37 pages • 1 hour read
Nayomi MunaweeraIsland of a Thousand Mirrors
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
Part 2 opens with a new narrator, Saraswathi, in the northern Tamil region of Sri Lanka. Saraswathi grows up surrounded by violence and “gunfire echoes” (129) in a village of “roofless, bombed-out houses with bullet-splattered walls” (136). Children are regularly abducted from their homes to join the rebel forces, and young girls are targets for sexual assault. There are displacement camps Saraswathi’s family could escape to, but living in the family home by the lagoon is preferable to the conditions in the camps.
Saraswathi reflects that “there were seven of us before” (129), but her three brothers have all been lost to the war. Her two older brothers, recruited by Tamil Tigers who visited the village school, were inspired by promises of “a homeland where [they] would be safe from the Sinhala” (131). The deaths of these two brothers are certain, although the circumstances are unknown, and now both are considered martyrs for the Tamil Tiger cause. Saraswathi’s mother attempts to protect her youngest son by keeping him close, but he is abducted when he visits the local market, leaving only Saraswathi and her sister Luxshmi remaining with their parents in their small home by the lagoon.
Saraswathi admires her teacher and hopes to become a teacher herself one day. Going to school is dangerous, though, because there is the constant risk of being abducted and raped by soldiers or abducted and forced into the rebel army. There are also constant worries about suicide bombers, as anyone, “man, woman, child, may be bomb strapped, jiggling with flesh-tearing ball bearings secreted under skirts and shirts” (142).
One night as the family is preparing for bed, two female Tamil soldiers arrive to recruit Saraswathi. Saraswathi’s mother is distraught because she has already lost all three of her sons to the Tamil forces, but she knows better than to openly defy the Tamil soldiers. Before the Tamil recruiters return, though, Sinhalese soldiers abduct Saraswathi from her home while her family is visiting a grieving neighbor. Saraswathi’s neighbors watch from their windows as she is forced into a white van, but no one comes to her rescue. She is taken away from her village and interrogated by the Sinhalese soldiers before she is beaten and sexually assaulted, then left to return home in shame.
Saraswathi’s parents are ashamed of their daughter’s experience, as she is now considered spoiled. Her father cannot bring himself to speak to her, and her mother, although initially comforting, eventually tells Saraswathi that she must join the Tamil Tigers to avoid further shame upon the family. Saraswathi contemplates suicide as an escape from her fate, but she allows her mother to cut her hair in the close-cut style of the female Tiger soldiers, leaving her head feeling “suddenly light, suddenly airy” (160).
Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary
The narrative switches back to Yasodhara as she studies literature at university in America. Lanka is also attending university, where she secretly studies art. The year is 1989, and Yasodhara is left heartbroken by her first love when he leaves her for a younger university student. Visaka gently offers to arrange a marriage, and Yasodhara agrees to the endeavor that comes to be known as the Great Husband Hunt. Yasodhara and Lanka grow closer again in their adulthood.
Yasodhara is matched with Siddharth, whom she is drawn to over their shared memories of Sri Lanka before the civil war. They are married in Los Angeles, and Yasodhara continues her literature studies, balancing her marriage with her work toward a PhD. She finds herself falling in love with her arranged husband while Lanka pursues a love affair with her art history professor. Lanka is also left heartbroken when her professor leaves her for another student, but instead of turning to an arranged marriage, La heals herself through art. She grows confident and determined in her artistic ability.
Yasodhara discovers that Siddharth is having an affair, and the two grow distant. They try marriage counseling, but Yasodhara’s attempts to regain her husband’s affections leave her jealous and insecure.
La wants to return to Sri Lanka, and she invites Yasodhara to join her. Yasodhara worries that leaving Siddharth alone in America will enable him to easily pursue his love affair with the other woman, so she stays behind while La travels back to Sri Lanka to pursue a career as an art teacher.
In Sri Lanka La finds their old friend Shiva, who is now a hospital doctor. The two friends fall in love. Yasodhara finally decides to join La and Shiva in Sri Lanka after finding pictures of her husband and his lover, recognizing that she is the outsider in her own marriage (180). She buys a one-way ticket out of America, leaving the incriminating pictures behind with her wedding ring for her husband to discover.
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary
The narrative shifts again to Saraswathi, who is now at Tiger training camp in Sri Lanka. Saraswathi has turned her horrific experience at the hands of Sinhalese soldiers into hate-filled inspiration for revenge—not just revenge for her own experience, but revenge for all the crimes the Sinhalese have committed against the Tamil people. After six months of hard training, she kills her first Sinhala soldier without any qualms.
Saraswathi completes her Tiger training, earning back her family’s pride. She regularly participates in violent campaigns for the Tigers, killing even children. She still has nightmares of soldiers raping her, and these nightmares evolve into dreams of being forcefully intimate with the Tiger leader. She visits Tamil villages to recruit more Tiger soldiers, now serving the very role she once feared.
Inspired by Tiger martyrs, Saraswathi imagines herself as a suicide bomber. She returns home and attempts to recruit Luxshmi, who hopes to return to school and focus on her studies. The family is relieved when Saraswathi leaves again. The Tigers are her family now; her parents and sister are strangers from a former life.
Saraswathi is finally chosen to join the Black Tigers and receives her suicide mission. Her target is a Tamil politician in Colombo considered a traitor to the Tamil people.
Part 2, Chapters 8-10 Analysis
Part 2 introduces Saraswathi, the novel’s second narrator. Part 1 focuses entirely on Yasodhara’s family history in Southern Sri Lanka and establishes the tension between the Sinhala and Tamil people, whereas Saraswathi’s perspective allows readers to consider the conflict from a new angle, showcasing the daily struggles of someone who simultaneously fears the Sinhala soldiers and sees the Tamil Tigers as a force to be feared and respected. The rising action in Saraswathi’s narrative is quick-paced as she transforms from a potential school teacher to a vengeful suicide bomber, echoing Ravan’s quick transformation from hopeful and naive to vengeful. Her character development is fast compared to Yasodhara’s, serving to increase suspense as the novel approaches its climax.
Following Saraswathi’s encounter, Yasodhara’s voice and perspective ring of privilege in comparison. Back in Los Angeles, Yasodhara becomes a naturalized American citizen, worries about what she will study in college, and pursues a passionate love affair before agreeing to an arranged marriage; the contrast to Saraswathi’s experience is impossible to ignore. However privileged Yasodhara may be in comparison, though, her broken heart eventually brings her back to Sri Lanka and into Saraswathi’s sphere, uniting the women in a cycle of suffering. It’s significant that Yasodhara lands in Sri Lanka just as Saraswathi completes her character transformation into a suicide bomber. The two narrators are destined to cross paths somehow, and the suspense picks up as they come closer together.
