How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Suddenly he was aware of the deep whine of machines in the hills behind Sarah's to the north. He raised his arm so that his hand seemed to slide over the perfect roll and curve of the hill range before him to the south. He fluffed the trees out there and smoothed out the sky. All was still and ordered, the way he liked to pretend he arranged it every day. (2.19)
Doesn't it seem like M.C. is trying to "lay hands" and "work magic" on the mountains just like Ben said the Killburn men were doing in response to all the strip-mining on the mountain? And really, who would blame him for trying to create order out of impending chaos? Even if he's just playing?
Quote #5
M.C.: "So you can't have a crane and you can't have a union 'cause you are day labor."
His daddy: "That's right."
M.C.: "So why don't you get a strip-mining machine? They don't care if you are day labor or if you are union."
His daddy: "They ain't machines."
M.C.: "They machines just the same as a crane."
His daddy: "They don't handle steel. They ain't machines."
M.C.: "They handle the earth."
His daddy: "They ain't machines."
M.C.: "So what are they, Daddy?"
His daddy: "They a heathen. A destroyer. They ain't machines." (3.32-41)
Jones is sounding apocalyptic. A strip-mining machine is a "heathen," "a destroyer," and not just a machine. But is Jones exaggerating? Aren't the strip-mining machines bearers of destruction, things that will change everything about the present and the past?
Quote #6
M.C. had heard of Harlem. Heard somewhere that there were as many black people in Harlem as equaled the whole population of Cincinnati. He didn't knot if it was true or not.
Wonder if it is. Wonder if I ever will see it. (10.26-27)
Social change—especially for black people—is something that has totally passed M.C. by. It's the 1960s, the beginning of the heyday for Civil Rights in America, but M.C.'s just hearing about Harlem as a black enclave (which, by the way, has been around since the early 1900s).