Jethamoshai Character Analysis

Jethamoshai is the uncle of Mayadebi and Tha'mma. When the girls were little, he was an eccentric man and was difficult to take seriously—though he was sometimes frightening because of his skeletally thin frame and piercing eyes. Years before the start of the novel, Jethamoshai and the girls' father began feuding, and as lawyers, eventually came to an agreement to build a wall through their shared house. After the wall was built, the two factions of the family stopped speaking to each other and lost contact. During the following fifty years, Jethamoshai held onto his pride and hatred of his brother's family. He even ran several of his family members out of the house and allowed Muslims to move in. One of those Muslim families, Khalil's family, cares for Jethamoshai in his old age when Mayadebi and Tha'mma return to take Jethamoshai "home" to India. Because he's still spiteful and is now a senile old man in his nineties, Jethamoshai is only persuaded to leave the house when he’s told that he's finally going to court to challenge his family for ownership to the house. He's brutally murdered by a mob within minutes of leaving the house.