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Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... read full definition
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Broken Eggs and Omelettes:
Situational irony helps the novel spotlight the illogical absurdities of Emergency-era India’s crackdown measures. When Dina and Maneck pay a visit to Nusswan’s office for money in Chapter 9, the pompous, overbearing brother tries justifying the political turmoil with an idiom. His explanation causes comic confusion more than any sense of clarity:
It’s all relative. At the best of times, democracy is a seesaw between complete chaos and tolerable confusion. You see, to make a democratic omelette you have to break a few democratic eggs. To fight fascism and other evil forces threatening our country, there is nothing wrong in taking strong measures. Especially when the foreign hand is always interfering to destabilize us.
Nusswan’s answers only invite more questions. Dina’s brother idiomatically explains how making a “democratic omelette” requires breaking some “democratic eggs”—accepting sacrifices in pursuit of a more meaningful result—and yet his reasoning only exposes its own humorously baffling contradictions. By Nusswan’s thinking, stewarding democracy somehow requires eliminating its most fundamental protections. He insists that “people can freely speak their minds” during the Emergency while also supporting the regime’s censorship of the press. His vision to “fight fascism and evil forces” itself resembles a quasi-fascist regime: he recommends administering arsenic to the country’s homeless and beating back the “union troublemakers.” What he proposes as democratic silver bullets happen to be anything but. Scrambling his reasoning like eggs, Nusswan loses Dina and Maneck with his illogic.
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