How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She said aloud, in admiration, "Ho-ho . . ." There was no anger left in her. Four days ago the twins couldn't even reach a sixfoot sill. They couldn't even get away from a spanking. And now look. (1.17.21)
Janie emotionally bonds with the twins because of their intelligence. She does not pick friends based on skin color and neither should you.
Quote #2
The twins approached guardedly. She took their hands. They watched her face. She began to move toward the elevators, and they followed. The janitor beamed after them. (1.17.30)
Mr. Widdecombe, the twins' father, is pleased with the new friendship between his daughters and Janie. That makes him more open-minded about friendship than Wima, Janie's mom.
Quote #3
"Dear old Jesus be to God, she said, "she's got the place filled with n*****s."
"They're going home," said Janie resolutely. "I'll take 'em home right now." [...]
Janie walked down the hall to the elevators. She looked at Bonnie and at Beanie. Their eyes were round. Janie's mouth was as dry as a carpet and she was so embarrassed her legs cramped. [...]
She walked slowly back to the apartment and went in and closed the door. Her mother got up from the man's lap and clattered across the room. [...]
Something happened inside Janie like the grinding of teeth, but deeper inside her than that. She was walking and she did not stop. She put her hands behind her and tilted her chin up so she could meet her mother's eyes. [...]
Janie walked past her and into her room, and quietly closed the door. (1.18.5-12)
Wima's racism is on display here, but so is Janie's courage in how she refuses to acknowledge that playing with the twins was wrong.
Quote #4
Then there was a little Negro girl about five with great big eyes who stood gaping at me. (2.2.72)
What's significant here is what's not said. Gerry, meeting the twin for the first time, doesn't remark on the little girl's ethnicity beyond identifying it. Maybe he's not totally full of hate after all.
Quote #5
She looked at me as if I was real stupid. "We don't have little colored girls for sisters, Gerard."
Janie said, "We do." (2.7.70-71)
When Miss Kew tries to stick to some biological notion of sisterhood, Janie emphasizes that the gestalt picks its family members and doesn't discriminate by skin color.
Quote #6
"Janie said, 'Why don't the twins eat with us?'
"'Miriam's taking care of them, dear,' Miss Kew says.
"Janie looked at her with those eyes. 'I know that. Let 'em eat here and I'll take care of 'em.'
"Miss Kew's mouth got all tight again and she said, 'They're little colored girls, Jane. Now eat your lunch.'
"But that didn't explain anything to Janie or me, either. I said, 'I want 'em to eat with us. Lone said we should stay together.'" (2.8.8-12)
This conversation, and the battle that follows, illustrates how seriously the gestalt takes their need to stay together. They're not willing to surrender to Miss Kew's prejudice.
Quote #7
"From what I've learned about people, there seems to be two armies fightin' about race. One fightin' to keep 'em apart, and one's fightin' to get 'em together. But I don't see why both sides are so worried about it! Why don't they just forget it?"
"They can't. You see, Gerry, it's necessary to believe they are superior in some fashion." (2.8.24-25)
Gerry argues for a sort of color-blind approach to race. Stern argues that people can't forget race because people must believe they are superior in some fashion, perhaps in terms of power. There are other arguments, of course, but these are the two that show up here. We take Gerry's side.
Quote #8
He staggered back, his hand over his eyes. There was a gabbling shriek in the room, it went on and on, split and spun around itself. He peeped through his fingers.
Thompson was reeling, his head drawn back and down almost to his shoulderblades. He kicked and elbowed backward. Holding him, her hands over his eyes, her knee in the small of his back, was Bonnie, and it was from her the gabbling came.
Hip came forward running [...] His fist sank into the taut solar plexus and Thompson went down soundlessly. (3.16.98-100)
This courageous move on Bonnie's part allows Hip to subdue Gerry. It is the most consequential action taken by a twin in the novel, and is crucial to the plot.
Quote #9
"Beat it, Bonnie!"
She left—blip!—like a squirted appleseed. (3.16.119-120)
After saving the day, the twin teleports away. This passage is arguably representative of how the twins are given just a small role in the book. They're almost like squirted appleseeds that go from place to place when the plot needs them, but they do have more personality than that, such as when they befriend Janie.
Quote #10
Who are you?
Homo Gestalt.I'm one; part of; belonging [...]
We are humanity! (3.21.13-24)
This is the overriding message in More Than Human, and it applies to skin color as well. Humanity, in the book's view, is everyone together. Like the cast of High School Musical once sang, we're all in this together.