How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Not a cry or a groan escaped from Sister Mary Joseph Praise while in the throes of her cataclysmic labor. (P.7)
As a nun, we can expect that Sister Mary Joseph Praise is pretty much in control of her emotions and actions. But it's pretty incredible that she never even makes a peep when she's suffering what will end up being her doom. The novel makes her seem almost superhuman.
Quote #2
We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot. (P.14)
Okay, we don't need to ask Abraham Verghese whether the glass is half full or half empty; we think we know what he's going to say. This pessimistic view of life focuses on the fact that for the majority of humans, health and basic necessities are difficult to come by.
Quote #3
The black-and-red floating packet of misery that called itself a ship steamed across the Indian Ocean toward its destination, Aden. […] The ship wasn't meant to carry passengers, but the Greek captain did just that by housing 'paying guests.'" (1.1.8)
Whoa. Calm yourself, Verghese. What did that ship ever do to you? Marion comes in strong with a metaphor comparing the ship that carried his parents (before they were his parents) to Africa from India to a "floating packet of misery." Then he quickly links that misery to the ship captain's corruption, which is where the real blame lies.
Quote #4
On the ninth night, four of the sixteen passengers and one of the crew came down with a fever whose flesh signs were rose spots that appeared on the second febrile day and that arranged themselves like a Chinese puzzle on the chest and abdomen. (1.1.14)
This is one of our first tastes of the medical language that Marion will use throughout the novel. He reads the "flesh signs" like we read his metaphors. In case you're wondering, "febrile," means having to do with a fever. Look how the illness becomes an image: the spots are "rose" and "arrange themselves," as though they had powers.
Quote #5
Sister Mary Joseph Praise lay in agony on her narrow cot. Her lips were blue. Her lusterless eyes were focused beyond his face. She was deathly pale. He reached for her pulse, which was rapid and feeble. (1.2.29)
Up until now, most of the suffering described in the novel has been on a collective level: all of the ship's passengers, for example, were suffering the same thing. Now, Sister Mary Joseph Praise is going it alone. Her "agony" in this case means that her suffering probably won't ease until she buys the farm, if we read the signs like blue lips, dull eyes, and a weak pulse.
Quote #6
A herd of mules overladen with firewood trotted along, their expressions docile and angelic in the face of the whipping they were getting from the barefoot owner who ran with them. (1.6.42)
When Hema comes back to Addis Ababa, she takes in the familiar sights that she might have missed while she was in India. Mostly, she notices human beings, some suffering, and some happiness, but this image of the mules being whipped and overworked reminds us that humans can make each other suffer pretty easily—but we're also good at spreading it around to the rest of the animals.
Quote #7
Matron offered the history that Sister Mary Joseph Praise had been in severe pain, great spasms of it, and then the pains had suddenly ceased and she'd seemed almost lucid, talking…but now she had deteriorated again.
"My God," Hema said, knowing that in nature pains don't cease until a baby is out, "it sounds like a uterine rupture." It would explain all the blood on the floor. (1.7.33-34)
The first paragraph of this quotation gives the rundown of Sister Mary Joseph Praise's suffering, with Matron listing all of her symptoms. It's Hema who really makes the connection between the suffering and the baby. Everyone has been focused on saving Sister Mary Joseph Praise, but Hema knows that the nun's body is committed to giving birth.
Quote #8
This man she thought she knew well, seven years a colleague, now stood bent as if he'd been gutted.
That, she said to herself, is visceral pain. As angry as she'd been with him, the depth of his grief and his shame moved her. (1.10.37-38)
When Dr. Thomas Stone, who up until now has been mostly a rational guy, has finally been brought down by his emotions. Hema is furious with him not only for having gotten Sister Mary Joseph Praise pregnant and causing the situation, but also for having totally botched the operation. She can see that he is not a doctor in this moment; he's a suffering man.
Quote #9
"I tell you, I have never hurt like this." He grinned from ear to ear as if to say, A man is going along when out of the blue comes a banana peel, a cosmic joke that leaves you upended and clutching your belly. A wave of pain made him wince.
I can't possibly see you today. Beloved Sister has died […]. That was what Ghosh wanted to say, but in the face of such suffering he waited. (2.13.6-7)
When Mebratu comes into the hospital to get his stomach looked at, he acts very differently from someone like Sister Mary Joseph Praise in the face of his suffering. Whereas she is an angelic, stoic sufferer, he takes it as a joke. But the joke is a painful one: Mebratu is seeing things on the grand scale, as a "cosmic joke," which brings Ghosh out of his personal tragedy and forces him to perform his duties.
Quote #10
"[…] The pain was… I knew whatever this was would get worse, would kill me. But I had options. I came to you. When you told me that for my fellow countrymen, if they have to suffer this, they simply die…" The Colonel's face turned hard, and Ghosh could not be sure if it was anger or if he was holding back tears. He cleared his throat. "It was a crime to close my brother's health care center." (2.1.31)
The suffering that Mebratu feels with his stomach problem is intense. But, again, he's able to understand that suffering and recognize that even though he was in great pain, he still had the option to get good treatment for it; the majority of Ethiopians, without adequate care, would have just died in that situation. Through suffering he finds solidarity, which inspires him to revolt against the emperor.