How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"You ugly black man! I won't do it! You're stupid, you can't even spell." (9.18)
Frustrated when Timothy asks him to help weave sleeping mats, Phillip lashes out at him. He goes for some low blows and calls Timothy ugly, stupid, and illiterate. Phillip's judgments about Timothy are obviously incredibly superficial. How does Timothy respond?
Quote #8
Wanting to hear it from Timothy, I asked him why there were different colors of skin, white and black, brown and red, and he laughed back, "Why b'feesh different color, or flower b'different color? I true don' know, Phill-eep, but I true tink beneath d'skin is all d'same." (10.13)
Timothy tells Phillip that though humans have different colors of skin, they are all the same underneath. This message of equality will resonate with Phillip through the remainder of the book. Do you agree with Timothy?
Quote #9
I moved close to Timothy's big body before I went to sleep. I remember smiling in the darkness. He felt neither white nor black. (10.16)
Though he recoiled from Timothy's touch before, Phillip now sleeps close to him. Their relationship has become desegregated; that is, the barriers between them have broken down. Phillip's blindness has led to colorblindness.