Setting
The novel is set in an unnamed farming village in south India, most likely in the 1950s, just after India gained independence from Britain. Rukmani […]
Month: January 2009
Themes and Characters
Markandaya is known for pitting Western realism against Eastern spiritualism and for contrasting the views of white people with the views of nonwhite people. She […]
Literary Qualities
Nectar in a Sieve is told in first person, in flashback, as Rukmani reminisces about the truths and trials of her life. The first-person narrative […]
Social Sensitivity
Markandaya has succeeded in exposing the conflicts that often prevent us from accepting other cultures. The ability to get along with people who have different […]
Topics for Discussion
1. Do you think that Arjun and Thambi made the correct decision when they decided not to become farmers like their father and instead went […]
Ideas for Reports and Papers
1. When Rukmani’s son Arjun wants to work in the tannery, she tells him that he is not of the caste of tanners. Explain the […]
Related Titles
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1959) depicts the village life of the Ibo clan of Nigeria before and after colonization. Like Nectar in a Sieve, […]
Introduction
The story of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart takes place in the Nigerian village of Umuofia in the late 1880s, before missionaries and other […]
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe is a world-renowned scholar recognized for his ability to write simply, yet eloquently, about life’s universal qualities. His writing weaves together history and […]
Plot Summary
A Part I-Okonkwo’s Rise to Fame Achebe’s Things Fall Apart describes the tragic demise of an Ibo man named Okonkwo. Initially, Okonkwo rises from humble […]