IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS / QUOTES (continued)

19. "What goodÂ’s a car? It canÂ’t grow cotton. You canÂ’t build a home on it. And you canÂ’t raise four fine babies in it."

Attribution/Analysis - Uncle Hammer has sold his car to get enough money to pay off the mortgage. It is more than just an issue of money that David understands. The car was a status symbol for Hammer, proof that he could have anything a white person could have, and could get it by his own efforts. However, a car may symbolize wealth and success, but it is not an indication of permanence. Hammer sacrifices the visible symbol for the more enduring one. (pg. 236)

20. "Stacey looked around at me sharply, his face drawn, his eyes anxious and without even a murmur from him I suddenly did know. I knew why Mr. Morrison had come for him alone. Why Mr. Jamison was afraid for Papa to go into town. Papa had found a way, as Mama had asked, to make Mr. Granger stop the hanging: He had started the fire."

Attribution/Analysis - Cassie as she realizes what it took to prevent the white gang from hanging T.J. However, Mr. Jamison also knows how the fire started and is afraid that if people start thinking, they may begin to wonder how lightning could have sparked off the post to start the fire in the cotton- and leave no evidence on the post. It also shows the lengths the Logans would go to in order to try to protect their people. Papa puts forth as much effort to save T.J. as he would to save one of his own. But then, that is what friendship and family are all about. (pg. 273)

21. "I had never liked T.J., but he had always been there, a part of me, a part of my life, just like the mud and the rain, and I had thought that he always would be. Yet the mud and the rain and the dust would all pass. I knew and understood that. What had happened to T.J. in the night I did not understand, but I knew that it would not pass. And I cried for those things which had happened in the night and would not pass."

Attribution/Analysis - Cassie has realized that T.J. will die for the break in of the Mercantile and the death of Mr. Barnett. Troublesome as T.J. was, he was a part of her community. The year began with the burning of the Berry brothers and ends with the implied conviction and probably execution of T.J. Avery. It is not a resolution as the situation between blacks and whites is actually getting worse.

The Berrys had done nothing to deserve the treatment they received. T.J. had at least been committing little misdemeanors along with his white "friends." But the ones who really committed the break in and the murder will go free just as will those who set the Berrys on fire. Cassie realizes that these kinds of events cannot just pass. They will build until eventually something must happen to effect a change. This change, however, does not appear to be in the immediate future. (pg. 276)

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