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Baby Mol
JoJo is Thamb’ran’s two-year-old son who quickly bonds with the young bride, shadowing her through the house and sleeping with his hand tangled in her hair. He’s playful and attention-hungry—staging small dramas and stunts—and he startles at bathing, showing the family’s inherited fear of water. His death after a flip gone wrong into a rain-filled ditch shatters the household and forces Big Ammachi to confront the family genealogy of drownings she later names “the Condition.”
JoJo Quotes in The Covenant of Water
The The Covenant of Water quotes below are all either spoken by JoJo or refer to JoJo . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7 Quotes
The girl who shivered at the altar, who now lies beside her husband, who is now with child, cannot see that one day she will be the respected matriarch of the Parambil family. She doesn’t know that in time she’ll earn the label with which JoJo has christened her, the first English word the little fellow learned, and at once offered her, not to tease her about being tiny, but in tribute: “Big.” He called her “Big Ammachi.” She doesn’t know that she’ll soon be Big Ammachi to one and all.
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Chapter 9 Quotes
“I need to know about”—she wrings her hands in exasperation—“about the Condition.”
She has just christened it. Surely that’s the first step. She’s named this thing that she has sensed from the time the marriage was proposed: the whispers about drownings running in the family, the house built away from water, his distaste for rain, his strange way of bathing—the very things that afflicted their son. The Condition. You can’t ask how to hunt a snake if you don’t have a name for it.
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JoJo Character Timeline in The Covenant of Water
The timeline below shows where the character JoJo appears in The Covenant of Water. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...his compassion, telling him that the bride could be a mother to his two-year-old son JoJo and that she will grow into the role of wife in time. Slowly, he softens...
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Chapter 3
...home, she dreams of playing with cousins in a lagoon, then wakes beside Thankamma and JoJo. The house feels strange and quiet, missing the sound of running water she grew up...
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...offers the bride a sprig of jasmine with its trunk. Its calm presence reassures her. JoJo watches in wonder, and the bride carries him outside to follow the animal. Together they...
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Chapter 4
...swiftly in the kitchen—fanning embers, stirring pots—and Mariamma watches, eager to learn. During the day, JoJo proudly shows the bride the L-shaped house: its storerooms, kitchen, and the muttam (pebble courtyard),...
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Chapter 5
...to her own home, the bride suddenly feels the weight of running the household alone. JoJo clings to her constantly, even sleeping with his hand tangled in her hair, which eases...
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...hours, avoiding getting wet. Over time, the bride begins to sense the spiritual presence of JoJo’s late mother in the house, which seems to guide her work. The feeling steadies her,...
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Chapter 6
...made the breezeway outside the kitchen her own space, where she cooks and teaches five-year-old JoJo his letters. Shamuel notices her rereading a single old newspaper and begins bringing her a...
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That night the bride discovers a Bible at the bottom of JoJo’s late mother’s trunk. The following Sunday, Thamb’ran dresses in white and takes her to church...
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Chapter 7
The bride wakes one morning unable to shake an overwhelming sadness. JoJo, now 10, stays close and helps her to the kitchen, but even tending the hearth...
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Chapter 8
...leaving Big Ammachi sleepless. Dolly moves into Parambil to help with chores and watch over JoJo, while Big Ammachi’s mother takes charge of the kitchen. JoJo, no longer the sole focus...
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Then tragedy strikes. After days of rain, JoJo climbs a tree, grabs a wet vine, and attempts a flip to impress the younger...
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...Thamb’ran appear, racing down a nearby path. Thamb’ran gets down on his knees and presses JoJo’s body to his chest. Meanwhile, Big Ammachi runs back to the house where Baby Mol...
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Chapter 9
Big Ammachi falls into a depression following JoJo’s death. Rage grows inside her at both God, who let this happen, and at Thamb’ran,...
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Big Ammachi tells Thamb’ran they could have kept JoJo safer if she had known, but he refuses to regret letting his son live fully....
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Chapter 23
In 1913, Big Ammachi struggles to restore order at Parambil after JoJo’s death. In the cellar, an empty pickling urn falls near her head, syrup spills across...
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...ripen in the pantry. She delays baptizing Baby Mol, telling God she cannot walk past JoJo’s grave to baptize another child. After measles and whooping cough nearly kill Baby Mol, Big...
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Chapter 25
...she pours water over his head, his eyes roll, and his limbs turn limp. Unlike JoJo, he laughs and crawls back to the water, treating it like a game. Big Ammachi...
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Big Ammachi buries Thamb’ran beside his first wife and JoJo. Weeks later, Big Ammachi hears digging in the muttam at night. She sits on the...
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Chapter 26
...at the water while Big Ammachi keeps a firm hold on him. Unlike Thamb’ran or JoJo, who never boarded a boat, Philipose wants to swim and grows determined to learn despite...
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Chapter 45
...Big Ammachi reminds Philipose that if the marriage goes forward, he must tell Elsie about JoJo’s drowning and Baby Mol’s condition so that there are no secrets.
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