What Does Nectar In A Sieve Mean

“There was nowhere else she could go: she had lived in the street and she died there.”(Markandaya 120) Nectar in a Sieve is about a girl who marries below her class. Nathan and Rukmani do not have a lot of money so they can not afford much. A key moment in Nectar in a Sieve is when Rukmani and Nathan are able to have chilies with their rice which makes it easier to eat. They knew that the chilies would make the rice would make the rice go down easier. They did not know when they were getting anything other than rice, so it made the rice taste better. They never got guarantees anything other than rice because they could not afford much since the Tanney came into town. Rice and chilies are a objects which symbolize all the good moments represented by the chilies inside the bad moments represented by the rice. …show more content…
Rukmani has to go from being the chief's daughter to a tenant farmer’s wife because her father did not have enough money for her to marry a rich man. “Perhaps that was why they could not find me a rich husband, and married me to a tenant farmer who was poor in everything but in love and care for me, his wife, whom he took at the age of twelve.”(Markandaya 4) Rukmani is able to have a baby girl named Irawaddy. Nathan paid very little attention to Ira because he knew that she would leave nothing but a memory of herself behind. “Nathan at first paid scant attention to her: he had wanted a son to continue his line and walk beside him on the land, not a puling infant who would take with her a dowry and leave nothing but a memory behind; but soon she stopped being a puling infant, and when at the age of ten months she called him “Apa,” which means father, he began to take a lively interest in her.”(Markandaya