Gem of the Ocean

by

August Wilson

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Eli oversees Aunt Ester’s day-to-day life as a spiritual advisor. When Citizen comes to see Aunt Ester, for instance, Eli tells him to come back on a different day, not wanting to wake Ester because she’s old and needs her rest. Eli is also close friends with Solly, having worked with him on the Underground Railroad to help people escape enslavement. When Caesar comes to arrest Aunt Ester for harboring Solly after he burned down the mill, Eli points a shotgun at Caesar and tells him to leave. But Aunt Ester instructs him to lower the weapon, so he obliges—a sign of how loyal he is (and how closely he listens) to the people he loves.

Eli Quotes in Gem of the Ocean

The Gem of the Ocean quotes below are all either spoken by Eli or refer to Eli. 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:
The Meaning of Freedom Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

They gonna have some more the way Caesar keep evicting people. He put out two more families yesterday. He charging by the week. They get one week behind and he put them out. He don’t ask no questions. He just gather up what little bit of stuff they got and sit it out on the street. Then he arrest them for being out there.

Related Characters: Eli (speaker), Caesar Wilks
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 3 Quotes

ELI: Freedom is what you make it.

SOLLY: That’s what I’m saying. You got to fight to make it mean something. All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain’t got no plow. Ain’t got no seed. Ain’t got no mule. What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it? I seen many a man die for freedom but he didn’t know what he was getting. If he had known he might have thought twice about it.

Related Characters: Solly Two Kings (speaker), Eli (speaker), Citizen Barlow
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 2 Quotes

SOLLY: […] It’s dangerous out here. People walking around hunting each other. If you ain’t careful you could lose your eye or your arm. I seen that. I seen a man grab hold to a fellow and cut off his arm. Cut it off at the shoulder. He had to work at it a while…but he cut it clean off. The man looked down saw his arm gone and started crying. After that he more dangerous with that one arm than the other man is with two. He got less to lose. There’s a lot of one-arm men walking around.

ELI: That’s what Caesar can’t understand. He can’t see the people ain’t got nothing to lose.

Related Characters: Solly Two Kings (speaker), Eli (speaker), Caesar Wilks
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:

SOLLY: […] I knew all them guns wasn’t on account of me. I figured they was fighting for themselves. And if that would help them that would help us.

ELI: They never said they was gonna help us. They said the war was gonna help us. After that it be every man for himself.

SOLLY: I told them you get what’s in it for you and I’ll get what’s in it for me. You get yours and I’ll get mine and we’ll settle the difference later. We still settling it.

Related Characters: Solly Two Kings (speaker), Eli (speaker)
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 5 Quotes

They laid him low. Put him in the cold ground. David and Solomon. Two kings in the cold ground. Solly never did find his freedom. He always believed he was gonna find it. The battlefield is always bloody. Blood here. Blood there. Blood over yonder. Everybody bleeding. Everybody been cut and most of them don’t even know it. But they bleeding just the same. It’s all you can do sometime just to stand up. Solly stood up and walked.

He lived in truth and he died in truth. He died on the battlefield. You live right you die right.

Related Characters: Eli (speaker), Solly Two Kings
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:
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Gem of the Ocean PDF

Eli Quotes in Gem of the Ocean

The Gem of the Ocean quotes below are all either spoken by Eli or refer to Eli. 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:
The Meaning of Freedom Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

They gonna have some more the way Caesar keep evicting people. He put out two more families yesterday. He charging by the week. They get one week behind and he put them out. He don’t ask no questions. He just gather up what little bit of stuff they got and sit it out on the street. Then he arrest them for being out there.

Related Characters: Eli (speaker), Caesar Wilks
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 3 Quotes

ELI: Freedom is what you make it.

SOLLY: That’s what I’m saying. You got to fight to make it mean something. All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain’t got no plow. Ain’t got no seed. Ain’t got no mule. What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it? I seen many a man die for freedom but he didn’t know what he was getting. If he had known he might have thought twice about it.

Related Characters: Solly Two Kings (speaker), Eli (speaker), Citizen Barlow
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 2 Quotes

SOLLY: […] It’s dangerous out here. People walking around hunting each other. If you ain’t careful you could lose your eye or your arm. I seen that. I seen a man grab hold to a fellow and cut off his arm. Cut it off at the shoulder. He had to work at it a while…but he cut it clean off. The man looked down saw his arm gone and started crying. After that he more dangerous with that one arm than the other man is with two. He got less to lose. There’s a lot of one-arm men walking around.

ELI: That’s what Caesar can’t understand. He can’t see the people ain’t got nothing to lose.

Related Characters: Solly Two Kings (speaker), Eli (speaker), Caesar Wilks
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:

SOLLY: […] I knew all them guns wasn’t on account of me. I figured they was fighting for themselves. And if that would help them that would help us.

ELI: They never said they was gonna help us. They said the war was gonna help us. After that it be every man for himself.

SOLLY: I told them you get what’s in it for you and I’ll get what’s in it for me. You get yours and I’ll get mine and we’ll settle the difference later. We still settling it.

Related Characters: Solly Two Kings (speaker), Eli (speaker)
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 5 Quotes

They laid him low. Put him in the cold ground. David and Solomon. Two kings in the cold ground. Solly never did find his freedom. He always believed he was gonna find it. The battlefield is always bloody. Blood here. Blood there. Blood over yonder. Everybody bleeding. Everybody been cut and most of them don’t even know it. But they bleeding just the same. It’s all you can do sometime just to stand up. Solly stood up and walked.

He lived in truth and he died in truth. He died on the battlefield. You live right you die right.

Related Characters: Eli (speaker), Solly Two Kings
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis: