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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Inheritance of Loss, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Globalization
Poverty vs. Privilege
Home and Belonging
Gender and Misogyny
Power and Humiliation
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Gyan arrives at Cho Oyu restless and moody. He is angered by the luxury of the house and the fact that he must walk a long way in the cold for such a small amount of money. Sai comments on his lateness, and he becomes annoyed with her. She begins to talk about the Christmas party, but he ignores her and opens the physics book.
Gyan, now fueled by a sense of authority and superiority gained at the protest, begins to realize some of the unfairness in his own circumstances: first, that he is forced to take this job, and second, that he must walk two hours for extremely minimal pay.
Themes
They both begin to yawn—Sai yawns playfully; Gyan yawns in spite of himself in response. Sai asks if he is bored by physics. He yells at her that he is bored by her. He shouts that she shouldn’t even celebrate Christmas. He says that she is embarrassing herself by running after the West, and he calls her a fool. She asks why, if he’s so clever, he can’t get a job. Gyan yells that it’s because of people like her. Sai leaves the table.
Again, because of an atmosphere that hardened his own beliefs about inequality, Gyan begins to turn on Sai. Though he is certainly justified in addressing how the systems that reinforce her privilege also reinforce his poverty, his ability to do so is fueled by a misogyny that was reinforced by an all-male protest environment. He begins to attack her for cultural institutions that aren’t even hers, but instead had been propagated by a system of globalization and colonialism.
Themes
