Summary
In 1938, a man nicknamed "Upstart Master" arrives at Parambil, bringing with him immense changes. Upstart Master petitions the government for improvements to the property, eventually bringing bus stops, educational facilities, and an official village distinction to the estate. His efforts culminate in a visit from the new maharajah. Later, Upstart Master accompanies Philipose to the train station, where Philipose departs to study literature at Madras Christian College. The experience throws Upstart Master's failing marriage and lost career into stark relief, and he begins drinking as soon as Philipose's train departs. Philipose is excited to begin his new adventure but is quickly overwhelmed by the urban chaos of the Madras train station. Unable to hear warning cries, Philipose is very nearly trampled and begins his academic career with fear and trepidation.
During his classes, Philiopse quickly realizes his limited hearing makes him unable to complete his college course. Though afraid of disappointing his mother, he drops out of school and uses his tuition refund to buy a trunk full of classic literature and a radio that will connect him with the outside world. Ironically, he does not realize that Japanese warplanes bombed Madras before he departed. On the train home, Philipose shares a carriage with people from a variety of castes and religions, including an enchanting young artist who he later discovers is Elsie, a girl he met during childhood. Emboldened by his love for Elsie and his mother's support, Philipose begins writing earnestly and manages to publish multiple "Unfictions" in the local newspaper, as well as an article about a community food program he created to combat starvation resulting from the famine.
When Philipose feels his accomplishments are sufficient, he asks his mother to arrange for a matchmaker to bring a proposal to Elsie. During their engagement meeting, Elsie confesses to Philipose that she wants to marry him because he will support her art career and not try to force her to become a homemaker. Though Philipose is slightly disappointed that she does not reciprocate his passionate love, he is ecstatic to marry her. The day after their wedding, Philipose promises to provide Elsie with anything she desires, in addition to her art studio. Elsie bizarrely requests that Philiopse cut down the plavu tree outside their window, which Big Appachen used to climb, and which inspired Philipose's first published story. When he hesitates, a distance grows between the newlyweds, which intensifies when Philipose refuses to visit Elsie's family, fearing they will mock his deafness. However, as Elsie departs, Big Ammachi scolds Philipose for not going with Elsie, revealing that she is pregnant.
After a month apart, Elsie and Philipose reunite. Though Elsie forgives Philipose, she requests he love her "a little less," and, though their marriage is mostly happy, his refusal to cut down the plavu tree still hangs between them. A few months later, Elsie goes into labor prematurely and gives birth to her son, Ninan, who requires constant contact and nursing to survive; against all odds, he grows with no developmental issues. However, Ninan shares his grandfather's insatiable desire to climb, to his family's dismay. When Ninan is two, Elsie tells Philipose her paintings will be exhibited in a competition in Madras and asks him to accompany her there, giving them time to reconnect after their son's birth. Though Philipose vowed to support Elsie and travel with her beyond Parambil, he immediately rejects her offer, as he considers Madras the site of his failure, and part of him resents Elsie's success. Disappointed, Elsie chooses to remain at home, and misses the conferral of gold and silver medals for her paintings, which also sell for a great sum.
Elsie contracts typhoid and Philipose enjoys her dependence on him. While she recovers, he again promises to cut down the plavu tree. Just before the first monsoon, when tempers in Parambil are high, the laborers remove branches rather than the entire tree; Philipose hoped that removing the branches would be a compromise, but the resulting tree is spiked and ugly. When the monsoon finally arrives, Baby Mol performs her annual monsoon dance but is soon after overcome by debilitating grief. The next day, Ninan falls while climbing the plavu tree and is impaled on one of the roughly hewn branches. The entire house attempts to rescue him, Philipose breaking his ankles in the process. However, the grisly wound is fatal. After Ninan's death, Elsie and Philipose blame one another, and Elsie decides to leave Parambil.
Analysis
When Philipose departs for Madras, Uplift Master tells him that he will be the first member of the family to get a degree, emphasizing that Philipose's education will uplift the entire community. This sentiment, meant to be encouraging, places significant pressure on Philipose and exacerbates his feelings of shame when he drops out of school. Throughout the text, the limits of collectivism and individualism are explored. Uplift Master supports a collectivist attitude and significantly improves his community's quality of life. However, Philipose's education is motivated by his personal desire to become a writer, and his failure is a consequence of an ableist school system. Still, he interprets the systemic issues he faces as personal failings that impact his family. He then overcompensates, buying books and a radio to make his mother's sacrifices meaningful, and later collecting accomplishments to prove himself "worthy" of Elsie. Philipose's individual shame over his failure to contribute to his family collective eventually impacts his family, marriage, and self-esteem. This situation recalls Digby's education, which his mother insists is her only reason for living. When his mother dies by suicide, unable to be treated for depression, Digby internalizes this systemic issue as a personal failure, altering the course of his life.
The theme of disability is explored and expanded during Philipose's time in Madras. When Philipose first arrives at the train station, he cannot hear the warnings shouted at him and is nearly trampled, an experience that shakes his confidence and damages his internal sense of safety. Later in class, Philipose struggles to hear the professor and is publicly humiliated for not paying attention. He internalizes his disability for the first time; in Parambil, surrounded by people who loved and understood him, he expected others to accommodate him and assumed the Condition was his primary handicap in life. Like Baby Mol, Philipose's disability is not noticeable or a hindrance at home, an environment built around their needs. Philipose's disability—which can be easily mitigated with a guide, notes given in advance of a lecture, or even a seat at the front of the classroom—is simply dismissed as an insurmountable hindrance. The shame and disappointment Philipose experiences prime him to fear the unknown and fixate on Madras as a symbol of his failure, which ultimately ends his marriage and dream career. This discussion of accessibility also indirectly parallels discussions of caste and generational disadvantage. As Joppan later argues, people of lower castes have limited opportunities, just as Philipose's hearing, an inherited trait, limits his future.
Uplift Master devotes his life to improving the quality of life for the people living in Parambil, serving as an intermediary with the local government to build schools, bring electricity to the village, and eventually, open the hospital. However, he used to work for the East India Trading Company, an organization that played a significant role in the colonization of India and the creation of unjust social and political conditions. Uplift Master also embodies contradictions; though he is devout and industrious, he succumbs to alcoholism when he and his wife experience marital strife. Adding to the irony, Uplift Master, taking offense to his wife's joke, stubbornly insists he will not initiate intimacy with his wife. This distance consumes him, though it is entirely in his power to fix it by apologizing.
The theme of healing is explored during Philipose's time in Madras. When Philipose is unable to follow along in class, the headmaster sends Philipose to a clinic to be assessed for hearing loss and to see if anything can be done to "fix" his disability. His experience is extremely discouraging and negative, as the head physician gives him a cursory examination and sends him to a specialist with no sympathy or encouragement. Though the specialist is less gruff, he mostly speaks about his own limited hearing without considering Philipose's fear and feelings. After Philipose leaves, he visits Janakiram, the bookseller, for help and advice. When he explains his situation, Philipose finds that "to be listened to is healing, as is the brick-red tea." These contrasting scenes demonstrate that emotional and social support is essential, especially for incurable conditions. Janakiram is cast as an unorthodox, yet superior healer, as he provides Philipose with support and a solution; instead of continuing with his college course, Janakiram encourages Philipose to collect and independently study works of classic literature. The power of Janakiram's suggestion is solidified as Philipose integrates literary references into his life and relationships, comparing himself at various points to several literary figures, including Hamlet and Odysseus. Elsie and Philipose also bond over a quotation from Great Expectations and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
When Philipose returns home, he vows not to return to Madras and chooses to explore the outside world through his books and radio. Initially, he reflects on Parambil and his ancestors, feeling a sense of belonging after being thoroughly rejected in Madras. Exemplifying the theme of inheritance, he recognizes that those who came before him are resurrected in the natural world, such as in the "iridescent plumes of the parrots" and the trees. However, Philipose's comfort in the past soon becomes a superstitious, anxious refusal to change. He fails to support Elsie during her most vulnerable moments because he refuses to leave the property. This inability to let go of the past is best signified by the plavu tree. The tree grows outside Philipose's window, and Elsie asks him to cut it down to let in sunlight and see the view beyond. Her request is a symbolic one, representing her desire to enter a new stage in life without the baggage of the past. Though Philipose had never thought about the tree before Elsie's request, he is overcome by sentimentality, remembering stories of how his father used to climb the tree. When he hesitates to prioritize her needs and their marriage, their relationship grows tense. The plavu tree also encapsulates Philipose's inability to let go of his past; remembering his trip to Madras, he refuses to visit Elsie's family or accompany her to an art exhibition.
Part Five examines the "geography is destiny," an idea repeated throughout the text. At the beginning of the war, Philipose engages with geography and learns about the outside world by creating a "war map" of the different regions he hears reported in the news. Initially, he and Elsie find the war map an exciting and fun exercise, but the map represents their distance from human suffering. When the consequences of the war become too personal and human suffering too close as India suffers a famine and the nation is violently partitioned, they remove the map. However, when reflecting on the horrific violence, the novel suggests that shared geography is more powerful than cultural differences, as Kerala and the Spice Coast are united by their shared history of colonization and are thus spared some of the violence Northern India suffers. The theme of faith is complicated by the discussion of the partition. Compared to Arjun-Kumar-Railway's belief that rail cars unite people and blur class and culture distinctions, extreme acts of horror and violence are committed on rail cars. During this period of history, faith becomes an identifier, a political weapon, a marker of difference, and a source of prejudice rather than a personal relationship to fate.
Predicting the arrival of the monsoon, Baby Mol performs her annual Monsoon Dance. Baby Mol exhibits prescient powers that complicate the idea of Fate and individuals' power to influence it. Baby Mol predicts visitors, weather, and deaths with complete accuracy, and she celebrates all of these predictions. She also believes that the rain's continuation depends on her performance and that the rains are healing and transformative. Baby Mol herself appears to transform as she performs her ritual. Her movements diminish the visible signs of her disability, as her "inelegant, trundling steps become fluid," and "all limitations...melt away." Though consistently averse to water, the family unites around this ritual, which Baby Mol believes is a "covenant" with the monsoon that will keep her family safe. After her dance, however, Baby Mol suffers emotional symptoms, "not relishing the downpour the way she usually does," and instead "groans and weeps inconsolably." Baby Mol senses Ninan's fate, that he will soon perish, and finds no way to alter it. After Ninan's death, Philipose blames himself for only partially cutting down the plavu tree, thus partially healing from his past. He realizes that "in life, it is the in betweens that are fatal."
When Philipose jumps from the tree in a desperate attempt to save his son, he breaks his ankles and then runs without feeling the pain, damaging them further. His gruesome broken ankles are described similarly to the symptoms of leprosy related earlier in the text, when Rune explains how people with leprosy, when exiled from their community, will walk endlessly without feeling the pain of broken ankles. When Philipose loses Ninan, who anchors his family, he walks on gruesomely broken ankles, signifying exile he then experiences within his marriage and family and the connection between his emotional and physical pain.
