The Grass is Singing

“When natives steal, murder or rape, that is the feeling white people have.”

This quote references the murder of Mary Turner and suggests that whites expect natives to have a corrupted nature, an expectation at the heart of the novel’s “black-white” relations.

“… She turned and ran back, suddenly terrified, as if a hostile breath had blown upon her, from another world, from the trees.”

Mary’s fear of the bush—and by extension the farm—highlights her animosity to the farm and its direct association with natives, whom she views as nonhuman.

“It was a proper old-fashioned bed, high and massive: that was his idea of marriage.”

This telling quote highlights Dick Turner’s old-school views on work, life and marriage. He thinks in terms of natural rights and has lived his life at odds with Mary’s cosmopolitan view of the world.