How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Look out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own and long as I live and the family survives, you'll never have to. That's important. You may not understand that now, but one day you will. Then you'll see." (1.17)
It's all about independence for Papa. And the land that they own allows them to have more independence than the vast majority of the other black people in the area. (Well, when you put it like that, it makes sense.)
Quote #2
Some if it belonged to Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man, not to mention the part that belonged to Big Ma, Mama, and Uncle Hammer [...] But Papa never divided the land in his mind; it was simply Logan land. (1.18)
Why is it so important for Papa to think of the land as whole and undivided, even though parts of it actually belong to different family members? Do you think this has anything to do with why Big Ma later signs over ownership to the land to Papa and Uncle Hammer?
Quote #3
"They go away, they always come back to it. Couldn't leave it […] [N]ow all the boys I got is my baby boys, your papa and your Uncle Hammer, and this they place as much as it is mine. They blood's in this land, and here that Harlan Granger always talkin' 'bout buyin' it." (4.236-37)
This is Big Ma talking about the Logan land. Their connection to the land is deep—their "blood's in this land." Does working the land and being willing to fight for it (in some cases, literally shedding blood) mean more than the the type of ownership Mr. Granger wants to assert?