The Hero's Walk

An important theme for many of the novel’s characters is having to learn to forgive. This takes the form of learning to forgive others, but also learning to forgive themselves. Most notably is the character Sripathi Rao, who must learn to forgive himself for having not forgiven his daughter, Maya, when she decided to marry Alan Baker for love rather than for tradition and the man her father wanted her to marry, Prakash Baht. Sripathi never forgave her for nine whole years, and it may have gone on even longer if she hadn’t died in a car accident. Her death released a tumult of emotions and complications in Sripathi. For one, he no longer had the chance to ever forgive his daughter, something he took for granted, thinking he could chose to forgive her whenever he wanted. Furthermore, her death forced him to realize how petty his feud was. Following her death, not only did Sripathi no longer have the chance to forgive her but now he must learn to forgive himself. This becomes Sripathi’s core antagonism and adversity in the book. It takes him a long time to learn to forgive and move on, but fortunately, Maya’s death wasn’t bereft of a chance for Sripathi to redeem himself.