McBride: Deacon King Kong

Guido Elefante's lesson to his son

"Everything you are, everything you will be in this cruel world, depends on your word" (55)

Why is the Christmas Club money important?

One word: Control.

"That Christmas Club money is all we can control. We can't stop these drug dealers from selling poison in front our houses. Or make the city stop sending our kids to lousy schools. We can't stop folks from blaming us for everything gone wrong in New York, or stop the army from calling our sons to Vietnam after them Vietcong done cut the white soldiers' toenails too short to walk. But the little nickels and dimes we saved up so we can give our kids 10 minutes of love at Christmastime, that's ours to control. What's wrong with that?" (217)

Hettie on knowing when to jump ship without complaint

It was referencing Hettie's old job as a caretaker for an elderly woman down South in Carolina before she had to up and leave.

"However the knife fell, I knew where the sharp end was gonna land, so I made ready to leave" (284)

The Elephant in regards to his retirement

"You know an oak tree doesn't produce acorns until they're over fifty years old?" (301)

Sportcoat's big monologue to Deems

In short: because Deems was making the mistake that Sportcoat did of just accepting the life others chose for him.

"Now I know why I tried to kill you. For the life of goodness is not one that your people has chosen for you. I don't want that you should end up like me, or my Hettie, dead of sorrow in the harbor. [...] Boy who sould pitch his way outta the shithole we all has to live in. Better to remember you that way than as the sewer you has become. That's a good dream. That's a dream an old drunk like me deserves at the end of his days" (322)

The Elephant and Melissa, Potts and Sister Gee

Just remember how much love can surprise you, how much love can make you feel young, and whole, and alive in ways you forgot were possible or just thought weren't possible.

"Until then he'd always believed a partner brought worry, fear, and weakness to a man, especially one in his business. But Melissa brought courage and humility and humor to places he'd never known existed" (342)

The theme of settling, being apart of the community

This book is also about the power of settling, of being in one community for a really long time, of a community truly knowing each other.

The theme of autonomy and control

one thing that is just so hard about life for the people in the Causes is that they have none of it! McBride's long critiques focus on this and why it makes things so hard!