Quotations

I've noticed that a lot of us are impressed with Roy's language. I was just wondered, do people have favorite quotations from the book? Here are two of mine:

"He stepped onto the path that led through the swamp to the History House.
He left no ripples in the water.
No footprints on the shore.
He held his mundu spread above his head to dry. The wind lifted it like a sail. He was suddenly happy.Things will get worse, he thought to himself. Then better. He was walking swiftly now, towards the Heart of Darkness. As lonely as a wolf.
The God of Loss.
The God of Small Things.
Naked but for his nail varnish."

"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much."

Comments

[Charlie B.]

I had a couple passages I really liked:

"...Because certainly no beast has essayed the boundless, infinitely inventive art of human hatred. No beast can match its range and power."
-p.225

"And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature."
-p.272
(I encourage you to read the whole section leading up to that as well, in case you don't remember the context...)

"[Margaret Kochamma] was perhaps too young to realize that what she assumed was her love for Chacko was actually a tentative, timorous, acceptance of herself."
-p.233

[Todd]

"Before three purple-robed Syrian bishops murdered by the Portuguese were found floating in the sea, with coiled sea serpents riding on their chests and oysters knotted in their tangled beards." pg.33 What an awesome image.

And my favorite quotation of the book, from pg. 218: "The Great Stories are the ones you have heard before and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again."

Justice.

[Rona K.]

My favorite is probably from page 71 when Roy writes “They had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath away from those whom they addressed.”

The quote refers to the degrading status of the Untouchables. I think it gives a really clear idea of how low their class is considered in society. I also find it creative how Roy used the description of polluted breath to describe the dirty perception of them.

[Jeff S.]

There are a lot of great quotes in this book, but one I really like is on page 197. It's when Kuttappen looks back on his mother Chella's death. He talks about how after she died, he was moved into the corner of the house where she used to be and he says,"Did it give them a choice of corners to die in?" when referring to people that lived in houses with more than four corners. I like this because it portrays the horrible effects of the caste system so well. Here, we see Kuttappen, an Untouchable, not to mention, a "good, safe Paravan" because he could not read nor write and was therefore truely adhering to the caste, unlike Velutha. Back to Kuttappen's quote though. He only recognizes what he's experienced himself, and this is shown because he has this idea about stationary death. The caste system keeps Kuttappen as isolated as possible.

[Kristin K]

I personally do not really have a particular favorite quote. I just love many different moments throughout this book. Roy uses language that is so unique to the way many other writers write. It seems as if the way that Roy writes is by presenting an issue, writing about it, and then using some profound way of summing it up such as "they all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much." This quote is constanly brought up after each encounter with the love laws. It is common to see this quote, and shows Roy's writing style. This is probably one of my favorite quotes of the book, and really represents Roy's writing style well.

[Reena]

I really like the imagery of a "____ - shaped Hole in the Universe."

[Charlie B.]

Todd's second quote rocks!