Plotting the Story (pp. 127-143)

Explain Chid’s change.

When Chid comes back, he has changed in two ways. On the one hand his outward appearance has changed, on the other hand his inner life has changed as well.

The characters in the novel react very disparate to that:

The first time the narrator sees him again, she does not really recognize Chid, because he has disrobed his Indian clothes which made him once look like an Indian ascetic. Now she describes him as a ‘Christian boy’ (p. 129, l. 21). For his circumstances Chid became very quiet and it seems that he left all his old life behind, Inder Lal’s mother and Ritu included (p. 129, ll. 25/26).  The narrator doesn’t really understand why he has changed so much, he does not even eat Indian food. Chid does everything to not to get involved with the Indian culture anymore. So actually the narrator has to cook for him.

Inder Lal is very disappointed with Chid’s change. He always liked to listen to his stories and to learn from his knowledge about spirituality. For him it would have been better if he hadn’t returned (p. 130, ll. 5/6).

Maybe Chid changed his life because he was not able to live an ascetic life. It has always been very hard for him to live this life (e.g. he had to call home to ask for more money). Possibly this became too much for him and he realised that the spirituality and Hindu religion were just a pretence for him to live this life. Because when you see that he now looks like a Christian boy, it’s recognizable that he never really did it because of belief in God: nobody can swap the religion from one day to another.

Like many other Europeans Chid didn’t manage his life in India without help. His dreams didn’t come true which made it always more difficult for him.

In my opinion Chid is the best example for Europeans who came to India with many expectations which weren’t fulfilled. He failed and turned back to his old life as an Englishman.