The Storyteller's Secret

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Symbols & Motifs

Bindi

The fact that Amisha doesn’t wear a bindi symbolizes her desire to escape the gender-restrictive society she lives in, and her willingness to transcend her culture. Wearing a bindi would mark Amisha as a devoted wife, but she “forgets” (138) to wear one, suggesting that she doesn’t completely agree with the village’s expectations of her. She is comfortable with asserting her identity in small, rebellious ways.

Writing

This motif not only connects the two protagonists of the novel—Amisha and Jaya—connecting their stories of feminine and feminist strength.

Amisha’s creative energy and writing ability drive her to the English school, where she develops a relationship with Stephen and goes on to write stories in English. Her stories reflect her desire for freedom from the submissive, patriarchy-controlled life that she lives. Furthermore, her ability to write in her native tongue and English by the end of the narrative allows her character to reconcile the warring sides of colonialism as well as her separation between from Stephen.

Jaya’s relationship with writing is different—she begins the novel as a journalist, having grown up in a time when choosing this path is not a rebellion against tradition but simply one of the many options open to her. Unlike Amisha, Jaya does not use her writing to communicate her ideas and philosophical consideration; instead, she hides behinds the stories of others. When she travels to India, Jaya writes blog posts that require her to open up and get more personal. Through this work, she comes to accept the need to share her emotions with Patrick and her mother. Jaya’s blog also allows her to share her family’s story with a wide audience, making the end of the secrecy her grandmother and mother accepted as a given.

Food

Characters frequently prepare meals or serve them to loved ones. Food becomes a symbol of familial love, as it is through shared meals that many of the characters connect with one another. Amisha’s role in the household is to ensure that her family is properly fed. Involving Ravi in this process despite his Untouchable status is a way for Amisha to bring her friend into the family. When Jaya is in India, she and Ravi prepare a meal together in his home, signifying the love and friendship that binds their two families together. It is also over a meal that Jaya first gets the idea to invite Ravi’s great-grandchildren to America for their education and medical treatment.

Lena never taught Jaya to cook, which reflects Lena’s self-imposed emotional isolation and Jaya’s distance from her cultural background. Patrick and Jaya also never cook together. Once Jaya learns that Lena was often forced into doing large amounts of cooking when she was younger, Jaya realizes that for her mother, preparing food is not equivalent to sharing love—rather, it is a symbol of her deprived and abusive childhood. Jaya connects with Patrick and her mother only after she shares home-cooked meals with Ravi and his family.