Could many of the events in the novel been a dream?

In many parts of the book, it feels like the book loses touch with reality and everything spirals out of control at an unbelievable rate. Other things happen that are unexplained and seem impossible....Sampath turning into a guava would be an example. Could this novel have been written from the perspective of a dream?

i feel like because Sampath is sort of a "holy man", he reflects in sort of a dream state. Because this book is partially in his point of view, he could be contemplating or thinking in sort of a dream like state. But i agree that the author doesnt make it clear if the story, or parts of it, is written in dream.

what if some of the dream-like scenes are hallucinations? the possibility of Sampath being drugged is often thought by the spy from the AS. and on pages 99 and 120, the evidence of access to hallucinogens is shown. this would also explain the crazy antics of Kulfi, Pinky, and other characters. alcohol is also considered a drug, and seeing as the monkey are addicts, it makes sense that other drugs are being used. perhaps a message in this novel is about the chaos that drug-use causes, and the destructive effects(monkeys)?

@brebre13

I think you are completely right. It is proven that drugs give an odd perspective on tasks or people that are completely mundane. Like you said, perhaps the message in this book is to show just what drugs can do to a mans thought process.

If it were drugs, do you see any references in the book that allude to that notion?

@allysonbrianna
there are direct suspicions on pages 99 and 120, as previously posted.

oops! I totally skipped over that. Thanks!

Another possibly theory could be that Sampath was schizophrenic. That could explain MANY of the scenes in the novel. I posted about it in Maureen's topic.

@allysonbrianna
that is such a good point! i agree that that is a possible diagnosis for Sampath. but i still think drugs play a role... perhaps the schizophrenia led to drug use, or the other way around? maybe it was a release to escape from the effects of his schizophrenia?

Wow. I never thought about any of these ideas! Now I see a whole different outlook on the book. Good thinking guys!!

That is an extremely good point to think about. I believe that, this could definitely be a possibility. This is because I also have a feeling that the food Sampath's mother cooks has some sort of maybe even a drug that puts him in the mood he has towards life. His mother is supportive to him staying up in the tree and being the so called "holy man" She also seems to have a mental issue. It only makes sense that she could be doing something to his food. Especially because she only allows him to eat it.

My view of the book just did a 180, you guys. I never thought of it that way! Honestly, that sounds like a pretty good assumption of what Kiran Desai was trying to tell us in the first place. In response to allysonbrianna's question about it being a dream, I feel it very well could have been, but not because of drugs. Sampath spent a lot of time daydreaming. For example, at one point he imagines he is a "gloriouis bird" or "magnificent insect" and he was "made . . . to demand the world's attention." There he's daydreaming, so I feel at some point in the novel it switches to the world he has imagined to escape being a failure in his family's eyes. Perhaps near the beginning when he goes up on the rooftop?

As I was reading the book, I was always thinking that Sampath probably was drugged. Otherwise there wouldnt have been much significance to the spy? He alluded to the fact that the food Kulfi was preparing was strange. Perhaps she was drugging Sampath becuase she loved the orchard so much. Her quality of life there was so much better. She didnt really fit in at home, and people thought she was weird. She pretended that it didnt bother her, but I think that it probably did. So I think that once she realised how perfect things were in the orchard, she didnt want to leave, so she drugged Sampath to make people think that he was some special person, when really he was just hallucinating