In one of my other English classes just the other day, we had a lesson about the difference between hearing and listening, and by coincidence, I read this line in The God of Small Things just after the class: "He heard her out, but didn't really listen to what she was saying" (116). This is regarding Mammachi trying to caution Chacko about the preserves company.
Most people assume that, if you heard someone, you also listened to them, but these are two completely different things. To listen to someone requires you to actually take what they say into consideration and process it; to understand it in terms of your and the other person's life. I am going to continue to think about this binary while reading the rest of the novel and contemplate whether the characters are listening to each other or simply just disregarding what they say and moving on with their own personal problems. I have also been trying to think about this in my personal life regarding my interaction with others. I know I would want the people I talk to to listen rather than to just hear what I say.
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