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Michael
Gideon works at L’Arbe de la Croix until Valerian catches Gideon and Thérèse stealing apples. The Streets (and Sidney and Ondine, Black Americans) call Gideon “Yardman” because he does yardwork and other general maintenance projects for them, and they dismissively refuse to learn his actual name because they believe they are superior to him. Son points out how disrespectful Valerian and Jadine. in particular, are toward people like Gideon who they consider to be of lower socioeconomic status. Gideon left Dominique to live in the U.S. for a time when he was younger. Gideon is a U.S. citizen, and Son uses his passport to travel to New York and live with Jadine.
Gideon/Yardman Quotes in Tar Baby
The Tar Baby quotes below are all either spoken by Gideon/Yardman or refer to Gideon/Yardman. 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:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
“Yardman. The gardener.”
“That his name?”
“No.” [Jadine] smiled, searching for the leashes of the small dark dogs. “But he answers to it. Which is something, at least. Some people don’t have a name of any kind.”
He smiled too, moving away from the bed toward her. “What do you like? Billy? Paul? What about Rastus?”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
Son’s mouth went dry as he watched Valerian chewing a piece of ham, his head-of-a-coin profile content, approving even of the flavor in his mouth although he had been able to dismiss with a flutter of the fingers the people whose sugar and cocoa had allowed him to grow old in regal comfort; although he had taken the sugar and cocoa and paid for it as though it had no value […] but he turned it into candy […] and made a fortune in order to move near, but not in the midst of, the jungle where the sugar came from and build a palace with more of their labor and then hire them to do more of the work he was not capable of and pay them again according to some scale of value that would outrage Satan himself and when those people wanted a little of what he wanted, some apples for their Christmas, and took some, he dismissed them with a flutter of the fingers, because they were thieves, and nobody knew thieves and thievery better than he did.
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Gideon/Yardman Quotes in Tar Baby
The Tar Baby quotes below are all either spoken by Gideon/Yardman or refer to Gideon/Yardman. 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:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
“Yardman. The gardener.”
“That his name?”
“No.” [Jadine] smiled, searching for the leashes of the small dark dogs. “But he answers to it. Which is something, at least. Some people don’t have a name of any kind.”
He smiled too, moving away from the bed toward her. “What do you like? Billy? Paul? What about Rastus?”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
Son’s mouth went dry as he watched Valerian chewing a piece of ham, his head-of-a-coin profile content, approving even of the flavor in his mouth although he had been able to dismiss with a flutter of the fingers the people whose sugar and cocoa had allowed him to grow old in regal comfort; although he had taken the sugar and cocoa and paid for it as though it had no value […] but he turned it into candy […] and made a fortune in order to move near, but not in the midst of, the jungle where the sugar came from and build a palace with more of their labor and then hire them to do more of the work he was not capable of and pay them again according to some scale of value that would outrage Satan himself and when those people wanted a little of what he wanted, some apples for their Christmas, and took some, he dismissed them with a flutter of the fingers, because they were thieves, and nobody knew thieves and thievery better than he did.
