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Dad
The waiter is a Black Hebrew man who works at Lotus of the Nile, a vegetarian restaurant, grocery store, and take-out spot run by Black Hebrews. When the narrator and her Dad are having lunch, he comes to their table. Dad makes a comment related to a headline about turmoil in Gaza on the television, and the waiter responds with support for Israel. He stakes claim to the land on behalf of himself and all “Israelites” and shares that he and his family live in Israel most of the year. Dad gets worked up hearing this, and he and the narrator abruptly leave. For Dad, it is unheard of that a Black man would turn his back on another oppressed group. The narrator, while not irate, is deeply impacted by this encounter, and in the moments after realizes she does not believe in God. She cannot accept that, as the waiter claimed, any “loving God” would give some human beings more a right to exist than others.
Waiter Quotes in Temple Folk
The Temple Folk quotes below are all either spoken by Waiter or refer to Waiter. 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:
).
7. Who’s Down? Quotes
“... Don’t he know when they say ‘our land,’ they don’t mean a land for Black people? ...”
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Explanation and Analysis:
“[...] and in that moment I realized something; I did not believe in God. As quickly as the revelation came, it dawned on me that I had never believed. I’d always questioned the claims of religion, though the day’s events had finally given me my reasons. No loving God, I reckoned, would allow a recounting of his miracles to render some human beings more worthy of a home than others.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Waiter Quotes in Temple Folk
The Temple Folk quotes below are all either spoken by Waiter or refer to Waiter. 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:
).
7. Who’s Down? Quotes
“... Don’t he know when they say ‘our land,’ they don’t mean a land for Black people? ...”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“[...] and in that moment I realized something; I did not believe in God. As quickly as the revelation came, it dawned on me that I had never believed. I’d always questioned the claims of religion, though the day’s events had finally given me my reasons. No loving God, I reckoned, would allow a recounting of his miracles to render some human beings more worthy of a home than others.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
