Train Race

In the scene where Nel is on her way to New Orleans with her mother, there is an incident in the train where the conductor is very racist towards Helene. Helene is very polite in her response, almost apologetic, "we made a mistake, sir. You see, there wasn't no sign. We just got in the wrong car, that's all. Sir" (21). Then, as the rude conductor passes by, "she smiled. Like a street pup that wags its tail at the very doorjamb of the butcher shop he has been kicked away from only moments before, Helene smiled. Smiled dazzlingly and coquettishly at the salmon-colored face of the conductor" (21).
Nel watched the scene and the bystanders' reactions with interest. She notes that "the two black soldiers, who had previously been watching the scene with what appeared to be indifference, now looked stricken" and they physically react with disgust (21). Nel does not understand why her mother had smiled and feels "both pleased and ashamed to sense that these men... were bubbling with a hatred for her mother that had not been there in the beginning but had been born with the dazzling smile" (21).
This shows that Nel does not agree with her mother's meek acceptance of racist behavior. It sets Nel apart from her mother for the first time in the story, as always before Nel has been a footnote in her mother's actions. Here, Nel is in agreement with the other black people on the train. The two black soldiers represent the rest of the black community in that they are angered by acceptance of racism and by a black person accepting inferiority to a white person. This will grow to be a theme in the novel as I believe Morrison's purpose is to show her disagreement with such racism on the part of white people, and such meek acceptance on the part of blacks.