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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Absurdity and Chaos
Nature vs. Modernity
Traditions, Customs, and Expectations
Exploitation of Spirituality
Summary
Analysis
Several months later, at the start of the wedding season, the night of the wedding at Mr. D.P.S.’s estate finally arrives. Sampath is given a simple task: to fill the guests’ drinks and clean the used glasses. This job becomes boring quickly, especially after Sampath has a few drinks of his own. In a drunken, curious stupor, he wanders away from the festivities and explores his boss’s house, looking through drawers and cabinets for anything interesting. Eventually, he finds a room where some of the family’s young women had quickly dressed each other and left in a hurry, leaving a bounty of fine and fabulous clothes strewn all about the floor.
Sampath’s behavior at the wedding reflects his restless habits at the post office. Once again, he can’t help but ignore the expectations his boss places on him, choosing to wander aimlessly in search of something interesting instead. Sampath seems unable to tolerate any task that feels boring to him, no matter how many people expect him to perform that task.
Themes
Without even thinking, Sampath takes a whiff of a fragrant bottle of rose-water and lets his fancies carry him away, alone in this room. He tries on the various fine clothes lying all over the room, adorning himself with rich silks, colorful feathers, and fancy jewelry. As he lights a candle so he can see himself more clearly in the mirror, his mind wanders to other moments in his life involving lit candles in dark rooms. He remembers trying to study for exams in his school days, but getting carried away in his mysterious fantasies and distractions. Just as he did in those memories, he preens and makes faces in the mirror as he admires his colorful costume, feeling strangely happy and carefree.
Through this carefree messing around, Sampath begins to let go of the oppressive sense of responsibility that’s been keeping him down for so long. By idly dressing up in elaborate costumes and visiting old memories, he reverts to a childlike state of freedom. The absurdity of this situation is exactly what makes Sampath feel so free. While others expect him to adhere to the traditions and responsibilities of their society, Sampath embraces his ridiculous impulses simply for the fun of it, achieving a temporary kind of escape.
Themes
Eventually, getting carried away even further by the exciting sights, sounds, and smells of the wedding, Sampath emerges from the house and back into the party area, still wearing the fine, colorful ensemble he found. Still drunk and carefree, he climbs into a fountain in full view of Mr. D.P.S. and many of the wedding guests, singing and dancing foolishly. At one point, a moment of mad inspiration overtakes him and he begins to strip off pieces of his fine clothes, then his own ordinary clothes underneath, until he’s wildly dancing naked in the fountain without a care in the world.
Sampath’s drunken dance in the fountain is just as ridiculous as it is sad. On one hand, this moment is almost an absurd triumph for Sampath. He’s finally defying his boss and the norms of society that stifle him through a chaotic display of pure, unashamed freedom. But at the same time, it’s also a cry for help—a culmination of all the pent-up emotions and urges that he feels he can never express in his day-to-day life. His nudity is also a more “natural” state, hinting at his longing to throw off modernity’s constraints and escape into nature to live more like an animal.
Themes
When Sampath returns home that night, newly unemployed and still wet from the fountain, his family asks incredulously what happened. As he sheepishly explains himself, thinking of how he had hated his job anyway, his family begins loudly talking over each other with reprimands and stern suggestions for what he should do now. Even Mr. Gupta and Miss Jyotsna visit the house to check on him and discuss the matter. Sampath feels overwhelmed and miserable, as if everyone’s harsh words are a net that’s keeping him trapped. He reflects on how he hates his life, feeling as though the entire town is a stifling labyrinth from which he can never escape.
At this point, Sampath’s brief moment of ecstatic freedom comes crashing down around him. Though he might have escaped from his responsibilities temporarily, the consequences of that escape have made his circumstances much worse than before. He no longer has to worry about his job at the post office, but he realizes he can’t ever truly be free of the expectations of his friends and family.
Themes
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Later that evening, as Sampath sits sullenly on the roof, he sees Kulfi’s head sticking out of a window, as if she’s in need of some fresh air as well. Sampath’s head swims as he listens to all the noises of the neighbors, his mother muttering about cooking ingredients, and his own thoughts about failing to understand mathematics back in his Mission School days. All the noises combined with sickening thoughts of his former job seem to nearly drive him mad, and everything threatens to overwhelm him.
Sampath’s return to the roof emphasizes his desire for fresh air and freedom, but he still feels stifled even under the open sky. His flashbacks to school are further proof that this dissatisfaction with his life isn’t a new development. He’s always felt that he doesn’t belong in the strict, traditional society into which he was born. Note that his mother appears to feel similarly.
Themes
When Kulfi comes up to the roof and offers Sampath a guava, his anger wells up inside him as he grabs the cool, bumpy fruit. He shakes the guava and stares at it intently as he miserably asks it what to do. To his surprise, the surface of the fruit expands and the guava explodes, showering the rooftop and hitting some of the neighbors with seeds. Strangely, Sampath feels his heart swelling, as if something has suddenly changed within him. Kulfi, meanwhile, says she’ll complain to the fruit seller and asks if he’d like an egg instead. Sampath, oddly smiling, replies that he doesn’t want an egg; he wants his freedom.
The first appearance of a guava in the novel is a major turning point for Sampath. The guava fruit symbolizes the natural simplicity and freedom that Sampath craves, and its eruption seems to give him an epiphany. The explosion of the fruit is exaggerated to an absurd degree to illustrate just how earth-shattering this revelation is to Sampath. Like a suddenly bursting guava fruit, Sampath can do something wild and unexpected. He doesn’t have to play by the rules and expectations of the modern society around him; he can simply choose to be free.
Themes
