How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Then it seemed to him that he could see her – something, prone, abject; her eyes perhaps. Leaning, he seemed to look down into a black well and at the bottom saw two glints like reflection of dead stars. He was moving, because his foot touched her. Then it touched her again because he kicked her. He kicked her hard, kicking into and through a choked wail of surprise and fear. She began to scream, he jerking her up, clutching her by the arm, hitting at her with wide, wild blows, striking at the voice perhaps…enclosed by the womanshenegro and the haste. (7.27)
Christmas lashes out at this black woman in self-loathing; he resents her abjection because it reminds him of the inner abjection he feels toward himself.
Quote #8
He never acted like either a n***** or a white man. That was it. That was what made the folks so mad. For him to be a murderer and all dressed up and walking the town like he dared them to touch him, when he ought to have been skulking and hiding in the woods, muddy and dirty and running. It was like he never even knew he was a murderer, let alone a n***** too. (15.19)
This highlights that race is culturally and socially created – Christmas's biggest crime was to not behave in the stereotyped ways the town would expect him to. In the same way that Miss Burden defies expectations of women to marry, Christmas defies expectations of what it means to be black.
Quote #9
But his blood would not be quiet, let him save it. It would not be either one or the other and let his body save itself. Because the black blood drove him first to the n***o cabin. And then the white blood drove him out of there, as it was the black blood which snatched up the pistol and the white blood which would not let him fire it. (19.11)
Christmas experiences his racial identity as a battle between white and black blood.