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Nectar in a Sieve 2862 Views


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Description:

What's the deal with "Nectar in a Sieve"? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Nectar in a Sieve<<siv>>, a la Shmoop. Have you ever told someone a story about something

00:10

that happened to you a long time ago?

00:13

Like… when you regaled your friends with the tale of the time you fell off your bike

00:19

and had to go to the hospital?

00:20

Or when you told them about the time you fell off your skateboard and landed face-first

00:24

on the concrete?

00:25

Hm. Maybe you should be wearing protective padding…

00:28

We like to tell stories about our past.

00:30

But… why do we like doing that so much? In Nectar in a Sieve, our narrator, Rukmani,

00:41

who is now an elderly woman…

00:42

…tells us of her childhood.

00:48

So why did the author…

00:49

… choose to tell this story as a reflection of Rukmani’s past, rather than in the form

00:54

of a normal narrative?

00:58

Maybe it’s because she wanted to show how different things were years after the events

01:01

that took place in the story.

01:03

“Ruku” struggles with money problems…

01:05

…a growing emotional distance between herself and her children…

01:12

…droughts, starvation, death… all that good stuff.

01:17

But the book ends on a hopeful note.

01:19

And because our narrator has lived to a ripe old age, we can only assume that things got

01:20

better.

01:20

So perhaps we’re supposed to see how all those struggles… the strikes at the tannery…

01:24

the overcoming poverty… the resilience in the face of tragedy…

01:28

…all win out over desperation and despair in the end.

01:33

Or could it be that the author doesn’t want us wondering whether or not Ruku is going

01:36

to die?

01:37

She’s an elderly woman when she tells us this story, so we know she’s not going to

01:41

kick the bucket in some freak bicycling accident in her twenties.

01:45

By giving us the information that Ruku survives, it allows us to focus more on the story at

01:51

hand…

01:51

…rather than tempting us to play prophet and try to predict the outcome.

02:00

On the other hand… are we supposed to see… not how the world around Ruku has changed…

02:04

…but how she has changed? Has she become more or less optimistic as

02:11

a result of her hardships?

02:12

Has she lost faith in love and goodness in the world, or did her experiences enforce

02:17

her positive attitude?

02:19

Does she have regrets, or is she satisfied with the way her life has played out?

02:26

We wouldn’t be able to answer these questions… or to even ask them, really… if the story

02:32

were being told as it unfolded. So… why are we some… fly on the wall of

02:37

this time machine?

02:43

Are we supposed to see how Ruku has changed…

02:45

…how the world has changed…

02:47

…or are we just supposed to not worry about her suffering an untimely demise?

02:52

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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