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Chapter 60
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Covenant of Water, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Inheritance and Intergenerational Fate
Healing and Purpose
Grief and Survival
Women’s Agency, Education, and Ambition
Caste and Class
Parental Love and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
After the Maramon Convention, Big Ammachi tells the family that God has answered her prayers and that a hospital must be built at Parambil. On the bus ride home, Mariamma admits that the beggars at the convention frightened her because she realized they had once been healthy like her and could have been struck by disease at any time. Big Ammachi explains that fear can point to a purpose and encourages Mariamma to pray and consider what will make her less helpless in the face of suffering.
Big Ammachi’s claim that God answered her prayers recasts the convention’s fundraising spectacle as divine intervention. Mariamma’s confession about the beggars shows how confronting disfigurement and disability forces recognition of the body’s fragility—she’s forced to consider the fact that she has taken the idea of health for granted.
Active
Themes
Mariamma, who had planned to study zoology, begins to think seriously about medicine. By the time she leaves for Alwaye College a year later, she has decided to work toward medical school. When Mariamma shares this with the family, Big Ammachi gives Mariamma a gold necklace and cross and tells her that she prayed on the day of her birth that God would guide her toward medicine. She promises Mariamma that even after her death, she will be with her in spirit and that carrying her name means carrying her strength.
Active
Themes
