The people of Shakkot

What are the people of Shakkot like? Do you think they are nosy, proud, kind, or welcoming? How does what they did to the barbed wire fence at the post office give insight into their characters?

I never even thought about the barbed wire around the post office. that is interesting and makes us wonder. Today we think of areas with barbed wire as a bad part of town. This is where poorer people live and where gang fights might take place. The people of Shankot were probably poor and they could have been also very angry people. maybe they put barbed wire around their houses so no one would come onto their property. When i read the book though, I came across the people in Shankot as very nosey. They always seemed to know what was going on with Sampath. Also when the monkeys were causing lots of trouble they said, that the whole town was talking about it and complaining. The barbed wire also could of been used to to keep animals away from the post office. This is just my understanding of the people of Shankot.

i think that the barbed wire is satire towards the government. the post office is a government building and the barbed wire shows separation. Desai could have been satirizing the way the government tries to keep the common person out. if the government is keeping people away, it is a form of oppression. the author might have been hinting at this message quietly in the imagery.

brebre13 wrote:i think that the barbed wire is satire towards the government. the post office is a government building and the barbed wire shows separation. Desai could have been satirizing the way the government tries to keep the common person out. if the government is keeping people away, it is a form of oppression. the author might have been hinting at this message quietly in the imagery.

good point. quite possibly, in that line of thinking, maybe the guava tree separates sampath from his followers.