The Storyteller's Secret

“To share my sorrow meant reliving the past with the one person who had already experienced it. I was too weak to carry his grief atop mine, so it seemed safer to stop sharing.”

At the beginning of the narrative, Jaya’s separation from Patrick is largely due to the emotional distance she creates between them. Unable to reconcile her loss, Jaya withdraws from Patrick as a way to protect herself, but this damages them both. Once Jaya gets to India, she realizes how little she has shared with her husband in recent years.

“The bird’s course was set from the start. He wasted time in trying to be different.”

In response to a story Amisha tells Deepak on their wedding night, Deepak reaffirms their culture’s gender expectations by stating that the bird in Amisha’s story is foolish for attempting to find a different path in life. This reflects Deepak’s deep traditionalism and his continual suppression of Amisha’s independence.

“In the hierarchy of her new home, Amisha knew she had no place of importance. She was subservient first to her elders and then to her husband.”

As a new wife, Amisha enters into a lifelong contract with Deepak’s family to uphold expected familial duties and chores. Amisha’s voice is completely lost in her new home, as social norms dictate she must follow the orders of her new family without complaint. She has no freedom or independence.

“If you make the choice, then choose wisely. Your servant will know all your secrets.”

After Chara gives Amisha permission to hire her own servant, she foreshadows Ravi’s role in the novel as Amisha’s storyteller and secret-keeper. Ravi becomes Amisha’s closest friend and confidant due to his continual proximity to her most intimate ideas and dreams.

“It was always the same with a new story or poem. The words came to her at inopportune times and plagued her until they were expressed.”

Amisha’s creative energy is her refuge from the submissive role she plays as a woman in Hindu society. Amisha’s compulsive need to write drives her to consider the English school and leads her to Stephen.

“However, neither the war nor the increase in uprisings in the cities for India’s freedom touched her family member’s lives.”

At the beginning of the novel, colonialism does not directly touch Amisha’s life. It is no more than a topic of conversation and way to reflect on Gandhi’s teachings. This reflects Amisha’s relative ignorance of and unfamiliarity with feminism, independence, and colonialism before she starts at the English school.

“It was the Raj’s defense for their occupation—they were helping to save the poor and disenfranchised. However, in that moment, Amisha couldn’t care about their reach or reason. All she could focus on was the chance she had.”

Amisha is still ignorant of the nuances of colonialism and doesn’t expect that the issue will directly concern her. Her focus is to extract as many opportunities from the British occupiers as she can by gaining an education she would otherwise be barred from in Hindu society because of her gender.

“I feared my desires would infringe upon my responsibilities.”

Amisha says this to Stephen as she enters the English school for the first time. The statement reflects the conflict Amisha will struggle against for most of the narrative: whether to put her focus on her children and house, or to pursue her creativity and find independence.

“Perhaps her writing was not an affliction to be tolerated, but a gift to be cherished and protected. Her stories were her only passport to places she had never been. Without them, she would be forever trapped in this village.”

Amisha’s creativity is her sole outlet of independence in the submissive role she must occupy in domestic Hindu society. Attending the English school is a way for her to assert herself, and Stephen’s encouraging influence inspires Amisha to consider her writing as a gift.

“The little time they did spend together was in the bedroom, but Amisha accepted that her marriage was no different from everyone else’s.”

Domestic roles require Amisha to be quiet and subservient to her husband, and Deepak to focus on building his business. They do not share their emotions, desires, or thoughts with one another, only connecting through their children. Because Amisha knows little of the world, she does not expect a deeper relationship than the one she is in now.

“Her look of disdain, Amisha suspected, reflected the way many of the British viewed Indians.”

The graceful and self-aware Miss Roberts treats Amisha with condescending English racism. The power structure in the school reflects the colonial dynamic, with English teachers viewing it as their right to mold Indian society according to their wishes.

“But from her marriage came her children, and no wish would make her sacrifice them.”

When discussing arranged marriages with Neema, Amisha reflects on the pros and cons of her own arranged marriage. Though her budding feelings for Stephen and her desire to write compel Amisha to desire greater freedom, her love for her children is stronger. This reflects the sacrificial nature of her concept of motherhood.

“For Amisha, it was the time when men and women came together without thought or concern of gender roles.”

Amisha particularly enjoys Holi celebrations, as she feels free to interact with and be respected by members of different social classes and genders. As someone who desires greater freedom for women in her society, Amisha most looks forward to times of happiness and unrestricted social interaction.

“I was judged for wanting more than I was allowed. Ridiculed and berated. You were the only one who understood and accepted. Who am I if I stand in judgment of you now?”

Ravi assures Amisha that he doesn’t judge her for her relationship with Stephen. Ravi instead values the strength of their friendship and Amisha’s acceptance that has so greatly improved his living conditions.

“It never occurred to me to ask permission or wonder if I was allowed to be more than others wanted.”

In a blog post, Jaya reflects on the privilege of growing up as a woman in America in comparison to a woman in India. Understanding Amisha’s story has allowed Jaya to come to terms with the fact that she has many choices open to her. She is not chained to any specific path in life.

“With every step, I process the level of poverty I have heard of but never seen.”

Jaya’s experiences in India force her to realize the privilege of her life in America. She comes directly in contact with poverty that she has only ever heard of, and is motivated to do something to improve the lives of those she encounters.

“The woman Stephen knew was not limited by boundaries but instead soared free in the world she created as a storyteller.”

Stephen’s influence motivates Amisha toward a life of greater independence; in her mind, this kind of freedom is linked to her creative abilities. As Amisha falls in love with Stephen and realizes how Deepak fails to see her as a person, she must decide whether to choose her established family or a future one with Stephen.

“Amisha valued her culture and its traditions that demanded unconditional love of children and family, and yet there were imperfections that she couldn’t ignore.”

Amisha has trouble reconciling her deep love for her culture and its insistence on her subaltern position within that culture. Though her religion preaches the value of familial bonds, those bonds do not reflect an egalitarian view of gender.

“We can’t define ourselves as long as someone else gives us our definition.”

When discussing the colonial presence of England in India with Stephen, Amisha’s views situate her firmly on the side of India’s independence. Colonialism is no longer a faraway issue that doesn’t affect her life, like at the beginning of the novel; rather, Amisha is directly involved with the social and cultural backlash to colonialism taking over all of India.

“Now, hearing about my grandmother’s sacrifice on the night of Karva Chauth, her willingness to show Stephen love with no guarantee of a future, I can’t help but think when we have nothing else, when there are no answers, faith is our greatest ally.”

Amisha’s life has begun to greatly influence Jaya, who reflects here on her grandmother’s perseverance and faith in love. When considering her own life, Jaya sees the lack of faith she displayed in her marriage and how she disappointed Patrick by not being more certain of their shared love.

“Without the benefit of choice, the only decision she could make was to care for Stephen while continuing in her duty to Deepak.”

Amisha’s subservient position as a woman in Hindu society limits her ability to choose her husband. Married off to Deepak at 15, Amisha never had a meaningful connection with a man until she met Stephen. Now, however, her children are an obstacle to her possible future with Stephen. 

“It was hard for her to see him as the officer she knew he was.”

As colonial tensions increase in the village, Stephen and Amisha find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Stephen’s sense of duty to England doesn’t fully register with Amisha’s mental conception of him until she sees his involvement in putting down the town’s riot.

“I am empty for never having had a child, as is my mother for never having had her father. In our loss I am linked to my mother—the woman I am just starting to know.”

Jaya’s final reconciliation with the limitations of her body allows her to sympathize with the difficult childhood her mother experienced. Jaya now sees that Lena’s emotional distance is a result of her traumatic upbringing; Jaya no longer blames her mother for her seemingly cold behavior.