How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Hungry tribes of unemployed workers and their families […] wandered the streets begging for a chance to work, but there were no jobs and slowly but surely the rugged workers, thin with hunger, shrunken with cold, ragged and desolate, stopped asking for work and asked for alms instead. The city filled with beggars, and then with thieves. […] There was not enough charity for so many poor, defenseless people. (4.90)
The portrayal of the impoverished workers indicates that the problem of unemployment is systemic – there are no jobs for the people to work, and charity is insufficient to meet their needs, too. The author suggests that something about the political system needs to change.
Quote #8
Just as she had gone with her mother in the days when she was mute, she now took Blanca with her on her visits to the poor, weighed down with gifts and comfort.
"This is to assuage our conscience, darling," she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity, they need justice." (4.95)
Charity is a tradition among the women of the del Valle and Trueba families – Nívea, Clara, Alba, and even Blanca (at her mother and daughter's prodding) help the poor with their labor and with gifts of money and food. All of these characters, with the sole except of Blanca, recognize that charity isn't going to cut it – the political structure that perpetuates poverty in the first place needs to change as well.
Quote #9
"When I grow up, I'm going to marry you and we're going to live here in Tres Marías," she whispered.
Pedro stared at her with his sad old man's look and shook his head. He was still much more of a child than she, but he already knew his place in the world. (5.16)
Pedro Tercero can see that Blanca is being naïve. She has yet to learn the social rules that disallow the marriage of two people from different social classes, and sees herself and Pedro Tercero as equals.