Chapter 17

Chapter 17 Quote 1

Pretty soon the girl that was waiting table for Mrs. ... Turner brought in the order and Sterrett took his fish and coffee in his hands and stood there. Coodemay wouldn’t take his off the tray like he should have.
"Naw, you hold it fuh me, baby, and lemme eat," he told the waitress. He tookthe fork and started to eat off the tray.

Coodemay takes advantage of the waitress’s position as a woman and servant to her customers by assuming she will not complain about holding his plate for him while he eats. This thoughtlessness shows how deeply the stereotype of female inferiority was rooted in the society depicted in the novel.

Chapter 17 Quote 2

Mrs. Turner saw with dismay that Tea Cake’s taking them ... out was worse than letting them stay in. She ran out in the back somewhere and got her husband to put a stop to things. He came in, took a look and squinched down into a chairin an off corner and didn’t open his mouth.

Mr. Turner acts in a decidedly non-masculine way, refusing to defend his wife’s honor and taking a passive role by sitting down silently to watch the fight rather than participate in it. Mrs. Turner, by default, is forced to take on a stereotypically masculine role and fight for her own honor.