- IMPORTANT QUOTES AND ANALYSIS

 

The following quotations are important at various points of the story (Random House, New York, 2003):

1. That guy's a fuckin' saint.

(pg. 16; This comment is made by a homeless man named Joe in Boston who only wants to take his AIDS medication and drink a six-pack of beer every day. Farmer gets him the beer.)

2. I feel ambivalent about selling my services in a world where some can't buy them. You can feel ambivalent about that, because you should feel ambivalent. Comma.

(pg. 24; Farmer said this when Kidder asked him if he shouldn't be compensated for what he does.)

3. Farmer narrates Haiti.

(pg. 28; This is how describes his explanations which bring forth his drawing of a moral about the suffering of the Haitian poor as well as the world's poor.)

4. Only in Haiti would a child cry out that she's hungry during a spinal tap.

(pg. 32; This comment emphasizes the sod plight of the poor in Haiti.)

5. Are you incapable of complexity?

(pg.35; An old woman makes this comment to Farmer to emphasize that the problems of the poor are not written in black and white.)

6. Farmer says that to understand Russia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Boston, or Sri Lanka, you just have to be on the top of that hill in Haiti.

(pg. 44; This comment makes the reader understand that all poverty can be understood if only you would stand on a hill in Haiti.)

7. Farmer's comment on his childhood was, The way I tell myself the story is a little too neat. I'd like to be able to say that when I was young I lived in a trailer park, picked fruit with Haitians, got interested in migrant farm workers, and went to Latin America. All true, but not the truth. We're asked to have tidy biographies that are coherent. Everyone does that. But the fact is a perfectly discrepant version has the same ending.

(pg. 54; Farmer sums up the irony that a somewhat abusive childhood would still produce a doctor.)

8. Physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should be largely resolved by them.

(pg. 61; This saying by Virchow was one of Paul's favorites.)

9. In the end, I hope you know that as part of my histology you can never be replaced.

(pg. 67; This is the final comment Ophelia makes in her letter to Paul explaining that she can't marry him.)

10. Accidents happen. Sure. But not every bad thing that happens is an accident. There was nothing accident about the wretchedness of the road . . . or the over-loaded truck . . . of the desperation of a peasant woman who had to get to market to make a sale, because otherwise her family would go hungry.

(pg. 73; This is Paul's explanation of the death of the Mango Lady.)

11. The Haitians believed that the rest of the world was wrong for screwing them over, and that someone, someone just and perhaps omniscient, was keeping score.

(pg. 78; This is why religion is so important to the poor of Haiti.)

12. Redistributive justice - we were just helping them not to go to hell.

(pg. 90; This is Paul's justification for stealing a microscope from Harvard Medical School.)

13. Ophelia knew Paul loved her, but for her, relations were strained: Te strain of living with a fellow who was in love with something else, something that I could never compete with, even if I wanted to.

(pg. 101; This is Ophelia's explanation for why she ultimately couldn't marry Paul.)

14. Perhaps this is a singular chance to change Haiti.

(p. 109; This was what Farmer wrote in his diary Aristide declared his candidacy for president of Haiti.)

15. The rocks in the water are going to find out how the rocks in the sun feel.

(pg. 110; Aristide declared this in one of speeches; it was a spin-off of a Haitian proverb.)

16. Jim Kim quotes Margaret Mead who said, Never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world. Jim then responds to that quote by saying, Indeed, they are only ones who ever have.

(pg. 164; This is one of the speeches Jim makes to appeal for money to help Peru.)

17. The sights of Haiti remind Kidder of Matthew 25 which says, Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me.

(pg. 185; Kidder is reminded of how little most of us who proclaim to be good Christians actually follow what Jesus said.)

18. Look! Only ninety miles from Haiti and look! Trees! Crops! It's all so verdant! At the height of the dry season! The same ecology as Haiti's and look!

(pg. 193; This is Farmer's excited comments as they land in Cuba.)

19. Knowing that this splendor came from the suffering of my ancestors.

(pg. 211; This was Paul's wife Didi's comment when he asked her if she thought Paris wasn't the most beautiful city in the world. The French had brought slaves to Haiti from Africa.)

20. Embracing a continuity and interconnectedness that excluded no one seemed like another of Farmer's peculiar liberties. It came with a lot of burdens, of course, but it also freed him from the efforts that many people make to find refuge and distinction from their pasts, and from the mass of their fellow human beings.

(pg. 219; Kidder makes comment about Farmer's willingness to doctor wherever he's needed.)

21. It's embarrassing that piddly little projects like ours should serve as exemplars. It's only because other people haven't been doing their jobs.

(pg. 257; This is Paul's reaction to his projects being exemplars in an article in Lancet.)

22. Paul tells Ophelia that he hears two sets of voices in his ears: the one from the world saying, This meeting's important; and the one from Haiti saying, My child is dying.

(pg. 260; Paul explains his feeling of being torn in so many directions.)

23. Lord, a word on all this.

(pg. 280; This is a bumper sticker on the back of a truck in Haiti and seems to sum up the seeming despair of an entire country.)

24. Paul begins his explanation of why he allowed all the money to be spent on John by summing up that he has fought his whole life a long defeat.

(pg. 288; This is what Kidder finally realizes motivates Farmer - winning over the long defeat.)

25. The world changed yesterday.

(pg. 299; Jim Kim writes this to Kidder when WHO finally adopted new prescriptions for dealing with MDR-TB.)