The Hero's Walk

Each chapter title corresponds symbolically to subsequent events. The title for Chapter 1 is “By the Sea,” and Chapter 1 establishes the sea as a central symbol of the narrative. Furthermore, the fictional city of Torturpuram, India, which is the main setting, is a coastal city. The sea is a major symbol throughout the novel and will reappear in different ways. Even though Torturpuram is fictional, it is near the real city of Madras; and as the author herself admits, Torturpuram is heavily based on that city (the Reader’s Guide at the back of the novel). Additionally, “Morning in Big House,” i.e. Chapter 2, establishes Big House as a further representation of the Rao family. Chapter 3, “The Storm,” uses storm imagery in several ways. Most significantly, the storm symbolizes Maya’s death and its subsequent consequences on the other characters. Chapter 4’s title, “Histories,” gives a brief backstory on Ammayya and her late husband, Narasimha Rao, all told from Sripathi’s point-of-view. This insight into their past will provide a cause-and-effect analysis not only of Ammayya’s behavior, but also Sripathi’s, Putti’s, and even Nirmala’s.

One of the most important aspects of Sripathi’s personality, including his paradoxical nature, takes place with his enjoyment in criticizing the world around him through “letters to the editor.” Sripathi first discovered the cathartic nature of writing letters when he was young. He used the letters to vent his frustrations and emotions which he otherwise kept to himself and refused to express otherwise. Sripathi feels on obvious sense of pride in seeing his words printed in the newspapers (8), yet he prefers to remain anonymous, signing his letters Pro Bono Publico, which in simplified Latin means “for the good of the public.” Sripathi views his letter writing as something heroic, akin to the stories of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, and Jhanda Singh the Invisible, but he fights with the pen rather than the sword. These references to comic-book heroes underscore the novel’s title, and the first notion of heroism comes up here, though it’s not at all answered. The theme of what it means to be a hero reveals itself slowly as the story progresses and will unfold in stages.

The fact that Sripathi remains anonymous, however, is not due to a desire for humility. Rather, Sripathi remains anonymous out of a sense of shame. He does not want his friends and family to know what he is writing, because he feels that such activities are also a waste of time since it does not earn any money. This idea that actions are only worthwhile if they earn money is one of the core elements of his personality and the main cause of the rift between him and his son, Arun. Furthermore, writing the letters sparks increased feelings of guilt for having failed in becoming a doctor, and his disappointment and frustration with his job. He feels guilty for having quit medical school, and has since been stuck in a dead-end, unfulfilling job working in advertising, writing hackneyed jingles. The fact that Nirmala is aware of Sripathi’s letters is evidence that he fears judgement, at least from his wife, and one can assume also from Arun.

Another important element in the first section involves narration. The narration is from the third-person omniscient perspective. Furthermore, this section introduces two parallel narratives. Sripathi narrates the main narrative mostly, which involves the Rao family, though this perspective also shifts to Nirmala, Putti, and even Ammayaa. The second narrative is from Nandana’s perspective and always appears at the end of a chapter, after the main narrative. The two narratives remain detached until Sripathi arrives in Vancouver and takes Nandana back to India, where the two narratives eventually merge.

Many of the interfamilial conflicts that arise and play a central role in the novel crop up in these first chapters; namely, the strained relationship between Sripathi and Nirmala, Sripathi and Arun, and the fact that Sripathi and Maya’s relationship suffered so greatly that Sripathi refused to speak to or see her anymore. The reason doesn’t come up in these first few chapters, but Maya, in Sripathi’s eyes, dishonors the family by breaking off her engagement to Prakesh and marrying a foreigner, Alan Baker. The idea of familial honor as a cornerstone of Sripathi’s belief system arises in Chapter 1 and reinforced in subsequent chapters, especially in Chapter 4, when Sripathi completely turns against his father for having a mistress and humiliating his mother, Ammayya. What is most important is to realize that even though Sripathi has not spoken to his daughter for nine years, he is, nevertheless, devastated by her death. He begins remembering times before his feud with her, revealing a complex psychology based on his sense of duty and honor and love for his daughter, which for him become mutually exclusive elements when Maya breaks with tradition. This seeming paradox of disappointment/anger and love becomes Sripathi’s central conflict that has driven and controlled most of his actions throughout his life, as will come up in subsequent chapters. Maya’s death illustrates the chaos, mistrust, and antagonism inherent in multiple generations of the Rao family, and her death becomes the catalyst for much-needed change.

The anger and animosity with which Ammayya confronts the members of her family took root in her first betrayal at the hands of her husband, who not only betrayed her physically by having a mistress, but who also betrayed her traditionally by not being a good provider for the family and leaving them as paupers after his death. Sripathi further reinforced this sense of victimhood and betrayal when he quit medical school. Much of Sripathi’s childhood involved training him to become educated enough to achieve a well-paid profession later on. This, of course, in traditional Indian society and culture became even more important to Ammayya after Narasimha’s death, because as a woman Ammayya couldn’t and shouldn’t earn money. The feeling that she cannot rely on anyone drives both her behavior towards her daughter, Putti, whom she will not allow to marry because it would mean Putti would no longer be around to take care of her, and her animosity towards life and family, which she sees as nothing but disappointments. Sripathi, in the role of a disappointment, has already come up, but she also dislikes Nirmala because she came from a poor family as well, meaning she did not bring a dowry that would alleviate her penurious situation.

In Chapter 2, on page 35, Nirmala says something to Sripathi that illustrates the core of her personality, and something that will influence her later behavior in the novel. She says, “I am tired of behaving myself.” Nirmala is a good Hindu wife. She does what others expect of her, including going along with her husband’s wishes. This is the major reason why she did not take it upon herself to end the feud between her daughter and her husband, something she increasingly regrets. From this point on, Nirmala begins to defy Sripathi and Ammayya and do things the way she feels they need to happen, which will be discussed as the events emerge in the subsequent chapters. Suffice it to say, that at the beginning of the book, the Nirmala character is a stereotype, but this open statement of rebellion is a turning point in her life and makes her a dynamic character capable of change rather than being simply Sripathi’s wife.

Syntax appears as an important literary device throughout the narrative. This is the author’s expression of the English spoken in southern India that takes influence by others of the indigenous tongues. Some characters speak Kannada, which is a type of Dravidian language spoken in southern India. It is the native language of the area, along with Tamil, which is also Dravidian. The most notable difference in syntax is the occasional placement of a subordinate clause before the main clause. For example, “In another world you are living, or what?” (20). This usage mostly appears in the less educated characters like Koti, Putti, Ammayya, and Nirmala. Nandana does not display such usage, nor does Sripathi, who holds a university degree. Characters will also use non-standard onomatopoeia, such as “ghash-phash” for the sound blood makes being pumped through veins (22), or reduplication for emphasis or to project a slightly different meaning than the word alone. For example, in the following sentence, a word repeats to emphasize Sripathi using esoteric terms that his uneducated wife does not know the meaning thereof: “That’s all you are capable of—writing big-big words with different colored pens […]” (43). Reduplication is relatively common in the languages of India.