Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Rudolph Reed and his family are described as oaken, suggesting strength and rigidity that passed to their children.
In plain terms
The Reed family is strong and stubborn like wood, and their kids grew the same way.
What can you take from it?
Family traits often mirror parental strength.

Where it applies

  • family dynamics
  • character study

Putting it to work

  • study family traits
  • reflect on inheritance

Questions to consider

  • What does oaken mean here?
  • Is strength always good?

Another view

Strength can also imply inflexibility.

More from Gwendolyn Brooks

  1. Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.

    Permalink to quote #20
  2. Nary a grin grinned Rudolph Reed, Nary a curse cursed he, But moved in his House. With his dark little wife, And his dark little children three.

    Permalink to quote #22
  3. Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, 'even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night.' Y…

    Permalink to quote #19

Related quotes

  1. He was not merely a chip of the old Block, but the old Block itself.

    Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke quote #15
  2. Blood will tell, but often it tells too much.

    Don MarquisDon Marquis quote #35
  3. A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, And sweet as English air could make her, she.

    Alfred (Lord) TennysonAlfred (Lord) Tennyson quote #128