Quote 1
"A tornado must be a woman," Abby decided.
The women on the porch clicked their agreement with their sewing needles. (19.22-23)
Abby comes to this conclusion during a conversation about Trembling Sally, shortly after a discussion about how Sally blames Abby for the tornado that destroyed her. Interestingly, Mother Barker assures Abby that they all know she didn't cause the tornado—and yet just a few moments later, Abby decides that "a tornado must be a woman," and all the other women agree. What do you think they're all identifying in this moment?
Quote 2
"But Mother Barker, you're so good. Can't some of those practices cause other folks harm?"
"Well, fact is, I haven't always been good. Old age has a way of mellowing the outrages of youth. When I was young, I used to do all kind of stuff to folks out to do me wrong."
"Mother Barker, I can't imagine…"
"I threw salt after one woman who was after my husband. Woman moved so many times from hours to house 'til she broke down the moving wagon. Salted her good. One ornery man made me so mad I rotted the teeth out of his head." (23.61-64)
Mother Barker knows how to use her folk remedies for good—and for evil. Mwah ha ha ha… Implied in this passage is the fact that while Mother Barker was responding to mean treatment, two wrongs don't make a right, no matter how much Mother Barker chuckles while recounting these incidences to Abby.
Quote 3
"You know," Abby was saying as she served warm pomegranate wine to the women, "when we got here, I scrubbed us all raw. I washed the ashes and smut from our hair and bodies. I rinsed the smoke from the burning eyes of the children. But I could not wash the wailing of that woman from my mind." (30.7)
To be fair, Trembling Sally tried to murder Abby and Lily's kids while they slept, so it makes sense that Abby is a bit haunted by the woman. Still, though, we see again how Trembling Sally isn't just mad herself, but unsettles Abby mentally, too.
Quote 4
"Mama's making me something."
"What color?"
"Blue. The prettiest blue."
"Child, did you know blue is the color of the will of God? Is she about finished?" (6.92-95)
Abyssinia and Mother Barker are discussing what Abby will be wearing to the church anniversary party. Patience is making Abby a blue dress. Just as Abby is compared to Jesus when she's born (check out the quote right above this one to see this happen), again we see her compared to a gift from God.
Quote 5
Over at Abby's house, Mother Barker had set up a corner of the room to apply her folk medicine to Abby's body.
"The lightning bugs are out tonight, Mother Barker," Abyssinia said.
"Now that's the truth, honey," the old woman agreed as she applied snuff spit to the stings on Abby's face.
[…]
"But how come the lightning bugs are here?"
"You mean down here on the earth?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"For the same reason we're here, daughter. He put them here."
Mother Barker pasted the snuff spit between Abby's braids. (12.8-19)
Here we see Christianity and folk medicine—which we've seen tied to folk spirituality (see the previous quote to check this out in more depth)—interspersed with each other. As Mother Barker tends to Abby's wasp wounds using folk techniques, they discuss God and his creation of lightning bugs.
Quote 6
She saw a bus pulling out. She looked around the station quickly. Not seeing her father, she peered more closely at the moving bus. She recognized the back of her father's head in the row of seats.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
The head did not turn around. The motor of the bus roared.
"Daddy!"
The bus picked up speed.
"Daddy!"
She ran after the bus until she realized it was too far away for her to possibly catch up. Her father was too far away.
Homeward bound, her footsteps were dejected. Her legs felt heavy. Her head felt light. She felt dizzy and lost. (7.105-112)
After desperately searching for her dad, Abby finds him—but it's too late. If he hears her, he gives no sign, and if the bus driver notices her chasing the bus down, he doesn't show it, either. She's just a girl left chasing after a bus that's carrying her dad out of town after he's lost his mind. It's a truly heartbreaking moment in the book, and its physical impact on Abby makes it clear that she is truly upended.
Quote 7
"What about your girls? You've got to do something. Else they'll think that's what women are for—beating." (27.25)
Abyssinia implores Lily Norene to get herself away from her abusive husband, if not for herself then for her daughters who are growing up in a family in which women are used for little more than punching bags.
Quote 8
She told herself her father loved her.
"My father loves me, my father loves me, my father loves me." She repeated the words faster and faster and faster. (7.93-94)
After the tornado rips through town and destroys the Better Way Barbershop, Abyssinia decides she needs to see her dad for herself in order to make some sense of what's happened to him. As she heads out looking for him, she bolsters herself with the constant reminder that her dad loves her. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean he isn't on the first bus out of town.
Quote 9
Abby scanned the newspaper for events that might be interesting to the older woman. "Mother Barker, it says here that over in Ardmore the police shot another black man. Name of Teddy Walker."
"That's a shame. Read on, daughter."
Abby noted, as she read on, that it was called justifiable homicide. She could not fathom why they would call it justifiable until she got to the end of the article when mention was made that the police thought the victim was brandishing a gun. However, no gun was found.
"Well," grumbled Mother Barker, "they won't even say what happened to the dead man's family. There's some things that never get recorded." (6.80-83)
The key word to notice in the first paragraph of this quote is "another." In other words, Teddy Walker isn't the first black man shot by the police recently. And as Mother Barker notes, there's not even a mention of his family—an omission that suggests disrespect for both Teddy Walker's value, as well as the value of the people he's related to.
Quote 10
"My mama's not home."
"Yes, you told me. I'll wait for her." The woman entered the house without being invited.
Once inside, the county woman looked Abby up and down like she was inspecting a can of vegetables on a store shelf. (14.15-17)
Interestingly, at this point, "the county woman" has already given her name—it's Miss Miller—and yet the author continues to refer to her as "the county woman," letting us know that Abby sees her as more of an archetype than anything else. Abby, in other words, is wary. And rightly so—after all, Miss Miller waltzes into her house uninvited, which is majorly disrespectful. Do you think she would do the same to a white family?
Quote 11
Abby shrieked and ran out of the room. She came back brandishing a sour mop still wet from that afternoon's scrubbing.
"Get out of here, you white witch!" she yelled.
The county woman retreated a step. "I won't authorize you to get one cent from this county if you don't put that thing down, you dirty n*****!" (14.22-24)
Yikes. This is how the county woman responds to Abby not taking kindly to her looking up her dress without permission. We're thinking the county isn't exactly on Team Black People if it employs people who treat black people this way. That there's some institutionalized racism, for you. Oh, and race is definitely on Abby's radar, though this is the only time we hear her talk about it.
Quote 12
Abby scanned the newspaper for events that might be interesting to the older woman. "Mother Barker, it says here that over in Ardmore the police shot another black man. Name of Teddy Walker." (6.80)
Abby often reads the Black Dispatch to Mother Barker. Not to blow your mind or anything, but one upon a time there wasn't the Internet and people got their information primarily from these wackadoodle things called newspapers. Which leaves us with one question: Why do you think Abby reads the newspaper to Mother Barker? We're thinking it's because she can't read, and yet she's clearly learned a whole lot in her day. Education comes in all forms, yo.