The God of Small Things Love Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The original plan had been that Estha would sleep with Chacko, and Rahel with Ammu and Baby Kochamma. But now that Estha wasn't well and Love had been re-apportioned (Ammu loved her a little less), Rahel would have to sleep with Chacko, and Estha with Ammu and Baby Kochamma. (4.254)

In Rahel's mind, Estha gets to sleep in Ammu's room not because he's sick, but because Ammu has started loving Rahel less.

Quote #5

[Sophie Mol] arrived on the Bombay-Cochin flight. Hatted, bell-bottomed, and Loved from the Beginning. (5.116)

After Ammu tells Rahel that careless words come with the danger of being loved less, Rahel seems to feel that she needs to earn the love she receives. Sophie Mol, on the other hand, doesn't have to do anything to deserve anyone's love; she has it from the moment she steps off the plane.

Quote #6

For instance, [Velutha] saw that Rahel's mother was a woman.

That she had deep dimples when she smiled and that they stayed on long after her smile left her eyes. He saw that her brown arms were round and firm and perfect. That her shoulders shone, but her eyes were somewhere else. He saw that when he gave her gifts they no longer needed to be offered flat on the palms of his hands so that she wouldn't have to touch him. His boats and boxes. His little windmills. He saw too that he was not necessarily the only giver of gifts. That she had gifts to give him, too.

This knowing slid into him cleanly, like the sharp edge of a knife. Cold and hot at once. It only took a moment. (8.89-91)

Is your heart melting right now? Here, we see Velutha starting to fall in love with Ammu. He's known her forever, but now he sees her in an entirely new and different way.