Toledo Character Analysis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Toledo is a Black musician in Ma Rainey’s band. A piano player who enjoys speaking philosophically about life and what it’s like to be Black in the United States, Toledo is the only literate member of the band. As he and the other musicians pass the time in the band room, he frequently challenges the others by urging them to think about things like change, history, and tradition. In particular, he emphasizes the idea that Black Americans have been cut off from their cultural history, since enslavers forcibly took their ancestors out of Africa. To rebuild a sense of culture, then, Toledo believes that Black people have to work together to improve their position in American society. Levee, on the other hand, is more concerned with making a name for himself in the music business than uniting with people like Toledo. There is, then, an inherent sense of friction between the two men. Toledo believes in history, tradition, and coming together, whereas Levee thinks only of himself—a dynamic that eventually leads to a violent encounter at the end of the play.

Toledo Quotes in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

The Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom quotes below are all either spoken by Toledo or refer to Toledo. 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:

CUTLER: Well, until you get your own band where you can play what you want, you just play the piece and stop complaining. I told you when you came on here, this ain’t none of them hot bands. This is an accompaniment band. You play Ma’s music when you here.

LEVEE: I got sense enough to know that. Hell, I can look at you all and see what kind of band it is. I can look at Toledo and see what kind of band it is.

Related Characters: Levee (speaker), Cutler (speaker), Ma Rainey, Toledo

Page Number and Citation: 27

Explanation and Analysis:

TOLEDO: That’s African.

SLOW DRAG: What? What you talking about? What’s African?

LEVEE: I know he ain’t talking about me. You don’t see me running around in no jungle with no bone between my nose.

TOLEDO: Levee, you worse than ignorant. You ignorant without a premise.

(Pauses.)

Now, what I was saying is what Slow Drag was doing is African. That’s what you call an African conceptualization. That’s when you name the gods or call on the ancestors to achieve whatever your desires are.

SLOW DRAG: Nigger, I ain’t no African! I ain’t doing no African nothing!

TOLEDO: Naming all those things you and Cutler done together is like trying to solicit some reefer based on a bond of kinship. That’s African. An ancestral retention. Only you forgot the name of the gods.

Related Characters: Levee (speaker), Toledo (speaker), Slow Drag (speaker), Cutler

Page Number and Citation: 32

Explanation and Analysis:

TOLEDO: See, now...I’ll tell you something. As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say...as long as he looks to white folks for approval...then he ain’t never gonna find out who he is and what he’s about. He’s just gonna be about what white folks want him to be about. That’s one sure thing.

Related Characters: Toledo (speaker), Levee, Ma Rainey, Cutler

Related Symbols: The Song (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)

Page Number and Citation: 37

Explanation and Analysis:

TOLEDO: Everybody worried about having a good time. Ain’t nobody thinking about what kind of world they gonna leave their youngens. “Just give me the good time, that’s all I want.” It just makes me sick.

SLOW DRAG: Well, the colored man’s gonna be all right. He got through slavery, and he’ll get through whatever else the white man put on him. I ain’t worried about that. Good times is what makes life worth living. Now, you take the white man...The white man don’t know how to have a good time. That’s why he’s troubled all the time. He don’t know how to have a good time. He don’t know how to laugh at life.

Related Characters: Toledo (speaker), Slow Drag (speaker), Levee

Page Number and Citation: 41

Explanation and Analysis:

TOLEDO: It ain’t just me, fool! It’s everybody! What you think…I’m gonna solve the colored man’s problems by myself. I said, we. You understand that? We. That’s every living colored man in the world got to do his share. Got to do his part. I ain’t talking about what I’m gonna do...or what you or Cutler or Slow Drag or anybody else. I’m talking about all of us together. What all of us is gonna do.

Related Characters: Toledo (speaker), Levee, Cutler, Slow Drag, Sturdyvant

Page Number and Citation: 42

Explanation and Analysis:

The white man knows you just a leftover. ‘Cause he the one who done the eating and he know what he done ate. But we don’t know that we been took and made history out of. Done went and filled the white man’s belly and now he’s full and tired and wants you to get out the way and let him be by himself. Now, I know what I’m talking about. And if you wanna find out, you just ask Mr. Irvin what he had for supper yesterday. And if he’s an honest white man...which is asking for a whole heap of a lot...he’ll tell you he done ate your black ass and if you please I’m full up with you...so go on and get off the plate and let me eat something else.

Related Characters: Toledo (speaker), Levee, Ma Rainey, Sturdyvant, Irvin

Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

CUTLER: I done told you about that blasphemy. Taking about selling your soul to the devil.

TOLEDO: We done the same thing, Cutler. There ain’t no difference. We done sold Africa for the price of tomatoes. We done sold ourselves to the white man in order to be like him. Look at the way you dressed...That ain’t African. That’s the white man. We trying to be just like him. We done sold who we are in order to become someone else. We’s imitation white men.

Related Characters: Cutler (speaker), Toledo (speaker), Levee, Sturdyvant

Page Number and Citation: 94

Explanation and Analysis:

Toledo Character Timeline in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

The timeline below shows where the character Toledo appears in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Cutler, Slow Drag, and Toledo arrive at the studio. Irvin nervously asks these band members where Ma is, but Cutler... (full context)

History, Tradition, and Change Theme Icon

...Levee remarks that the studio executives changed the layout of the band room. This sends Toledo on a philosophical tangent about how things are always changing—even the air around them. This... (full context)

Collaboration vs. Independence Theme Icon

...what kind of band he’s in—all he needs to do is look at someone like Toledo to see that he’s in a boring, old-fashioned band. Firing back, Toledo bets Levee that... (full context)

Toledo dislikes the way Levee deferred to Irvin and Sturdyvant. He argues that the Black man... (full context)

...money on something so lavish. A sensible man, Slow Drag argues, would wear shoes like Toledo’s. This appalls Levee, since he thinks Toledo’s shoes are big and clumsy, like a farmer’s—he... (full context)

According to Levee, nice shoes help people dance well. But Toledo thinks Black people are too focused on always wanting to have a “good time”—a mentality... (full context)

Slow Drag isn’t quite as pessimistic as Toledo. He believes that Black people will be all right because they’ve already survived so much... (full context)

For all Toledo’s talk about improving life for Black people, Levee accuses him of not actually doing anything... (full context)

...bicker, Levee managing to annoy all of them with his overly confident, stubborn viewpoints. Eventually, Toledo calls him the devil, and Cutler wholeheartedly agrees. Slow Drag chimes in and says that... (full context)

...a man who sold his soul to the devil must have suffered in the end. Toledo, for his part, isn’t so sure, since he knows the devil is powerful. Slow Drag... (full context)

...hasn’t come yet and reminds Irvin that he’s supposed to be responsible for her. When Toledo appears to grab the sandwiches, Irvin asks about Ma. But then a buzzer rings and... (full context)

...musicians fight over the sandwiches, as Levee tries to take more than his fair share. Toledo notes that there will never be any “leftovers” when Levee is around, then delivers a... (full context)

None of the band members grasp the significance of Toledo’s metaphor. When Cutler tries to get them to rehearse again, Levee claims that, because he’s... (full context)

Levee threatens to quit the band, but nobody cares. Toledo even calls his bluff, pointing out that Levee won’t quit because he needs money to... (full context)

...of Levee for sucking up to Sturdyvant and treating him like a powerful enslaver. But Toledo defends Levee, feeling that the young musician is just like everyone else in the band:... (full context)

Downstairs, Levee sings one of his own songs while Toledo reads a newspaper, but then Dussie Mae enters, and he immediately starts flirting with her.... (full context)

...and comprehending her own life. Without the blues, the world would be an “empty” place. Toledo chimes in at this point, saying that Ma helps fill this empty space with something... (full context)

Toledo momentarily sympathizes with Levee, since he knows what it’s like to act like a “fool”... (full context)

Toledo goes on to express his belief that Black people will always be dissatisfied, regardless of... (full context)

Toledo and Slow Drag both agree that hauling wood is actually a pretty good job—an idea... (full context)

Cutler hates Levee’s blasphemy and warns him about speaking this way. Toledo, however, points out that Black Americans have—in a way—already sold themselves to the devil by... (full context)

...The others are packing up their things and trying not to look at Levee, but Toledo walks by and steps on his shoe. Suddenly, all of Levee’s anger focuses on Toledo,... (full context)

As Toledo crumples to the floor, the confidence and anger in Levee’s voice begins to drain. He... (full context)