How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"When you going to pay me, white man? When you going to pay me, white man? It's been three times now since you paid me a cent—" Mr. Stovall knocked her down, but she kept on saying, "When you going to pay me, white man? It's been three times now since—" until Mr. Stovall kicked her in the mouth with his heel and the marshal caught Mr. Stovall back, and Nancy lying in the street, laughing. She turned her head and spat out some blood and teeth and said, "It's been three times now since he paid me a cent." (1.12)
This passage shows who gets the short end of the stick in Jefferson. Nancy, a prostitute, can't collect payment from one her customers, but he has near-total license from society to kick out her teeth when she asks for her money. Then she goes to jail and gets beaten some more. In short, a black woman is blamed for problems in which she's only one of the players. Ugh.
Quote #2
"I ain't nothing but a n*****, Nancy said. "It ain't none of my fault." (1.29)
Nancy, identifying here with a racial slur, places the blame for her pregnancy on her color rather than on herself. It's as if she feels she's been doomed from birth, that her downfall is inevitably coming.
Quote #3
"Was it Jesus?" Caddy said. "Did he try to come into the kitchen?"
"Jesus," Nancy said. Like this: Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus, until the sound went out, like a match or a candle does.
"It's the other Jesus she means," I said. (2.6-8)
Nancy calls for rescue from Jesus, not her husband but the Christian one. She may feel trapped or even guilty due to her skin color, and that only a religious power can save her from that fate.