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Part 2, Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fire on the Mountain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Freedom
Honesty and Self-Reflection
Trauma and Suffering
Class and Privilege
Female Oppression
Summary
Analysis
After the party, Raka becomes even more secretive and silent. She goes exploring. Usually, Nanda Kaul watches her surreptitiously from the windows, at least until Raka slips from view. One evening Raka comes home late, chanting “I don’t care for anything!” to herself. Nanda Kaul veils her frustration and worry by fussing over the hydrangeas, drying out slowly in the summer heat. As they walk around the garden together, Raka points out a light glowing from behind a distant hill. Nanda Kaul identifies it as a wildfire. They are common at this time of year, and this one seems comfortably far away. But it’s the first that Raka has seen, and it fascinates her. She can’t sleep and she gets up from bed over and over to check on its progress through the drawing room windows.
The previous chapter made it clear that Raka does care about some things—and also portrayed her sense of helplessness and vulnerability clearly enough for readers to understand why she’s trying to convince herself otherwise. Nanda Kaul is older and, in theory at least, wiser. But she won’t admit to herself how curious—and jealous—she is regarding Raka, either. Yet this lack of honesty doesn’t serve either person. Ram Lal raised the specter of wildfires earlier, but this is the first one Raka has seen. She’s drawn to its wild power but also a little afraid of its destructiveness—freedom is attractive, but it comes with dangers and costs.
Themes
