78 pages • 2 hours read
Veera HiranandaniThe Night Diary
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Art
Art is prevalent throughout The Night Diary and takes on different meanings depending on the character with which it is associated. Amil, Nisha’s twin brother, is the character most immediately associated with art. Amil perceives the world differently and can illustrate what he sees using charcoal and paper. He presents dyslexic tendencies in his struggles to read and in his sense of how objects, even letters, exist in space. The latter does not help Amil to read, but it does enhance his artistic abilities. Amil’s art is indicative of his free-spirited self-possession. It is the tool he uses it to taunt unkind boys at school and, likewise, ingratiate himself to Chitra, his favorite girl. As the tension of the narrative builds, Amil uses his art to exert control. When Papa insists he bring a book on their journey to Jodhpur instead of his drawings, Amil burns his own art in protest. Amil also uses his art to leave proof of his existence. His family is being forced from their home to make way for another family; in subtle protest, Amil carves pictures into the walls of their garden shed. The carvings are a permanent way to mark what is his, a way of proving he’d been there.
Art is also a thread that connects Amil to his deceased mother. Mama had been a painter, and Amil’s talent came from her. When the family stays with Mama’s brother, they discover he too is an artist. In addition to making a beautiful home with colorful walls and art in every room, Rashid Uncle is a wood worker. The presence of art during a difficult time lends an element of calm, if only temporary. It also makes Amil, and Nisha too, feel related to Rashid Uncle and connected to Mama.
At the end of the novel, Kazi brings the family a small piece of one of Mama’s paintings, and even Papa is overjoyed. He frames the piece and hangs it in their new home, harkening to the beginning of the novel when Nisha fears leaving their house because she feels that they’ll leave Mama behind there. Now, a representation of Mama has joined the family.
Fire
Fire and burning emerge as motifs throughout the narrative. They represent the anger that burns inside individuals for having to uproot their lives, and the violence occurring between former countrymen: “So will everyone burn everyone?” (61), Nisha asks Amil. Fire, too, represents defiance, and the control Amil exerts against his father when he burns his artwork.
In the desert, Papa is unable to start a fire. Finally, he manages a flame, and the family is able to eat warm food. Here, fire symbolizes hope. Fire is also warmth, and the legacy of Kazi’s teachings when Nisha is able to prepare a meal for her family.
Cooking
Cooking is most directly associated with Kazi, the family’s Muslim cook who plays an integral role in the family. Kazi is highly skilled “at taking plain boring foods—bitter vegetables, dried lentils, flour, oil, spices—and turn[ing] them into something so warm and delicious every time” (11). If the purpose of meals and meal time are to sustain life and bring family members together for a shared experience, Kazi, a Muslim man, is responsible for one of the most important contributions to Nisha’s Hindu household. Through his cooking, Kazi nurtures the family. Furthermore, in allowing Nisha to help him, Kazi nurtures Nisha the way her mother might’ve. Nisha wishes to emulate Kazi and “can’t wait to be older and do what Kazi can do” (11).
Cooking is also symbolic of class division. Papa and Dadi, in telling Nisha she will grow up and have someone to cook for her, reveal their place in Indian society. In her persistent love of cooking, Nisha rejects the stratification of that society. Youthful naïveté keeps Nisha from examining her place in pre-partition India, allowing her to reject it, thus enabling her to overlook the differences only adults see. Whether the differences are cultural, socioeconomic, or religious, the labels, classes, and identities associated with them are tools created and used by adults to organize society. Telling Nisha she is somehow too good to be a cook makes no sense to her idealistic mind. Furthermore, it discourages her from pursuing a passion and denigrates Kazi—the person she believes loves her most—as well as his contributions.
Books
Papa gives Amil a book for his 12th birthday, knowing full well that Amil does not read. Papa does not acknowledge Amil’s learning challenges and believes Amil is not trying. To Papa, books and reading symbolize success; they would set Amil on a path to a promising and prosperous future. Papa wants the best for his son, but “he [doesn’t] understand why Amil [is] so bad at school and [is] worried he [will] never become a doctor” (108). Papa is the only person in Amil’s life who knows the challenges that will face Amil as a man in Indian society. He also knows firsthand that becoming a doctor will enable Amil to someday take care of his own family.
The book is beautiful with gold lettering and “bright colorful pictures on the inside” (7) and represents Papa’s good intentions. It also represents his lack of sensitivity to, and disappointment in, Amil. Although Amil has made an earnest effort to learn to read, he is unable to make sense of written language. Papa’s gift, something that should please and celebrate Amil, only serves to highlight his deficits and shame him. The book emphasizes Papa’s lack of understanding and misaligned expectations.
Beetles
Nisha finds Amil in the garden burying beetles just to watch them dig and climb their way out. Nisha tells Amil the beetles will die, and Amil says they climb out so they can live. The struggling beetles symbolize Amil, Nisha, and all of the other soon-to-be refugees who struggle to the other side of the country so that they might live.
Cooking Implements
Kitchen tools, such as his favorite bowl and his mortar and pestle, are emblematic of Kazi, his relationship with Nisha and Amil, and his overall contribution to the family. When unidentified men break into the family’s home, they beat Kazi and break his favorite bowl; the bowl he had used every day; the bowl that had, over the years, held much of the family’s sustenance. When the bowl breaks, it marks the end of Kazi’s time as their cook. The physical assault that leaves him badly wounded also marks the apparent end of his relationship with a Hindu family. After the men leave, while Kazi is tended to, Nisha picks up a shard of the bowl and places it in the pouch with her mother’s jewelry, treating the piece of bowl as treasure. It is one of the many “pieces” Nisha has of those she’s loved and lost.
The mortar and pestle are Kazi’s goodbye gift to Nisha. It is something they used together, and Kazi insists she take it. What seems like a mere memento at the time serves to remind Nisha of her own capabilities. It also helps Nisha save Amil when he is near death, as she uses it to collect rain water when he is severely dehydrated.
