Fire on the Mountain: Themes (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Fire on the Mountain: Themes

The highest marks in exams are often linked to answers that demonstrate critical thinking around ideas and themes. Exploring the themes of a text in relation to the question being asked will help to increase the examiner’s confidence in your ability to write assuredly about the text, and the writer’s intentions behind their choices.

Below are some of the themes that could be explored in Fire on the Mountain. This list is not exhaustive, and you are encouraged to identify other themes or ideas within the text:

• Solitude and loneliness

• Trauma

• The class system

• Patriarchy

Solitude and loneliness

Throughout the novel, Desai shows how her characters deal with and feel about being alone. Both Nanda and Raka appear to embrace it, but we see that Nanda’s desire for isolation is complex, whereas Raka is truly comfortable spending time alone. 

However, it could be argued that Ila, Raka and Nanda have found themselves alone, by choice or not, due to the trauma in their lives.

Knowledge and evidence:

• The narrative starts with Nanda angry that her peace and quiet may be broken by the approaching postman:

  • Within the first paragraph, she describes his presence as “a fat ball of irritation” 

  • It is not just him that annoys Nanda, but also the idea of post

  • She feels that any communication from the outside world will interrupt her peace

• Nanda believes that isolation up in the hills will bring her freedom:

  • We learn that she lived a life of servitude as a wife and mother, stuck at home with a house full of children she felt burdened by, and treated poorly by a husband who loved another woman

  • Nanda looks for the opposite once her husband dies

  • When she moves into Carignano, she is even annoyed with her children staying around to help her, until “fortunately, they had gone away”

  • Carignano was a new start for Nanda, stripping away the identity she didn’t want as a mother and wife, now alone to be herself

• Nanda presents as being happy in her solitude, but this notion is increasingly undermined as the narrative continues

• Many of the books that Nanda is described reading suggest that solitude is peaceful, freeing:

  • In The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon there is a story called When a Woman Lives Alone

  • Nanda seems to take guidance from it, especially one quote: “When a woman lives alone, her house should be extremely dilapidated”

  • It is like she is trying to convince herself that she is thriving alone

• Slowly, after Raka arrives, Nanda cannot resist trying to build a relationship:

  • This could be loneliness creeping up on her, but also jealousy

  • Nanda calls Raka the “finished, perfected model” of what Nanda wishes she was, showing cracks in her self belief

• Raka is different to Nanda, even if Nanda tries to compare the two:

  • Raka does enjoy being alone, and has more fun by herself

  • Raka rarely engages with Nanda, and only does so with any enthusiasm when Nanda is being natural

  • As Nanda tries to force conversation and a bond between them, Raka loses interest, finding her great-grandmother’s desperation uncomfortable

• Ila, on the other hand, is forced into solitude, and is saddened by it:

  • She is mistreated by everyone

  • She comes to see Nanda, even though Nanda offers no encouragement

  • She is then too proud to ask to stay, even though she desperately needs to

  • Walking home alone, to a place she lives in by herself, she is then raped and killed, exemplifying how unsafe it is for her, as a woman at this time, to be alone

What is Desai’s intention?

• Desai allows the reader to discover bit by bit that the facade Nanda and Raka use is a mask for other issues:

  • Both present as being proud and happier alone, but both have found themselves largely shaped by trauma

• She also shows Ila as someone who is too proud to ask for help:

  • Ila, however, at least admits to herself that she wants company

• The author is allowing the reader to learn the difference between what these characters tell themselves and the truth of the matter:

  • All three of the women are hiding to protect themselves

• The story of Fire on the Mountain is not one of drama and incident, but completely character-focused:

  • By teasing out character details, the novel becomes about the reader learning the truth of these characters, their true personalities, needs, and their histories

• Desai could be using their experiences of being alone to remind readers that diving into isolation can do more harm than good, and that people need good company:

  • It could be said that none of the characters are better for being alone

  • Raka’s solitude leads her into danger, Nanda’s leaves her desolate and depressed, Ila’s leaves her vulnerable and, eventually, a victim of violence

• She also shows the difference between loneliness and solitude:

  • Ila is lonely, missing companionship and love

  • Nanda is harder to read, perhaps realising as she pines for Raka’s attention that she is lonely, but has been lost in depression

  • Raka, in contrast, has forced herself into solitude to protect herself, but does seem to thrive with the freedom that childish curiosity brings

• It could be argued that Desai shows us that being alone, or being with others, does not define whether you are lonely or not:

  • Ila is lonely on her own, Nanda felt lonely among her big family, Raka is not lonely when alone exploring

Trauma

Many of the characters in the novel have trauma that is still affecting their daily lives. Desai shows them reacting in ways that are often similar, but also starkly different in parts, too. 

The novel is not one of major events and dramatic twists and turns, but a character examination that slowly reveals the people we are following as we read. Gradually, Desai explores and shows how trauma changes people, and how different people approach it. 

Knowledge and evidence:

• The trauma of Nanda, Ila and Raka is teased out in the narrative:

  • Nanda presents as strong and in control from the start

  • Raka comes in as a sick child, but quickly shows herself as resilient and confident

  • Ila first appears as irrepressible, seemingly happy and loud with it

  • Although foreshadowed, all three suddenly have their trauma exposed by incidents in the novel

• We, the reader, may assume Raka is weak and hurt from her typhoid, but she is incredibly confident and headstrong while at Carignano:

  • She seems a thriving individual, until suddenly she is faced with drunken adult behaviour at the social club

  • Suddenly, she is reminded of her father’s abuse of her mother, and we see why she has chosen to isolate herself

• Nanda is another whose trauma is at most hinted at initially, but is all revealed in a very sudden way later in the novel:

  • Only during Ila’s visit do we learn that Nanda’s husband was having an affair and loved another woman

  • It is clear that Nanda knew, but felt trapped in the relationship and forced to play the role of dutiful wife of the college Vice Chancellor, and the mother she was expected to be

• Ila does not seem to lie to herself, but shows the impact of upbringing on how we react to trauma

• She has been bullied her whole life for how she looks and sounds, but appears unbothered by this

• What brings her down is mistreatment from her parents, who show traditional bias in favouring their sons:

  • With the security blanket of money and prestige ripped from her, she is left with the characteristics of a spoiled rich girl, but none of the money or stature

• What we see is that Ila has been brought up to be proud, but pride hurts her:

  • She is too proud to outright ask for help from Nanda, even though she is starving, clearly in poverty

  • Raised in a household environment where asking for help would be uncouth, she is suffering because she cannot break from that behaviour

  • She admits it, and appears to be much more aware of herself than Nanda and Raka, angry at her own foolish pride

What is Desai’s intention?

• There are many things Desai may be trying to show her readers with the different reactions to trauma, and how she presents it

• By eking it out slowly, Desai may be showing us that trauma is not always obvious, and our behaviour may be shaped by it in ways that are not clear

• Trauma is not always on the surface, and behaviours that are forced by trauma can look natural:

  • The reader is left thinking Nanda has chosen solitude to be happy

  • This is more stark with Raka, who is happier by herself, so her trauma is easier to ignore

  • While Nanda cracks at moments and we see her looking for comfort, Desai never shows Raka unhappy alone, her unhappiness lurking deeper within

• That none of the characters know of the trauma the others are facing, or at least their struggles within it, is also important:

  • This could be Desai’s way of reminding the reader that many people are hiding stress or trauma

  • She is possibly telling us that trauma does not present in any one single way

  • Family and friends, like Ila and Nanda, Nanda and Raka, can miss these things because they are not made clear

• The author also shows that trauma can change a person:

  • Nanda becomes a recluse

  • Raka takes risks and is enticed by danger of things like fire, becoming reckless in her trauma

• Ila Das is a reminder to be kind:

  • Ila does not hide her woes, even if she isn’t honest enough to show her complete desperation

  • Nanda could have helped her, but is too self-involved to acknowledge Ila’s true difficulties

• Equally, Ila works as a reminder of what can happen when you let your trauma dictate your behaviour:

  • Nanda used to consider caring for others a “religious calling”, but does not reach out to help Ila even though she knows she should

  • In doing so, when Ila dies, she is engulfed by shock and guilt, knowing she was too self-interested, rather than unable to help

  • In the end, Nanda causes herself more hurt by trying to block out the world

The class system

The three principal characters of Fire on the Mountain are all — in different ways — insulated from hardship because of their privilege. However, Desai also shows how the upper classes’ ignorance of poverty, and attachment to old colonial customs, can be psychologically harmful, even fatal.

Knowledge and evidence:

• Of the four named and notable characters in Fire on the Mountain, three have had lives of privilege, while Ram Lal still holds the principles of serving the higher classes:

  • Nanda is comfortable having been married to a university Vice Chancellor, and has retained enough wealth to own a good property and have Ram Lal as a servant

  • Both Ila and Nanda were raised as part of the Indian upper class, people that benefitted from life under the British Raj

  • Raka is also high class, as her father is a diplomat

• Ila is an example of how hard things can be when privilege is lost:

  • She thinks life easy and fun, but when her financial support is taken away, suddenly she is flailing and not prepared for real life

  • She recognises that her upbringing has coddled her, with piano lessons and foreign languages not useful when forced into the working world to survive

• There is poverty in Kasauli, but it is always on the edge of the narrative, and never seems to touch on the world that Nanda and Raka exist in:

  • Ila Das is forced into it after her parents die, and her work as a welfare worker brings her, and the novel’s plot, into contact with the needs of those in poverty

  • Ila visits families, trying to convince them to get vaccinations

  • She also tries to stop families marrying off their daughters in child marriages to wealthy older men

• Ila may no longer have the privilege, but she still acts with it:

  • She is too proud to ask for help from Nanda or beg for more food from the shopkeeper

• With Nanda literally living above the areas of poverty, and Ila Das still showing signs of thinking herself better than lower-class people, we see remnants of the British Empire in the characters’ thinking:

  • The Indian class system was largely built around British ideas

• Ram Lal shows how, even after British rule ends, some customs are entrenched:

  • He uses language to describe people that would have been used mostly to describe British men and women

  • By using the terms “sahib” and “memsahib” he shows he is still used to the behaviour of British rule

  • It underlines that he is subservient and of lower class than Nanda, and of her guests, too

  • He does this as he believes it is expected, and would have been seen as disrespectful, even worthy of punishment, to not do so for British families

• Carignano is described as a house for the British:

  • It is owned by British dignitaries consistently until the end of British rule

  • It is no surprise that after the British leave, it becomes the house of someone of the higher Indian class like Nanda 

What is Desai’s intention?

• By focusing her novel on three characters who have lived in privilege, Desai highlights how insulated the upper classes remain from the hardship among them

• This is highlighted by how she places Nanda and her house:

  • By having her up in the hills, she is above the poverty line both financially and physical location

  • Nanda can look down and see the results of poverty, but is untouched by it, and remains removed, above it all

• Ila’s shock at life without money and security highlights how little the upper class understand of others:

  • With her safety blanket removed after her parents die, she resigns from her comfortable job out of principle and is plunged into poverty

  • As someone who has never had to worry about money, she is unaware of the consequences of her decision until it’s too late

• Carignano, and its ownership, may also be Desai showing that power has merely shifted to different wealthy people following the end of British occupation:

  • In going from British hands to the wealth of someone like Nanda, Desai could be suggesting that independence did not erase class divisions, but instead allowed them to be absorbed into Indian society in altered forms

• Raka does not realise what her privilege gives her:

  • More than just access to healthcare, she is able to come somewhere like Carignano to recuperate

  • Equally, she explores in a way that would be frowned upon if she were a poor child, seen as trouble

  • Raka is instead seen as curious and inquisitive 

• Within all this, Desai appears to be critiquing the persistence of class and privilege:

  • She shows us colonial legacies continuing in attitudes and behaviour, as well as the wealth systems they built

  • The principal characters in the novel care little about the surrounding poverty, at least not until it affects them

  • Desai tells readers here that inequality is normalised and ignored across generations

Ram Lal’s continued use of language expected under the British Raj is used by Desai to indicate how colonial rule left psychological and social residues that outlast political change

Patriarchy

Nanda, Ila and Raka are changed people due to the impact of traditional, patriarchal systems and views. Desai shows us how all have been affected by showing us how traditional gender roles, and the power given to men over women at the time, impact their lives profoundly.

Knowledge and evidence:

• Nanda’s whole life was defined by her marriage and the expectations of a woman to be a wife and mother:

  • She is so numbed by her family life that she is not sure she even still loves her children

  • A woman who once considered caring for others as a religious calling now hates hearing from her family, cannot handle even being visited by the postman, and rejects friends

• Nanda feels her life was dictated and defined by being the wife of an important man:

  • For the vast majority of her life, she has been at his service and her image of herself was erased

• Nanda’s husband’s long-term infidelity shows the freedom important men were given:

  • This reflects a patriarchal double standard in which male authority and desire go unquestioned while female suffering is normalised

• Ila Das also sees her life changed by patriarchal norms:

  • Merely by being male, her brothers are given all her family’s inheritance, leaving her and her sister without

  • Equally, she tries to halt child marriages in Kasauli, which brings her into conflict with fathers

  • In this community, these fathers would have controlled family and community decisions

  • In this context, young girls are seen as worthy sacrifices to ensure their family has a better life

• Raka is scarred by the behaviour of her father

• She is a reckless child who wants solitude:

  • This comes from fear of her father, and memories of him beating her mother

• Raka’s mother is trapped by social systems that allow abusive men to flourish:

  • These systems are often reinforced by women who have learned to accept them

  • When she objects to returning to her husband, she is looked down upon, even though he has beaten her

What is Desai’s intention?

• Desai never directly blames men for the predicament of the women in the text, but lets the reader work it out by showing behaviour and consequence

• Desai presents Nanda’s later retreat into isolation as a direct consequence of this life of emotional exploitation:

  • This tells the reader that patriarchy leaves women drained rather than fulfilled

• The examples of Ila struggling in her welfare position against the demands of men continue this:

  • These scenes show how patriarchal traditions prioritise male power, economic advantage, and social reputation over the safety and autonomy of women and girls

• Ila’s fate also shows what can happen to women who stand up to men in communities like these:

  • By challenging entrenched views and power structures, Ila is punished with an undignified death and rape

  • This presents patriarchy as not only restrictive but also violently destructive 

• With Raka, Desai shows the damage of reinforcing her father’s behaviour:

  • Raka is scarred by this, and shown by her family to accept it as a man’s position is powerful

  • As such, Desai shows us that the patriarchy can have generational impact on women

• Even Nanda’s house is shown as the remnants of her husband’s life:

  • The money she had is from him, and women without men to support them (like Ila) struggle

  • Desai presents Nanda’s ownership of the house as the residue of a system that defined her worth through marriage, rather than to represent empowerment

Sources

Desai, A. (1999) Fire on the Mountain (Vintage)