The Saints of Swallow Hill

“These days, a man’s name and his reputation were all one had, and the most one could hope to keep, but he determined the best thing for him to do would be to slip away in the dark.”

The quote highlights The Burden of Race, Gender, Sexuality Expectations by showing Del’s resistance to the male expectation to preserve one’s reputation. It also incorporates Resilience and Determination in Hardships by showing that Del is more concerned with his survival now than how others perceive him, which will become more present when he arrives at Swallow Hill. This shows his desire to rebuild his life and start new, not wanting to stay in the place where he almost died.

“Maybe he’d plant more there some day, and no matter it might take fifty years for ’em to grow, they’d outlive him and his sons, if he ever had any.”

The quote supports The Importance of Legacy by showing the beginning of Del’s new vision in life. He wants to create a legacy for his future children and the longleaf pines, ensuring that both his family and the pines will survive long after his death. This drive will inspire him to persevere and help his new friend and eventual wife, Rae Lynn.

“She remembered taking off her wet dress, and Warren, usually shy about relations, shrugging out of his overalls and having her right there.”

The quote showcases the importance of the tobacco barn as part of the Cobb property, which is a symbol of Rae Lynn’s memories of and devotion to Warren. She wants to remember the good times while he is in such horrible pain and starts to think about how they could not have children despite their sexual encounters. This demonstrates her fondness of her husband despite her initial uncertainty.

“He’d speak to who he wanted, when he wanted.”

Thematically, this quote supports the burden of racial expectations by showing Del’s refusal to listen to Crow’s racist ideology. It also shows Del’s resilience and determination in hardships by illustrating that Del is not the type of person to give in to convenience in difficulty. He is more concerned about doing the right thing than the easy thing.

“When some time had passed, and she was sure he was gone for good, she dragged the mattress from the bedroom into the yard. It had a horrible stain down the side of it when Warren had done what he’d done, and so she’d been sleeping on the couch. She soaked it with turpentine and tossed a match on it, then monitored the flames, raking back debris so nothing was around it to catch fire. She watched the flames dance over the darkened patches of dried blood, consuming it. Burning their marriage bed was purifying in a way she couldn’t describe, as if by doing this, she was also burning the memories of what happened.”

This quote highlights the marriage bed as a symbol of Rae Lynn’s memories of Warren, particularly of his injury, attempted suicide, and death. As part of the Cobb house, the marriage bed gives Rae Lynn memories of Warren and serves as a reminder of her part in it, as well as the guilt she carries for killing him. However, she wants to get rid of her memories of his death and the grief and trauma it brought her.

“She’d been focused only on what she and Warren had planned together, confining herself to those ideas and not thinking beyond.”

This quote shows that Rae Lynn had put her life and happiness into her marriage to Warren and had not thought much about the future. It highlights the opportunity Rae Lynn has now to choose her own path, as daunting as it is. She hopes that she can build a future in Swallow Hill and avoid legal trouble for Warren’s death.

“He didn’t react, refusing to give Crow the satisfaction of begging to be let out.”

The quote supports resilience and determination in hardships by showing Del’s refusal to satisfy Crow’s sadistic desire for others’ pain. He wants to leave the box with not only his dignity but the self-satisfaction that he did not let Crow make him beg. This resilience would pay off by allowing him to impress Peewee and become a woods rider later in the novel.

“We got our place in this camp, and it’s best we act like we know it. It don’t include minglin’ with white folk. He see me with you doin’ whatever, even talkin’, he gone think I went and got uppity, and he gone teach me a lesson. Put me in my place. That’s just the way of it with him.”

The quote incorporates the burden of racial expectations by showing the dangerous consequences of provoking racist authority figures. Nolan, as a Black man, understands both the cruelty of racist white men and the good intentions of Del, but he wants to warn Del not to provoke Crow by fraternizing with the Black men. He knows that Crow will punish him and the others next if Del does not uphold the racial hierarchy within the camp, which Del understands and accepts.

“Any growed man knows that.”

The quote, by the farmer who helps Rae Lynn with her truck while she is disguised as Ray, supports the burden of gender expectations by highlighting the often strict expectations society has for men. Men are expected to be prepared for any situation, especially automobile troubles. Rae Lynn realizes through this that she must be more convincing if she wants to survive as a man in Swallow Hill.

“Got to quit your squalling, Rae Lynn. Can’t be bawling like a baby as Ray Cobb.”

Rae Lynn again wrestles with gender expectations as she reminds herself to behave like a man. Because men are not supposed to cry, she reminds herself to keep her emotions in check. She eventually manages to do this in Swallow Hill, but it is a struggle due to Otis’s abuse of Cornelia and Crow’s abuse of the workers.

“Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Rae Lynn counters Otis’s misogyny after he weaponizes the Bible to remind Cornelia to obey and submit to him. Rae Lynn counters with this passage from Ephesians to remind Otis that he is Biblically obligated to treat Cornelia right. This makes him uneasy and prompts Cornelia to give Rae Lynn her dress, starting their friendship.

“He had cause.”

The quote demonstrates the importance of Rae Lynn’s support for Del. After a scuffle over Del’s harmonica, Crow insists that Del started the fight and asks Rae Lynn/Ray for his opinion on who started it. When Rae Lynn stands up for Del, it prompts them to cooperate against Crow and form a friendship. Rae Lynn also shows her determination to do the right thing, similar to Del.

“Del had been thinking about that, and it’s what made him decide he wasn’t going to let someone like Crow keep him from improving conditions for himself.”

The quote supports resilience and determination in hardships by showing Del’s stubbornness in resisting Crow’s sadism and cruelty. He decides to use his new position as woods rider to treat the men on his crew as equals and make their lives easier, such as giving them regular water breaks. He wants to be a good leader and gain their trust and support.

“Cornelia turned a sage eye to her and said, ‘I bet you had your reasons. We always do what we have to do, what’s necessary, don’t we?’

Women folk, is who Cornelia meant. They were most often the ones to bend, sometimes until they broke. Or got broken. She believed with all her heart in that moment, she and Cornelia would get along just fine. Rae Lynn felt an instant kinship. She ought to tell her who she was at least. She was real understanding. Seemed real trustworthy, and already a friend.”

This quote highlights Rae Lynn’s growing fondness of Cornelia after Cornelia takes her in once she’s discovered to be a woman. Rae Lynn starts to see her not only as a friend but as a sister figure who supports her and understands her. This foreshadows the strengthening of their friendship and Cornelia’s addition to Rae Lynn and Del’s family. Rae Lynn does not yet know Cornelia’s secret about her sexuality or the ways Cornelia has also had to do what she had to do.

“This here’s men’s business.”

The quote highlights Otis’s misogyny and disregard of women’s opinions as Cornelia and Rae Lynn discuss the hunt for Nolan after he runs away from camp. Otis pushes Cornelia, which eventually causes her to leave him. It also drives her to seek happiness with Rae Lynn.

“Del was of a mind Cornelia was perhaps the strongest of them all, living as long as she had with a cruel, pigheaded man like Otis Riddle.”

This quote supports the theme of resilience and determination in hardships by depicting Del’s acknowledgement of Cornelia’s resilience in her abusive marriage and his hope that she will be able to overcome this ordeal soon. It also highlights her strength as she starts to lose her tolerance of Otis.

“She says it’s a woman’s fault if a marriage turns bad.”

The quote emphasizes the burden of gender expectations by showing how the victim-blaming and misogyny of society, including her own mother, has hurt Cornelia and prompted her to stay in an abusive marriage. She understands now that her mother does not truly support her and that Rae Lynn is her family. She realizes her mother is wrong and escapes with Rae Lynn.

“Eventually the hard knot of fear centered within her turned soft, yielding to the ease of life at the farmhouse.”

The quote highlights the building of family and friendships as a path to healing by showing Rae Lynn’s happiness at the farmhouse after so much loss and trauma in her life to date, here described as a “hard knot” she carries with her. She relaxes into contentment as she starts to see Del’s family as her family, and she likes helping them. She is no longer afraid of Butch and Eugene and can see a future at the farmhouse now.

“The house no longer held the same meaning for her as it had when Warren was alive.”

The quote shows the Cobb property as a symbol for Rae Lynn’s memories of Warren and, before she arrives at the farmhouse, the only place that felt like home. Now that the house belongs to Butch, Rae Lynn no longer feels like it is her home, as starts to let go of it. Once Butch sends her away, she no longer wants to live there again and makes the farmhouse her home, making peace with her memories of Warren soon after this section.

“I know it ain’t the same for you. It’s all right. Truth is, I can’t help myself, how I feel. I can’t. I thought if I told you my own secret, like you told me about Warren, maybe I can try to accept my lot in life, such as it is.”

Cornelia understands her sexuality as an inherent part of herself that she can’t change, but she understands, too, that social norms do not support the existence of lesbian women. Though she refuses to go back to her mixed-orientation marriage, she knows she must make peace with her not being able to have a public relationship with another woman. She wants to tell Rae Lynn so she does not feel alone in that anymore, mirroring Rae Lynn’s disclosure about killing Warren, an act that Cornelia accepted.

“That’s how I come to marry him. I was an abomination to them, and they wanted nothing more to do with me unless I did what they wanted. So I did.”

The quote illustrates Cornelia’s sadness that her parents do not accept her sexual orientation and never will. Though she tried to do what they wanted so she wouldn’t be alone, she realizes she cannot take Otis’s abuse. She finds joy in Rae Lynn’s support of her once she knows her story.

“He wanted all his children to understand the entire way of life in turpentining, end to end. For him, it was important because in that understanding, they would appreciate it; that appreciation would make his vision, his love for the pines everlasting.”

This quote highlights The Importance of Legacy by showing Del’s determination to pass his love for longleaf pines to his children. While Del’s family has long worked in the turpentining industry, he realizes the impact it and other industries have had on the tree population and wants to teach the importance of conservation alongside teaching his children the family business. His children appear as symbols of the trees’ survival and his family legacy in this passage, showing the promising future of his vision. He hopes that their love of the pines will continue his legacy, and he appears to be successful.

“Her heart soared from out of the darkness that day, and here they were now. Three children later, another one on the way, a small but flush turpentine farm, and most important of all, each other. Rae Lynn couldn’t get enough of looking at their children, watching them when they didn’t know it. She found herself thinking on how her and Del’s blood ran in their veins. They were an indelible symbol of what they’d accomplished; like the catfaces on the trunks of the longleaf pines, they were the imprint of their love, their existence proof of what they’d been, who they were, even long after they’d left this Earth. For now, all she needed was to hold them close, and so she went to them and did just that.”

After growing up an orphan and unable to have children with Warren, Rae Lynn finally achieves full joy upon gaining the family she always wanted. The children also appear as symbols not only of her and Del’s love but of the longleaf pines that support her family’s livelihood. Just as the trees are permanently scarred or marked through the turpentining process, her children represent the permanence of her and Del’s love. To her and Del, their children also symbolize the trees’ survival.