Nectar in a Sieve

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…

Hope is the feeling responsible for preventing people from giving up and quitting. The power of hope gives people a reason to keep fighting for the future they desire. In Kamala Markandaya’s novel, Nectar in a Sieve, which takes place in the 1950s, she tells her readers about the hope two destitute farmers in rural India: Nathan and Rukmani. They face monsoons, droughts, and other hardships that attempt to destroy their lives and those of their children, but through the troubles, they meet…

Typically when people experience rough times, they depend on their family members for assurance. Similar to rural 1950’s India, Ruku and Nathan’s family sticks together and that is how they make it through their rough times. Family unity is very important in times of hardship. Without family unity, Rukmani’s family would not have been able to deal with the issue of starving. They bind together for: the loss of Raja, the return of Irrawaddy, and the tannery coming to town. In Nectar in a…

British started to hack away at India’s issues and began to solve them. Finally, when Rukmani’s family requires aide, Kenny helps them by offering a job to her son. Comparatively, the British brought over a new language to help the Indians better communicate with each other and their rulers. Ultimately, even though Britain and India struggled with each other over social, political, and economic situations, they sometimes were able to overcome these altercations. Though Indians suffered, the…

Hope is really important to have in life, even when no one else believes it will be alright. It often helps many people become aware that hope has a big influence on many. In the novel Nectar in a Sieve, the author Kamala Markandaya explains how challenges aren't meant to stop anyone. Kamala explains to her readers about a couple named Rukmani, and Nathan who are poor farmers in India. They have an arranged marriage, but love each other dearly. Throughout their lives they have hope, strength,…

In Nectar in a Sieve, written by Kamala Markandaya, the main character Rukmani suffers a great deal starting from her childhood throughout her adult life. Throughout dealing with hunger, vicious weather, change, and tremendous amounts of deaths, Rukmani transforms into an extremely strong woman. Life of Pi, told by Yann Martel, the main character by the name of Pi, who faces with the denial of the destruction of all he has known. In his journey across the ocean he experiences many challenges…

In Nectar and a Sieve it was about Indian women who lived in a village where she went through some struggles with her family. In the novel you could find some important, powerful motifs and symbols. Struggle was a powerful motif in nectar in a sieve .rice being the perfect symbols I would say represented the fact that they weren’t accessed too much food due to the condition of their finances also tragic seasons of weather. This was huge struggle for them. Kunti was someone who was able to…

Themes in literature are best conveyed through the use of literary elements and devices, and Nectar in a Sieve’s themes are no different. The title of this novel was inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Work without Hope”. As a result Markandaya’s novel is filled with symbolism, imagery, allegory, setting, and so much more. These devices contribute to the reader’s ability to analyze the novel. Literary devices are important because they help emphasize and convey the author’s meaning. Symbolism…

One of the many themes in the story Nectar in a Sieve is the people’s reluctance to change. This theme is most well seen during the building of the tannery. The workers that built the tannery came in by the bullock cartload, and they quickly took over part of the village. The first time that the villagers resist change is when the foreman tells them to leave the worksite. Some of the men in the village refuse to give in to the demands of the outsider. Rukmani also makes it clear that she…

motivation to bring up my slacking grades. This shift of energy caused my improvement in basketball to halt and my friendship with Zavian was fading away. A year passes before we meet and when we do, he is very keen on playing a game of one on one against me. Having not touched a basketball in months, I kindly try to change the subject but his persistence was too hard to handle. The game kicks off with him nailing a three-pointer right in my face. From there it only gets worse for me. I’m unable…