How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) or (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Rufe, did you manage to rape that girl?" (4.4.35).
Dana has tried really hard to help Rufus grow up into a good person. But she feels like a failure when she realizes Rufus has been going around trying to rape a black woman named Alice. Despite Dana's best efforts, Rufus thinks that black people (and especially women) are just things that he can use whatever way he wants.
Quote #8
"They cut him! They cut off his ears!" (4.10.77)
When Alice finally recovers her memory, she realizes that a bunch of white people caught her husband Isaac and cut off his ears as punishment for running away from the Weylin plantation. This kind of mutilation might make us squirm as readers, but it's important to acknowledge just how brutal the practice of American slavery was.
Quote #9
I didn't want to depend on someone else's chance violence again—violence that, if it came, could be more effective than I wanted. (5.13.6)
Dana is sick and tired of being at the mercy of any white person who feels like hitting her. She eventually decides that she needs to find some way of protecting herself, and that's when she starts carrying a knife around with her.