Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
Sri Lanka, 1970s-1980s
Narrator and Point of View
First person (Arjie)
Tone and Mood
Optimistic, joyous, introspective, foreboding, bewildered
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists: Arjie, Radha Aunty, Amma. Antagonists: A.S.P. Officer, Her Fatness, Black Tie
Major Conflict
Pigs Can't Fly: Will Arjie be able to keep playing Bride-Bride with the girl cousins, or, since he is "funny," will he be stuck with the boys?
Radha Aunty: Will Radha Aunty be able to marry Anil even though he is Sinhalese and she is Tamil?
See No Evil, Hear No Evil: Will Amma and Daryl Uncle be able to continue their affair? Will Amma find out what really happened to Daryl Uncle and will she be able to get justice for him?
Climax
Pigs Can't Fly: Her Fatness takes the sari, it rips, and Arjie loses out on playing the game anymore.
Radha Aunty: Radha Aunty's train is attacked.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil: Daryl's body is found.
Small Choices: Jegan's room is vandalized.
The Best School of All: Sehan kisses Arjie.
Riot Journal: Fighting finally begins.
Foreshadowing
Arjie choosing to spend his time with the girls and dress up as the bride foreshadows the reader's eventual awareness that he is gay.
Understatement
1. "At that time, some Sinhalese people killed Tamil people" (59) is an understated way to refer to the early days of violence
2. Jegan says of a man who was clearly his lover, "We were... we were very good friends" (171).
Allusions
1. Arjie and his girl cousins play fairy tales such as Cinderella and Thumbelina.
2. The entire novel is concerned with the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict (1983-2009); see Other in this study guide.
3. The King and I is a popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (1951).
4. Little Women (1868) is a beloved book by Louisa May Alcott.
Imagery
Selvadurai's imagery varies throughout the novel, but a few significant examples are: 1) imagery surrounding a bride, such as dresses and makeup and glamour, indicate that Arjie is most likely queer because this is what he wants to play and 2) imagery of bombings, fights, burnings, etc. demonstrate the tensions between the Tamils, the Tigers, and the Sinhalese.
Paradox
n/a
Parallelism
n/a
Metonymy and Synecdoche
1. "Black Tie" is an example of synecdoche, as it stands in for the principal as a whole.
Personification
1. "suddenly a plan revealed itself to me" (21)
2. "The large waves, impersonal and oblivious to my despair, threw themselves against the beach" (38)
3. "The moon seemed to have bewitched the garden" (90)
4. "The whole world seemed to be braced for some oncoming catastrophe" (131)
5. "my heart skipped madly as if joyful at the prospect of a holiday" (132)
