How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[Tom] began to think. Sufficiently bitter thinkings they were. They wandered along something after this fashion:
"Why were n*****s and whites made? What crime did the uncreated first n***** commit that the curse of birth was decreed for him? And why is this awful difference made between white and black? [. . .] How hard the n*****'s fate seems, this morning!—yet until last night such a thought never entered my head." (10.3)
Tom's thinking so hard we can smell the smoke. Finding out that he is, in fact, black stirs up some profound thoughts and questions about the origins of racial prejudice. Funny how a change in social position can radically affect one's thoughts and perspective.
Quote #8
If [Tom] met a friend he found that the habit of a lifetime had in some mysterious way vanished—his arm hung limp, instead of involuntarily extending the hand for a shake. It was the 'n*****' in him asserting its humility, and he blushed and was abashed [. . .] (10.7)
The fact that his handshake is suddenly limp as spaghetti probably has a lot more to do with his awareness of others' expectations about how blacks should act rather than some innate or inherent tendency he has as a result of being born black.
Quote #9
[Chambers] could neither read nor write, and his speech was the basest dialect of the negro quarter. His gait, his attitudes, his gestures, his bearing, his laugh—all were vulgar and uncouth; his manners were the manners of a slave. Money and fine clothes could not mend these defects or cover them up; they only made them the more glaring and the more pathetic. (Conclusion.6)
Hmm, being born with white blood doesn't mean diddly squat for Chambers at the end of the novel. What does Chambers's situation suggest about racial identity?