In the chapters from “Memory” to “Kratie”, as readers, we can see a lot of character development between Piya, Moyna, and Kanai. During these chapters, we get to see their personalities, and how they start to interconnect in a sense. These chapters were interesting to read because as Kanai has finished his uncle’s book, he starts to become curious as to what happens after. What was his uncle thinking during these moments within the time he had finished the book? What was life like for Kusum and Fokir? A lot of these thoughts are what was consuming Kanai’s mind. However, he was also starting to understand his uncle, and the passion he had to help the land, help Kusum, and find a form to help revive this land. As Kanai heads off with Horen, Piya, and Fokir, he tends to keep an eye on Piya. But, before he even left with them, the night before when Moyna came to see Kanai, she had asked him to keep an eye on both of them but to also speak to both of them. 

Moyna is an intelligent, confident, and beautiful woman. She is a loyal and devoted wife to Fokir and is an amazing mother to Tutul. However, as the chapters go on, we can see that Tutul doesn’t seem to have a close bond with his mother, the way he does with his father. Although Fokir and Moyna have two different perspectives on life, they both love Tutul. Moyna had shown some insecurity towards Kanai about her husband. She didn’t trust him around the “American girl” which was Piya. She had told Kanai about the idea of her being a woman and Fokir being a man and that things could lead to something else, and she didn’t want that. But as readers, why wouldn’t she trust her husband, regardless of his gender? Why did she feel insecure when it came to her husband? Moyna had brushed it off with Kanai after she had felt he didn’t seem to truly understand her, or what she was truly trying to say to him.  

Piya throughout these chapters, we get to see an in-depth perspective of who she truly is, and what she is like apart from being a scientist. Through Kanai’s views of her, we can see that she has a strong heart, and a genuine soul for animals and wildlife in general. She is rather more pure and strong when it comes to her feelings when it comes to certain parts of her life. Within these chapters, we can see that Piya is an extraordinary woman, as Kanai states within the book. Through her strong exterior, we see that inside she is a kind and genuine soul, who also has hardships alongside everyone else, and that her job is never easy when it comes to close relationships whether it’s friendships or romantic relationships. However, as the chapters continue, we can start to see that Kanai starts to see a different side of Piya, although he is a man and will try to make her see him from a different perspective, he starts to see the true personality of Piya, and all he can do is admire her and praise her for her strength and loyalty that she had within herself. Piya is known to do anything for her animals, whether it is to be in jail or to hide consistently but she is willing to go above and beyond to collect information and to help the wildlife even more.

A lingering theme in the novel is the universality of communication through the means of spoken and unspoken language. However, the language of fear surpasses all word translations as it speaks to the perceived visuals and emotions. The inner responds to the outer which can speak louder than diction alone. Kanai embodies the literal translation of words while Piya embodies the metaphoric significance of communication. This idea can relate to the signifier and signified in certain senses by Ferdinand de Saussure’s “Course in General Linguistics”. He highlights the arbitrariness of the signifiers and signified, pointing out that there is no inherent connection between them. There is a grander form of connection that can be received that most patent communication does not project.

Kanai goes through a perusal where he discovers that Horen invites Nirmal to Morichjhãpi for a feast that will host journalists and intellectuals. It is revealed that Nirmal tells Nilima about what he’s been up to and she’s unenthusiastic hearing about. Nilima’s fears cause her to urge him not to return to avoid peril from the settlers. Nirmal as a result feels that he must sacrifice transparency in order to continue his involvement. Nirmal pinpoints this moment of secrecy as the one that begins to destroy his marriage, conveying that he recognizes that the absence of language and the genuine desire to communicate can have dire consequences on connection. Nirmal knew Nilima sensed the lie because she responded in an aloof manner and he recognized that, “…this was enough to make me fear for the safety of my secret. Thus was sown the seed of our mistrust” (Gosh 158). Kanai is able to understand Nirmal’s final months of life through reading his notebook and directly is exposed to the limits of spoken and written language. His ability to speak six languages doesn’t teach him what the locals insist is the vital language of the Sundarbans, which is the emotional language of fear. Fear drives much of human behavior and can inhibit or protect people. Nirmal develops a life crisis where he fears that in comparison to his wife, he queries, “What had I done? What was the work of my life?” (Gosh 160).  Kanai gets a glimpse of this transcendent latent form of expression by reading this intimate insight of Nirmal’s’ thoughts that are not shared with his wife. An introspective experience most do not have unless they steal a friend or family member’s’ journal.

Piya who speaks very little Hindi or Bengali works in a remote part of India where few people speak English and must work with the challenge of communicating. Piya initially begins her work using visual cues to communicate, however, abandons this adventure because little interest is shown to her by those on the boat. Similar to Nilima and Nirmal, language does not mean communication is promised if there is no openness to receiving the signified by the signifier. Forest Service officials and Nirmal both for varying reasons choose to disregard respect for others and neglect a genuine desire to connect. A latent example of respect is the manifest being of Fokir giving Piya privacy to change her clothes, recognizing her humanity. This act of respect was received by Piya as, “…touching. It was not just that he had thought to create a space for her; it was as if he had chosen to include her in some simple, practiced family ritual…” (Gosh 60). Fokir is a taciturn local fisherman who doesn’t speak English who rescues Piya from the Forest Service which emphasizes the ambiguous forms of communication that aren’t just through sounds that leave our mouths. There is vulnerability in expression and a sense of fear of not being understood. Another latent example of Piya having a profound understanding of the environment is the manifest being her GPS as it locates her in space and makes the environment something that she can later read when she retrieves the monitor’s information. To communicate, one must be able to receive and perceive a message just as Piya, “…loved best about her work: being out on the water, alert and on watch…” (Gosh 61).

Gosh uses the different characters to highlight the complexities of language. Communication can be spoken or unspoken and is meant to be received with delicacy and care. Words, drawings or gestures can speak to the latent. The form of communication is the manifest, how one attempts to get across to another. Being able to understand something other than what you project makes one more in tuned with reality and their surroundings.