How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
I remember looking up for the flare that had ever burnt on the top of the temple, and it was quenched; and the black demons of fear came shrieking at my ear and would not be silenced, for all that I repeated like a madwoman, "Fire cannot burn in water." (29.2)
Ruku knows Nathan is dying. Of all the things she’s endured in her life, this one alone cannot be rationalized. We see if she hadn’t been doing that the whole time, she might have been driven to madness. It brings to mind Hamlet’s potent line to Horatio in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (For more on Hamlet, see our module.) Ruku could bear the cruelty of nature to her harvests and livelihood, but she cannot bear nature’s inevitable touch of death. Like her other philosophical moments, she’s philosophizing on the truth of nature, but this philosophy doesn’t bring her any comfort – it only exposes that man is powerless in the face of natural events.