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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Vendor of Sweets, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Communication vs. Fear
Generational Difference
Commerce, Taste, and the Good Life
Religion
India vs. the U.K. and the U.S.
Summary
Analysis
Though Jagan and Mali don’t talk much at home, Mali is happy that Jagan isn’t insisting he return to college. Meanwhile, Jagan tells himself that Mali is serving humanity by providing them with literature. “[S]ervice” has been a great ideal in Jagan’s life ever since he heard Gandhi speak in 1937 and was inspired to join the anti-colonial movement, even to the point of suffering police violence and jail time. Yet Jagan worries about what kind of manuscript Mali is writing—poetry, fiction, or philosophy—and wonders whether he’s writing in Tamil or English, while at the same time feeling totally unable to just ask Mali.
Jagan tries to understand Mali’s writerly ambitions through the lens of Jagan’s own “service” to India during the Indian independence movement, which Gandhi (1869–1948) led from the 1920s up to India’s independence in 1947. Yet given that Mali is writing after independence and has expressed commercial motives for his novel-writing, it seems likely that the patriotic and “service”-oriented motives Jagan attributes to Mali are inaccurate.
Themes
September passes, and Jagan has no idea whether or not Mali has written and sent off his novel manuscript. One day, the cousin arrives in the shop and exclaims that despite Jagan’s comfortable economic circumstances, he looks “careworn.” Jagan asks whether the cousin has seen Mali. When the cousin says he saw him a while ago riding his bicycle on a far-off street, Jagan tries to quiz the cousin about what Mali was doing there. The cousin encourages Jagan to ask Mali questions directly, but Jagan insists that he wants to avoid making Mali unhappy. The cousin points out that this avoidance prevents Jagan from talking to Mali.
Yet again, Jagan has lapsed into non-communication with Mali and attempts to get information about his son indirectly, using the cousin as a go-between. Tellingly, Jagan claims that he avoids asking Mali direct questions to keep from making Mali unhappy—which suggests that Jagan fails to communicate with his son because he fears his son’s displeasure.
Themes
When the cousin asks when Jagan last had a conversation with Mali, Jagan realizes it was a brief, contentless exchange more than three months ago. Rather than admit this fact, Jagan says that he and Mali keep extremely different hours. He then begs the cousin to find out from Mali where Mali has been going and what happened with the novel—without revealing that Jagan asked him to. The cousin, proud to be given a meaningful task, agrees.
The cousin’s question reveals that Jagan’s attempts to avoid upsetting Mali actually lead to them not talking—or having much of a relationship—at all. Yet while the cousin is aware that Jagan needs to talk to Mali directly, the cousin’s busybody nature allows Jagan to manipulate him into acting as a go-between anyway.
Themes
After four days, the cousin comes back to the sweet shop and announces that Mali wants to travel to America to study writing. Jagan, patriotism offended, asks rhetorically whether Valmiki traveled to America to learn to write the Ramayana. Then he asks where Mali goes during the day. The cousin explains that Mali has been working at the Town Public Library; when Jagan asks about Mali’s book, the cousin says that Mali has read about a novel-writing curriculum at an American college and plans to write his book there.
The Ramayana is an ancient Indian epic traditionally attributed to Valmiki, a Sanskrit poet. By alluding to Valmiki here, Jagan is indirectly arguing that India has its own rich, long-standing literary culture, so Indian writers don’t need to learn from hegemonic Western powers like the U.S. to produce great literature.
Themes
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Jagan wonders aloud, “Why America?” He worries that people only eat cattle and pigs there. The cousin adds that in America the people drink a lot of alcohol and the women are shameless, getting divorced and sunbathing nude. Jagan cautions that some negative stereotypes about America may be false—but he concludes that, after all, Mali mustn’t go there.
Jagan and the cousin caricature Americans as universally meat-eating, hard-drinking, and sexually promiscuous people—a caricature hinting that people of their generation believe broad negative stereotypes about hegemonic Western powers like the U.S. This contrasts with more pro-American sentiments in Mali’s generation.
Themes
The cousin says that Mali has already gone to Madras for his passport and stolen the travel fare from Jagan’s savings in the house. Jagan is pleased by Mali’s independence and can-do spirit, but he asks the cousin to please stop Mali. The cousin unconvincingly agrees but reiterates that Mali has made detailed plans to leave. Jagan asks whether Mali needs any help from his father. The cousin says no—Mali has already bought his plane tickets and everything. Later that night, Jagan checks his money stash, finds that 10,000 rupees have been stolen—and then freezes when he hears Mali come in as if he himself were the thief.
Jagan neither confronts Mali directly about Mali stealing his money nor asks Mali directly whether he needs help. Instead, he checks how much money has been stolen and reacts guiltily when Mali almost catches him doing so, as if he were engaged in illicit spying. Jagan’s reactions show how afraid he is to communicate directly with Mali and how this fear prevents them from having necessary conversations.
Themes
