Summary
When Triton is eleven, his uncle introduces him to Mister Rajan Salgado, who agrees to hire Triton as a servant. Since Triton accidentally burned down a schoolhouse and was kicked out of his father's home, he has no option but to accept the position. Under the instruction of Joseph, Mister Salgado's head servant, Triton begins work in the house, carrying out menial tasks like sweeping and bringing Mister Salgado tea. Triton fears Joseph and resents his rudeness, processing his feelings by imagining Joseph experiencing horrible misfortune. When Joseph scolds Triton for shortening an unwieldy broom, Mister Salgado sides with Triton, indicating to Triton that he is "in the right place" working in the Salgado household.
Harboring a grudge against Joseph, Triton tries to dream up scenarios of Joseph's demise each time he goes to sleep at night. One morning, enjoying a particularly gruesome dream, Triton oversleeps and nearly misses his call to bring Mister Salgado tea. Triton enters Mister Salgado's room and watches him sleep for a few moments. Hoping to secure his standing in Mister Salgado's household, Triton concocts a lie claiming that he singlehandedly chased off thieves attempting to break into the Salgado household. Rather than call out Triton for the lie, Mister Salgado ignores him and resumes sleeping.
Triton helps Lucy-amma cut onions to escape Joseph, who detests onions. Lucy-amma tells Triton stories from her many decades working in the Salgado household. Lucy-amma's domestic duties remain unchanged despite the massive political changes she lives through, such as decolonization. Working with Lucy-amma inspires Triton's love of cooking. Additionally, being in the kitchen gives him the idea to protect himself from Joseph with raw onion juice.
Joseph's friend, the haberdasher, sells his wares to Mister Salgado's neighbors, the Pandos, nearly every day. One day, the Pandos do not answer their door, and the haberdasher concernedly visits Joseph to discuss the matter. Suddenly, Triton and the other servants hear the "most terrible howl" they "had ever heard," which disrupts the neighborhood's sense of peace and security and even quiets the local animals. Later, they learn that the howl came from Mr. Pando, whose wife coated his body with chilies as revenge for his infidelity. Even after bathing himself several times, Mr. Pando's skin remains tinged, and he develops a chili-induced cough. Though the adults in Triton's life find the incident funny, Triton is disturbed as Mr. Pando's screams introduce him to the idea of violent retribution.
Triton watches Mister Salgado with intense interest and attempts to emulate him. Mister Salgado's research into biology, specifically the life of mosquitos and coral reefs, impresses Triton. Triton tries to "better [him]self" by copying Mister Salgado's habit of list making; Triton uses scraps of old newspapers, which Mister Salgado sells to a collector. Though Mister Salgado never notices this, Triton feels ashamed of causing a "small loss in income" for his employer.
Mister Salgado and Lucy-amma leave Triton and Joseph alone for a few days. Mister Salgado gives Triton lists of tasks, like inventorying every glass in the house, which Triton takes very seriously. However, Triton is anxious about being left alone with Joseph, who has "the power to make [him] feel powerless" and whom Triton anticipates will attack and starve him. Despite Triton's paranoia, Joseph gives Triton dinner and goes out drinking for the evening. When Joseph fails to return by midmorning, Triton assumes he has been murdered and takes care of the household tasks to demonstrate that he is "the right and proper successor to Joseph."
While alone in the house, Triton experiences a wide range of emotions. At first, he recognizes that being alone is the first time he felt truly safe and "at peace in the house." He enjoys his independence, relishing his freedom from constant supervision by simply sitting and thinking. However, despite Triton's many responsibilities, he is still a child and is thus afraid of the dark. He turns on all the lights in the house and observes how the shadows cast throughout the room. Using the information he gleans from Mister Salgado's newspapers, Triton tries to imagine where Joseph might have gone.
The next day, Triton finds Joseph in Mister Salgado's bedroom, using Mister Salgado's personal care items. Intoxicated, Joseph sexually assaults Triton, though Triton doesn't fully comprehend the attack. When Mister Salgado returns, Triton doesn't tell him of the assault, sensing that if he did, they would "have had Joseph between [them] forever." Soon after, Joseph returns drunk, and Mister Salgado fires him. Though Triton is still a child, Mister Salgado asks him to replace Joseph and "see to the whole house."
Analysis
Triton describes the architecture of his family house in intimate but negative details, including architectural features "splattered with bird-droppings" and "painted mildewy green." By contrast, Triton describes Mister Salgado's house, which he considers the "center of the universe," as palatial and elegant. Throughout the text, Triton regards Mister Salgado's isolated home as a protected paradise where he can comfortably ignore his past and the political turmoil surrounding him. However, when Triton is left alone, he fears the house's darkness. With all the lights on, the place feels "bigger than its form," extending "beyond what [Triton] could see" and "know." This contrast in imagery demonstrates Triton's sense of dependence on Mister Salgado; without him, Triton feels lost and afraid.
The text states Mister Salgado's name long before Triton's; in fact, Triton's name is not given in the first two chapters, though the story is told in the first-person perspective, and many opportunities are presented for characters to refer to Triton by a first name. For example, Triton's uncle refers to him as "kolla," meaning "boy," rather than by a name. By failing to identify Triton, the text suggests that Triton does not consider himself primarily as an individual, but rather finds his identity in his role as Mister Salgado's servant. Since few other characters refer to Triton by his first name, the text suggests that Triton's sense of self is created by how others treat him.
By contrast, Triton thoroughly describes Mister Salgado, and frequently refers to his employer as "My Mister Salgado." Triton describes Mister Salgado's posture, scent, and mannerisms in thoughtful detail. He refers to Mister Salgado's intellectual pursuits as "miraculous," and his descriptions of Mister Salgado are sensual, verging on romantic. When Triton wakes Mister Salgado early in the morning, he describes Mister Salgado's "slim hips," "narrow boyish chest," and his bare feet, which looked like "the feet of a woman." These intimate descriptions of Mister Salgado's body, coupled with the sexual imagery of a bed that "creaked under his weight" and a lamp rocking on the headboard, demonstrate the extent of Triton's obsession with Mister Salgado. Though Triton never expressly states romantic feelings for Mister Salgado, the attributes of Mister Salgado's that he notices and his reverence for his employer are comparable to the behaviors of a lover.
The text uses hyperbole to express when Triton's perspective is limited by his child's understanding of the world. For example, after Triton experiences his first day alone without Joseph, he relates his desire to "see Joseph's corpse," a clear overreaction to Joseph's unfriendly behavior at that point in the story. When Triton is left alone with Joseph, he grows paranoid that Joseph will attack him. Forced into the house by rain, Triton hides an onion under his shirt "for protection," knowing he can repel Joseph with its fumes. The text describes the house using eerie terms, such as a kitchen cast "in darkness" and raindrops "ripping the petals off the flowers in the garden" to create a sense of tension as Triton anticipates Joseph's abuse.
By contrast, the text uses philosophical, poetic language to designate Triton's mature reflections on his life. For example, when Joseph is dismissed, the text then seamlessly transitions into commentary from Triton's adult self, where he explains that Joseph's inability to rise to a higher station in life "ate him up" until there was "no space inside for a conscience, for morality, for any inner life." This nuanced analysis of Joseph contrasts sharply with Triton's childhood assessment of him as a "spumy barrel full of stunted frogs."
Initially, the reader assumes Triton's disdain for Joseph is largely a product of Triton's own imagination. Triton believes Joseph is capable of "spoiling [his] life with his presence," and attempts to intentionally dream brutal scenarios of "revenge" on Joseph. The text uses dramatic irony to illustrate how unfounded Triton's hatred of Joseph is. For example, when Mister Salgado leaves, Joseph gives Triton dinner before leaving for the night, though Triton anticipated Joseph starving and abusing him. The next day, Triton wakes to the "best" morning of his life, which is quickly ruined when he imagines Joseph being murdered. However, after Joseph assaults Triton, the text suggests that Triton is an unreliable narrator, whose childhood trauma colors his understanding of Joseph before the assault. This is further suggested when Trito recalls his fear of discussing the assault with Mister Salago. His adult self opines that a hidden memory "hangs on the robes of the soul," affecting his future behaviors.
