How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Get a gun if you want to talk, Jameson."
"No, Mr. Clatoo," Jameson said. "I won't get a gun."
"Then you better shut up," Clatoo said. "People with guns speak first here today."
"So she made you the leader?" Mapes asked Clatoo.
Clatoo didn't even look at him. And there ain't nothing a white man hate more than for a nigger not to look at him when he speak to him. (9.180-4)
Sometimes, a struggle for power doesn't have to be as obvious as fifteen guys with shotguns hanging out near a porch. Sometimes, it's as simple as a quick answer and a glance to prove you're not afraid.
Quote #8
But we had all gathered around Charlie. Mathu knelt down 'side him and raised his head out of the dust. They had really got him. Right in the belly. He laid there like a big old bear looking up at us. He was trying to say something, but it never came out. He kept on looking at us, but after a while you could tell he wasn't seeing us no more. I leaned over and touched him, hoping some of that stuff he had found back there in the swamps might rub off on me. After I touched him, the rest of the men did the same. Then the women, even Candy. Then Glo told her grandchildren they must touch him, too. (19.41)
Along with being a beautiful farewell (we know we got a little choked up), this touching of Charlie's body represents each person there taking a little bit of the power that Charlie's last stand symbolized, and making it their own.