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Mali
Grace is the daughter of a Korean woman and an American G.I., who brought Grace and her mother to New Jersey and abandoned them there. While at college in Michigan, Grace meets Mali and becomes romantically involved with him. She accompanies him back to India to help him start a story-writing machine factory and lives with him and his father Jagan under the pretense that she and Mali are married. Unlike Mali, who is contemptuous of his father and his native country, Grace embraces Indian and Hindu culture and tries hard to become part of the family. Perhaps due to her biological father’s abandonment, she seems particularly happy to be Jagan’s “daughter-in-law,” making repeated overtures of friendship toward him. Though Jagan sometimes finds her naïve enthusiasm for India and Hinduism off-putting, he believes she is a “good girl.” When Jagan won’t provide the start-up money for Mali’s story-writing-machine factory and Grace’s savings run out, Mali and Grace’s relationship breaks down—suggesting that while Grace wanted to become part of Mali’s family, Mali was interested in Grace primarily as a future employee and a source of cash. When Jagan tries to convince Mali to marry Grace—as Grace alleges he promised he would—Mali claims that she is mentally unstable. Yet despite her past wounds and obvious unhappiness, Grace eventually moves out of Mali’s family home and gets a job at a hostel, implying that she is more resilient that Mali realizes.
Grace Quotes in The Vendor of Sweets
The The Vendor of Sweets quotes below are all either spoken by Grace or refer to Grace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Gradually his reading of the Bhagavad Gita was replaced by the blue airmail letters.
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Chapter 6
Quotes
Prayer was a sound way of isolating oneself—but sooner or later it ended: one could not go on praying eternally, though one ought to.
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Chapter 9
Quotes
“If she has nothing to do here, she goes back, that’s all. Her air ticket must be bought immediately.”
“But a wife must be with her husband, whatever happens.”
“That was in your day,” said Mali, and left the room.
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Chapter 10
Quotes
“Mo has no more use for me.”
“Use or no use, my wife—well, you know, I looked after her all her life.”
“Our young men live in a different world from ours and we must not let ourselves be upset too much by certain things they do.”
Chapter 11
Quotes
“Grace has been getting funny notions, that’s why I told you to pack her off, but you grudged the expenditure,” said Mali.
Chapter 12
Quotes
Jagan, as became a junior, was careful not to show too much personal interest in his marriage, but he was anxious to know what was going on.
They sent out three thousand invitations. […] Jagan’s whole time was spent in greeting the guests or prostrating himself at their feet as if they were older relatives. The priests compelled him to sit before the holy fire performing complicated rites and reciting sacred mantras; his consolation was that during most of these he had to be clasping his wife’s hand; he felt enormously responsible as he glanced at the sacred thali he had knotted around her neck at the most auspicious moment of the ceremonies.
Chapter 13
Quotes
“If you meet her, tell her that if she ever wants to go back to her country, I will buy her a ticket. It’s a duty we owe her. She was a good girl.”
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Grace Quotes in The Vendor of Sweets
The The Vendor of Sweets quotes below are all either spoken by Grace or refer to Grace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Gradually his reading of the Bhagavad Gita was replaced by the blue airmail letters.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
Prayer was a sound way of isolating oneself—but sooner or later it ended: one could not go on praying eternally, though one ought to.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
“If she has nothing to do here, she goes back, that’s all. Her air ticket must be bought immediately.”
“But a wife must be with her husband, whatever happens.”
“That was in your day,” said Mali, and left the room.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
“Mo has no more use for me.”
“Use or no use, my wife—well, you know, I looked after her all her life.”
“Our young men live in a different world from ours and we must not let ourselves be upset too much by certain things they do.”
Chapter 11
Quotes
“Grace has been getting funny notions, that’s why I told you to pack her off, but you grudged the expenditure,” said Mali.
Chapter 12
Quotes
Jagan, as became a junior, was careful not to show too much personal interest in his marriage, but he was anxious to know what was going on.
They sent out three thousand invitations. […] Jagan’s whole time was spent in greeting the guests or prostrating himself at their feet as if they were older relatives. The priests compelled him to sit before the holy fire performing complicated rites and reciting sacred mantras; his consolation was that during most of these he had to be clasping his wife’s hand; he felt enormously responsible as he glanced at the sacred thali he had knotted around her neck at the most auspicious moment of the ceremonies.
Chapter 13
Quotes
“If you meet her, tell her that if she ever wants to go back to her country, I will buy her a ticket. It’s a duty we owe her. She was a good girl.”
