"I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the barren one and many are my daughters. I am the silence that you can not understand. I am the utterance of my name."
This is the first line we hear in the film, uttered in voiceover by Nana Peazant, the matriarch of the family. She describes how she is many things, how she has a number of different identities, some of which appear to contradict one another. Her speech foreshadows the fact that time will not be linear in the film, that there is a special connection between past and future, and that she and some of the other Gullah people hold magical beliefs about their home and their lives.
"What're we supposed to remember, Nana? How, at one time, were we able to protect those we loved? How, in Africa world, we were kings and queens and built great big cities?"
After his wife, Eula, is raped by a white man on the mainland, Eli is bereft and he feels completely destroyed and humiliated by the event. He sobs to Nana about his grief and she tries to comfort him by advising him to remember the past. When she does, he delivers this line, insisting that if he looks at the past, all he can see is the fallen glory of the African people. While historically Africans were kings and queens, Eli takes no comfort in this fact, because he can only focus on the ways they have fallen, having been subjugated to slavery and structural inequality in the United States. This inequality is explicated through the rape of Eula.
"When I left this island, I was a sinner and I didn't even know it. But I left this island, touched over to the mainland, and fell into the arms of the Lord."
As she teaches a group of Gullah children about Christianity, Viola describes that when she moved to the mainland, she was influenced by Christian doctrine. In Christianity, she was considered a "sinner" when she first entered the church, but she soon found solace in the ways of the religion. She describes her conversion affectionately as falling "into the arms of the Lord."
"If Nana Peazant wants to live and die on this island, then God bless her old soul."
Haagar, an in-law in the family, is dismissive of Nana Peazant's desire to stay on the island and live in the past. In Haagar's mind, it's important that the family goes and joins society, getting educated and integrating with the modern world. While the others are more concerned about Nana's fate, Haagar is indifferent, and gives her blessings for Nana to stay at Ibo Landing for as long as she wants.
"We stay behind on this island growing older, wiser, stronger."
This is the final line of the film, and it is uttered in voiceover by the Unborn Child, after she has entered the world. We see the young girl walking with her mother, aunt, and grandmother on the beach after they have all chosen to stay at Ibo Landing. The line speaks to the blending of the different generations and histories into one, and bolsters Nana's belief that the old and young, past and present, are all one. In the Unborn Child's characterization, all of them, regardless of age, grew wiser and stronger together.
"Look up and remember Ibo Landing!"
Snead says this to the inhabitants of the island as he takes a commemorative photo of them all standing on the beach, on the eve of their departure. It is a momentous occasion, and Snead reminds them to look their best for a photo that will be an important part of their and their families' lives for years to come.
"I’m trying to give you something to take North with you, along with all your great big dreams! Count on those old Africans, Eli, they come to you when you least expect ’em. They hug you up quick and soft as the warm sweet wind. Let them old souls come into you, hardy-like. Let them touch you with the hand of time, let them feed your head with wisdom that came from this day in time. Cuz when you leave this island, Eli Peazant, you ain’t goin’ to no land of milk and honey."
Nana gives Eli some words of wisdom when he comes to her upset about Eula's rape. When he dismisses her advice to look to the past for strength, she delivers this monologue, insisting that the ancestors are watching over them, that they can bring comfort and bolster confidence. She also warns him about the fact that even though it seems like the family is upgrading by moving to the mainland, it will be difficult to live in white society, so he will need to get in touch with his history in order to feel strong in hard times.
"Nothing good can come from knowing!"
When Eli asks his wife who raped her, she delivers this line with a ferocious yell. Ashamed of her situation and scared of telling her husband what happened, Eula covers up the act by suggesting that it does them no good to have answers about the rape.
"They say a woman who knows how to cook is very pretty."
Haagar says this to Yellow Mary when Yellow Mary gives her store-bought biscuits she got on the mainland. Haagar is referring both to her skepticism about the biscuits and to the fact that she thinks Mary ought to develop more of an interest in cooking, as it is a more womanly pastime. By saying that cooking makes a woman "pretty," Haagar implies that Yellow Mary ought to take up more feminine pastimes, which would make her more agreeable in respectable society.
"In this quiet place, years ago, my family knelt down and caught a glimpse of the eternal. We left our markers in the soil, in memory of the families who once lived here. We were the children of those who chose to survive. Years later my ma told me she knew I had been sent forward by the old souls."
This narration by the unborn child refers to the beliefs of the islanders, and the historical significance of Ibo Landing. The island is a spiritual place, a haven and an oasis from American society, and a place to heal from the hardship of slavery. The Unborn Child explains that the island was a place for the "children of those who chose to survive," referring to the people who wanted to band together and create community in the wake of the tragic violence of slavery. In this line, the Unborn Child also refers to the fact that she is a special member of this community, that her mother told her she was "sent" to them. Throughout, the Unborn Child is positioned as a special figure, in spite of having been conceived in a tragic circumstance. This line explicates this notion.
