Animal’s People Major and Minor Quotes

“You were like all the others, come to suck the stories from us, so strangers in far off countries can marvel there’s so much pain in the world. Like vultures are you jarnaliss. Somewhere a bad thing happens, tears like rain in the wind, and look, here you come, drawn by the smell of blood…. Well, fuck that. No way was I going to tell those stories” (Ch. 2)

– Animal

Analysis: Animal begins his narration by addressing the journalist who asked him to tell his story. He compares the journalist, like the others who have come before, to a vulture, drawn to the suffering of the less fortunate. In this criticism, Animal also reveals his criticism of humanity, as he alludes to the power difference between the suffering Khaufpuri poor and the outsiders looking in. His reference to (presumably Western) “strangers” in “far off” countries further underscores this divide and points to the unavoidable disconnect between the two groups. Outsiders may be curious or fascinated by the pain they observe or read about, but they are able to detach themselves, can feel safe from their distance, and therefore never truly understand what the suffering people experience. (Such is Animal’s criticism of Elli when she grows frustrated that the Khaufpuri are not visiting her medical clinic.)

Animal’s outright refusal to tell those stories, then, is an effort to control his own narrative, and in doing so, take back his power from the profiting outsiders. This rebellious attitude is also an early indication of Animal’s defiance of the expected; just as he refuses to conform to the journalist’s expectations for him, he rejects society’s expectation for him to be human and declares himself an animal. At the same time, his recognition of the danger of a single narrative perspective—that of the plight of the suffering, rather than the full perspective of their rounded lives—suggests that Animal is more attuned to humanity than he wants to believe.

“Elli, I don’t need a watch because I know what time it is. It’s now o’clock. Look, over there are the roofs of the Nutcracker. Know what time it’s in there? Now o’clock, always now o’clock. In the Kingdom of the Poor, time doesn’t exist” (Ch. 12)

– Animal

Analysis: Animal’s conversation with Elli further highlights the disconnect between the Western outsiders—good-intentioned as she may be—and the suffering poor. The suffering are not afforded the privilege to look ahead to the future, as they instead can only focus on surviving each day. A clock may not tell them when it’s time to eat, but the churning in their stomach does; and when they are starving, unable to eat, time passes as they bind their stomachs or fill up on water. To the poor, hunger is the marker of night and day, and time has no meaning. It is for this great suffering that the poor also live without hope or any desire to rebel against the oppressive powers that keep them impoverished—and for which Western outsiders will never be able to truly understand their situation.

“So after all, we won. The power of nothing rose up and destroyed our enemies” (Ch. 23)

– Animal

Analysis: Animal’s criticism of the journalists’ and photographers’ singular narrative of the Khaufpuri people is that it only showcases their suffering, their tragedies. It is in their great suffering, however, that the Khaufpuri people gain the most power; because they have nothing, they have nothing to lose. This is the power that drives Zafar, Animal, Nisha, Farouq, and the others in their quest for justice and, ultimately, helps them to find it. It is when they are most desperate, brought even to the point of death, that they are able to take control back from the Kampani and prevent it from evading responsibility for the thousands of Khaufpuri deaths it has caused. This strength of the Khaufpuri people—who did lose everything—counters the images the curious Western journalists have created.

“The world of humans is meant to be viewed from eye level.” (Ch. 1)

– Animal

“What can I say that they will understand? Have these thousands of eyes slept even one night in a place like this? Do these eyes shit on the railway tracks? When was the last time these eyes had nothing to eat? These cuntish eyes, what do they know of our lives?” (Ch. 2)

– Animal

“In this way I learned that if you act powerless, you are powerless, the way to get what you want is to demand it.” (Ch. 2)

– Animal

“Having nothing means we have nothing to lose. So you see, armed with the power of nothing we are invincible, we are bound to win.” (Ch. 4)

– Zafar

“A desperate business is hope, not to be encouraged if you can be content with small happiness, but the curse of human beings and this animal alike is that whatever you have, always you want more” (Ch. 4)

– Animal

“Grim animal living without hope, that’s how I saw myself. I asked nothing, expected less and was filled with anger at the world.” (Ch. 7)

– Animal

“Hope dies in places like this, because hope lives in the future and there’s no future here, how can you think about tomorrow when all your strength is used up trying to get through today?” (Ch. 12)

– Animal

“What makes a thing itself is it always keeps its difference from other things.” (Ch. 16)

– Animal

“This world no longer pretends to be made of such things as music and promises but announces its true nature, which is love. […] Thus do we spin and spin, trying to turn a moment’s pleasure into forever, but why not, let’s make the most of it, because it never lasts long. Always, there’s something along to spoil it.” (Ch. 16)

– Animal

“You have understood something worthwhile, my friend, in the end the only way to deal with tragedy is to laugh at it.” (Ch. 19)

– Zafar

“We have the world, while we still have life.” (Ch. 20)

– Animal quoting Zafar

“My father’s precious justice is of no use, our government’s of no use, courts are of no use, appeals to humanity are no use, because these people are not human, they’re animals.” (Ch. 21)

– Nisha

“A broken rib may mend,” says the lizard, “but your nature you can never change. You are human, if you were an animal you would have eaten me.” (Ch. 22)

– Talking lizard in Animal�s hallucination

“Is life so bad? If I’m an upright human, I would be one of millions, not even a healthy one at that. Stay four-foot, I’m the one and only Animal.” (Ch. 23)

– Animal

“All things pass, but the poor remain. We are the people of the Apokalis. Tomorrow there will be more of us.” (Ch. 23)

– Animal