Same Kind of Different as Me

Same Kind of Different as Me

by

Ron Hall and Denver Moore

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Ron Hall is the story’s second narrator, Deborah’s husband, and Carson and Regan’s father. Ron grows up in a lower-middle-class family in Fort Worth, Texas, but quickly rises to wealth and status through his art-dealing career. However, as his wealth grows, he becomes arrogant, materialistic, and distant from Deborah, and eventually has a brief affair. Rather than get divorced, Ron and his wife commit to mending their marriage and pursuing their Christian faith, which leads them to volunteer at the local Union Gospel Mission, despite the fact that Ron is secretly quite prejudiced against the homeless. Although Deborah is naturally compassionate and self-sacrificing, Ron’s self-superiority constantly interferes with his efforts to love others, forming a thematic conflict between love and ego. At Deborah’s urging, Ron slowly develops a friendship with Denver, who teaches him about homelessness, racism, and modern-day slavery, and whom Ron introduces to the world of the privileged. As Ron serves at the Union Gospel Mission and grows closer to Denver, his marriage with Deborah strengthens. However, when they are at their happiest, Deborah is diagnosed with cancer. Although Ron’s Christian faith has been growing steadily, Deborah’s battle with cancer and her eventual death put it to the test. Ron finds comfort in his faith and God’s power to heal his wife, but loses sight of the fact that God may let her die as well. When Deborah finally dies, Ron becomes distant and angry at God, held up only by the wise counsel and emotional support of Denver, who helps Ron to eventually see that Deborah’s death, though tragic, ultimate gave birth to many new things. In this way, Ron’s faith journey forms a weighty commentary on the power of Christian faith to provide hope, comfort, and compel compassion, as well as its power to be misused or misconstrued.

Ron Hall Quotes in Same Kind of Different as Me

The Same Kind of Different as Me quotes below are all either spoken by Ron Hall or refer to Ron Hall. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Slavery and Racism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The incident firmly fixed my image of homeless people as a ragtag army of ants bent in ruining decent people’s picnics.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

As far as I knew, their first names were “Nigger” and their last names were like our first names: Bill, Charlie, Jim, and so forth […] none of them were ever called by a proper first and last name like mine, Ronnie Ray Hall, or my granddaddy’s, Jack Brooks.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Granddaddy / Jack Brooks
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Lookin back, I figure what them boys done caused me to get a little throwed off in life. And for sure I wadn’t gon’ be offerin to help no white ladies no more.

Related Characters: Denver Moore (speaker), Ron Hall, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

[Deborah and I] had actually been labeled “lost,” “nonbelieving,” and “unsaved,” possibly because we had no fish stickers on our cars. (Which reminds me of one friend who, though newly “born again,” retained the bad habit of flipping off other drivers while barreling down the road in her Suburban. […] The Holy Ghost prompted her to scrape the fish off her bumper until her finger got saved.)

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

It seemed manipulative to me to make the hungry sit like good dogs for their supper. And it did not surprise me that even when Brother Bill split the air with one of his more rousing sermons, not a single soul ever burst through the chapel doors waving their hands and praising Jesus. At least not while we were there.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Related Symbols: The Man
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Another thought nagged at me, though. Could it possibly be something he saw in me—something he didn’t like? Maybe he felt like the target of a blow-dried white hunter searching for a trophy to show off to friends, one he bagged after a grueling four-month safari in the inner city. Meanwhile, if I caught him, what would I do with him?

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Page Number: 98
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

It was at Starbucks that I learned about twentieth-century slavery. Not the slavery of auction blocks, of young blacks led away in ropes and chains. Instead, it was a slavery of debt-bondage, poverty, ignorance, and exploitation. A slavery in which the Man, of whom Denver’s “Man” was only one among many, held all the cards and dealt them mostly from the bottom of the deck, the way his daddy had taught him, and his granddaddy before that.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Granddaddy / Jack Brooks
Related Symbols: The Man
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

Our prayers for healing at Rocky Top had not beaten back the lethal invader the doctors discovered inside my wife. Wounded and nearly blind with fear, I clung to the scriptures:

“Ask and you shall receive…”

“Pray without ceasing…”

“I will do whatever you ask in My name…”

Grimly, I shut another verse, this one from the book of Job: “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

[…] Sometimes we just have to accept the things we don’t understand. So I just tried to accept that Miss Debbie was sick and kept on prayin out there by that dumpster. I felt like it was the most important job I ever had, and I wadn’t gon’ quit.

Related Characters: Denver Moore (speaker), Ron Hall, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

“Let’s forget about only living one year, and let’s just trust God,” she told me. “Dr. Goldstein is just a doctor. We serve the living God, who knows our number of days. I intend to fulfill each one of mine.”

Related Characters: Deborah Hall (speaker), Ron Hall
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40 Quotes

The campfires and camaraderie worked magic on Denver as he began to know what it was like to be accepted and loved by a group of white guys on horseback with ropes in their hands. Exactly the kind of people he had feared all his life.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

Pulling out a picture of Jack, [Michael] moved to the edge of the bed and placed it in Deborah’s palm, gently folding her fingers around it.

“Will you watch over him from heaven?” he said. “Be his guardian angel?” The moment later became a mystery. No one ever saw that picture of Jack again.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Page Number: 187
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

Quietly, I asked the nurse to remove the tubes and IVs that had bound her for a month. Then I asked the nurse to give us a few minutes alone, during which I held my dead wife and wept, begging God to raise her as Christ had raised Lazarus.

When He didn’t—and I truly believed he could—my heart exploded.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 57 Quotes

And now that Deborah was gone, I had begun to suspect [Denver] felt like a hanger-on. I didn’t feel that way about him at all. In fact, during her illness and since her death, I had come to consider him my brother.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 63 Quotes

What kind of man was the Man? For decades, one Man kept sharecroppers barefoot and poor, but let a little colored boy earn a brand-new red Schwinn. Another Man let an old black woman live on his place rent-free long after she’d stopped working in the fields. A third Man kept Denver ignorant and dependent, but provided for him well beyond the time he probably could have done without his labor.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Related Symbols: The Man
Page Number: 218
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 65 Quotes

“Mr. Ron, they’re livin better than I ever did when I was livin here. Now you know it was the truth when I told you that bein homeless in Fort Worth was a step up in life for me.”

Related Characters: Denver Moore (speaker), Ron Hall
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 66 Quotes

Still, I can’t deny the fruit of Deborah’s death—Denver, the new man, and the hundreds of men, women, and children who will be helped because of the new mission. And so, I release her back to God.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ron Hall Quotes in Same Kind of Different as Me

The Same Kind of Different as Me quotes below are all either spoken by Ron Hall or refer to Ron Hall. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Slavery and Racism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The incident firmly fixed my image of homeless people as a ragtag army of ants bent in ruining decent people’s picnics.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

As far as I knew, their first names were “Nigger” and their last names were like our first names: Bill, Charlie, Jim, and so forth […] none of them were ever called by a proper first and last name like mine, Ronnie Ray Hall, or my granddaddy’s, Jack Brooks.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Granddaddy / Jack Brooks
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Lookin back, I figure what them boys done caused me to get a little throwed off in life. And for sure I wadn’t gon’ be offerin to help no white ladies no more.

Related Characters: Denver Moore (speaker), Ron Hall, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

[Deborah and I] had actually been labeled “lost,” “nonbelieving,” and “unsaved,” possibly because we had no fish stickers on our cars. (Which reminds me of one friend who, though newly “born again,” retained the bad habit of flipping off other drivers while barreling down the road in her Suburban. […] The Holy Ghost prompted her to scrape the fish off her bumper until her finger got saved.)

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

It seemed manipulative to me to make the hungry sit like good dogs for their supper. And it did not surprise me that even when Brother Bill split the air with one of his more rousing sermons, not a single soul ever burst through the chapel doors waving their hands and praising Jesus. At least not while we were there.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Related Symbols: The Man
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Another thought nagged at me, though. Could it possibly be something he saw in me—something he didn’t like? Maybe he felt like the target of a blow-dried white hunter searching for a trophy to show off to friends, one he bagged after a grueling four-month safari in the inner city. Meanwhile, if I caught him, what would I do with him?

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Page Number: 98
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

It was at Starbucks that I learned about twentieth-century slavery. Not the slavery of auction blocks, of young blacks led away in ropes and chains. Instead, it was a slavery of debt-bondage, poverty, ignorance, and exploitation. A slavery in which the Man, of whom Denver’s “Man” was only one among many, held all the cards and dealt them mostly from the bottom of the deck, the way his daddy had taught him, and his granddaddy before that.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Granddaddy / Jack Brooks
Related Symbols: The Man
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

Our prayers for healing at Rocky Top had not beaten back the lethal invader the doctors discovered inside my wife. Wounded and nearly blind with fear, I clung to the scriptures:

“Ask and you shall receive…”

“Pray without ceasing…”

“I will do whatever you ask in My name…”

Grimly, I shut another verse, this one from the book of Job: “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

[…] Sometimes we just have to accept the things we don’t understand. So I just tried to accept that Miss Debbie was sick and kept on prayin out there by that dumpster. I felt like it was the most important job I ever had, and I wadn’t gon’ quit.

Related Characters: Denver Moore (speaker), Ron Hall, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

“Let’s forget about only living one year, and let’s just trust God,” she told me. “Dr. Goldstein is just a doctor. We serve the living God, who knows our number of days. I intend to fulfill each one of mine.”

Related Characters: Deborah Hall (speaker), Ron Hall
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40 Quotes

The campfires and camaraderie worked magic on Denver as he began to know what it was like to be accepted and loved by a group of white guys on horseback with ropes in their hands. Exactly the kind of people he had feared all his life.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

Pulling out a picture of Jack, [Michael] moved to the edge of the bed and placed it in Deborah’s palm, gently folding her fingers around it.

“Will you watch over him from heaven?” he said. “Be his guardian angel?” The moment later became a mystery. No one ever saw that picture of Jack again.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Deborah Hall
Page Number: 187
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

Quietly, I asked the nurse to remove the tubes and IVs that had bound her for a month. Then I asked the nurse to give us a few minutes alone, during which I held my dead wife and wept, begging God to raise her as Christ had raised Lazarus.

When He didn’t—and I truly believed he could—my heart exploded.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 57 Quotes

And now that Deborah was gone, I had begun to suspect [Denver] felt like a hanger-on. I didn’t feel that way about him at all. In fact, during her illness and since her death, I had come to consider him my brother.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 63 Quotes

What kind of man was the Man? For decades, one Man kept sharecroppers barefoot and poor, but let a little colored boy earn a brand-new red Schwinn. Another Man let an old black woman live on his place rent-free long after she’d stopped working in the fields. A third Man kept Denver ignorant and dependent, but provided for him well beyond the time he probably could have done without his labor.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore
Related Symbols: The Man
Page Number: 218
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 65 Quotes

“Mr. Ron, they’re livin better than I ever did when I was livin here. Now you know it was the truth when I told you that bein homeless in Fort Worth was a step up in life for me.”

Related Characters: Denver Moore (speaker), Ron Hall
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 66 Quotes

Still, I can’t deny the fruit of Deborah’s death—Denver, the new man, and the hundreds of men, women, and children who will be helped because of the new mission. And so, I release her back to God.

Related Characters: Ron Hall (speaker), Denver Moore, Deborah Hall
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis: