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Gideon/Yardman
Thérèse is an elderly Black woman who works at L’Arbe de la Croix until Valerian fires her and Gideon for stealing apples. Her eyesight is poor to the extent that she can hardly see. The Streets and the Childses dismissively call Thérèse “Mary,” which is what they call all the local woman, whose names they can’t be bothered to learn. The Streets’ mistreatment of Thérèse points to their pattern of dehumanizing the island’s Black population. Thérèse—unlike Ondine, Sydney, and Jadine—has much compassion and empathy for Son—she doesn’t call him by a racial slur, and she tries to support him in his cause to fight back against white supremacy and the legacy of colonization.
Thérèse Quotes in Tar Baby
The Tar Baby quotes below are all either spoken by Thérèse or refer to Thérèse. 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 5
Quotes
Jadine looked at him trying to figure out whether he was the man who understood potted plants or the man who drove through houses.
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.
“The man sat on the…”
Quotes
“Small boy,” [Thérèse] said, “don’t go to L’Arbe de la Croix.” Her voice was a calamitous whisper coming out of the darkness toward him like jaws. “Forget her. There is nothing in her parts for you. She has forgotten her ancient properties […]
“The men. The men are waiting for you.” She was pulling the oars now, moving out. “You can choose now. You can get free of her. They are waiting in the hills for you. They are naked and they are blind too. I have seen them; their eyes have no color in them. But they gallop; they race those horses like angels all over the hills where the rain forest is, where the champion daisy trees still grow. Go there. Choose them.”
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Thérèse Quotes in Tar Baby
The Tar Baby quotes below are all either spoken by Thérèse or refer to Thérèse. 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 5
Quotes
Jadine looked at him trying to figure out whether he was the man who understood potted plants or the man who drove through houses.
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.
“The man sat on the…”
Quotes
“Small boy,” [Thérèse] said, “don’t go to L’Arbe de la Croix.” Her voice was a calamitous whisper coming out of the darkness toward him like jaws. “Forget her. There is nothing in her parts for you. She has forgotten her ancient properties […]
“The men. The men are waiting for you.” She was pulling the oars now, moving out. “You can choose now. You can get free of her. They are waiting in the hills for you. They are naked and they are blind too. I have seen them; their eyes have no color in them. But they gallop; they race those horses like angels all over the hills where the rain forest is, where the champion daisy trees still grow. Go there. Choose them.”
