Rationality versus Spirituality

The central theme of the novel is rationality and spirituality: through this theme, the author explores the upsides and downsides of these two opposing approaches to life and shows, through the character of Raman, that the question of whether someone is rational or spiritual is a matter of perspective and that attitudes to these approaches to life exist on a spectrum in which it is impossible to say that one side is right and the other side is wrong. The theme is introduced immediately in the novel, before the introduction of the central characters of Daisy and Raman’s Aunt and before the introduction of the romance between Raman and Daisy that is the driving force of the plot, through the figure of a lawyer who hires Raman to paint a sign for his new law practice. The split between spiritual/supernatural beliefs and...