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Etta Mae Johnson
Granddaughter to Eva Turner, Ciel spends her early childhood in Eva’s house with Mattie Michael and Mattie’s son Basil because her neglectful parents abandoned her with her grandmother. When Eva dies and Eva’s children sell the house to Mattie, Ciel’s parents take her away “screaming.” As a young woman in Brewster Place, Ciel has a daughter, Serena, with Eugene. Though Eugene abandons Ciel for almost a year after Serena’s birth, she accepts him back when he returns because she still desires him. Eugene gets Ciel pregnant again and then loses his job. He becomes verbally abusive, accusing Ciel of being a worthless burden. She gets an abortion against her own wishes. A few months later, Eugene decides to leave her and Serena for a new job opportunity anyway. While Eugene and Ciel are fighting about his decision in the bedroom, they leave Serena in the kitchen—and Serena, chasing a cockroach into an electrical wall socket, sticks a fork in the socket and dies. After Serena’s funeral, a numb Ciel plans to let herself starve to death, but Mattie intervenes, rocking Ciel until she cries. Afterward, Ciel moves to San Francisco, gets a job with an insurance company, and starts dating a non-Black man with whom she is discussing marriage. She returns to visit Mattie after a long absence during the block party Kiswana organizes (unless, as is hinted, the block party scenes are actually a dream of Mattie’s).
Lucielia “Ciel” Louise Turner Quotes in The Women of Brewster Place
The The Women of Brewster Place quotes below are all either spoken by Lucielia “Ciel” Louise Turner or refer to Lucielia “Ciel” Louise Turner. 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:
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5. Lucielia Louise Turner
Quotes
“It was my kid, too, ya know. But Mattie, that fat, black bitch, just standin’ in the hospital hall sayin’ to me—to me, now, ‘Whatcha what?’ Like I was a fuckin’ germ or something. Man, I just turned and left. You gotta be treated with respect, ya know?”
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Serena gave a cry of delight and attempted to catch her lost playmate, but it was too quick and darted back into the wall. She tried once again to poke her finger into the slit. Then a bright slender object, lying dropped and forgotten, came into her view. Picking up the fork, Serena finally managed to fit the thin flattened prongs into the electric socket.
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She rocked her on and on, past Dachau, where soul-gutted Jewish mothers swept their children’s entrails off laboratory floors. They flew past the spilled brains of Senegalese infants whose mothers had dashed them on the wooden sides of slave ships. And she rocked on.
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7. The Two
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“They love each other like you’d love a man or a man would love you—I guess.”
“But I’ve loved some women deeper than I ever loved any man,” Mattie was pondering. “And there been some women who loved me more and did more for me than any man ever did.”
8. The Block Party
Quotes
“Oh, I don’t know, one of those crazy things that get all mixed up in your head. Something about that wall and Ben. And there was a woman who was supposed to be me, I guess. She didn’t look exactly like me, but inside I felt it was me. You know how silly dreams are.”
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Lucielia “Ciel” Louise Turner Quotes in The Women of Brewster Place
The The Women of Brewster Place quotes below are all either spoken by Lucielia “Ciel” Louise Turner or refer to Lucielia “Ciel” Louise Turner. 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:
).
5. Lucielia Louise Turner
Quotes
“It was my kid, too, ya know. But Mattie, that fat, black bitch, just standin’ in the hospital hall sayin’ to me—to me, now, ‘Whatcha what?’ Like I was a fuckin’ germ or something. Man, I just turned and left. You gotta be treated with respect, ya know?”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Serena gave a cry of delight and attempted to catch her lost playmate, but it was too quick and darted back into the wall. She tried once again to poke her finger into the slit. Then a bright slender object, lying dropped and forgotten, came into her view. Picking up the fork, Serena finally managed to fit the thin flattened prongs into the electric socket.
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She rocked her on and on, past Dachau, where soul-gutted Jewish mothers swept their children’s entrails off laboratory floors. They flew past the spilled brains of Senegalese infants whose mothers had dashed them on the wooden sides of slave ships. And she rocked on.
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7. The Two
Quotes
“They love each other like you’d love a man or a man would love you—I guess.”
“But I’ve loved some women deeper than I ever loved any man,” Mattie was pondering. “And there been some women who loved me more and did more for me than any man ever did.”
8. The Block Party
Quotes
“Oh, I don’t know, one of those crazy things that get all mixed up in your head. Something about that wall and Ben. And there was a woman who was supposed to be me, I guess. She didn’t look exactly like me, but inside I felt it was me. You know how silly dreams are.”
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