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Eben: She’s like t’night, she’s soft ‘n’ wa’m, her eyes kin wink like a star, her moth’s wa’m, her arms’re wa’m, she smells like a wa’m plowed field, she’s purty…. Ay-eh! By God A’mighty she’s purty, an’ I don’t give a damn how many sins she’s sinned afore mine or who she’s sinned ‘em with, my sin’s as purty as any one on ‘em!
In this quote, at the end of Part One, Scene Two, Eben combines the imagery of nature with his desires for Minnie, the girl in town who he’s going to visit. He had been angered by his brothers for teasing him about Minnie's previous lovers, going so far as to plan on hitting her out of a sense of his own wounded pride and jealousy. But here, he shows a soft, genuine desire while he looks up at the sky, illustrating the how the natural world allows him to connect with his feeling. He compares her eyes to stars and her body to a field and then acknowledges the sins that she may have committed and reconciles them with the sin he plans to commit with her. The combination of desire, nature, and religion here reflects the major themes of the play. Describing his sin as "purty," Eben demonstrates his awareness of religion that he's been raised with, declaring that it may not be unforgivable to sin, since the impulse is, after all, fundamentally natural.
Cabot: Lust fur gold–fur the sinful, easy gold o’ Californi-a! It’s made ye mad!
Simeon: Wouldn’t ye like us to send ye back some sinful gold, ye old sinner?
This quote captures a confrontation between the older brothers and their father, Cabot, towards the end of Part One. Cabot is returning to the farm as the brothers are departing, and they've told him they're leaving for California. The brothers are wild with excitement and drunkenness, and Cabot accuses them of sinfulness and lusting after gold. These lines indicate that Cabot sees all desires as sinful, and in his mind, wanting something easy is the same as wanting something bad. Simeon is now able to tease his father about also secretly wanting gold, standing up to Cabot now that he’s declared his freedom.
Eben: I'm as guilty as yew be! He was the child of our sin.
Abbie (lifting her head as if defying God): I don’t repent that sin! I hain’t askin’ God t’ forgive that!
In the last scene of the play, Eben argues that he’s as guilty as Abbie is of the sin they committed in conceiving their child. The idea of sin did not seem to be a consideration when Abbie seduced Eben; at the time, he was resentful that her presence might lead to him lose the farm he believed was owed to him, and he was worried that he was dishonoring his mother by being with Abbie. But here, he claims the idea that their sexual relationship was a religious sin as a way to share culpability for the infanticide. Abbie, on the other hand, is defiant in her belief that they did nothing wrong and suggests that she does not believe in God the way Eben does.
