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Part 3, Chapter 4
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
Undeterred by Nanda Kaul and Raka’s evident lack of interest, Ila Das continues reminiscing. She’s gotten to the years of Nanda Kaul’s marriage now. She has fond memories of dropping by the Vice-Chancellor’s house whenever she wished because she and Nanda Kaul were friends. She especially loved the badminton parties the Vice-Chancellor arranged for the faculty. Everyone did, she says, and when he and Miss David teamed up for doubles, they were unstoppable. As soon as she mentions Miss David’s name, she falls silent. Raka looks up in surprise and confusion to see Ila Das and Nanda Kaul both frozen in place.
As Ila Das talks about this phase of her life, she suggests one potential cause of Nanda Kaul’s antipathy: despite being an adult, she was nearly as helpless and dependent on Nanda Kaul as Nanda Kaul’s own children were. And she shows an astonishing lack of sensitivity because clearly Miss David is a painful subject for Nanda Kaul. Readers might in this moment remember when Nanda Kaul described the one moment of solitude she remembers in her marriage, which insinuated that her husband was having an affair with someone.
Themes
