The world isn’t in need of angels right now. We must raise a bit of hell if we’re to build a better nation.
-- Lily (Chapter 3)

Importance: Lily is part of a movement that is determined to make the world a better place. Later in the novel, the reader will learn that Lily decided to fight for abolition because she saw a Black woman returned to slavery against her will while living free in the North. Lily also joins the fight for women’s rights.

How many times had Janie set her young daughter to burnishing their few possessions, to remind the child that beauty did not come without a cost? It required maintenance and constant mending.
-- Narrator (Chapter 5)

Importance: The enslaved women do not have much control over their lives. They are dependent upon the white men for everything. Janie and Stella both have to have sex with the men who own them, and...