Masculinity

Quote

Chapter

Herb “cut a man’s man figure” and was “always certain of what he wanted from the world.”

1

“Mr. Clutter had of necessity learned to cook... and was excellent at it – no woman in Kansas baked a better loaf of salt-rising bread, and his celebrated coconut cookies were the first to go at charity cake sales”

1

“Dick’s literalness, his pragmatic approach to every subject... made Dick seem, compared to [Perry], so authentically tough, invulnerable, ‘totally masculine’.”

1

"Just nothing scares you," she said, commenting on a generally recognized quality of Mr. Clutter’s: a fearless self-assurance that set him apart, and while it created respect, also limited the affections of others a little. "I can’t imagine you afraid. No matter what happened, you’d talk your way out of it."

1

“That Dick had married – married twice – and fathered three sons was something he envied. A wife, children – those were experiences a man ought to have.”

2

"When Alvin was sheriff, I know some of the boys teased him, Used to say, ‘Lookayonder! Here comes Sheriff Dewey! Tough guy! Totes a six-shooter! But once he gets home, off comes the gun and on goes the apron!’”

2

“All the same, [Barbara’s father] was ‘a real man’.”

3

“Of course, Dick was a blowhard; his toughness existed solely in situations where he unarguably had the upper hand.”

3