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Chapters 7 & 8

Summary: Chapter 7, Wisdom Exercise Notebooks

Back in the present, Rahel is in her grandfather Pappachi’s study looking around. There she sees mounted butterflies and moths that have disintegrated into heaps of powder, and a set of books called The Insect Wealth of India. Behind the books, Rahel finds “hidden things,” a set of notebooks marked Esthappen and Rahel, and the title Wisdom Exercise Notebooks. Rahel laughs to herself reading the notebooks, noting Estha’s childish grammatical mistakes and sentences, but also his propensity for morbid topics. Rahel comes across a harsh note Ammu wrote to Estha about never interrupting her when she is talking to someone, and Rahel stops laughing. 

The narrative shifts to when the twins are eleven years old. At this point, Estha is still living with his father, and Rahel is the only one home with Ammu. When Rahel mentions Estha, Ammu talks over Rahel to avoid facing the fact that he is with their father, as well as the realities of her own deepening bronchial illness. The narrative then shifts to when, years later, at age thirty-one, Ammu dies alone in a room waiting for a job interview. Chacko and Rahel are the ones to collect the body and bring it to the crematorium, where they watch it burn. They have to wait some time to collect the ashes. Rahel does not shed a tear or bother to write to tell Estha the news, figuring that it would be like writing to another part of her body. In the present, Rahel stands on the verandah of the Ayemenem house, thinking about how she is in the spot where they all sang “Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol” to Sophie Mol years ago. 

Chapter 8: Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol

The narrator returns to the day Sophie Mol comes to the Ayemenem house with Margaret Kochamma. Mammachi, an accomplished violinist, plays violin on the verandah. When Mammachi’s thoughts wander to Margaret, her playing becomes shrill and angry. She resents Margaret for leaving Chacko and blames her for their divorce. Mammachi has loyalty to Chacko ever since he intervened on her behalf to stop Pappachi from beating her. From that moment on, Mammachi packed all her “wifely” luggage and put it in Chacko’s care, in a symbolic gesture of transferring all of her “womanly” love to her son. For years, Chacko has affairs with the women at the factory, including servants, whom Mammachi pays off. In her mind, the arrangement makes sense since it clarifies things, and separates the act of sex from love. 

Kochu Maria creates a cake for Sophie Mol’s arrival with the words “Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol” in icing. Sophie Mol is greeted by everyone with a nervous, excited behavior as they pretend they live happy lives. The narrator notes how the family resumes saying only the “Small Things” while the “Big Things lurked unsaid inside.” Rahel leaves the party to greet Velutha, who is outside. Ammu notices, and for a moment, is warmed by the close bond her daughter and Velutha share. Ammu then notices Velutha’s chiseled body. Velutha catches her glance, and returns it, for the first time noticing her womanly beauty. 

Back inside, Margaret Kochamma makes an innocent remark of fascination, asking if sniffing is customary practice in India after she catches Kochu Maria sniffing Sophie Mol’s palms. Ammu reacts harshly, snapping back that they’re not some “godforsaken tribe that’s just been discovered.” The narrator describes Ammu’s own past, which includes years of terror and abuse from Pappachi. The narrative then moves back to Sophie Mol’s arrival. While the family eats cake, Ammu calls Rahel back into the house and tells her to keep some distance from Velutha. Frustrated, Rahel goes back outside to crush ants. 

Analysis: Chapters 7–8

As Rahel tours her grandfather’s study, the world inside is crumbling, a former glory of what it once was. Pappachi’s books are covered in dust, and a line of ants marches happily across the dirt-covered windowsills. A series of preserved, pinned moths are turning to dust. The moths, a major symbol in Pappachi’s life, show how his legacy turns things to dust. The moths represent Pappachi’s pride and his attempt to achieve social standing and glory, two things he prized in life. As Rahel looks at them now as an adult, it’s clear that Pappachi has only succeeded in forming a family disconnected from life and the sources of vitality, the “Small Things.” 

Still, following the traditions of one’s culture is necessary to maintain family bonds and to keep the vitality of the community alive, as Roy has suggested earlier with the scenes of the hotel at the riverbank. Without maintaining traditions, things are “killed” and made ineffective, as in the Kathakali dances and the consequences of dumping waste in the river to serve the needs of fast-paced modern life. However, in this scene in the study, it is suggested that the Kochamma family goes one step further in choking out the mysteries of life, and succeeds only in forming a crumbling dynasty.

The image of the moths being “pinned down” are suggestive of the Kochamma family’s attempts to “pin down” nature itself, warping it to fit social and family senses of obligations. Rahel is constantly “pinned down” by Ammu, as a child. She and Estha are scolded for speaking too loudly, acting out, getting dirty, and being children. Ammu is embarrassed by their presence in situations with people like Sophie Mol, who is half-white and representative of “high” culture. Moths have also become a symbol for Rahel’s fear, and a metaphorical moth lands on her heart the day Ammu tells her she loves her less. As Rahel looks over the study, and the childhood notebooks with Ammu’s harsh comments to Estha, Rahel’s fear is also crumbling and disappearing as she faces the painful memories of her childhood. It’s one of the chief values of Rahel homecoming, as the novel continues to suggest that Rahel’s return is one of reclaiming her former youth and grieving for its loss.

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