Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fire on the Mountain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Freedom
Honesty and Self-Reflection
Trauma and Suffering
Class and Privilege
Female Oppression
Summary
Analysis
Ila Das rushes down the path hoping to make it home before it’s fully dark. Although the valley in which she lives is dusky, sunlight still burnishes the ridge high above—where Carignano sits—golden. The day had been hot, but the air is rapidly cooling. Ila Das shivers in the rising mist. She thinks about how sad it is to be old, alone, and destitute. She doesn’t know how much longer she will be able to bear it. In the growing darkness, birds settle into the trees for the night, and everything grows still and silent. Ila Das becomes keenly aware of herself as the only moving thing in the landscape. She wishes she had been able to forget her pride long enough to ask Nanda Kaul for help, or to beg the grainseller for charity.
The description of Ila Das’s descent suggests how far she’s fallen in life—she who started out on the same level as Nanda Kaul. She thinks of herself and her dire straits badly, yet the book tacitly criticizes Nanda Kaul (who is away on her untouchable, golden mountain) for failing to help a friend in need even though she knew she should. This contributes to Ila Das’s sense of isolation—technically, she has a friend. But practically, she might as well be the only person in the world at this moment.
Themes
Ila Das is almost running as she rounds the last bend in the road and comes in sight of the tiny, destitute hamlet where she lives in a flea-ridden little hovel. Then, a shadow rises from the side of the road and Preet Singh grabs her by the throat. Although she fends him off for a moment, he quickly overpowers her. He strangles her to death with her own scarf, tears off her clothing, and viciously rapes her.
In her old age, Nanda Kaul chose to protect herself by withdrawing as completely as possible from the world. Prevented by her circumstances from making a similar choice, Ila Das embraces helping others—her sister, the little girls of her village. In the end, she does the thing Nanda Kaul is afraid to do: she pays for her service with her life. Yet, the book presents her in this moment as the nobler of the two women. And, of course, her vulnerability to Preet Singh’s violence emphasizes the difficulty and danger of living in a society that devalues women.
Themes
