How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #4
But if you are lucky,
or if you work hard at it,
you hear nothing.Nothing, perhaps, but the clicking of the fan overhead
the steady ticking away of seconds
until it is over. (85.WhatYouHear.3-4)
Lakshmi is doing something that psychologists call disassociation or flat affect. She is disconnecting from an act that usually elicits some emotion—in this case the act is sex—and trying to avoid an emotional response to it. Another way to look at this sort of shutting down she does it as a coping mechanism.
Quote #5
Once a month, Pushpa says, a government woman comes to the back door with a basket of condoms. Take a handful and hide them under your mattress, but do not let Shilpa, the aging bird girl, see you; she is Mumtaz's spy. (95.EverythingINeedtoKnowNow.8)
The condoms are meant to protect the girls in the house from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), though Mumtaz and Shilpa clearly don't care about the girls' physical health. STIs are fairly common among human trafficking victims.
Quote #6
In the days after the hugging man leaves, I consider myself in the mirror. My plain self, not the self wearing lipstick and eyeliner and a filmy dress.
Sometimes I see a girl who is growing into womanhood.
Other days I see a girl growing old before her time.It doesn't matter, of course. Because no one will ever want me now. (120.AmIPretty.1-3)
We can't help but pity Lakshmi as she looks at her real self for the first time in months. Lakshmi feels shame and guilt for an act she is powerless to stop. This sense of hopelessness and self-blame are common amongst people who have been trafficked and abused.