The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

“For atheists there are only moral choices. Accept that we are alone and strive to create heaven on earth. Or accept that no one’s watching and do whatever the hell you like. The latter is by far easier.”

The afterlife in this novel voids the religious beliefs of people while they were living. For atheists, Karunatilaka’s depiction of the afterlife is confirmation that organized religions’ beliefs were false, but it also reveals that there is a soul that continues through spirituality. Notably, atheists end up sharing the space with believers. This afterlife is a democratic space in which everyone endures the journey of finding the Light or committing their spirits to the In Between. The atheist’s individual moral code, separate from religion, could still be relevant in this version of the afterlife.

“You look down and see only the absence of a slipper. Like Cinderella, except your half-sisters in Missouri weren’t as wicked as you were.”

Here, Karunatilaka satirically alludes to the story of Cinderella and her missing glass slipper to add humor to the tragedy of Maali’s death. Like Cinderella, Maali has one sandal left. The other sandal provides a clue, just as Cinderella’s slipper leaves a clue for Prince Charming. Of course, Cinderella is a fairy tale that ends with Cinderella being saved, and in this context, Maali is beyond the possibility of saving. Karunatilaka subverts the Cinderella allusion to emphasize the absurdity of Maali’s situation.

“Every time you look around, the tree has changed texture. The bark is a different shade of coffee, the leaves are flecked with gold, the foliage veers between rainforest and moss. It could be the light, your imagination, or neither.”

This description of the Mara tree symbolizes the way the tree, like the afterlife, provides a place for spirits to project their unfinished business from their lived lives. The Mara tree, like the afterlife, plays tricks with the soul’s imagination. It is a magical space that can bend to the ghost’s desires. But this description also demonstrates how little the living people see of the world around them; some things are only visible and meaningful in death.

“It was the same Nikon 3ST that you see around your neck now, but that one worked. You could do nothing but shoot and that made you feel like you weren’t doing nothing.”

Maali’s Nikon 3ST is a symbol that represents his courage, his living mission, and the source of all his troubles. Here, Maali contemplates his role as a photojournalist, using his Nikon to capture war atrocities without being able to help the victims. The action of shooting the camera makes him feel productive, but now that he is in the afterlife and can reflect on his life, he isn’t sure what good his photography has done. One shoots a picture on a camera, the same verb as shooting a gun, which implies a kind of violence, especially against the backdrop of the Civil War.

“Do animals get an afterlife? Or is their punishment to be reborn as human?”

In this quote, Karunatilaka subverts Buddhist and Hindu ideas of rebirth to question the value of humans in the circle of life. Traditionally, a human can be reborn as an animal that symbolically shares the qualities that the person exhibited on Earth. Some animal rebirths are considered punishments for a human life marked by sin. Here, Karunatilaka points out that animals might not want to be reborn as humans, who are on the higher echelon in the circle of life, because being human is a punishment, not a reward.

“It was true. When the wind blew through the balcony and the smoke and the laughter filled the breeze, it was easy to forget that a horrible war was being fought a bus ride from here. Over here the stars and the lights of Colombo sang out in yellows and greens. The roads were quiet and the ocean purred. And Colombo wrapped itself in a safety blanket that we did not deserve.”

In this quote, Karunatilaka juxtaposes the natural beauty of the Sri Lankan landscape with the terrible violence that befalls the country. This juxtaposition emphasizes the culpability of humans, whose society destroys an otherwise beautiful land. The “safety blanket” in this quote is symbolic of the war’s end and a possible peace, which Karunatilaka, through Maali’s point-of-view, accuses people of not deserving.

“I’m a hypocrite like you, sweetie. All our heads are colonised by Hollywood. We are brainwashed by rock and roll. The people dying up there aren’t really our people, are they?”

Here, Karunatilaka points out that internalized racism, taught through colonialism, further exacerbates divisions in Sri Lanka. Because Sri Lankans have been colonized to see Hollywood images and rock and roll as primary signals of culture, they’re encouraged to set aside their own culture. In hating themselves, they can’t love one another. This rhetorical question points out that Sri Lankans aren’t unified as one nation, thanks not only to this Civil War but to centuries of fighting colonial ideals of whiteness and Western ideals.

“Once upon a time in north India, a princess meets a lion. Lion kidnaps and forces self on princess. Princess gives birth to girl and boy. Boy grows up, kills lion-father, becomes king, marries sister. She gives birth to boy, who becomes troublemaker, who is banished with seven hundred flunkies, who arrive in ships on the shores of Ceylon.”

This quote tells a mythological story of modern Sri Lanka’s inception. This myth blames Sri Lankan instability on the banished 700 flunkies. Ceylon is the name the British gave to Sri Lanka during colonization. Sri Lankans tell this story as a way of conceptualizing their Civil War and the enormity of the violence they face. They believe themselves to be cursed.

“You look closely at the tangled threads and realise how closely they resemble a noose. Your camera hangs like a millstone; you pull at it and look down its cracked lens.”

The symbol of Maali’s camera as a noose represents the danger Maali puts himself in as a photographer of atrocities. The camera is what ultimately kills Maali because it makes him a danger to the oppressive powers in his nation. The millstone here represents a mechanism by which Maali drowns, but Maali can’t separate himself from his camera. This quote uses symbolism to characterize Maali as inherently doomed and naturally courageous.

“All stories are recycled and all stories are unfair. Many get luck, and many get misery. Many are born to homes with books, many grow up in the swamps of war. In the end, all becomes dust. All stories conclude with a fade to black.”

In this quote, Karunatilaka demonstrates a nihilistic perspective on the power of storytelling. Stories are recycled because human history repeats itself. The war in Sri Lanka is at once specifically Sri Lankan and universal. But this quote is also ironic because Karunatilaka uses the power of storytelling to resurface the story of Sri Lanka and give new humanity to the history of the Civil War.

“You’ve always thought the voice in your head belonged to someone else. Telling you the story of your life as if it had already happened. The omniscient narrator adding a voiceover to your day.”

In this quote, Karunatilaka parallels content with form. The structure of the narrative voice here is the second-person point-of-view, though it emanates from Maali’s voice and places Maali as its subject. While playing with this unusual narrative voice, Maali reflects on the voice in his head. He perceives his voice as omniscient, which parallels the second-person point-of-view.

“Tell her the odds are one in 23,955. Less than a straight flush. Tell her the universe is nothing but mathematics and probabilities. That we are nothing more than the accidents of our birth.”

As someone with a gambling addiction, Maali perceives statistics and odds as both a way of playing gambling games and an outlook on life. Now that Maali is dead, he can reflect on the probabilities and risks of life differently. Here, he notes that people are “nothing more than the accidents of our birth,” which is both a freeing and an oppressive thought. On the one hand, since human life is an accident, anything can happen, and humans are not bound to lives they believe are calculated and immutable. On the other hand, life is incalculable and therefore scarily unpredictable.

“It was to be the equivalent of a white flag for non-combatants, a no-fire zone on the battlefield, a talisman to deflect slings and arrows like the mythical henaraja thailaya. Everyone seemed to overlook that it was a red flag and that most of those swinging guns in the war zone were bulls.”

Maali’s red bandana is a symbol of peace and accountability, but with his murder, it turns into a symbol of failed promises and destroyed security. The red bandana is meant to be a symbol of neutrality, to protect journalists in war zones. But Maali’s red bandana is not enough to save his life. If anything, not being on one side or another in this conflict marks Maali as particularly dangerous. In his lack of bias, he is a threat to the structure of violence that informs the Sri Lankan Civil War.

“This war will never end, you think as you watch the villagers fire their weapons. You were allowed to try out your Nikon without restriction, and told only ‘Never shoot the Colonel,’ though you ended up doing just that.”

In this quote, Karunatilaka symbolizes Maali’s Nikon as a weapon. The warning to “never shoot the Colonel” refers to shooting a picture on a camera, but the verb shooting also refers to shooting a gun. The Colonel has used guns against others, and others have tried to use guns against him. With this symbol, Karunatilaka demonstrates the inherent violence in all human actions and positions Maali as a danger of his own.

“…and realise that from now on other people get to tell your story and there isn’t a gosh darn thing you can do about it. So, you bounce off the walls and you yell.”

Once Maali’s death is officially announced, his ghost bears witness to the way people speak about him when he’s not around to advocate for himself. In death, he loses control of his own narrative, but in life, Maali’s persona was also a projection of other people’s interpretations of him. In death, Maali can’t defend himself again misconceptions. This quote presents a warning: If Maali can’t find his Light within his seven moons, he’ll be doomed to powerlessness for eternity.

“The In Between is the same as Down There. No different from The Light. There is no force that governs butterflies or Buddhas or what is fair. The universe is anarchy. It is trillions of atoms pushing at each other, trying to clear space.”

In this quote, Sena riles up other ghosts to activate their violent feelings of revenge. The point he makes here is important to Karunatilaka’s overall exploration of the meaning of life. People turn to religion or governments to make sense of their lives, but here, Sena emphasizes that there is no sense. The universe is a constant and chaotic battlefield. The ghosts in the In Between fight not just among themselves for space but with their presence alongside the living, who infuriate them and repeat cycles of resentment.

“ You are ever the cliché—in death as in life. Hanging around the place you died is all ghosts ever do. It’s as obvious as milling around a grave or loitering at your old home. And just as pointless.”

Karunatilaka emphasizes the senselessness of the In Between. He reveals Maali’s character development as he starts to understand that staying in the In Between has no use or purpose. Becoming a ghost that haunts his former living spaces turns him into a cliché, but there is another way to be a spirit, and that is through finding the Light. This quote encourages readers to consider the importance of moving on, leaving the past behind, and pursuing metamorphosis.

“He looks at Viran and shakes his head slowly and disdainfully like only a closeted queen can. ‘These are beautiful.’”

In this quote, Clarantha subverts the anti-gay attitude of his society and advocates for the beauty of love and sexuality. This is an important quote because it is one of the few times that a character celebrates being gay instead of expressing shame. Clarantha, a “closeted queen,” sees Maali’s photographs as a way of escaping his internalized anti-gay bias and appreciating his sexuality. Thus, Maali’s photographs are freeing in more ways than one.

“They say the truth will set you free, though in Sri Lanka the truth can land you in a cage. And you have no more use for truth or cages or killers or lovers with perfect skin. All you have left are your images of ghosts. That may well be enough.”

The adage that the truth will set you free isn’t applicable in Sri Lanka because the truth only begets more hurt and trauma in a war-torn country. This quote reveals Maali’s character development. He has learned that his life on Earth and his spirit self in the In Between is like a cage. He decides to let go of the burden of his past and choose the opposite of being stuck in a cage: freedom. Whether that freedom comes with truth is not necessarily important anymore. When Maali first embarked on his seven moons, he was drawn to his past life and the people he loved. Now, toward the end of his seven moons, he realizes that there is no other option but to appreciate the past and the truth as a memory; it is important personally but otherwise irrelevant.

“It is hard to know what age they are, impossible to determine their race. Despite all speeches made to the contrary, the naked bodies of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers are indistinguishable. We all look the same when held to the flame.”

Here, Karunatilaka advocates for equality. Sri Lanka is warped by the fallacy of ethnic hierarchies, but Karunatilaka demonstrates that all Sri Lankans are human. When we die, we die the same, demonstrated in this novel by the In Between. Therefore, ethnic divisions are unimportant and don’t capture the human essence.

“How the world will go on without you and will forget you were even here. You think of the mother, the old man and the dog, of the things you did, or failed to do, for the ones you loved. You think about evil causes and about worthy ones. That the chances of violence ending violence are one in nothing, one in nada, one in squat.”

To find the Light before his seventh moon, Maali must come to terms with the senselessness of life. Even if life is valuable, it is valuable to the living and in the moment. Beyond that one stretch of time, nothing that occurs in life matters in the grand scheme of things. Maali learns this by becoming a ghost and bearing witness, yet again, to senseless violence and inaction. This quote marks the completion of Maali’s character development as a ghost—he is ready to be reborn because he has accepted that his previous concerns no longer matter.

“Do not be afraid of demons; it is the living we should fear. Human horrors trump anything that Hollywood or the afterlife can conjure.”

Demons, as depicted in this novel, are characterized by horror imagery. They are ugly, misshapen, and threatening in appearance. Still, demons can’t do as much harm as human beings can. The In Between and the Afterlife are much more passive spaces than the living world, even if it doesn’t appear so on the surface. This quote supports Karunatilaka’s novel-long criticism of the ways humans squander their lives hurting one another and the world around them.

“You no longer care if your photos are seen or not. Because Jaki and DD still have breath and, even though that won’t make up for this whole damn mess, it is something. And, without a doubt, that is the kindest thing you can say about life. It’s not nothing.”

For much of this novel, Maali believes that his unfinished business on Earth is the publication of his photographs. After enduring the journey of his seven moons and bearing witness, yet again, to the atrocities that humans inflict on one another, Maali’s character development brings him to a new conclusion that frees his spirit. What he used to think matters doesn’t. What matters is the intrinsic value of human life. In this quote, Maali doesn’t say what life is; he leaves the interpretation of “not nothing” vague for the readers to project their own ideas about the value of life. Survival is difficult, and the world is random and unpredictable. The odds of someone surviving, thriving, and finding happiness are so slim that life, when it happens, should be honored.