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Casper
Along with Mr. Brabant, Miss Lode is a sixth-grade teacher at the school that Osei, Dee, Ian, Mimi, and the other child main characters attend. In the novel’s retelling of Shakespeare’s Othello, she corresponds to Brabantio and Desdemona’s relative Lodovico. She is a young, nervous woman who dresses in bright colors and persistently defers to the more forceful Mr. Brabant, even when he makes casually racist comments about new Ghanaian student Osei. Yet as Mr. Brabant’s racism becomes more overt, Miss Lode begins weakly trying to push back, suggesting that they should be more understanding of Osei’s situation as the only Black student at an overwhelmingly White school. Finally, when Mr. Brabant yells a racial slur at Osei after mistakenly accusing him of violence against Mimi (actually committed by White bully Ian), Miss Lode flushes darkly and begins shouting at Mr. Brabant to stop.
Miss Lode Quotes in New Boy
The New Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Lode or refer to Miss Lode. 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:
).
Part 1: Before School Quotes
“Well, well,” Mr. Brabant remarked. “I think I hear drums.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Miss Lode Character Timeline in New Boy
The timeline below shows where the character Miss Lode appears in New Boy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Before School
...physical grace. She overhears Mr. Brabant make a crack about “hear[ing] drums” to another teacher Miss Lode , who asks where the boy is from. Mr. Brabant says Africa, perhaps Nigeria.
(full context)
Miss Lode deferentially asks Mr. Brabant whether they should make an announcement encouraging the other students to...
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...benefit himself, he sometimes makes mistakes. In a flashback to several days prior, he convinces Miss Lode to let him bring the American flag inside before it gets caught in a storm,...
(full context)
...time they get back to class, the flag has gotten wet. Ian tries to convince Miss Lode to give him more permanent responsibility for the flag, but she insists on another student...
(full context)
Part 2: Morning Recess
...made Ian totally furious. But Mr. Brabant, calling Osei “boy,” just warns him to behave. Miss Lode rushes over and asks what happened. The bell rings, and the students begin to line...
(full context)
Part 3: Lunch
...Blanca starts screaming. Dee checks Osei’s reaction and sees “judgment” and “darkness” in his face. Miss Lode and Mr. Brabant rush over; then Miss Lode hurries Rod to the nurse’s office while...
(full context)
Part 4: Afternoon Recess
Miss Lode arrives and asks Dee whether she’s all right. Rod shouts that Osei, “the black bastard,”...
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When Osei is alone with Mr. Brabant and Miss Lode , Mr. Brabant claims that he’s familiar with Osei’s “kind” and that he “didn’t expect...
(full context)
Part 5: After School
...in hanging out with him, and the other neighborhood children make excuses to avoid him. Miss Lode , the current afterschool chaperone, is currently talking to a parent. Ian has just walked...
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...As Blanca attends to Mimi, Casper demands to know why Ian pulled Mimi down. As Miss Lode approaches and asks Mimi how badly she’s hurt, Mimi realizes she can’t move her legs.
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Miss Lode orders Rod to find Mrs. Duke and get her to call an ambulance. Then she...
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Miss Lode asks Mimi in a low voice who has engineered all this chaos. Mimi blames Ian....
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...Dee. Mimi realizes that Osei is going to fling himself from the jungle gym. As Miss Lode cries, “Osei, don’t!”, Mimi passes out again.
(full context)
