A hub serves Ruby better than her father
Telling Ada about her childhood, Ruby says that the hub, where she and her father lived, served her better than her father himself. Here she mocks at her father, showing that he wasn’t a good father for her, that she didn’t get enough love and support from him.
A priest who wants to kill a woman
The reader first meets Veasey, a priest, when he is going to kill a woman. This contrast between Veasey’s dignity and the action which he’s doing is a kind of irony, an authorial way of mocking at him. Thus, the author shows that a person’s social status doesn’t always agree with the inner world.
Gratefulness to God just one time in a year
When Ruby says her thoughts about the North America, she says that people are godless there, though they pretend to be religious. They’ve made Thanksgiving feast, so it means that they are thankful to God just once in a year. Thus the author shows that even artless people, living in the heart of the country, may be truly faithful and sincere to God.