They go to land-grant colleges, normal schools, and learn how to do the white man's work with refinement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black children in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul. Here they learn the rest of the lesson begun in those soft houses with porch swings and pots of bleeding heart: how to behave. The careful development of thrift, patience, high morals, and good manners. In short, how to get rid of the funkiness. The dreadful funkiness of passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotions.
她们上赠地学院和师范学校，学习如何尽善尽美地替内人干活：上家政课学习如何为他们做饭；学教育学来教育黑孩子顺从听话；学习音乐好安抚劳累的主人和他那颗迟钝的心灵。其余课程的学习都在房前挂着吊椅、摆荇荷包牡丹的房子里进行：循规蹈矩、小心滿愤地培养勤俭、耐心、有道德、有礼貌等品德。总之，要学会抛弃纯真简朴的本色，可怕的纯真情感。自然大方，以及一切人类感情都该抛弃。
Wherever it erupts, this Funk, they wipe it away; where it crusts, they dissolve it; wherever it drips, flowers, or clings, they find it and fight it until it dies. They fight this battle all the way to the grave. The laugh that is a little too loud; the enunciation a little too round; the gesture a little too generous. They hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free; when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick, and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair.
无论这种简朴的本色从哪里冒头，她们都会把它扫除一淸；在哪儿积累成习就在哪儿把它消灭；在哪儿生根开花就在哪儿发现铲除。她们生命不息，战斗不止。笑声过于响亮，发音不够清晰，举止不够文雅都需纠正，她们紧缩臀部生怕扭动太大；抹口红时生怕嘴唇显得太厚实而不把整个嘴唇涂红；一天到晚没完没了地担心，生怕头发没有梳理整齐。
They never seem to have boyfriends, but they always marry. Certain men watch them, without seeming to, and know that if such a girl is in his house, he will sleep on sheets boiled white, hung out to dry on juniper bushes, and pressed flat with a heavy iron. There will be pretty paper flowers decorating the picture of his mother, a large Bible in the front room.
她们好像从来不交男朋友，但最终总是成家。有一类男人总在瞧她们，但不让人察觉。他们知道如果家里有这么个女人，他睡的床单一定会洗得干干净净，晾晒在松树丛上，然后熨烫得平平整整。他母亲遗像的四周一定有漂亮的纸花装点，客厅里一定会摆放若一本厚厚的《圣经》。