The Criterion Stove Symbol Analysis

The Criterion kerosene stove in the narrator’s apartment represents Britain’s lingering presence and influence in post-colonial India. When the narrator’s Mummy and Daddy get into a disagreement about the British-made Criterion stove in the family’s kitchen, whose wick browns toast unevenly and makes the bread smell like kerosene, their conversation highlights the terrible circumstances the British left Indians in after centuries of colonialism. The British took control of India first through a beneficial trade alliance that quickly turned into a total trade monopoly and, ultimately, colonial rule. This transition meant that a system that once benefitted Indian people rapidly turned to exploit their labor and resources, disrupt their daily lives, and cripple their economy in the long term. Indeed, even though the story takes place 17 years after India gained its independence, Indian people are still feeling the after-effects of colonialism as they live in poverty and struggle to make sense of their cultural identities. Daddy’s comment that since the British are gone, the British Criterion stove can go, too, emphasizes the stove’s symbolism as a marker of outdated colonial influence lingering in India.

However, the narrator’s fondness for the Criterion,—particularly his thought that its oil drum reminds him of the stars—suggests that younger generations of Indian people are more open to aspects of colonial culture that linger in India. The narrator and Daddy’s love of cricket, a British sport, bears this idea out as well. The fact that the narrator’s father loves cricket but despises the stove demonstrates how people who have lived under colonialism face internal conflict as they try to determine which aspects of colonial culture they want to embrace and which aspects they’re better off rejecting.