How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.[Part].Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
There was always a bottle present, so that it would seem to him that those fine fierce instants of heart and brain and courage and wiliness and speed were concentrated and distilled into that brown liquor which not women, not boys and children, but only hunters drank, drinking not of the blood they spilled but some condensation of the wild immortal spirit, drinking it moderately, humbly even, not with the pagan's base and baseless hope of acquiring the virtues of cunning and strength and speed but in salute to them. (5.1.2)
Here is one more thing that unifies men: whiskey. Is this a great excuse to drink or what? Another idea here is that "heart and brain and courage and wiliness and speed" are qualities that are associated with men and not women or boys or girls.
Quote #8
If Sam Fathers has been his mentor and the backyard rabbits and squirrels his kindergarten, then the wilderness the old bear ran was his college and the old male bear itself, so long unwifed and childless as to have become its own ungendered progenitor, was his alma mater. (5.2.2)
In order for Isaac to become a man, he needs proper education in the wilderness--something he can't get in a school. In fact, the text specifically mentions that Isaac's allowed to skip school to stay on the hunt a few more days. This hunting thing is sounding better and better. BTW, have you noticed that, with the exception of Sam, hunting seems to be a white man's activity? The "Negroes" are just along to cook, keep the fire going and carry stuff. Isaac hints that blacks and Indians have been bred to have that strength and courage which most men only get by hunting—that "noble savage" stereotype.
Quote #9
"Looking for Roth's knife," Legate said. "I come back to get a horse. We got a deer on the ground."
[…] who killed it?" McCaslin said. Was it Roth?"
[…] "It was a doe," he said. (6.116-7, 121)
Isaac knows without being told that Roth's kill was a doe. At the time of this story, it was illegal to kill does, in order to protect the herd. Roth does it anyway, which Isaac sees as a cowardly, spiteful act. Isaac knows it's a doe because he knows from the visit of the woman and her baby that Roth's a cowardly, spiteful person. Definitely not a real man.