The Inheritance of Loss: Chapter 28 Summary & Analysis

The judge thinks about his own hatred. When he had returned from England, he was greeted by Nimi, now nineteen, whom he had forgotten entirely. She draped a garland over him but didn’t meet his eyes. She remembered their bicycle ride, and he still found her attractive.

Nimi had later gone through the judge’s toiletry case, trying to learn a bit about English culture. She picked up the judge’s powder puff and powdered her breasts. She buttoned up her blouse and stuffed the puff inside it, filled with greed at the foreign, silky object.

Later the judge went to check his belongings and discovered that the powder puff had disappeared. He questioned the women in his family, asking if they had taken it. They asked what a powder puff was, and when he explained it, they laughed at him for “becoming a lady.” Then the rest of the family was questioned, and each time the embarrassment of explaining was repeated. The judge finally asked Nimi, who denied taking it. Then, he spotted the puff beneath her shirt.

The judge cornered Nimi in the bedroom. An aunt shouted at the judge to break the bed; another commented that now Nimi would settle down. She tried to escape, but found the door locked. He came at her, and she picked up the powder container and threw it at him. In a fury, the judge wrestled her to the ground and raped her.

The judge was glad to be able to disguise his crudity in sex with hatred and fury. Each night he repeated the act; during the day, he never spoke to Nimi or looked at her. The two of them traveled to Bonda, where the judge rented a bungalow. He hired a companion for Nimi named Miss Enid Pott, but Nimi would learn no English. He would hold up food at dinner and if she could not name it, it would be removed from her plate. Enid commented that she was very stubborn.

Nimi did not accompany the judge on tour, unlike other wives. Nimi was left alone in Bonda instead, uncared for. She became desolate. Weeks went by without her speaking to anybody. The servants gave her their leftovers, and only cleaned the house the day before the judge returned.

The judge grew more and more upset by Nimi’s facial expressions, and then by her blankness. He took off her bangles, threw away her hair oils, and when he saw that she was squatting on the toilet from her footprints, he pushed her face into the toilet. By the end of the year, Nimi and the judge experienced internal rage “with enough muscle in it for entire nations coupled in hate.”