51 pages • 1 hour read
Shyam SelvaduraiFunny Boy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Pigs Can’t Fly”
The narrator begins by describing Sunday (or “spend-the-day”) as the day each week when the children of his extended family spend time at their grandparents’ house. They look forward to this day as an escape from their parents’ watchful eyes. He describes paying his respects to his grandmother (Ammachi) and grandfather (Appachi). Ammachi and Janaki—a servant in the household—are responsible for the children on Sunday, but the children mostly avoid them out of fear.
They work out a system of dividing up the territory between girls and boys. The front of the house is for the boys (and one girl named Meena) to play cricket (a sport similar to baseball that is common in Sri Lanka and other parts of South Asia). The back of the house is for the girls and the narrator, seven-year-old Arjie (who is a boy) to play more traditionally feminine games. Arjie is the leader of the girls’ group due to his high level of imagination in creating games like bride-bride, which reenacts a fake wedding sequence. As the leader, Arjie is always given the coveted position of the bride, which he relishes because he can wear a beautiful sari (a traditional dress worn by women in Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries) and transform into another person. This question of identity transformation will arise again later in the novel.
However, when Arjie’s cousin, Tanuja, returns to Sri Lanka, Tanuja threatens Arjie’s leadership. Amma feels pity for Tanuja’s mother, Kanthi Aunty (“aunty” is a casual term used to refer to an older female relative or family friend in Sri Lanka), as Kanthi Aunty had to work as a servant for white people abroad. The children bully Tanuja for her weight and call her “Her Fatness.” The children cast Tanuja to play the groom—the least desirable role—in bride-bride, and Kanthi Aunty tells Arjie that he and the other children must play with Tanuja. Tanuja tries to lure the other girls away from Arjie with fancy dolls, but the girls like the bride-bride game too much. Tanuja gets too invested in the role of playing the groom, causing Arjie to be upset with her.
Tanuja says that she wants to be the bride, but Arjie says that is his role. Based on Arjie’s interest in traditionally feminine activities, Tanuja calls him cruel and homophobic names like “faggot” and “pansy” (11). The other children respond by insulting Tanuja’s weight. Kanthi Aunty confronts the children about their bullying; she spots Arjie wearing a sari as part of the bride-bride game. She brings Arjie to the other adults, and Arjie can tell that his parents, Amma (his mother) and Appa (his father) are upset—particularly Appa. Kanthi Aunty’s husband, Cyril Uncle (older male relatives or family friends are often referred to as “uncle” in Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries), says regarding Arjie, “[L]ooks like you have a funny one here” (14). Appa scolds Amma for failing to watch over Arjie. He says that it is Amma’s fault that Arjie is unusual because she allows Arjie to play dress-up with her clothing. Arjie describes how he enjoys holding his mother’s jewelry and watching her drape her sari around her body. However, after Amma and Appa’s conversation about Arjie, Amma no longer allows Arjie to watch her while she dresses. Arjie feels that he has done something wrong, but he does not understand what it means to be “funny.”
Amma orders Arjie’s older brother, Diggy, to allow Arjie to play cricket with the other boys and Meena. Diggy is upset that Arjie does not want to play cricket. Amma says that boys must play cricket with other boys, and that he cannot play with the girls “because the sky is so high and pigs can’t fly” (19). Arjie decides to smuggle the sari used for bride-bride anyway into his sister Sonali’s bag, as he plans to get out of playing cricket. Diggy takes Arjie to the cricket game. There is a division of power here, too. Meena leads one team of boys and Diggy leads another. The boys mock Arjie as a “girlie-boy” but allow him to play (25). When Arjie is chosen to bat, Diggy decides to replace him, but Arjie sees an opportunity to get out of playing cricket. Arjie thinks that if he insists on wanting to bat, he will be able to trick Diggy into letting him out of cricket. It works, but Diggy realizes that he has been tricked. Diggy chases Arjie until he is able to escape behind a gate into his grandparents’ garden.
Sonali asks Tanuja—the new leader of the girls’ group—if Arjie can play bride-bride; Tanuja lets him play the groom, but Arjie pretends to be a man working at the office and summons the girls to fetch items for him as if they were secretaries. This upsets Tanuja. Arjie responds by saying they cannot really play the game without his sari. Arjie realizes that Tanuja has stolen his sari. Arjie and Tanuja run into the servant Janaki’s room, where Tanuja has hidden the sari. Arjie tries to take the sari from her, tearing the dress in the process. Janaki tries to quiet them down, but Ammachi arrives. Ammachi blames Arjie and decides to punish him, but he runs away to the nearby beach. The normally blue ocean is an unusual silver color. Arjie realizes that he will no longer be able to play with the girls. Saddened, Arjie returns to his grandparents’ house to receive his punishment.
Chapter 1 Analysis
Arjie’s description of Ammachi in the first few pages, that “[s]he smelt of stale coconut oil, and the diamond mukkuthi [nose ring] in her nose always pressed painfully against my cheek” (2), concisely shows the narrator’s unique ability to summarize characters and their relationships through physical description. We get a sense through this short sentence that Arjie is uncomfortable around Ammachi and does not like her. Metaphorically Ammachi represents a different generation: the old way of doing things and very specific social norms that cut painfully into Arjie’s person. Similes are also sprinkled throughout this chapter, such as this one that captures Arjie’s fear of his frightening, powerful grandmother: “Like the goddess in the folktales, she was not to be disturbed from her tranquility. To do so would have been the cause of a catastrophic earthquake” (3). Indeed, as the novel progresses, changing social order in Sri Lanka becomes a catastrophe.
Another common literary device throughout the book is the use of setting/environment to illuminate mood and character development. For example, after Arjie is forbidden to play with the girls, he sits on the beach during the day for the first time. It seems unusual; the normally blue sea appears harsh and silver in the light of day and the nearby buildings seem like a mirage, leading Arjie to conclude: “Now both the beach and the sea, once so familiar, were like an unknown country into which I had journeyed by chance” (38). As the beach seems to enter into new, unfamiliar territory, Arjie is also entering into a new, unfamiliar chapter in his life: puberty and all the emotional, physical, and social changes that come with that time in one’s life. The melancholic bells of the church that ring out as Arjie heads back home foreshadow that this will not be an easy time for Arjie.
What emerges most prominently in this chapter is the way that power and gender norms shape and influence Arjie’s life. From the start, we can see that even children in this world divide up power among themselves, such as the boys forming two cricket teams and Arjie becoming the ringleader of the girls’ group in bride-bride. Despite the sharp gender divides, the fact that Meena, a girl, is able to lead a boys’ team and that Arjie, a boy, is able to lead a girls’ group suggests that gender roles are somewhat fluid among young children, who merely want to play with like-minded peers. However, we see that the gender norms of the adult world are already creeping into their minds, such as when the boys at cricket call Arjie too girly or when Tanuja hurls cruel, homophobic insults at him. Tanuja’s attempts to take over control of the bride-bride game are not merely an attempt to seize power from Arjie. They are part of her attempt to restore gender relations to the standard, heteronormative order. Moreover, power is precarious, and it can topple quickly, such as when Tanuja replaces Arjie as the bride. Also, when those who are oppressed—like Tanuja—suddenly gain power, they may cruelly use it to undermine those who once held power but now have none. This dynamic manifests when Tanuja makes Arjie play the demeaning role of groom—her former part—and is mirrored by the political conflict between the Sinhalese government and the Tamil Tigers later in the book.
