Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

The confusion of culture, another major consequence of British colonialism in India, is a striking
commonality raised in this book. The British arrive in India and force their cultural rules of education and
business on the inhabitants. What results is a mixture of British and Indian culture that is confusing and
incompatible with Indian values. A paradoxical hate and desire for English things and culture can be seen
through Sai and Gyan’s relationship. Sai introduces Gyan to British ways at the dinner table, and what
disgusts Gyan most is not that he has eaten British food, but that he enjoys it.
Other characters, like Biju, hold on to their Hindu values zealously. Desai’s narrative consistently
brings readers back to America where, sickened by the practice of Indians eating beef, Biju turns to a purity
of Hinduism that he had not previously practiced. As he works at a restaurant in America, he watches as
many Indians reject their religion in efforts to be more American. Biju reflects: “Holy cow unholy cow.
Job no job. One should not give up one’s religion, the principles of one’s parents and their parents before
them. No, no matter what” (Desai 151). He decides that, in order for an uneducated and poor Indian to
get ahead in America, the rejection of traditional Hindu values is required. This is something he is
unwilling to do, and when he returns to India, he is more Hindu than when he left it. Readers could not
have seen this dilemma of culture, faced by so many of the characters, without these shifts in narrative.
Through showing and not telling the story through the eyes of each character, Desai creates a threedimensional
view of an Indian life heavily influenced and complicated by the vestiges of British colonialism.
The quality of life and love in a post-colonial country is seen through Desai’s artful omniscient
narrative. Her technique allows her to fully develop each of the main characters in such a way that readers
feel for them and hope for them. Desai makes readers realize that human beings are all connected and are
part of a human narrative. In realizing that her sadness was for herself only, Sai understands that she is not
alone in her despair. At the end of the book, Sai grasps the idea that despair and loss are everywhere and
that they affect everyone: “Never again could she think there was but one narrative and that this narrative
belonged only to herself, that she might create her own tiny happiness and live safely within it” (355). She
413