How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I ain't a n*****," Jason said. "Are you a n*****, Nancy?" "I hellborn, child," Nancy said. "I wont be nothing soon. I going back where I come from soon." (2.27-28)
Nancy, in this passage, believes she's predestined from birth to suffer: she comes from hell, and the death she imagines Jesus will bring to her will take her back there. Perhaps she has internalized a sense of guilt due to the oppression of black people in Jefferson. Perhaps, too, she's losing her mind somewhat, as illustrated later when she leaves her hands on the hot globe or in the fire.
Quote #5
"Yet we pay taxes," mother said. "I must sit here alone in this big house while you take a Negro woman home." (3.15)
The mother sees no reason to blame herself for Nancy's plight. She seems to think that because her family pays taxes, she should be exempt from having to suffer at all, and that Nancy should have to endure hardship all alone.
Quote #6
Nancy was holding the coffee cup in her hands again, her elbows on her knees and her hands holding the cup between her knees. She was looking into the cup. "What have you done that made Jesus mad?" Caddy said. Nancy let the cup go. It didn't break on the floor, but the coffee spilled out, and Nancy sat there with her hands still making the shape of the cup. She began to make the sound again, not loud. Not singing and not unsinging. We watched her. (3.18)
Uh oh, there goes Caddy with her on-point questions. She asks Nancy what she did that angered her husband. The answer, of course, is that one of her white customers impregnated her. But Nancy feels so guilty about this that she can't answer; she can only drop the cup and wail.