How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[Margaret Kochamma] took with her to her grave the picture of her little daughter's body laid out on the chaise lounge in the drawing room of the Ayemenem House. Even from a distance, it was obvious that she was dead. Not ill or asleep. It was something to do with the way she lay. The angle of her limbs. Something to do with Death's authority. Its terrible stillness. (13.93)
This moment directly contrasts with the moment at the funeral when Rahel is convinced that Sophie Mol is still alive.
Quote #8
They ran along the bank calling to her. But she was gone. Carried away on the muffled highway. Graygreen. With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night the broken yellow moon in it.
There was no storm-music. No whirlpool spun up from the inky depths of the Meenachal. No shark supervised the tragedy.
Just a quiet handing-over ceremony. A boat spilling its cargo. A river accepting the offering. One small life. A brief sunbeam. With a silver thimble clenched for luck in its little fist. (16.24-26).
Sophie's drowning is portrayed in a very matter-of-fact way. We don't see her suffering or struggling; she's merely "handed over" to the river. What's terrible about her death isn't necessarily the way she dies – it's the fact that she's dead.
Quote #9
A sparrow lay dead on the backseat. She had found her way in through a hole in the windscreen, tempted by some seat-sponge for her nest. She never found her way out. No one noticed her panicked car-window appeals. She died on the backseat, with her legs in the air. Like a joke. (17.7)
When you think about it, this death resembles the kind of "point-of-no-return" way that Sophie Mol dies. The sparrow enters an unknown territory and never comes out, just as Sophie Mol climbs into the boat and sets out across the river, never to come out alive again.