American Street

by

Ibi Zoboi

Dray is one of the novel’s antagonists; he’s Donna’s boyfriend. At 21, he’s about five years older than Donna. He’s loud, imposing, and dangerous, and he has a reputation for being controlling and getting whatever he wants. The eye patch he wears over his one missing eye contributes to his fearsome appearance. Along with his uncle, Uncle Q, Dray is a high-powered drug dealer who spends most of his drug money on his car, a fancy BMW, and on buying Donna expensive clothes, wigs, and makeup. The money he spends on Donna makes her happy, but he still abuses her physically and emotionally. They’ve been together off and on since Donna was 12, and everyone refers to them as Dungeons and Dragons—Dray is the dungeon, and he “tames” Donna, the dragon. The results of this “taming,” however, are constant bruises and bloody scratches on Donna’s face. Despite his abusive behavior, Dray insists that he truly loves Donna, and he has a close, brotherly relationship with his friend Kasim. Fabiola hates and fears Dray instantly—she sees him as a human iteration of Baron Samedi, the lwa (Vodou spirit) who guards cemeteries. She sees the opportunity to remove him from Donna’s life when Detective Stevens offers to expedite Manman’s immigration processing in exchange for information implicating Dray in the overdose death of a local girl. But when Fabiola discovers that her cousins, rather than Dray, are responsible for the girl’s death, she decides to frame Dray anyway—resulting not in Dray’s arrest, but in the police murdering Kasim. When Dray comes to Matant Jo’s house to kill Fabiola in retaliation, Bad Leg (Papa Legba) kills Dray. After his death, from the underworld, Dray shares that he’s the one who accidentally murdered Phillip, Donna’s father. He loves and hates Donna because Phillip’s ghost has been haunting him since then.

Dray Quotes in American Street

The American Street quotes below are all either spoken by Dray or refer to Dray. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Dignity and the American Dream Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

I look all around the restaurant. “But this is your job,” I say.

She inhales and looks around, too. “Yes, it is. But our work is not without the help of good American citizens like yourself. You are an American citizen, right?”

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Detective Shawna Stevens (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Dray, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“But I ain’t no kingpin, know what I’m saying? So it’s just favors here and there. Shit you do for fam.”

A cold chill travels up my spine. Shit you do for fam. The way he says it, it’s like he would do anything for his family, like for love and respect. I say it out loud. “Shit you do for fam.” I turn to him.

“Shit you do for fam,” he repeats.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim (speaker), Dray, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“On American Street, I will live with my aunt Jo and my cousins, and go to school, and have a cute boyfriend, and keep my mouth shut because in Haiti I learned not to shake hands with the devil. But on Joy Road, I will tell the truth. The truth will lead to my happiness, and I will drive long and far without anything in my way, like the path to New Jersey, to my mother, to her freedom, to my joy. Which road should I take, Papa Legba?”

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim, Dray, Bad Leg/Papa Legba, Manman/Valerie Toussaint, Detective Shawna Stevens
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Then I begin to see him for who he really is. Dray, with his sunglasses even as night spreads across the sky, and his gold cross gleaming, and his love/hate for my cousin, reminds me of the lwa Baron Samedi, guardian of the cemetery—keeper of death.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Dray, Bad Leg/Papa Legba, Baron Samedi
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

This is a makeshift altar for Ezili with all the things she loves in the world. My whole body tingles when I realize what’s happening.

Again, Papa Legba has opened another door. How could I have missed this? Of course, I need Ezili’s help, too. And she’d been right under my nose, working through Donna with all her talk about hair, jewelry, clothes, and beauty.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Dray, Bad Leg/Papa Legba, Ezili/Ezili-Danto
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

How is this the good life, when even the air in this place threatens to wrap its fingers around my throat? In Haiti, with all its problems, there was always a friend or a neighbor to share in the misery. And then, after our troubles were tallied up like those points at the basketball game, we would celebrate being alive.

But here, there isn’t even a slice of happiness big enough to fill up all these empty houses, and broken buildings, and wide roads that lead to nowhere and everywhere.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Matant Jo François, Dray
Page Number: 247
Explanation and Analysis:
Drayton’s Story Quotes

Even when I’m born again in Detroit, and I’m supposed to be free like the fucking wind, there’s still some shit trying to own my life—money and the bullshit jobs my moms had to work, these shitty streets, and this whole fucked-up system. When you remember all the ways you been killed, and how that shit hurt your fucking soul, ain’t no way in hell you can shake that off.

Related Characters: Dray (speaker)
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:

It’s war out here, son. If my pops and his pops before him been fighting all their lives to just fucking breathe, then what’s there for a little nigga to contemplate when somebody puts a gun in his hands?

Related Characters: Dray (speaker), Uncle Q
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

We are all in white. Even Pri has shed her dark clothes and now wears a white turtleneck and pants. I had wrapped my cousins and aunt in white sheets after making a healing bath of herbs and Florida water for each one, and let them curl into themselves and cry and cry. This is what Manman had done for our neighbors who survived the big earthquake. The bath is like a baptism, and if black is the color of mourning, then white is the color of rebirth and new beginnings.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim, Pri/Princess François, Donna/Primadonna François, Matant Jo François, Dray, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 321
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire American Street LitChart as a printable PDF.
American Street PDF

Dray Quotes in American Street

The American Street quotes below are all either spoken by Dray or refer to Dray. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Dignity and the American Dream Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

I look all around the restaurant. “But this is your job,” I say.

She inhales and looks around, too. “Yes, it is. But our work is not without the help of good American citizens like yourself. You are an American citizen, right?”

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Detective Shawna Stevens (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Dray, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“But I ain’t no kingpin, know what I’m saying? So it’s just favors here and there. Shit you do for fam.”

A cold chill travels up my spine. Shit you do for fam. The way he says it, it’s like he would do anything for his family, like for love and respect. I say it out loud. “Shit you do for fam.” I turn to him.

“Shit you do for fam,” he repeats.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim (speaker), Dray, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“On American Street, I will live with my aunt Jo and my cousins, and go to school, and have a cute boyfriend, and keep my mouth shut because in Haiti I learned not to shake hands with the devil. But on Joy Road, I will tell the truth. The truth will lead to my happiness, and I will drive long and far without anything in my way, like the path to New Jersey, to my mother, to her freedom, to my joy. Which road should I take, Papa Legba?”

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim, Dray, Bad Leg/Papa Legba, Manman/Valerie Toussaint, Detective Shawna Stevens
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Then I begin to see him for who he really is. Dray, with his sunglasses even as night spreads across the sky, and his gold cross gleaming, and his love/hate for my cousin, reminds me of the lwa Baron Samedi, guardian of the cemetery—keeper of death.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Dray, Bad Leg/Papa Legba, Baron Samedi
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

This is a makeshift altar for Ezili with all the things she loves in the world. My whole body tingles when I realize what’s happening.

Again, Papa Legba has opened another door. How could I have missed this? Of course, I need Ezili’s help, too. And she’d been right under my nose, working through Donna with all her talk about hair, jewelry, clothes, and beauty.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Dray, Bad Leg/Papa Legba, Ezili/Ezili-Danto
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

How is this the good life, when even the air in this place threatens to wrap its fingers around my throat? In Haiti, with all its problems, there was always a friend or a neighbor to share in the misery. And then, after our troubles were tallied up like those points at the basketball game, we would celebrate being alive.

But here, there isn’t even a slice of happiness big enough to fill up all these empty houses, and broken buildings, and wide roads that lead to nowhere and everywhere.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Donna/Primadonna François, Matant Jo François, Dray
Page Number: 247
Explanation and Analysis:
Drayton’s Story Quotes

Even when I’m born again in Detroit, and I’m supposed to be free like the fucking wind, there’s still some shit trying to own my life—money and the bullshit jobs my moms had to work, these shitty streets, and this whole fucked-up system. When you remember all the ways you been killed, and how that shit hurt your fucking soul, ain’t no way in hell you can shake that off.

Related Characters: Dray (speaker)
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:

It’s war out here, son. If my pops and his pops before him been fighting all their lives to just fucking breathe, then what’s there for a little nigga to contemplate when somebody puts a gun in his hands?

Related Characters: Dray (speaker), Uncle Q
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

We are all in white. Even Pri has shed her dark clothes and now wears a white turtleneck and pants. I had wrapped my cousins and aunt in white sheets after making a healing bath of herbs and Florida water for each one, and let them curl into themselves and cry and cry. This is what Manman had done for our neighbors who survived the big earthquake. The bath is like a baptism, and if black is the color of mourning, then white is the color of rebirth and new beginnings.

Related Characters: Fabiola Toussaint (speaker), Kasim, Pri/Princess François, Donna/Primadonna François, Matant Jo François, Dray, Manman/Valerie Toussaint
Page Number: 321
Explanation and Analysis: