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Similes
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Shoba’s Reveal:
While spending time together by candlelight due to a planned power outage on their street, Shoba suggests to Shukumar that they share secrets with each other in the dark. In an example of situational irony, Shukumar interprets this as a sign that Shoba wants to invest in rebuilding their relationship (in the wake of the loss of their stillborn child), when, really, she suggests the game in order to reveal to him on the final day of the power outage that she is planning to leave him.
The irony of this moment comes across in the following passage, in which Shukumar (who the narrator previously described as being “excited” for Shoba’s last secret), reckons with Shoba’s shocking reveal:
All this time she’d been looking for an apartment, testing the water pressure, asking a Realtor if heat and hot water were included in the rent. It sickened Shukumar, knowing that she had spent these past evenings preparing for a life without him. He was relieved and yet he was sickened. This was what she’d been trying to tell him for the past four evenings. This was the point of her game.
Here Shukumar tries to make sense of this ironic twist—Shoba had seemingly been opening up to him when, behind his back, she had been “asking a Realtor if heat and hot water were included in the rent” and “preparing for a life without him.” After putting the pieces together, he concludes bitterly that “this was the point of her game.” This is one of many examples in the story of the couple having trouble communicating with each other, a direct result of the loss of their child and their inability to, together, face their grief.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Childbearing Hips:
In one of the many short flashbacks in the story, the narrator describes a day that Shoba (then pregnant) and Shukumar went to an outdoor market in Boston to buy a large amount of food to store and freeze. This scene contains a subtle example of situational irony, as the narrator references Shoba’s “childbearing” hips:
[Shukumar] watched in disbelief as [Shoba] bought more food, trailing behind her with canvas bags as she pushed through the crowd. […] She didn’t mind being jostled, even when she was pregnant. She was tall, and broad-shouldered, with hips that her obstetrician assured her were made for childbearing.
Here the narrator describes Shukumar’s “disbelief” that the pregnant Shoba so confidently “pushed through the crowd” at the market. They then describe Shoba’s “tall” and “broad-shouldered” form, as well as the fact that her obstetrician told her that her hips “were made for childbearing.” This is an example of situational irony because, as readers know by now, Shoba’s baby was stillborn. Shoba and her doctor’s confidence are rendered both tragic and ironic given the outcome of Shoba’s pregnancy.
The fact that the narrator—who is indirectly channeling Shukumar’s thoughts—mentions this detail here suggests that Shukumar, even when fondly recalling this scene, still feels bitterness and grief about the loss of his child.
Related Themes:
