How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #1
MINNIE: My sakes! What a purty house!
SETH: Wal, I promised Amos I'd help show ye the sights when you came to visit him. 'Tain't everyone can git to see the Mannon place close to. They're strict about trespassin'.
MINNIE: My! They must be rich! How'd they make their money?
SETH: Ezra's made a pile, and before him, his father, Abe Mannon, he inherited some and made a pile more in shippin'. Started one of the first Western Ocean packet lines.
MINNIE: Ezra's the General, ain't he?
SETH: Ayeh. The best fighter in the hull of Grant's Army!
MINNIE: What kind is he?
SETH: He's able, Ezra is! Folks think he's cold-blooded and uppish, 'cause he's never got much to say to 'em. But that's only the Mannon's way. They've been top dog around here for near on two hundred years and don't let folks fergit it. […] Oh, he's able, Ezra is!
AMES: Ayeh. This town's real proud of Ezra.
LOUISA: Which is more than you can say for his wife. […]
SETH: Never mind her. We ain't talkin' bout her. Wal, I've got to see Vinnie. I'm goin' round by the kitchen. You wait here. […]
LOUISA: Seth is so proud of his durned old Mannons! I couldn't help givin' him a dig about Ezra's wife.
AMES: Wal, don't matter much. He's allus hated her. (Homecoming, Act 1)
We don't know—hate might be strong word—but can you really blame Seth for not being Christine's biggest fan? Either way, we get a real glimpse into just how powerful Ezra is, and how much that makes people both admire and hate him.
Quote #2
She ain't the Mannon kind. French and Dutch descended, she is. Furrin' lookin' and queer. Her father's a doctor in New York, but he can't be much of one 'cause she didn't bring no money when Ezra married her. (Homecoming, Act 1)
Seth continues to set up the basic social class arrangement for us. Christine's not upper-class like her husband. We'll soon be hearing about two other people outside the Mannon's social class: Adam Brant and his mother, who was a nursemaid. One thing we see throughout the play is that middle and working-class people are the ones with feelings; they're more sexual and expressive, they sing and laugh and are generally more uninhibited.
Quote #3
SETH: That durned n***** cook is allus askin' me to fetch wood fur her! You'd think I was her slave! That's what we get fur freein' em! (Homecoming, Act 1)
Just in case we think that Seth and his friends are the lowest social status here, O'Neill throws in a reminder of who's really on the bottom of the social scale—the freed blacks. Everybody needs someone to look down on to make themselves feel important, we guess. Free or not, black Americans found that emancipation didn't solve the problem of racial hatred.