Deacon King Kong

by

James McBride

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Deacon King Kong makes teaching easy.

Potts Mullen Character Analysis

Potts is a middle-aged police officer who works in the Cause. Although he’s white, he’s more sensitive to the concerns of the Cause’s predominantly Black residents, and he is assigned to investigate Deems’s shooting. Potts repeatedly travels to the Cause to question Sister Gee about what’s happened. Although their conversations are official business, Potts is also attracted to Sister Gee, and by the end of the novel, the two of them strike up a romance. Unlike other police officers in the novel, Potts understands why Sister Gee would be skeptical of law enforcement, even if he thinks she is not doing the right thing by withholding information.

Potts Mullen Quotes in Deacon King Kong

The Deacon King Kong quotes below are all either spoken by Potts Mullen or refer to Potts Mullen. 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:
Substance Abuse Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9: Dirt Quotes

Sister Gee snorted. “Things got unstable ’round here four years ago when that new drug come in. This new stuff—I don’t know what they call it —you smoke it, you put it in your veins with needles . . . however you do it, once you do it a few times you is stuck with it. Never seen nothing like it around here before, and I seen a lot. This projects was safe till this new drug come in. Now the old folks is getting clubbed coming home from work every night, getting robbed outta their little payday money so these junkies can buy more of Deems’s poison. He ought to be ashamed of hisself. His grandfather would kill him if he was living.”

Related Characters: Sister Gee (speaker), Deems Clemens, Potts Mullen, Bunch Moon
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15: You Have No Idea What’s Coming Quotes

“That Christmas Club money is all we can control. We can’t stop these drug dealers from selling poison in front of our houses. Or make the city stop sending our kids to lousy schools. We can’t stop folks from blaming us for everything gone wrong in New York, or stop the army from calling our sons to Vietnam after them Vietcong done cut the white soldiers’ toenails too short to walk. But the little nickels and dimes we saved up so we can give our kids ten minutes of love at Christmastime, that’s ours to control.”

Related Characters: Sister Gee (speaker), Potts Mullen
Page Number: 217
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26: Beautiful Quotes

As the ferry pulled away from the dock and arced into New York Harbor, heading due southwest, it offered her a clear view of the redbrick Cause housing projects on one side, and the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island on the other. One side represented the certainty of the past. The other side the uncertainty of the future. She felt suddenly nervous. All she had was an address. And a letter. And a promise.

Related Characters: Sister Gee, Potts Mullen
Page Number: 367
Explanation and Analysis:
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Potts Mullen Quotes in Deacon King Kong

The Deacon King Kong quotes below are all either spoken by Potts Mullen or refer to Potts Mullen. 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:
Substance Abuse Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9: Dirt Quotes

Sister Gee snorted. “Things got unstable ’round here four years ago when that new drug come in. This new stuff—I don’t know what they call it —you smoke it, you put it in your veins with needles . . . however you do it, once you do it a few times you is stuck with it. Never seen nothing like it around here before, and I seen a lot. This projects was safe till this new drug come in. Now the old folks is getting clubbed coming home from work every night, getting robbed outta their little payday money so these junkies can buy more of Deems’s poison. He ought to be ashamed of hisself. His grandfather would kill him if he was living.”

Related Characters: Sister Gee (speaker), Deems Clemens, Potts Mullen, Bunch Moon
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15: You Have No Idea What’s Coming Quotes

“That Christmas Club money is all we can control. We can’t stop these drug dealers from selling poison in front of our houses. Or make the city stop sending our kids to lousy schools. We can’t stop folks from blaming us for everything gone wrong in New York, or stop the army from calling our sons to Vietnam after them Vietcong done cut the white soldiers’ toenails too short to walk. But the little nickels and dimes we saved up so we can give our kids ten minutes of love at Christmastime, that’s ours to control.”

Related Characters: Sister Gee (speaker), Potts Mullen
Page Number: 217
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26: Beautiful Quotes

As the ferry pulled away from the dock and arced into New York Harbor, heading due southwest, it offered her a clear view of the redbrick Cause housing projects on one side, and the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island on the other. One side represented the certainty of the past. The other side the uncertainty of the future. She felt suddenly nervous. All she had was an address. And a letter. And a promise.

Related Characters: Sister Gee, Potts Mullen
Page Number: 367
Explanation and Analysis: