Jeanne’s answer to “Why the title, A Fine Balance? For me there was little balance between good and bad, between opti…” > Likes and Comments
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I was thinking too that the title can be read as sarcastic. I keep thinking about the children being cared for by the monkey man -- how he lifted them up on sticks and was reviled for it and then later beaten for it. But I think that lifting them up was symbolic maybe -- a symbol of raising them over their station. And then the children are sold to the Beggarman and he cuts off their hands and twists their spines and turns them into objects of pity by mutilating them and the government is okay with that and looks the other way and the mob gives them money. So in that sense, the balance is "fine" as in yeah that's just fine said sarcastically. I think there was a lot of hidden symbolism in the book and if I knew Indian culture I could tease it out
Okay one more stab at this. My husband and I were talking about it and we think that maybe he is referring to the blended family of an independent middle class woman who has befriended two untouchable hindu tailors who were raised by a Muslim and the other friend in the family is a young reasonably well off man. Blended all together, they represent what India could be -- a fine balance of religious people and classes and castes if the corrupt government would stop using the emergency and the corrupt and sadistic police force to tear people apart.
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Jeanne
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Nov 02, 2019 05:48AM

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