ii) the stories in the book take place in various locales: aboard a boat, in a marital residence, etc. Initially, the book lacks a stable setting. Why does the author set up his various stories the way he does?
The instability of space as a vehicle for narrative and plot requires the cliché use of the ship as metaphorical for society. There is a certain demfamiliarization that covers the deck of Ghosh's ship because it is no longer the vessel of the colonial but has "...changed hands: in the years since the formal abolition of the slave trade…" (16)The transition between dry land and the instability of open water is smooth because both are presented magically (in opiated haze) by the author. So far I understand the relationship with space to represent the negotiation of power between the family and society. "The child could not understand why a ship should find a place in the family pantheon." (14)Deeti's relationship with space is just as uncertain as the sailors because she is being drugged and raped. (39)Her mother-in-law acts as the ship's captain of the family that she has married into, creating further parallel.
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