Hattie and Willie’s three young boys are excited about the white man’s arrival. Yet, having been born on Mars (where there are only black people), the boys do not understand the deep-rooted racism that existed on Earth. Although the boys aren’t allowed to go see the white man with the rest of the town, that doesn’t curb their curiosity and they spend the entire day trying to understand what white people are like.
Hattie and Willie’s Children Quotes in The Other Foot
The The Other Foot quotes below are all either spoken by Hattie and Willie’s Children or refer to Hattie and Willie’s Children. 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:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Simon & Schuster edition of The Other Foot published in 2012.
The Other Foot
Quotes
Well, the white people live on Earth, which is where we all come from, twenty years ago. We just up and walked away and came to Mars and set down and built towns and here we are. Now we’re Martians instead of Earth people. And no white men’ve come up here in all that time. That’s the story.
Related Characters:
Hattie Johnson (speaker), The White Man, Hattie and Willie’s Children
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Willie plunged out of the house. “You children come inside, I’m locking you up. You ain’t seeing no white man, you ain’t talking about them, you ain’t doing nothing.”
Related Characters:
Willie Johnson (speaker), The White Man, Hattie and Willie’s Children
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Other Foot LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hattie and Willie’s Children Character Timeline in The Other Foot
The timeline below shows where the character Hattie and Willie’s Children appears in The Other Foot. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Other Foot
Hattie Johnson’s children have heard the news as well. Hattie’s “three little Negro boys” jump up and down...
(full context)
The children beg Hattie to tell them stories about white men. Frowning, Hattie says that “it’s been...
(full context)
...hills” look like they’re baking in the harsh sun. After a long pause, she tells her boys that white people have white hands. Her boys are incredulous. When she tells them that...
(full context)
Hattie stares at the sky with worry. She tells the boys to go inside, but they object, claiming that they simply have to watch what is...
(full context)
Hattie tells her boys that white people live on Earth, which is where “we all come from.” Twenty years...
(full context)
Excitedly, the boys ask why the white men didn’t come up to Mars, too. Hattie answers that right...
(full context)
In the yard, Hattie’s boys chatter about the white man, saying that he is white like milk, chalk, and flowers....
(full context)
At home, Willie sits in the car while Hattie lets the boys out of the house. The children run out to their father asking if he saw...
(full context)