How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Ama and I must each make twenty trips down the mountain to the village spring, waiting our turn to bring water up to the rice paddy.
My stepfather dozes in the shade, wearing nothing but a loincloth, too hot even to climb the hill to his card game. (14.FiftyDaysWithoutRain.1-2)
In the dry season, Ama and Lakshmi must carry water to their rice paddy. How does this example show how the family might suffer, and how might the stepfather's lack of work contribute to the family's suffering?
Quote #2
But today she hangs her head like the paddy plants and says, "Maybe tomorrow." (17.MaybeTomorrow.8)
Lakshmi isn't the only one who suffers in her mountain home. Why might Ama be suffering after her husband tells her she must sell her earrings? And is her suffering preferable to going hungry? Why or why not?
Quote #3
When the night rain soaks the ground past the soaking point, when the earthen walls around the paddy melt away, when the rice plants are sucked out of the earth one by one and washed down the slope, there should be a sound, a noise announcing that something is terribly wrong.
Instead there is a ghostly hush that tells us we have lost everything. (25.WhatDisasterSoundsLike.1-2)
The rice is Lakshmi's family's life—it is their food and their livelihood. So when it washes away, they're not just losing food—they're losing the ability to work and make money, which means this loss is both practical and emotional.