79 pages • 2 hours read
Vikas SwarupQ & A
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Differences in Social Class
The differences between the upper and lower classes is a foundational theme of the novel. Although the plot is centered around Thomas winning a billion rupees, for most of the novel Thomas lives in poverty while observing the decadence of the wealthy. Not only does Thomas face constant injustice at the hands of the wealthy, from being falsely arrested to being treated like a second-class citizen and, often, virtually subhuman, there is a larger commentary about how wealth influences every facet of life in India. Wealth has the ability to imprison, as seen in the beginning of the novel when the producers have the cops falsely arrest Thomas; and wealth can buy freedom, as demonstrated at the end of the novel, when Thomas uses some of his winnings to free Lajwanti from jail and Nita from the brothel.
Thomas makes it clear that “with money you can have power over the minds of others” (316). This is most explicitly shown through the quiz show itself, with the program dictating the kinds and types of knowledge necessary in order to advance to the next round, and thereby grow wealthier. Throughout the novel, Thomas is constantly searching for his identity in relation to the wealthy people around him. The most demonstrative of these moments occurs when Thomas is working as a servant for the Taylors. He goes back and forth between feeling like part of the family to realizing that he is just a lowly servant in the eyes of his quasi-colonialist employers. This happens again when Thomas is riding the train to Mumbai. With fifty-thousand rupees in his underwear, he feels like he belongs in the same social class as the wealthy family beside him. In both these instances, this single sum of influences his perception of himself; as it’s incorrect perception, it’s ultimately taken from him.
This elicits a larger commentary about how the wealthy possess the power to define the lives of the lower class. This can be seen by the fact that, according to the wealthy who run the cities, India’s slums are deemed illegal. This means that anyone living in the slums can be arrested at any time, and, according to Thomas, they often are. But what’s most striking is the effect this has on the psyche of the lower classes. According to Thomas, living in poverty “diminished us in our own eyes” (75). Being viewed as a criminal or less than human by the upper classes causes the lower classes to internalize those views, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle where the poor stay poor. Of course, Thomas ends up breaking this cycle by winning the billion rupees.
Religious Tensions
The tension between Hindus and Muslims living in India is returned to throughout the novel. At the hands of an angry mob of Hindus, Salim’s family, all Muslim, are burned alive; later, Salim and a fellow Muslim are almost murdered on a bus by a group of enraged Hindus. While the novel makes it clear that these attacks weren’t unfounded—violent and angry Muslims had first attacked the Hindus, thus inciting retaliation—ultimately, this violence between religions is presented as pervasive and without end. Thomas’s muted reactions to these moments reveal that these sorts of religiously-inspired brutalities are commonplace in India.
Yet, not every encounter is violent. Oftentimes the religious tension manifests as subtle bias. This can be seen when Neelima Kumari can’t hire Salim because he’s Muslim, or inThomas’s full name, Ram Mohammad Thomas, a name given to him to avoid violence against his caretaker, Father Timothy, but a moniker that causes confusion and even anger to those who hear it.
The Savior Complex
Another prominent theme is Thomas’s savior complex. Every woman that holds a special place in Thomas’s life ends up being saved by him. First, there is Gudiya. Although she is college-aged and quite a bit older than Thomas, she is defenseless against her abusive father. Thomas pushes her father off the ledge of a balcony, thus saving Gudiya from his violence. While this is the first time Thomas saves a woman in distress, it becomes a common occurrence in Thomas’s life.
Next is Meenakshi. When the train robber comes back into the cabin to sexually assault Meenakshi, she seems paralyzed by fear and doesn’t defend herself. Her family doesn’t lift a finger to help her, either. This leaves Thomas. Unable to stomach the thought of her losing her honor, he ends up shooting the robber. And, like what happened after pushing Gudiya’s father off the ledge, Thomas is then forced to flee.
At the end of the book, Thomas saves Nita from her life in the brothel and Lajwanti from a life in jail. While these instances occur after Thomas has won the prize money, they demonstrate Thomas’s need to persistently help the women in his life. While there are arguably many reasons for this, a standout is his ability to see his mother in each of these women. Throughout the novel, Thomas constantly longs to know what his mother looked like and why she abandoned him, and in each of the previously-mentioned women, he finds a quality that fulfills his maternal longing. In this way, Thomas’s desire to save the women in his life could be seen as his longing to save the mother he never knew; or rather, his longing for her to have saved him.
