With the family in a dire situation, the woman had to ask her husband and mother-in-law for permission to sell the tapestries and crafts she could produce.

VOA: standard.2010.04.28

He was a hobo by choice: As a little boy, he'd seen a hobo come up to ask his mother for a piece of pie and she had given it to him and when the hobo went off down the road the little boy had said, "Ma, what was that fellow?" "Why, that's a hobo."

他是自愿成为流浪汉的：,当他还是个小男孩的时候，他见过一个流浪汉向他妈妈,要一块派，他妈妈给他了,于是当流浪汉离开的时候小男孩就问，“妈妈，那个家伙是谁“，“是个流浪汉“

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

There is this social context of race relations whose grammar he is also learning, and I would just remind you of the passage where he starts to ask his mother about whether his granny is white or not.

一种来自家庭无可绘状的影响,当时社会的种族对立，对他学习的语言也有很深的影响,各位看一下当他问母亲,祖母是白人还是黑人？

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选