How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Let us not sacrifice the future to our immediate need."
"What is the alternative?" he shouted. "Do you think I am blind and do not see, or so stupid as to believe that crops are raised without seed? Do you take me for a fool that—"
He was not shouting at me, but at the terrible choice forced upon us; (13.57)
This is only one of the many such choices that Ruku and Nathan have to make – faced with the problem of alleviating immediate poverty, they are essentially forced to cut off their hands to pay for their feet. Whether they’re selling their seed for the land or collecting dung off the land to fuel their stoves instead of letting it be fertilizer, they’re constantly sacrificing the present for the future.
Quote #8
Hope, and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first in one direction, and then another, and which was the stronger no one could say. Of the latter, we never spoke, but it was always with us. Fear, constant companion of the peasant. (14.3)
Rukmani accepts that fear rules her life. Hope is a salve, but fear is the far more overpowering of the two. Ultimately, it feels like hope is the kind of thing one tells oneself in worst moments, a gentle lie to stave off the impending darkness.
Quote #9
Privately I thought, Well, and what if we gave in to our troubles at every step! We would be pitiable creatures indeed to be so weak, for is not a man’s spirit given to him to rise above his misfortunes? As for our wants, they are many and unfilled, for who is so rich or compassionate as to supply them? Want is our companion from birth to death, familiar as the seasons or the earth, varying only in degree. What profit to bewail that which has always been and cannot change? (19.36)
Rukmani vacillates between viewing her acceptance of the world as a strength and as a weakness. She has a noble spirit, choosing to endure in the face of adversity. On the other hand, her nobility is the necessary consequence of her life. Maybe she could give in to the hopelessness around her, but what would that accomplish? In the end, perhaps what seems like nobility isn’t that at all – just the necessary lens, a lie one tells oneself.