The omen
Joonam experiences a symbolic encounter with nature which according to her local village customs is understood as an omen of chaos. The gods are "winking" at her from the heavens so to speak when she witnesses a comet streaking across the sky. The omen speaks of what could happen. Symbolically, the comet is striking, without obvious consequence, and glorious in a frightening way. Therefore, the omen is taken as a sign that something sudden will happen which will have all the catastrophic consequences that are implied in the comet. The sign corresponds to the death of Joonam's father.
Chaos as the father's death
The symbol of chaos which serves as this novel's inciting incident is the death of the father. The father's death symbolizes the end of the status quo, because the home was built around his income. Now that he is dead, the marriage plans between Joonam and a neighborhood boy are ended; they cannot afford dowry. Now that he is dead, the women must collaborate to calculate a plan which will ensure their salvation. They cannot even afford to stay in their own home. Everything is now up in the air; chaos has ensued.
The kinsman redeemer
The Gostaham act of the novel (basically act two) features a redemption according to the traditional Middle Eastern practice of kinsman redeemers. Because the culture of that area is accidentally disenfranchising to women whose providers have died, there is a need for virtuous familymen to adopt women into their home so that those women don't starve and die in the streets, which is the major threat of the novel. In a way archetypally similar to the story of Ruth, it is again a young woman helping to find a future for her elderly relative.
The allegory of the craftsman
The story has an allegorical quality because of the motif of apprencticeship to a craftsman. The journey seems obvious; a young girl is an apprentice but in order to impress the village with her work, it must be perfect, and so she struggles as she learns, first for a carpenter master and then for a carpetmaker. The goal of the allegory is to take that student through growing processes before establishing them in a mastery that defeats social commentary. At the end of the day, she wins because her rugs and carpets are creative and perfect. This is a symbolic arc because it represents personal growth.
The allegory of female heroes
This novel treats a season of history that was fairly traditional about gender norms, and in this part of the world, traditional means restrictive toward women. The novel clearly shows the unnamed protagonist as an "Every Woman" who can serve as an avatar for the frustrations that women feel. She is capable, and although she is fiercely patronized by a perfectionistic master, she is extremely talented as her eventual success shows. So if she is skilled, why is she disenfranchised from opportunity? It is her gender and the village opinion of her role that makes her journey toward independence so difficult, but nevertheless, she succeeds and accomplishes heroism in the process.
