disguising this and tells Lin she thinks she's wonderful. Then she goes on to mention that it's important to have help when raising a kid, which wasn't a problem for Betty in Africa because she had servants helping her.

Betty's in total denial in this quote. She has learned that Victoria, Lin, and Edward are all going to start living together, and she pats herself on the back for accepting it. But what she doesn't seem to accept is the fact that Victoria and Lin are the two who are actually together, and that Edward is just a single gay man.