Previous
Symbols
In The Vendor of Sweets, the story-writing machines represent how generational differences impede communication between Jagan, who owns a sweet-shop in southern India in the 1960s, and his son Mali. When Jagan learns that Mali is quitting college to become a writer, he comforts himself with the idea that Mali’s literary output will constitute a “service” to the public. He understands Mali’s literary “service” by paralleling it with his own service as a young man to the Indian independence movement—a parallel that suggests Jagan believes that Mali’s work will serve Indian literary culture. Yet after Mali goes to study creative writing in the U.S., he returns to India with a dream not of contributing to Indian literature himself but of manufacturing American “story-writing machines” in India. These machines will standardize and streamline the process of novel-writing, thus increasing India’s overall commercial fiction output and enlarging its publishing industry.
When Mali first tries to convince Jagan to fund this business venture, Jagan is so distracted by the fact that Mali is wearing socks—which Jagan considers unhealthy, Western clothing items—that Jagan fails to pay any attention to what Mali is saying. Jagan only learns the details of the story-writing-machine business when his cousin, a man of his own generation, talks to Mali about it and then explains it to Jagan. Later, when Jagan points out in Mali’s hearing that foundational Indian epics were composed and transmitted orally for many generations, Mali interrupts Jagan—another instance of their communication breaking down—to argue that India needs to “compete” with “advanced cultures” in its literary output and so needs the story-writing machines. From there, the story-writing machines lead to further breakdowns in communication between father and son, with Mali demanding money from Jagan and Jagan avoiding Mali or refusing to respond to his questions and demands. Thus, the story-writing machine represents how people of Mali’s generation, influenced by hegemonically Western global capitalism, and people of Jagan’s generation, who came of age during the patriotic Indian independence movement, have difficulty communicating with one another due to their different generations’ cultural suppositions.
Story-Writing Machines Quotes in The Vendor of Sweets
The The Vendor of Sweets quotes below all refer to the symbol of Story-Writing Machines. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
Jagan found his son’s attraction to aspirin ominous. He merely replied, “I’ll get you better things to eat than this pill. Forget it, you understand?”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
Jagan asked, “Do you want to use this for writing stories?”
“Yes, I am also going to manufacture and sell it in this country. An American company is offering to collaborate. In course of time, every home in the country will possess one and we will produce more stories than any other nation in the world. Right now we are a little backward. Except Ramayana and Mahabharata, those old stories, there is no modern writing, whereas in America alone every publishing season ten thousand books are published.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Prayer was a sound way of isolating oneself—but sooner or later it ended: one could not go on praying eternally, though one ought to.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
“If she has nothing to do here, she goes back, that’s all. Her air ticket must be bought immediately.”
“But a wife must be with her husband, whatever happens.”
“That was in your day,” said Mali, and left the room.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Vendor of Sweets LitChart as a printable PDF.
Story-Writing Machines Symbol Timeline in The Vendor of Sweets
The timeline below shows where the symbol Story-Writing Machines appears in The Vendor of Sweets. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...he encountered Mali at a friend’s house, and Mali told him he plans to “manufacture story-writing machine s.”
(full context)
The cousin, noting Jagan’s confusion with pleasure, asks whether he’s never heard of the story-writing machine s in America. Jagan admits he hasn’t and asks how the machine writes stories. The...
(full context)
...for money—but at the appointed time, he goes to Mali’s room and asks how the story-writing machine works. Mali says that he already explained it. When Jagan admits that he didn’t fully...
(full context)
Jagan asks Mali whether he actually wants to write using the story-writing machine . Mali says he will not only write with it but manufacture and sell it...
(full context)
...work for Mali in an office. When Jagan asks whether people actually compose stories on story-writing machine s in America, Mali and Grace assure him that many do.
(full context)
...seeing the prospectus all over town; it claims that India is backward and that the story-writing machine s will bring progress to the country. Mali stops riding a borrowed scooter and starts...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...whether she was only kind to him while she thought he might invest in the story-writing machine s, and he feels as though an impenetrable wall has arisen between him on the...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...tired appearance, Jagan wishes he could solve their conflict by writing a check for the story-writing machine business—but then he thinks that even if he did, Grace and Mali would still be...
(full context)
Chapter 13
...goes over possibilities for Mali’s defense: the lawyer—who is thinking of buying stock in Mali’s story-writing machine company—is investigating the possibility that the arresting officer might have a grudge against Jagan or...
(full context)
