Quote 1
"How can a man beat a machine?" he asked. "No way? Hanh? That's what you say? Well, my brother did. With them two little mules, he beat the tractor to the derrick. Them two little mules did all they could, like my brother did. They knowed it was the end if they couldn't make it. They could hear the machine like everybody else could hear the machine, and they knowed they had to pull, pull, pull if they wanted to keep going. My brother and mules, mules and my brother. So they pulled for him and pulled for him and pulled for him, sweating, slipping, falling, but pulling for him. Slobber running from their mouths, the bit cutting their lips, the slobber and blood mixing and falling to the ground, yet they pulled, pulled, pulled, in all that mud for him." (9.133)
Tucker's story gives us a really, really close look at the fight to protect a way of life and, at the same time, the dignity that comes from hard work.
Quote 2
"Where was the law?" he said, looking up at Mapes. He was crying now. "Where was the law? Law said he cut in on the tractor, and he was the one who started the fight. That's law for a n*****. That's law." He looked at Mapes. He wanted Mapes to face him. Mapes wouldn't. (9.139)
Tucker's words let us know that "equal protection under the law" doesn't really apply to people whose skin is a certain color. It even seems like Mapes is ashamed for a minute in this passage, because he knows that what Tucker is saying is true.