Themes In Cracking India

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The novel Cracking India is set in the late 1940’s in Lahore, India. The story takes place during the independence struggle between India and Pakistan. This struggle led to a lot of violence associated with the Partition with the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. The narrator of Cracking India, is a young 8 year old named Lenny. Lenny is handicapped by polio and she is a member of a religion that is not Hindus, Muslim of Sikh. One of several reasons that Lenny makes a beneficial narrator is because of her age. Lenny is very young and sees the world through innocent eyes. Lenny has a small world that consists only of the people who are immediately around her and this is what is rules her attention. The novel uses this innocence of Lenny’s to …show more content…

This use of manipulation was used to control people of the partition. Lenny being young and innocent, noticed how her Nanny, Ayah attracted many suitors due to her good looks. Lenny observed how Ayah moved about and how other men observed her. Lenny started to see how manipulation can benefit her own need for attention with her disability of having polio. Lenny describes how the manipulation and violence towards women of India was tolerated by the partition. This fear of violence led women to live in fear of being raped or violently killed. In chapter 23, Lenny describes how Ayah was kidnapped and raped. “Four men stand pressed against her, propping her body upright, their lips stretched in triumphant grimaces.” Lenny describes what she saw next. “The last thing I noticed was Ayah, her mouth slack and piteously gaping, her disheveled hair flying into her kidnapper’s faces, staring at us as if she wanted to leave behind her wide-open and terrified …show more content…

The implication of encouraging Partition inside of India began to destroy the innocence of this country. Lenny lived in her beloved India free with all people who were indian until the divide began to partition them and segregate them into classes. Lenny starts to understand how people of all partitions can become so manipulative and divisive in order to destroy one another. Lenny’s loss of innocence begins to emerge as she is manipulated by her longtime friend, Candy-Ice-man, to give up the whereabouts of her Nanny Ayah. “Don’t be scared, Lenny baby,” he says. “I’m here.” Candy-Ice-man puts his arm around Lenny and whispers to her. “I’ll protect Ayah with my life! You know I will….I know she’s here. Where is she?” Lenny responds knowing that she has betrayed Ayah. “On the roof—or in one of the godowns…” Lenny realizes that she has made a fateful decision to give up the hiding of Ayah so that Candy-Ice-man can take her away from her family. Lenny was further exposed to the violence within her own world because she was manipulated into losing her beloved friend and Nanny, Ayah. This had a profound effect on Lenny’s view of the world around her due to betraying Ayah for the differences in religious between the Muslims and Sikhs. Lenny understood that Ayah would be tortured and/or raped by

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