How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Rooster cut the rope with his dirk knife and the mule breathed easy again. […] Rooster went up first and walked over to the two boys and kicked them into the mud with the flat of his boot. "Call that sport, do you?" said he. Those were two mighty surprised boys. (6.5)
Fighting violence with violence always works, right? Okay, sure, there's a chance the boys will be afraid of him and straighten up. There's also a chance that they will react to Rooster's humiliation with violence against either the mule or somebody else. Guess which one is more likely?
Quote #5
With that, Quincy brought the bowie knife down on Moon's cuffed hand and chopped off four fingers which flew up before my eyes like chips from a log. (6.165)
We're not sure which is more disturbing: the image of fingers flying up like chips from a log, or the casual way that Mattie witnesses this mutilation. Maybe it's a good thing she's not sensitive to blood—she's going to see worse before her little quest is over.
Quote #6
"It is hard to believe a man cannot remember where he served in the war. Do you not even remember your regiment?"
Rooster said, "It think it was called the bullet department. I was in it four years." (6.342)
Okay, Rooster totally has the best lines. Here, he's alluding to the U.S. Civil War, which ended about ten years before the major setting of the novel. This war was one of the most violent and bloody in American history—and Rooster is part of a generation that witnessed (and inflicted) terrible violence.