Heat and Dust | Themes

Heat and Dust Themes

Appearances and Realities

Each region on the globe has its own aesthetic: as suggested by the narrator, many British loved India like no place on earth. As Martin Heidegger once said, beauty is in itself sufficient to bring a world to stand (perhaps that is why some of the British stayed on). There were always warnings about everything from dysentery to the most intimate condition of one's soul: One must not give in to India; India will squash the humanity out of those heeding her call, especially those who are either unlucky or unaware (or conned). Although they often succumbed to simple physical diseases like dysentery, it was perhaps a changing or new world order that the British feared most. Although Douglas believed that India would never change—that it needed the British—history and Mr. Ghandi proved him wrong.

Fertility

The narrator's pregnancy contrasts with Olivia's: should the reader conclude anything from both women probably...
(read more)