How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The trouble he'd had the night he checked in was representative of how estranged he felt from these new people. (7.1)
When Son returns to America for the first time in years, he realizes how estranged he feels from other black Americans. The feeling only gets worse when he tries to check into a fancy Hilton hotel and the young black man at the desk assumes he's in the wrong place.
Quote #5
"And you? Where have you lived? Anybody ask you where you from, you give them five towns. You're not from anywhere. I'm from Eloe." (9.267)
Son knows where he comes from, both literally and figuratively. Jade, on the other hand, has been moving around her whole life, and this is also reflected in her fragile sense of identity. Jade is a lot less sure of who she is than Son is.
Quote #6
He thought he was rescuing her from Valerian, meaning them, the aliens, the people who in a mere three hundred years had killed a world millions of years old. (9.287)
Son is very confident in his sense of identity as a black man. More specifically, he is confident in the belief that white people have destroyed the earth with all of their selfish imperial ambitions. He, on the other hand, just wants to live off the land in Eloe and not bother anyone.