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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Henna Artist, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Choice, Independence and Women’s Freedoms
Family and Responsibility
Societal Hierarchy vs. Unordered Intimacy
Care and Communication
Creativity vs. Possession
Summary
Analysis
The baby is a day old, and after Radha pleads for hours, Lakshmi agrees that her sister can see the newborn. Lovingly, Radha admires the baby’s toes and fingers and blue eyes, just like the ones the sisters and their maa have. Radha longs to feed the baby—her breasts are swollen and achy—but Lakshmi thinks that is a bad idea. Lakshmi applies kajal to the baby’s forehead, black paste intended to prevent the evil eye.
The superstition of the evil eye dictates that someone can curse a child just by looking at them; in the northern states of India, the evil eye is known as buri nazar. Interestingly, the evil eye was often associated with people trying to steal a baby—so Lakshmi’s willingness to apply kajal involves some admission that the baby is Radha’s to have and hold.
Themes
Radha grows frustrated with Lakshmi’s refusal to engage with, or even really look at, the baby. Privately, Lakshmi knows that she, too, is in danger of growing attached. To Lakshmi’s horror, Radha announces that she wants to keep the baby and challenges Lakshmi to disagree, asking, “could you really give up your own family?” Lakshmi reminds her sister that she is family, too, and that the baby stands to destroy them both.
Radha understands family as a zero-sum game. But Lakshmi explains that, especially in a society so concerned with wealth and reputation, the definition—and the obligation—of family is more complicated. Lakshmi knows if Radha chooses to keep her baby, she will jeopardize them both, but she is also knows that Radha will forever feel the loss if her baby is adopted. When reputation holds so much weight, therefore, keeping a blood-related family together might not be possible.
Themes
As always, the two sisters launch into a fight: Lakshmi feels that Radha repaid all of her care and labor by recklessly having sex, whereas Radha insists that she and Ravi remain in love. Things escalate, and Lakshmi accuses her sister of being deluded about their circumstances—“parade this baby around the city,” Lakshmi warns, “and you will be the Bad Luck Girl forever!” That wounds Radha deeply, and she tells Lakshmi that she hates her, tears in her eyes and her frightened baby in her arms.
The very first scene of the novel shows how the term “Bad Luck Girl” destroys Radha’s sense of self. For Lakshmi to bring it up now confirms all of her sister’s worst fears—especially because Lakshmi does not really understand the day-to-day experience of Radha’s early life.
Themes
At that moment, Dr. Kumar walks in, while Lakshmi is overcome with guilt and shock at her own “cruelty.” Radha begs Dr. Kumar to let her keep the baby, but Kumar is firm that it is not his choice, since only Lakshmi (the legal guardian) can decide. Before he leaves, Kumar touches Lakshmi’s shoulder, reassuring her that everything will be okay.
Lakshmi has learned that people like Hari and Parvati can surprise in positive ways, but now she is discovering that “people can change” in negative ways, too.
Themes
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Radha accuses Lakshmi of controlling everything and reminds her older sister that she has been fending for herself for years (“Pitaji drunk. Maa barely there”). Finally, Radha admits that all she wants is family—that is why she came to Jaipur, and that is why she feels so instinctually drawn to this baby now. Lakshmi reflects that though Radha drives her crazy, she only wants the best for her.
Radha now inverts her sister’s arc: whereas Lakshmi has only ever wanted to be independent, Radha began her life in independence, as both her parents were too out of it to really be present with her. Now, each of the sisters has to meet in the middle, finding the balance between personal freedom and meaningful community.
Themes
Lakshmi knows that unlike Radha, her worldview has been shaped by the desperate women she encountered with her saas. “Where she saw joy,” Lakshmi muses, “I saw hardship. Where she saw love, I saw responsibility, obligation. Could they be two sides of the same coin?” Lakshmi gives her sister a tonic aimed at stopping the pain in her breasts. Radha is hesitant, but she gives in, drinking the tea while Lakshmi applies warm compresses to her nipples. For the first time, it dawns on Lakshmi that she shows love through healing, just like her saas.
This quote, one of the most important in the entire novel, at last allows Lakshmi to at once accept her sister’s differences and acknowledge their similarities. More than that, Lakshmi sees that there is obligation in love—but also love in obligation. Unlike in Lakshmi’s business relationships, she can feel the “joy” alongside the “hardship” with Radha. Lakshmi then externalizes this lesson by helping Radha to heal in the language she knows best: the language of herbs and medicine.
Themes
Two warbler birds fly outside the window, and Radha and Lakshmi admire them. Radha admits that she feels guilty her baby lived while Kanta’s did not. She also admits to Lakshmi that for a long time, she wanted Kanta to be her sister. But the day Kanta started to miscarry, she realized Lakshmi would be uniquely able to “make everything all right.” The two sisters hold hands, and Lakshmi feels her anger yield to love.
Just as Lakshmi embraces the language of doctoring, Radha begins to understand that her sister’s ability to tackle problems—to “make everything all right”—is a way of showing care. In other words, even though the sisters are not able to verbally articulate exactly how they feel about each other, they are able to get on the same page about how they show and receive love.
Themes
Radha and Lakshmi catch up: Radha has heard that Lakshmi has lost all her clients, and Lakshmi explains the rumors that she is stealing (“gossip-eaters,” she jokes). Kumar comes in to give Lakshmi the palace forms, though he also praises her healing talents. Despite the fact that Lakshmi looks terrible, Kumar’s eyes linger on her. As she is not ready to sign the forms yet, Lakshmi stalls. In the background, Radha thinks dreamily about what kinds of foods her baby might eat or what sports he might one day play.
Lakshmi’s “gossip-eaters” joke again demonstrates how much her life both parallels and reverses the arc of Radha’s (Radha dealt with nasty rumors as a child, while Lakshmi deals with them in adulthood). Lakshmi’s hesitance to sign the contract also reflects this reversal: for the first time, Radha is working a little bit harder to be practical while Lakshmi is buying in more to her sister’s dreams.
Themes
At long last, Radha tells her sister the full story: how she had pieced together that she had a “Jiji” slowly, over time, since their maa never spoke Lakshmi’s name. “You were everything I’d imagined,” Radha confesses, “I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you[…]I’d had time to get used to the idea of you.” Lakshmi tears up as she realizes this is the first time anyone has ever told her they love her.
Lakshmi frames her independence as a result of her ambition, but here it becomes clear that it is also a result of her childhood damage and loneliness. While Radha had “time” to imagine a familial future for herself, Lakshmi could only fret about how to win her parents back with material wealth.
Themes
Radha explains, one more time, how much she wants to keep the baby, and her simple, plaintive logic impacts Lakshmi deeply. For a moment, Lakshmi considers keeping the baby, but that doesn’t make financial or reputational sense. Suddenly, an idea occurs to Lakshmi: what if Kanta adopted the baby? She proposes this to Radha, knowing that once she has said the words, she can never take them back. Radha agrees, and Lakshmi vows to deal with the logistics.
For the first time in the novel, Lakshmi uses her problem solving skills—long devoted to the Sharma-Singh marriage and other such social politics—to benefit her own life and family. By having Kanta adopt the baby, Lakshmi sees a way to expand her family (embracing, as Radha has, Kanta and Manu as chosen family) instead of contracting it.
Themes
Kanta and Manu are overjoyed, and Radha tries to be happy for them, though Lakshmi notices her sister’s knuckles are white from clenching. Surprising Lakshmi, Kanta also offers that Radha should stay in her home and serve as the baby’s ayah (“nanny”). Manu, Kanta, Lakshmi and Radha hold each other, laughing and crying in exhaustion and relief.
Radha’s clenched knuckles show that there will always be compromise in figuring out how to keep family intact. Similarly, Kanta compromises by asking Radha to be her nanny, even though it will be painful to have her newly adopted child’s birth mother so present.
Themes
Soon after, Lakshmi goes to Dr. Kumar’s office. She explains that there has been a change in plans, and that Dr. Kumar needs to say that the baby has medical issues in order to break the contract. Kumar hesitates, but Lakshmi reminds him that “the wrong course can, at times, turn out to be the right one.” With that, Kumar writes to the palace explaining the baby’s abnormal heart rate. For a second, Lakshmi frets about who will pay the hospital bills—but before she can spiral, Dr. Kumar remarks that “Mrs. Agarwal will make a very fine mother. Very fine indeed.”
In order to survive in her rigid, stratified, society, Lakshmi (and all the women around her) have had to develop their own “rules”; what might be legally or customarily “wrong” turns out to be “right.” In his comment about Kanta, Dr. Kumar embraces this logic—a surprising level of empathy for someone who has benefited from the economic and patriarchal systems that have oppressed Lakshmi.
Themes
