1. Iqbal Novel Study Name: Samantha Amante
Quotable Passages Date: January 31, 2011
TOTAL: ________/15 marks
There are many quotable passages from chapter 7 in Iqbal. Below are four
important quotes.
You must respond critically to Passage 1 and Passage 4. Then choose either
Passage 2 OR 3 to reflect on.
In your response, consider commenting on some of the following: special
meaning, connection to a character’s thoughts and feelings, or why this quote
makes you think and want to know more.
You can write your response directly beneath the passage.
* PASSAGE 1
“It means that this kind of life isn’t right. We should return to our families; we
shouldn’t be chained to our looms and forced to work like slaves.” Page 50
RESPONSE:
The significance of this passage is that the way their life is, it isn’t supposed to be like
that. (Child labour isn’t right and that is what their lives are like.) They work from dawn
to dusk; children should be playing and going to school. They should be living a life that
they aren’t afraid of going into the Tomb. They should return to their families because
that’s where they would be loved, appreciated and could feel safe as well as have a
proper meal. The children should not be chained to their loom because they aren’t
animals; we usually chain our pets so children have the right to be free. These children
shouldn’t work like slaves, (because they are forced into a life the do not want, they
should have a choice in what they want their life to be like.) they’re mistreated and they
should be having fun not in a carpet factory. Iqbal was the one to say this quote because
he is the brave and most mature one, he actually believes that this isn’t right and they
should be freed. He has this in his mind that they could all be free and live a happy
normal life, not like Hussain Khan who believes that children are an investment.
Choose either passage 2 or 3. Do not answer both. Label your response either Passage
2 or Passage 3.
PASSAGE 2

2. ‘There was a precise rule among us: Never talk about the future. Not a single one of us
dared to say, “next summer,” or “in a year,” or, “when I’m grown up.” Oh yes, we
talked about things we liked to do, and we talked about the day our debt would be
cancelled. We talked that hope into the ground. But nobody really believed it. It was
sort of litany, a way to feel good. Otherwise what was left to us?’ Page 53
OR
PASSAGE 3
“Fatima,” he said in a low voice, “next spring you and I are going to fly a kite.
Remember that, whatever happens.” Page 54
RESPONSE: PASSAGE 2
The significance to this passage is that no one wanted to talk about their future because
no one wanted to get their hopes up to have them crushed. Fatima has been working
their for three years and still didn’t see a difference in her slate, no one thought that
they would someday be free, to see different things, to experience new situations. They
do like to talk about things they would like to do because it took their mind off of the
work they had to do, the situation their in. They talked that hope into the ground
because they were afraid of thinking they would someday get to do all these things but
later find out that the dept could never be erased. They couldn’t predict their future or
plan ahead to when their dept would be finished because they saw that the lines on the
slate hardly changed.(They didn’t have much left, they got there happiness, hope,
freedom, future education and most importantly their families taken away from them.
Basically all they had left was their own futures but they weren’t sure how to change
their future themselves.)
* Chapter 8 - PASSAGE 4
‘Before Iqbal’s arrival I had been resigned to my life. I couldn’t even imagine a
different one. Iqbal had sown the seeds of hope in all of us.’ Page 62
RESPONSE:
The significance to this passage is that all the children went back to their usually,
unhappy schedule. They worked from dawn to dusk, eating the little meals they had and
no one really talked much anymore. When Iqbal wasn’t there, no one really had
anything to look for, they had no hope. After Iqbal was there, the children began to
listen to what Iqbal was saying. They actually started to see the light in all the dark, they
thought that they would someday be free and get to go home to their families. (Iqbal
was like a gardener,) he had put in their mind that they would he free of the dept and

3. would once again be happy. (The quote is like Iqbal was the gardener who had planted
the seeds of hope into their minds.)