How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There was sin among them. One Sunday, when regular service was over, Father James had uncovered sin in the congregation of the righteous. He had uncovered Elisha and Ella Mae. They had been "walking disorderly"; they were in danger of straying from the truth. (1.1.19)
In his preemptive strike against his nephew's sin, Father James decides to tell every single member of the church that he thinks that Elisha and Ella Mae might be tempted soon to commit a sin, and so he nips it in the bud, making them repent for what they haven't even done yet.
Quote #2
He knew that sin was not in their minds—not yet; yet sin was in the flesh; and should they continue with their walking out alone together, their secrets and laughter, and touching of hands, they would surely sin a sin beyond all forgiveness. (1.1.20)
Father James might seem like a wacko, but look closely at his philosophy. For him, sin isn't something you decide to do intellectually. It's a constant temptation that all humans have to deal with because it lives in our flesh; we're born with it, and always susceptible to falling.
Quote #3
He had sinned. In spite of the saints, his mother and his father, the warnings he had heard from his earliest beginnings, he had sinned with his hands a sin that was hard to forgive. In the school lavatory, alone, thinking of the boys, older, bigger, braver, who made bets with each other as to whose urine could arch higher, he had watched in himself a transformation of which he would never dare to speak. (1.1.26)
John's sin—fantasizing about older boys and masturbating—is, for him, unspeakable. He also believes that it is "hard to forgive," but we're not sure for whom. For himself? For God? For his family? Only John knows his own feelings, so it must be a sin that he feels he's committing privately, against God or himself.
Quote #4
And certainly perdition sucked at the feet of the people who walked there; and cried in the lights, in the gigantic towers; the marks of Satan could be found in the faces of the people who waited at the doors of the movie houses; his words were printed on the great movie posters that invited people to sin. (1.1.118)
The city is made out to be a sin-house in this description. The ground sucks at people's feet, almost drawing them into hell, it cries in the cityscape, and the movies, sad to say, are the worst offenders. The movies are an invitation to sin, perhaps because of the sinful stories they show on the screen, or the dark, secret space they offer to sinners.
Quote #5
His father, with the air of one forcing the sinner to look down into the pit that is to be his portion, moved away slightly so that John could see Roy's wound. (1.1.163)
This scene harkens back to a super-famous Puritan sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", which compares sinners going to hell to a nasty spider being thrown into the fire. Gabriel is using Roy as an example of what could happen if John doesn't behave; if he sins, he will end up like his brother, who is, in this metaphor, in hell. Way harsh, Tai.
Quote #6
"You got to remember," Elisha said, turning now to look at him, "that you think about it with a carnal mind. You still got Adam's mind, boy, and you keep thinking about your friends, you want to do what they do, and you want to go to the movies, and I bet you think about girls, don't you, Johnny? Sure you do," he said, half smiling, finding the answer in John's face, "and you don't want to give up all that." (1.1.238)
The "carnal mind" that Elisha is talking about is the flesh; just as Father James sees the flesh as holding temptation to sin, Elisha is warning John that his body will betray him, causing him to sin. He has "Adam's mind", referring to Adam from Genesis, who sinned by doing what a woman told him to. Elisha is warning John to ignore his body's desires, because they are sinful.
Quote #7
He stared in dull paralysis at the body of Elisha. He saw him standing—had Elisha forgotten?—beside Ella Mae before the altar while Father James rebuked him for the evil that lived in the flesh. (1.1.239)
John is gobsmacked at the sight of Elisha's body. He can't even move, because he's so impressed. This immediately reminds him of Elisha's own punishment for having sinful thoughts (even though he wasn't necessarily aware of them at the time); so John is probably having sinful thoughts about Elisha's body, if you catch our drift.
Quote #8
"People say it's hard," said Elisha, bending again to his mop, "but, let me tell you, it ain't as hard as living in this wicked world and all the sadness of the world where there ain't no pleasure nohow, and then dying and going to hell. Ain't nothing as hard as that." (1.1.240)
Elisha is trying to sell John on the pleasures of a sin-free life. Sin, with all its sexiness and excitement, is actually sad; he claims that it might be hard to reject sin, but that it's actually easier than dealing with sin's consequences.
Quote #9
"Being a preacher ain't never stopped a n***** from doing his dirt." (2.1.126)
Florence hates her brother, and will believe any bad thing she hears about him. Gabriel has most people fooled, believing he's a great guy because he's a preacher. But she remembers that he's a human being, who is liable to sin. She compares sin to "dirt," reminding us of the uncleanliness that is associated with sin.
Quote #10
Yes, he was in that valley where his mother had told him he would find himself, where there was no human help, no hand outstretched to protect or save. Here nothing prevailed save the mercy of God—here the battle was fought between God and the Devil, between death and everlasting life. And he had tarried too long, he had turned aside in sin too long, and God would not hear him. The appointed time had passed and God had turned His face away. (2.2.15)
Gabriel finds himself smack in Sin Valley one morning, and feels like there's no hope for him. Because he has ignored his mother's preaching and teaching all his life, preferring to get drunk and chase women every night instead of going to church, he finds himself all alone, at rock bottom.