Communication vs. Fear Theme Analysis

In The Vendor of Sweets, fear destroys people’s ability to communicate. Its protagonist Jagan consistently fails to communicate openly and honestly because he fears anger and rejection. For instance, early in the novel, Jagan’s 20-year-old son Mali announces that he no longer wants to go to the Indian college he has been attending. Jagan, baffled, is speculating Mali’s possible motives with his cousin when the cousin suggests that Jagan just talk to Mali about Mali’s motives directly. Instead of taking this advice, Jagan uses flattery to convince the cousin to find out Mali’s motives for Jagan. Jagan continues to refuse to confront Mali directly about his choices, and he continues to ignore his cousin’s advice and insight in favor of direct communication. Jagan’s failures to communicate out of fear extend so far that eventually, he disappears on a religious retreat rather than try to find out why Mali has been arrested for alcohol possession.

Nor is Mali the only person with whom Jagan fails to communicate out of fear. Jagan wants to establish a loving and familial relationship with Grace, the young woman whom Mali brought home from America. When Jagan discovers that Grace and Mali are not married, as Mali initially claimed, and that Mali is trying to send Grace back to America, Jagan attempts to have an honest, affectionate conversation with Grace—yet as soon as Grace becomes emotional, Jagan gets frightened and decides to flee rather than get to the bottom of Grace and Mali’s conflict. As the novel ends, Jagan concedes that Grace is a “good girl” whom he and his family have a duty to treat right—yet he says this not to Grace herself but once again to his cousin, whom he relies on as his intermediary. Through Jagan’s repeated unwillingness to communicate directly with Mali and Grace, the novel illustrates how a fear of direct communication, and a subsequent unwillingness to communicate directly, leads a person so sabotage their relationships.