How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
We two unnamed babies, newly arrived, were without breath. If most newborns meet life outside the womb with a shrill, piercing wail, ours was the saddest of all songs: the stillborn's song of silence. (1.10.1)
The boys don't have names because one of their parents is dying and the other is busy falling apart. Their lack of names means they don't have an identity—no one has claimed them, no one will take care of them, and no one even realizes they are alive. And so they don't speak, or cry, either.
Quote #5
Why had Hema taken on the naming of the babies? It felt premature. He couldn't get his lips around the names. Were the names negotiable? What if Thomas Stone showed up? And why name the child of a nun and an Englishman after a Hindu god? And for the other twin, also a boy, why Marion? Surely it was temporary, until Stone came to his senses, or the British Embassy or someone made arrangements. Hema was acting as if the kids were hers. (2.15.18)
This paragraph is just packed with thoughts about how identity is constructed. First up, Hema names the babies, which is sort of like claiming them as her own kids. Would changing parents change the twins' identities?
Quote #6
No matter how far apart Hema put [the twins], when she came to them again, they would be in a V, their heads touching, facing each other, just as they had been in the womb. (2.15.55)
There's a strong argument for nature over nurture going on here. Whereas everyone treats the boys as though they were two separate people (because they are, physically), they remember where they came from. They share an identity as the conjoined twins, one and the same.