How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Your Daddy beats you," she said, "because he loves you."
Elizabeth is defending Gabriel against Roy's accusations, and we really can't tell whether she believes her own story. If she does, she must think that Gabriel's strictness and violence against his family are a (misguided?) attempt to keep them all safe; otherwise, she's just trying to make her kids feel better because they're in a terrible but inescapable situation.
Quote #2
Roy got stabbed with a knife. Whatever this meant, it was sure that his father would be at his worst tonight. (1.1.136)
And voila, from one act of violence we get another. See how it spreads? As soon as John finds out about his brother's accident he knows that someone is going to get a beating. Even though the perpetrators are nowhere to be found, Gabriel's anger is going to have to find somewhere to land, and it will be on his family.
Quote #3
Time would darken the half-moon wound into Roy's dark skin, but nothing would bring together again the so violently divided eyebrow. This crazy lift, this question, would remain with him forever, and emphasize forever something mocking and sinister in Roy's face. (1.1.164)
Roy has been stabbed in the forehead, and the scar it leaves is an act of violence all on its own. By marking Roy for life, the wound is showing everyone that he's a violent guy, the kind of guy who gets into knife fights. That "mocking and sinister" look will probably get him into even more trouble later on, in a vicious cycle.
Quote #4
"It was white folks you like so much that tried to cut your brother's throat.
[ . . .]
"And he was trying to cut theirs. Him and them bad boys." (1.1.165-67)
Gabriel takes Roy's wound to be evidence that supports his hatred of all white people; he wants John to see it, to understand that he should fear white people because of their violence. Florence, though, reminds everyone that Roy himself was also participating in the violence, and that the issue isn't so…ahem…black and white.
Quote #5
"You slap me," she said, with a placidity equally fearful, and I do guarantee you won't do more slapping in a hurry." (1.1.170)
When Gabriel threatens his sister, Florence, she lets him know that she is not a good option for his violent urges. By threatening him with further violence, even if she isn't really capable of beating him up, she is setting a boundary that he knows he shouldn't cross. Unfortunately, he just turns his violent attention elsewhere.
Quote #6
Then, with all his might, he reached out and slapped her across the face. She crumpled at once, hiding her face with one thin hand, and Aunt Florence moved to help her up. (1.1.186)
Gabriel is so angry about Roy's injury that he looks for someone to blame. First it's the white people who cut his son, but since they're not there to beat up on, he turns to his wife. He accuses her of carelessness, saying that it's her fault that their son has been hurt. Rather than see her as his partner he turns her into an enemy and slaps her.
Quote #7
"Don't you slap my mother. That's my mother. You slap her again, you black bastard, and I swear to God I'll kill you."
[...]
"You cursed me," said his father. (1.1.187-91)
So, this might be getting old but, once again, violence leads to more violence. After Gabriel hits his wife, Roy feels the need to defend her, threatening not just to slap his father but to kill him in retaliation. What's interesting is that Gabriel is more upset by the violence of the insult, "bastard," than by the murder threat.
Quote #8
Then his father raised his belt, and it fell with a whistling sound on Roy, who shivered, and fell back, his face to the wall. But he did not cry out. And the belt was raised again, and again. The air rang with the whistling, and the crack! against Roy's flesh. (1.1.196)
Gabriel decides to punish his son for cursing him, and takes off his belt and gives him a beating. The description here of the sound, the whistle and crack, calls to mind the sound of a whip, which in turn reminds the reader of the treatment of slaves in the south. This connection might point to a legacy of violence that reaches from the time of slavery into the 20th-century black families of America.
Quote #9
One had been dead for nearly fourteen years—dead in a Chicago tavern, a knife kicking in his throat. And the living son, the child, Roy, was headlong already, and hardhearted: he lay at home, silent now, and bitter against his father, a bandage on his forehead. (2.2.1105)
Gabriel's sons seem destined to meet violent ends. When the first Royal is killed in Chicago it's not such a surprise; he's an orphan who has never had anyone caring for him. But when Roy is stabbed, it must seem like a curse. Gabriel has been there all along, teaching and raising Roy, but he seems to insist on a violent life.
Quote #10
And blood, in all the cities through which he passed, ran down. There seemed no door, anywhere, behind which blood did not call out, unceasingly, for blood; no woman, whether singing before defiant trumpets or rejoicing before the Lord, who had not seen her father, her brother, her lover, or her son cut down without mercy… (2.2.288)
The story of Gabriel's sons is a common one. When he goes out to preach in the cities he finds that in every black family there is a story of violence. Blood calls out for blood—that's that cycle of violence, repeating itself, multiplying. One violent act just leads to more, and more…