How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Another picture was called "Boiler Busts in Factory," and men were jumping out of windows and running while a knot of kids in overalls stood scrouged together, holding the buckets of dinner they had brought to their Daddies. (1.3.64)
Mick's paintings are vivid, violent and a bit disturbing. All deal with themes of destruction, death, and social anarchy. The picture here gives a strong sense of Mick's blue-collar setting, where factories are the main employers in town.
Quote #2
"I suppose you done read in the paper about the Government Pincher business for old folks?"
Doctor Copeland nodded. "Pension," he said. (1.5.46-47)
This book isn't a laugh a minute, but it has its funny moments. McCullers's uses a pun here by referring to pensions, or retirement money for the elderly – social security, as "pinchers," which is probably how a lot of taxpayers felt about it when FDR passed it during the Depression. Many felt that these large government programs were a strain on their already thin wallets.
Quote #3
Once she had written to Jeanette MacDonald and had got a typewritten letter back saying that if ever she came out to Hollywood she could come by and swim in her swimming pool. And ever since that swimming pool had been preying on Etta's mind. (1.3.48)
Etta's obsession with Hollywood and its celebrities (like Jeanette MacDonald)
is nothing new, but it does give us insight into the era. 1939 was smack dab in the middle of the Golden Age of Hollywood and movies were one the primary sources of entertainment for anyone who could afford to drop a dime or two on a ticket.
Quote #4
Mister Singer would be skating with her. And maybe Carole Lombard or Arturo Toscanini who played on the radio. (2.1.3)
Mick, like Etta, is a fan of movie stars like Carole Lombard as well as radio personalities. These details about contemporary pop culture contribute to the novel's sense of time and place. They also help us understand that these characters are deeply dissatisfied with their lives. They have Big Dreams, many of which we know won't come true.
Quote #5
By the hatrack she stopped before the picture of Old Dirty-Face. This was a photo of her Mama's grandfather. He was a major way back in the Civil War and had been killed in a battle. [...] The picture was in the middle of a three-part frame. On both sides were pictures of his sons. They looked about Bubber's age. They had on uniforms and their faces were surprised. They had been killed in a battle also. A long time ago. (2.1.36)
For a book about the South, the Civil War gets surprisingly few shout-outs. This mention of the Civil War is the only one in fact, and it serves as more of a foreshadowing warning than anything. World War II is about to break out, after all.
Quote #6
"He sees the world as it is and he looks back thousands of years to see how it all come about. He watches the slow agglutination of capital and power and he sees its pinnacle today. He sees America as a crazy house. He sees how men have to rob their brothers in order to live. (2.4.14)
Jake's rants about the state of America could have been ripped directly out of a communist pamphlet published in the 1930s. His spiels give us insight into his character as well as his belief system, which many shared in this era.
Quote #7
The locations were changed but the settings were alike – a strip of wasteland bordered by rows of rotted shacks, and somewhere near a mill, a cotton gin, or a bottling plant. (2.4.18)
We get numerous descriptions of poverty in this book. Here, the emphasis is on how all poor locations look alike – it's a sad condition repeated all over the country, and Jake has witnessed it too many times.
Quote #8
"If there's anything I hate worse than a n***** it's a Red." (2.12.25)
We get a lot of examples of racism in this book, but not as many about political disputes. Here though, an anonymous guy sums up two of the era's, and especially the South's, biggest social issues: racism and a distrust and even hatred of socialist politics.
Quote #9
"And here in these thirteen states the exploitation of human beings is so that – that it's a thing you got to take in with your own eyes. In my life I seen things that would make a man go crazy. At least one third of all Southerners live and die no better off than the lowest peasant in any European Fascist state. (2.13.87)
Jake's rant about issues particular to the South is a climactic moment for him – it's one of the few coherent, extended speeches he gets in the novel. He compares the South to a European fascist state, which makes sense when you consider the fact that the rise of fascism was a huge concern for many Americans during this era.