How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As the author, I alone love her. I suffer on her account. (3.58)
Yeah, sure, but it's probably not the same kind of suffering Macabéa feels. It's more like, "Oh, I feel so bad for you!" Which, not to invalidate it, but it's not quite the same as brutal beatings and constant starvation.
Quote #2
Her aunt would use her knuckles to rap that head of skin and bones which suffered from a calcium deficiency. (3.62)
This is just hard-core suffering in the form of physical abuse. The weird thing is that later, during her visit with the fortuneteller, the narrator informs us that Macabéa "had always believed that her aunt had treated her badly for her own good" (5.396). Is there anyway to think of this early suffering as good for her? Or has it just ruined her life totally?
Quote #3
For the past twelve months she had been suffering from a persistent cold. In the early hours of each morning, she was seized by a fit of hoarse coughing, which she tried to smother with her limp pillow. (3.74)
So, yeah. Not a year-long cold; actually tuberculosis. Not to mention the rickets she developed in childhood. These are both diseases of the poor, and they're still common all over the world. It's pretty awful.