The Narrator’s Brother Character Analysis

The narrator’s older brother lives in Calcutta. When their father dies, the brother “abandons his schooling” and goes to work in a jute mill to “keep the household running.” Eventually, he becomes the manager of the mill. Along with the narrator, the brother does try to help their mother when she falls into depression and mental illness. When their mother dies, though, the brother cannot perform the duty of the eldest son in the cremation ritual because he can’t “bear it,” so the narrator does it instead. The brother’s failure to fill this role also seems play a role in the narrator’s distrust of emotion and of people’s abilities to cope with pain, sadness, or loss.