How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #1
We hid in the elephant grass to catch sight of Krishna, the boy with sleepy cat eyes, the one I am promised to in marriage. (2.BeforeGitaLeft.3)
This is a pretty common practice in some cultures. No, not spying from elephant grass—the idea of an arranged marriage. A boy and girl are promised to wed one another when they come of age. Arranged marriages have caused some controversy in recent years, but they are still fairly common in some countries and regions around the world. What's important here is that Lakshmi has grown in a society in which she doesn't have a choice in her husband—and in many things about men.
Quote #2
Ama says we are lucky to have a man at all. She says I am to honor and praise him, respect and thank him for taking us in after my father died.
And so I act the part of the dutiful daughter. (5.TheDifferenceBetween.3-4)
Here we see the importance of having a man within the household. Even though Ama and Lakshmi are arguably better off without the stepfather (c'mon, he does like no work ever and gambles away their money), having a man is socially better for them than having no man at all. It allows the women a certain status level that they would not have without a man in the house. But Lakshmi is clearly only acting the part. This lets us see the ability she has to deceive others, something that will serve her well in Happiness House.
Quote #3
On the mountain we mark time by women's work and women's woes. […]
This is also the seasons when the women drink the blue-black juice of the marking nut tree to do away with the babies in their wombs—the ones who would be born only to be buried next season. (7.Calendar.2,10)
Because of women's difficulties on the mountain, they take steps to prevent pregnancy from occurring. And they have to do it on the sly, because if the men knew that women were preventing children, well, who knows what would happen. This is one way that women retain power in a novel that, at first, seems to show only their powerlessness.