How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There he saw the stars and exchanged stares with the moon, but he could see very little of the land, which was just as well because he was gazing at the shore of an island that, three hundred years ago, had struck slaves blind the moment they saw it. (P.7)
According to local legend, the African slaves who were brought to Isle des Chevaliers back in the 1700s went totally blind when they saw the place. This could symbolize the fact that these men didn't want to witness all of the terrible things that would happen to slaves on this island for hundreds of years afterward.
Quote #2
He had been run out of Algeria and thought his door was being assaulted by local Blacks—whose teeth he would not repair. (1.24)
The local dentist is a guy who used to live in Algeria, but was kicked out when the local people rebelled and expelled all of the French colonizers. So instead of going back to France, the guy just hopped to the next French colony, Dominique, and set up shop there. You have to wonder why he keeps doing this, though, since he doesn't seem to have much trust for black people.
Quote #3
Under her long yellow dress Jadine knew there was too much hip, too much bust. The agency would laugh her out of the lobby, so why was she and everybody else in the store transfixed? The height? The skin like tar against the canary yellow dress? (2.2)
When Jade sees a tall African woman in a French grocery store, she doesn't know what to think. Everyone in the store is transfixed by the woman's beauty, yet Jade knows that there's no way this woman would ever get work with a modeling agency. The woman is just too imposing to be a model. Nonetheless, Jade knows that this woman has something that she lacks, and the though goes on to trouble her for the rest of the book.
Quote #4
I guess the person I want to marry is him, but I wonder if the person he wants to marry is me or a black girl? (2.9)
Jade is a little insecure about her engagement to her white boyfriend Ryk, who's living back in Paris. Jade can never be sure whether Ryk wants to marry her for who she is or simply because he wants to look trendy and progressive by marrying a black woman.
Quote #5
[Sometimes] I want to get out of my skin and be only the person inside—not American—not black—just me. (2.9)
Jade wishes that she didn't have to deal with the questions and insecurities that come up within her because of her race. She just wishes that she could be racially neutral so that people could judge her for who she is. In other words, she seems to believe that there's a personality inside her that transcends her body and her race.
Quote #6
Not the coloreds. She was seventeen and couldn't even give them orders the way she was supposed to. (2.27)
Margaret feels inadequate as a young wife because she isn't able to give stern commands to her black servants. Now most of us would think that this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but Margaret sees it as a sign of her personal weakness.
Quote #7
[Michael's intentions] were not good. He wanted a race of exotics skipping around being picturesque for him. What were those welfare mothers supposed to put in those pots? (3.131)
Valerian doesn't have much time for his son Michael's progressive, hippie mentality. According to Valerian, Michael doesn't actually care about people at all; he cares about the idea of being someone who cares about people. That's way, according to Valerian, Michael just wants to live among non-white people so he can feel like he's wiser than most white people. But there's nothing authentic about it, as far as Valerian is concerned.
Quote #8
She realized then that all her life she thought they felt nothing at all. Oh, well, yes, she knew they talked and laughed and died and had babies. But she had never attached any feeling to any of it. (4.220)
Deep down, Thérèse doesn't think that white people actually have any feelings. She's willing to admit that they do things like most human beings do, like talk and laugh and die. But she doesn't think that they actually have any deep emotions on the inside.
Quote #9
"She was a wet-nurse," he told Son, "and made her living from white babies. Then formula came and she almost starve to death. Fishing kept her alive." (5.139)
According to Gideon, Thérèse lived most of her life working for white family and being a wet-nurse for white babies: she let white babies drink her breast milk. This role is chock full of symbolic importance, because by having a black woman feed white children with her breast milk, Toni Morrison shows just how dependent white people are on the service of black people, especially women like Thérèse.
Quote #10
One had a past, the other a future and each one bore the culture to save the race in his hands. Mama-spoiled black man, will you mature with me? Culture-bearing black woman, whose culture are you bearing? (9.287)
Morrison lays out the conflict between Jade and Son for us when she mentions how each of these people is trying to "save their race." Jade believes that the only way for black people to overcome white people is to get an education and make a lot of money. Son, on the other hand, thinks that black people should shun white people and establish their own communities on their own terms.