QUOTE 1
"He must have had something to move all those people! Our people are hell to move. He must have had plenty!" I looked at him. His eyes were turned inward; then he smiled. "Don't worry," he said. "We have a scientific plan and you set them off. Things are so bad they'll listen, and when they listen they'll go along." (367)
Themes: Power, Loyalty, Sight, Ideology
My interpretation: Tod finds himself drawn to the ideas of activists like Garvey (who Ras is based on) but his loyalty to the Brotherhood causes him to ignore these feelings and reassure himself of his choice using their ideology.
"Look at you two and look at me -- is this sanity? Standing here in three shades of blackness! Three black men fighting in the street because of the white enslaver? Is that sanity? Is that consciousness, scientific understahnding? Is that the modern black mahn of the twentieth century? Hell, mahn! Is it self-respect -- black against black?" (372)
Themes: Violence, Race, Power, Sanity
My interpretation: Ras points out the hypocrisy of the Brotherhood, they are the reason Tod and IM are fighting him. The Brotherhood and its members call Ras crazy but they can't see how their actions cause harm to black people while Ras can. Ras also uses Brotherhood ideology to further his point, showing his knowledge about their movement.
"Sometimes I sat watching the watery play of light upon Douglass' portrait, thinking how magical it was that he had talked his way from slavery to a government ministry, and so swiftly. Perhaps, I thought, something of the kind is happening to me. Douglass came north to escape and find work in the shipyards; a big fellow in a sailor's suit who, like me, had taken another name. What had his true name been? Whatever it was, it was as Douglass that he became himself, defined himself. And not as a boatwright as he'd expected, but as an orator. Perhaps the sense of magic lay in the unexpected transformations. "You start Saul, and end up Paul," my grandfather had often said." (381)
Themes: Identity, Slavery, Ambition
My interpretation: IM compares his change in identity and life trajectory to Douglass, thinking the transformation is magical. But even though he talks about leaving his old life behind, he still thinks of his grandfather's advice.