Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One.
The quote above appears at the beginning of the last section of the novel and it highlights the black’s community desire and hope that someone among them will save them from the cruel society in which they live in. Even though slavery was illegal, many plantation owners still treated the blacks working with them as slaves and used often violence and mistreated them. The black community nurtures the idea that a Messianic-like figure will rise and lead them to greatness. Every time a child is born, the elders pressure him to behave in a way that would prove that he is the One. This is what happened in Aaron’s case who despite not being what his community though he will be, he proved to be a leader and a revolutionary.
“My master jecked up my dress and gived my mistress the whip and told her to teach me a lesson. Every time she hit me she asked me what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown. She hit me again: what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown.”
After Jane’s encounter with Corporal Brown, she decided to change her name from the slave name she was given to a "white’’ name, Jane Brown. Her decision to do so enraged her masters because the fact that she decided to change her name proved her rebellion against her masters. During those times that was considered as being extremely dangerous; the white population was able to control the black slaves only if they believed as well that they were inferior and that they deserved to be ruled and treated like cattle by the others. Jane’s decision to change her name represents her first step towards her freedom and independence, an act of rebellion against her masters and the society.
We caused one death already this evening. Jimmy was right. We all killed him. We tried to make him follow a set of rules our people gived us long ago.
After Tee Bob killed himself, Jules says this when Jimmy tries to blame Mary for Tee Bob’s death. Jules is not too quick to judge and he makes the other understand that Tee Bob’s death was the result of the racial ideas that existed since before they were born. Many had no other choice but to obey those ideas because otherwise they would be criticized harshly. But just because many accepted the racism, people like Tee Bob existed and they could not understand why a relationship between a black person and a white person could not exist outside the boundaries imposed by the slave-master relationship. While Tee Bob was able to see beyond a person’s race, those around him could not and this realization pushed Tee Bob to kill himself.
