How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
She had no relatives left—no person on whom she had any claim—certainly there was no one to enquire whether she made a living or how much longer she could continue to do so. Better to avoid such questions, better to pass quickly by with a cheerful word than to stop and ask, for who would lightly take on the burden of feeding another mouth? And so one day she quietly disappeared. They found her body on the path that led to the well, an empty mud pot beside her and the gunny sacking tied around her waist. She had died of starvation. (21.2)
Old Granny was alone in her poverty, and Ruku had to be remote from her because of Ruku’s own poverty. Poverty not only makes you unable to help yourself, it puts you in a position where you can’t help others, no matter how much you want to. Ruku lives in a community beset by poverty, and its crippling effect often incapacitates the community. It costs friendships and lives, and there is nothing to be done in the face of it. One can only walk by and pretend to ignore the hungry bellies of others, as if unable to hear over one’s own rumbling stomach.
Quote #5
"I would do so if only it were in my hands. But what comfort can one offer a man who sees his family wholly dependent on him and no one else to see to them?" (23.7)
Ruku worries that she sounds selfish when she says Nathan has good reason to be worried because his whole family relies on him. Still, she knows it’s the truth. The family lives in poverty, in some part, because of Nathan’s choice to stay on rented land (and his inability to buy it). They rely entirely on Nathan to just get by. Ultimately there’s little anyone else in the family can do to get them out of poverty, as Ruku says the land is a man’s domain. As the other men in their life have deserted them, their poverty rests on Nathan’s shoulders. The cultural and physical bounds of society (where only men can do valuable economic work on the land) are intertwined with the economic reality of poverty.
Quote #6
"We must go to Murugan. He has a good job—I am sure he will welcome his parents."
"It is a long way. With respect, you are not as young or as fit as you were."
"Yet the effort must be made," said Nathan, "for we cannot live except by the land, for I have no other knowledge or skill; and as you say I am getting on and for me it would be impossible to find another landlord. Who indeed would rent his land to such as I am, past hard labour and uncertain of paying what I owe?" (23.71)
Poverty is crippling – you work and work to make just enough to get by, and in the end you sacrifice your future. Nathan has been able to keep his family afloat with the work of his body – still, he has not made enough to protect them in the time when his body is broken. In the end, his only recourse is to beg for charity from his son. Work kept his family just shy of poverty, so once he is unable to work, his family ends up in dire straits. This isn’t just a Third World problem of the past; it’s the plight of the modern poor who don’t make enough for retirement, and who can’t pay their medical bills once they no longer work. Again, poverty is a feedback loop, you can’t get out of it once you’re in it, and there’s no lifesaver but charity.