The Storyteller's Secret

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Part 9: “Amisha”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 9, Chapter 33 Summary

Deepak invites Stephen to Raksha Bandhan, a holiday that celebrates the bond between brother and sister. Deepak’s conniving, gossiping sister Janna is also there. When Amisha trips and nearly drops a large platter of dishes, Stephen moves to help her, but Amisha quickly signals him to stay back as any help from him “would be seen as an insult to Deepak” (248). The group shares the meal, with Deepak insisting that Stephen “eat like an Indian” (248) in their home.

After the meal, the group lights candles and prays to Lord Ganesha. Janna and Deepak show their sibling bond by reciting prayers for each other’s happiness and binding their hands together with a red and golden string. Then, Janna, who “always walked a fine line between good behavior and causing mischief” (250) suggests that helping Amisha at the school qualifies Stephen to become her ceremonial brother. Deepak seconds this suggestion.

Panicked, Amisha denies that she has a suitable string, but Janna finds spare string and pushes them to continue the ceremony. Amisha nicks the string with her fingernail while Stephen covertly helps her. The string breaks, canceling the ceremony. Stephen concludes the awkward affair by saying to Amisha: “I am not meant to be your brother after all” (252).

Part 9, Chapter 34 Summary

In preparation for the rainy season, Ravi reinforces the outside of the house before it floods. He works hard to fulfill his promise to Deepak to have the house ready, ignoring Amisha’s entreaties to eat and take breaks. When the rain starts, Ravi persists in his work despite the cold and dark. Amisha hears a desperate scream. Ravi has accidentally cut his leg while trying to cut a piece of wood. The amount of blood he is losing is concerning; Amisha quickly recognizes this as a fatal wound.

She attempts to help Ravi, but he pushes her away, afraid of her touching his blood, which is believed to be a grave contamination from an Untouchable. Both Ravi and Amisha know that no doctor will treat an Untouchable. In desperation, Amisha turns to Stephen, who agrees to take Ravi to the military hospital for treatment. When Amisha tries to follow, Stephen asks, “What would happen to your children?” (257). The question reminds Amisha of her rightful place.

Instead of praying at her home temple as usual, Amisha walks to the main temple of the village to pray for Ravi’s recovery with desperation: “I stand with him, and if you want his soul, then you must take mine first” (258). She leaves the temple assured that her prayer was heard.

Part 9, Chapter 35 Summary

Stephen reports that Ravi will make a full recovery after a few days of rest. Overcome with relief, Amisha invites Stephen into the back room to talk without waking the children up. She thanks Stephen profusely as he hugs her in consolation. The embrace becomes sexual. Amisha is amazed at the pleasure she feels in Stephen’s arms. With Deepak “she had felt the faint stirrings of pleasure at his touch, but never the sensations she experienced now” (261). Though their embrace is passionate, they do not have sex. Yet they “reached a level of intimacy she had yet to experience with Deepak” (262).

Stephen declares that both of them have been avoiding expressing their true feelings for each other, but Amisha is not yet ready to face the implications of being with Stephen. Stephen is frustrated but respects Amisha’s wishes, leaving the house to return to his own home.

After only two days of rest, Ravi returns to Amisha’s house. Amisha joins the servants in their daily work to lessen the amount that Ravi has to do. Ravi recounts how fiercely Stephen fought for his life: “Your lieutenant would not allow me to die” (265) and threatened the hospital staff if they did not agree to treat Ravi.

Part 9, Chapter 36 Summary

Amisha is observing Karva Chauth, a holiday which requires a woman to fast for a specific man to show her love and loyalty to him. At the conclusion of her fast, the chosen man is supposed to be the one to feed her food. Usually, Amisha and Deepak undertake this ceremony together, but Deepak is away on business. It is the perfect excuse for Amisha to fast for Stephen, instead.

Rather than fasting the customary one day, Amisha fasts for three days, waiting for Stephen. Amisha is resolute in her belief that Stephen will come to her as “this man meant more to her than she meant to herself” (269). Amisha’s prediction comes true—Stephen arrives, though he is ignorant that she has been fasting. Amisha begins to worry that Stephen “might not understand the ritual that she found so meaningful” (270). After her explanation that she did not fast for her husband, Stephen is both shocked and touched, and completes the ritual by feeding Amisha her first bites of food in several days. Amisha falls asleep to a full stomach and the knowledge that she has shown how deep her love for Stephen is.

Part 9 Analysis

Stephen and Amisha’s relationship becomes even more strained with repressed desire as the Raksha Bandhan ceremony threatens to force them into the roles of brother and sister for lifetimes, according to Hindu belief. This threat is especially potent for Amisha, who puts her faith in such acts of ceremony. She desires to keep Stephen firmly separate from her family and their influence, in the same way that she chose Ravi as a servant to circumvent the prying eyes of the village. Amisha seeks to keep her greatest allies—Ravi and Stephen—close but outside familial obligations or cultural expectations.

When Ravi becomes injured, Amisha naturally turns to Stephen to help her when no one else could. More than anything else, this act signifies Amisha’s deep love for Stephen as she entrusts the life of her best friend to his care. However, Stephen imposes social codes of honor on Amisha’s behavior, stopping her emotional reaction to Ravi’s injury in the same way he prevented Amisha from seeking out Neema before her marriage. When she wants to leave her house to accompany Ravi to the hospital, Stephen entreats her to stay behind by asking, “What would happen to your children?” (257). Stephen is both a temptation to act against social norms and a constant reminder of what Amisha should be focusing on according to the society she was born into.

As Stephen and Amisha can no longer resist the physical temptation of being together, Amisha’s character is conflicted. On one hand, she experiences sexual pleasure for the first time, adding a new dimension to her feminism and desire for independence. On the other hand, Amisha’s sense of freedom is shaky and dependent on Stephen’s presence. Rather than actualize on her own, she simply transfers the cultural expectations she only mimed for Deepak onto genuine feelings for Stephen.

This transfer happens quite literally, as Amisha devotes a significant cultural practice meant for Deepak to Stephen, using the restriction of food to symbolize the restriction of sex she places upon herself. Amisha attempts to claim Stephen through this ceremony: “The way she felt about him was hers alone” (269). The ceremony allows Amisha to fully express her feelings for Stephen without having to voice them aloud and risk her position. The gap between desire and duty is bridge, but only within Amisha herself, in her conception of her relationship toward her family and toward Stephen.