Nectar in a Sieve: Analysis of Major Characters
"Nectar in a Sieve" is a poignant novel that explores the lives of characters facing the challenges of change and adversity in a small South Indian village. Central to the narrative is Rukmani, the female narrator, who reflects on her life, marked by personal tragedies and societal transformations brought on by industrialization. Rukmani's husband, Nathan, represents the traditional farmer struggling to adapt to the harsh realities of modernity and ultimately succumbs to despair. Their daughter, Ira, grapples with her own misfortunes, resorting to prostitution to support her family during a drought, while their son Selvam seeks a different path by working in medicine.
The story also features Dr. Kennington, an English physician who contrasts Rukmani’s acceptance of suffering with his call to action for social change. Other characters, such as the leper boy Puli and the village woman Kunthi, add depth to the exploration of love, betrayal, and survival amid harsh circumstances. Together, these characters paint a vivid portrait of resilience and the struggle for dignity in the face of relentless challenges. This analysis provides insights into how each character navigates the complexities of their environment, reflecting broader themes of endurance and the impact of modernization on traditional lives.
Nectar in a Sieve: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Kamala Markandaya
First published: 1954
Genre: Novel
Locale: A tenant farm, a village, and a city, all in India
Plot: Realism
Time: The 1950's
Rukmani, or Ruku, the female narrator, who nostalgically recounts the story of her life, beginning with her marriage at the age of twelve to a poor tenant farmer in a South India village and ending with the poignant death of her husband in the city and her subsequent return to the village. Although she is in her early forties, she calls herself an old woman who has helplessly witnessed the destruction of the pristine beauty of her quiet village and of a way of life by the onslaught of industrialism in the form of a tannery set up near their village. With her unbounded faith and capacity for love, sacrifice, suffering, and endurance, this simple woman of heroic courage goes through the fires of life and survives not only the calamities of nature but also many personal sorrows: the shock of her husband's infidelity, the deaths of her two sons, her daughter's turning to prostitution for survival, her eviction from the land they had farmed for thirty years, and, above all, the agonizing loss of her husband. Finally, she returns to her village and finds peace in taking care of a young leper boy whom she and her husband had adopted in the city.
Nathan, Rukmani's husband, older than her, an illiterate tenant farmer who, having no knowledge or skill except those related to farming, cannot live except by the land. Unlike his wife, however, he readily accepts the forces of change and heralds the tannery as an inevitable step of progress. Although he is a loving husband and an affectionate father, he betrays his wife by having an illicit relationship with the village slut, Kunthi. As the size of his family grows and nature becomes more and more relentless, he feels powerless to provide for his family. Beaten by flood and famine and victimized by the landlord, he eventually is forced to leave the land and move to the city with his wife in a futile search for their son, Murugan. There he works as a stone breaker in a quarry, but before they can earn enough money to return to their village, he dies from strain, starvation, and sickness.
Dr. Kennington, often called Kenny, an English doctor with a missionary zeal who works in a dispensary near the tannery. A friend of Rukmani's father, he treats the problem of infertility in both Rukmani and her daughter Ira. Tall, pale, and emaciated, he is a private, lonely man who was deserted by his wife and children. He makes frequent trips away from the town to raise funds for the charitable hospital that he builds for the poor near the village. He trains and hires Rukmani's son Selvam as his assistant. Opposed to Rukmani's philosophy of suffering, endurance, and resignation, he exhorts the village people to cry out for help if they want to ameliorate their condition of squalor and poverty.
Irawaddy, or Ira, the firstborn daughter of Rukmani and Nathan, named for a famous river in India. Fair, dimpled, and lovely, she is married to a young man as soon as she reaches the age of puberty. Abandoned by her husband as barren, she returns to the village and resumes living with her parents. During the drought, to save her younger brother and her parents from starvation, she resorts to prostitution and in the process becomes pregnant and gives birth to an illegitimate albino son. Her love for her parents and siblings balances any faults.
Puli, a leper boy, an impudent street beggar who becomes attached to Rukmani and Nathan when they live in the city temple. He guides them through the city in their desperate search for their son and helps them find work as stone breakers in the quarry. After Nathan's death, Rukmani takes him to the village in the hope that Kenny will treat his leprosy.
Selvam, the youngest son of Rukmani and Nathan. Hardworking and conscientious, but with no love for the land, he works at Kenny's hospital as an assistant and takes care of his sister and his son, as well as of his mother and Puli when they return to the village.
Kunthi (koon-TEE), a village slut who had an affair with Nathan and has two sons fathered by him. Abandoned by her husband, she behaves like a common strumpet. When the crops fail, she blackmails Rukmani and demands rice from her, threatening that otherwise she will tell Nathan that Rukmani had illicit relations with Dr. Kenny. She also extorts rice from Nathan by threatening to reveal his betrayal to Rukmani.
Kali, Rukmani's neighbor, a big, plump, loud, garrulous, and self-opinionated woman who teaches Rukmani how to do the chores of a farmer's wife in the early days of her marriage.
Janaki (JAHN-kee), the wife of the village shopkeeper, a homely woman with a sagging figure.