Motif: Hari's Hands
Hands, and Hari's hands in particular, are a common motif in the text. Early on, Hari looks at his own hands when thinking about work: "He stopped to study his hands. They were worker's hands—square and brown and calloused" (13). He knows that he does not have the hands of a rich, idle person; he is meant to use his hands to work in some capacity. Later with Mr. Panwallah at the watch shop, Hari evinces discomfort that his hands are so dirty. Mr. Panwallah does not care, though, and in his simple comment to wash his hands, suggests that one isn't preordained to be or do anything; there is always the chance to adapt and grow. Finally, at the end of the novel before Hari heads back to Bombay, Mr. Panwallah says very much the same thing, giving Hari the confidence he needs to embark on his new path: "As long as you can use your hands...you can find work for them" (208).
Symbol: Snake Skin
On their way to find Hira-bai, Bela and Kamal find a snakeskin lying on the ground. A snakeskin is a common symbol of regeneration, of change and growth. Its symbolic power doesn't resonate in this exact moment in the text, but it certainly does throughout the entire arc of the novel. The main characters of Hari and Lila, as well as the peripheral characters, have to shed their skin and become a different version of themselves in order to survive the vicissitudes of the world.
Symbol: Black Horse
Hari is looking forward to seeing the statue of Black Horse but learns the emperor on his horse has been taken down. This work is a symbol of colonialism, of British rule in particular, and its absence is a symbol of Indian autonomy and self-determination. Desai states this explicitly, writing, "the people of Bombay did not want to see a foreign ruler after independence, not even a stone one" (119).
Symbol: The Sea
The sea is one of the most potent symbols in all of literature and myth, so it is no surprise that it has a strong symbolic function in this work as well. For the villages of Alibagh district, the sea is life, quite simply. It provides sustenance, beauty, and comfort in the regularity of the tides. It is a place where villagers feel at peace, where they celebrate holidays, where they escape the rigors of life. The sea can also be deadly, however; as nature in one of her most extreme forms, the sea can take away life as quickly as it gives it.
Motif: Birds
Hari admires the birds and wishes he too could fly away and be loosed from his earthly toil. The birds, along with the wind and the waves, make up the "voice" of the village that Lila finds so comforting. And at the end of the novel, Sayyid Ali waxes poetic about how he loves the birds for their freedom, for their ability to escape. All of these examples show how the humans of the novel see birds as enviable creatures because they are frustrated with their own lives.
