How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Breakfast? Want some breakfast, nigger?"
"Yes, sir."
"Hungry, nigger?"
"Yes, sir."
"Here you go."
Occasionally, a kneeling man chose gunshot in his head as the price, maybe, of taking a bit of foreskin with him to Jesus. (10.5-10)
Why is scene so effective? How is it supposed to shake you as a reader?
Quote #5
He thought what they said had merit, and what they felt was serious. Deferring to his slaves' opinions did not deprive him of authority or power. It was schoolteacher who taught them otherwise. A truth that waved like a scarecrow in rye: they were only Sweet Home men at Sweet Home. (13.1)
Paul D reflects on how different Mr. Garner and schoolteacher were. And because we love the Wizard of Oz, we can't help but wonder: is that "scarecrow in rye" a possible reference to the Scarecrow? Remember, his insecurities were all about how intelligent—and therefore, how human—he was.
Quote #6
Loaves and fishes were His powers—they did not belong to an ex-slave who had probably never carried one hundred pounds to the scale, or picked okra with a baby on her back. Who had never been lashed by a ten-year-old whiteboy as God knows they had. Who had not even escaped slavery—had, in fact, been bought out of it by a doting son and driven to the Ohio River in a wagon—free papers folded between her breasts (driven by the very man who had been her master, who also paid her resettlement fee—name of Garner), and rented a house with two floors and a well from the Bodwins—the white brother and sister who gave Stamp Paid, Ella and John clothes, goods and gear for runaways because they hated slavery worse than they hated slaves. (15.12)
Here we see the tendency to use suffering and trauma as a way of feeling superior to other people who have supposedly experienced less. You'd think everyone would bond together over their shared slave pasts, but no. It's not easy to create a sense of community on a good day; it's even more difficult when everyone has his or her own wounds—physical and psychological—to heal.