Nectar In A Sieve Challenges

Challenges teach everyone that not everything goes his or her own way. Families and friends rely on each other to get through them. Kamala Markandaya explores the importance of challenges in her novel Nectar in a Sieve. In her story, the main characters and people of the village overcome many different challenges. Especially focusing on Nathan and Rukmani and their family. Throughout their lives, they overcome the challenge of poverty, relationships, and their environment. By illustrating many challenges, Markandaya shows how everybody can overcome them by maintaining courage. The first example of challenges is, poverty--the reality that the people face everyday and how they overcome it with courage. One way challenges contribute to their poverty is when the monsoon comes and destroys their income. Nathan says, “...but if the land is gone our livelihood is gone…” (Markandaya 15) Rukmani and Nathan maintain courage during the time of no food or work by uplifting each other. Even though the family becomes destitute because of the storm they rise up because of a good harvest afterward. The second way challenges interfere with the people’s poverty is when Kenny gets frustrated with them. For example, “Do not the sick die in the streets because there is no hospital for them?” (Markandaya 46) The people have no hope when it comes to getting sick because there is no place for them to go for they are too …show more content…
The people face poverty everyday, relying on their hope to maintain courage to overcome the challenge. The people face challenges in their relationships that they resolve with courage from love and relying on each other. Also, their environment always fluctuates, which is a challenge, and the people keep courage by moving on. Markandaya illustrates that these challenges are able to be overcome with courage, even when things don't go his or her own way, to all