How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"What they don't realize is that poor people are completely ignorant and uneducated. They're like children, they can't handle responsibility. How could they know what's best for them? Without me they'd be lost – if you don't believe me, just look what happens every time I turn my back. Everything goes to pieces and they start acting like a bunch of donkeys." (2.75)
Esteban justifies his behavior and the patriarchal structure of his society by comparing the peasants to children and to animals – creatures that don't know how to take care of themselves. He argues that he acts like a father towards his childish tenant-farmers, providing them with a source of authority without which they'd flounder and starve.
Quote #5
At times Clara would accompany her mother and two or three of her suffragette friends on their visits to factories, where they would stand on soapboxes and make speeches to the women who worked there while the foremen and bosses, snickering and hostile, observed them from a prudent distance. […] Clara grasped the absurdity of the situation and wrote in her notebook about the contrast of her mother and her friends, in their fur coasts and suede boots, speaking of oppression, equality, and rights to a sad, resigned group of hard-working women in denim aprons, their hands red with chilblains." (4.17)
The feminism of Clara's mother and her suffragette friends falls flat on the ears of the working-class women at the factories. Clara sees that it's easy to concern yourself with political ideas when you're wealthy and don't have to worry about working for a living – the factory workers have more pressing concerns.
Quote #6
"There's no point in trading one capitalist for another. The thing to do is form a cooperative and tell the madam to go to hell. Haven't you ever heard of that? You better be careful. If your tenants set up a cooperative, you'd really be finished. What I want is a whores' cooperative. Or whores and f**s, to make it more encompassing. We'll lay out everything, the money and the work. What do we need a patrón for?" (4.48)
Tránsito Soto's political ideas are born of her ambition and a sense of practicality – she's not interested in high-minded theoretical ideas. She's interested in what works.