The Storyteller's Secret

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Part 12: “Jaya”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 12, Chapter 42 Summary

Jaya cries for the love lost between her grandmother and Stephen; she also realizes that Lena doesn’t know her biological parentage. Jaya connects her inability to have a child with her mother’s ignorance: “In our loss I am linked to my mother” (314). Jaya resolves to tell her mother Amisha’s full story.

Along the river’s edge, villager woman wash clothes in the river as children play. Ravi cautions her against snakes. Jaya asks why they don’t just kill the snakes so that no one has to worry about a child accidentally getting bitten. Ravi shoots down this idea: “Who is to say to whom this land belongs? The snake would argue it is its home that we have disturbed. Its poison may be its only defense” (315). Jaya is deaf to this idea, arguing that people are more important than snakes.

Ravi and Jaya walk through a henna ceremony, one component of the marriage rituals common in the village. As they watch the bride and groom, Jaya realizes that she “never thought to have an Indian wedding” (316) when she married Patrick. Jaya yearns for Patrick and the years they spent in happiness together. Even though their happiness ended in misery and loss, Jaya will always love him.

Part 12, Chapter 43 Summary

On the anniversary of her first miscarriage, Jaya dresses in traditional clothing and visits the temple. She seeks spiritual direction and consolation, deciding to pray to one of the goddesses depicted there for the child she still so desperately wants. Jaya spends hours before the statue until Amit finds her there and asks whether she believes in miracles. Amit prays daily for a miracle to heal his sister’s polio. Jaya attempts to bolster his faith in prayer despite not believing in miracles herself.

Later that day, Jaya calls Patrick. The connection goes through. Patrick quickly assures Jaya that Stacey isn’t there and that they haven’t seen each other since before Jaya left for India. “Unbidden hope” (321) fills Jaya as the two finally discuss the pain they felt from Jaya’s miscarriages. They reconnect over Jaya’s blog posts, which Patrick has been reading, and Jaya’s admissions of isolation, despair, and fear. Jaya, “for the first time since the pain started, [lets] him in” (323).

Part 12, Chapter 44 Summary

That night, Jaya visits the Ashram’s orphanage. Because it is so late, most of the children are asleep. The caretaker on duty suggests that Jaya warm up some milk for those struggling to sleep. Jaya spends time holding an infant drinking from the bottle. The caretaker comments that Jaya’s movements are natural, but she can only attribute her skills to the many books she’s read on caring for infants.

The caretaker asks if Jaya plans to adopt one of the children, which surprises Jaya, as adoption was not a course she considered. Now, holding the infant and with a growing acceptance of the limitations of her body, Jaya realizes that the orphans “are waiting for their own miracle—for fate to bring them someone to love” (327). Jaya stays there overnight, finding comfort in the idea that she can bring happiness and safety to these children.

Part 12 Analysis

The incident with the river snakes becomes a metaphor for the colonial issues in the novel. Ravi aligns the snakes’ perspective with that of a colonial subject: “Who is to say to whom this land belongs? The snake would argue it is its home that we have disturbed. Its poison may be its only defense” (315). In this view, people are disturbing an existing life system, so they should not be surprised when the snakes mount a defense of their habitat. Jaya’s response is distinctly American: She wants the snakes eradicated. Her perspective is that of the colonizer—someone who just wants to impose their comfort and ideals onto an existing culture.

Jaya grows more and more aware of her relative isolation from Indian culture during her childhood. She reveals: “I never thought to have an Indian wedding” (316), signaling her separation from her ancestral culture and relative naivety on subjects concerning Indian society. A big component of her healing process is accepting and assimilating her cultural background. This is reflected in her revelation in the orphanage—that adoption, though not her first option, is still a viable path to the motherhood she so desperately desires. The adoption of a child from her ancestral village would allow Jaya to embrace her culture at the same time that she embraces the limitations of her body. The epiphany is rooted in the section’s discussion of miracles. After hoping for an intervention specifically impacting only her—”I waited for a miracle from my body, but it refused me” (327)—Jaya realizes that she herself could be the miracle-bringer to someone else.

As Jaya lets go of her expectations about her body, she does the same with her relationship with Patrick. During their phone conversation, Jaya accepts the struggle their marriage has gone through. By doing this, Jaya is able to be emotionally vulnerable with Patrick: “for the first time since the pain started, I let him in” (323). Jaya’s character development requires that her body, her culture, and her relationship be fully freed from the expectations she places on them.