In chapters Memory to Kratie, we see how volatile the connections of the characters can be and how these different relationships mean different things to the respective characters. Specifically, we see a shift in how Fokir is seen through the eyes of Piya, once a representation of safety and connection in territory unknown shifts to something more foreign to her when he stops her from trying to protect the tiger. Piya initially sees Fokir as someone like her that is able to sit in nature and observe, she says “It’s as if he can see right into the river’s heart” (Chapter: Leaving Lusibari). Even though Kanai is supposed to serve as a translator to better connect Fokir and Piya, they feel more disconnected than before. After the village kills the tiger, Piya sees Fokir as part of the horror of it. It still is difficult to gauge how Fokir feels about Piya but his change in behavior is notable, being more closed off and quiet. There is a fundamental disconnection between the two because Piya isn’t able to fully immerse herself in the reality of living amongst nature as the people in the Sundarbans do. She creates quite rigid barriers when it comes to what is good and bad when protecting and conserving nature and animal life. Interestingly, Kanai is the one able to provide perspective on how poor people are valued compared to animals.

Fokir represents traits that Kanai wishes to have and we can see his insecurity when he asks Moyna who she would choose between. Although Kanai is believed to be a confident person, Fokir stands in his way when it comes to both Piya and Moyna. Fokir represents a different life Kanai could have lived and the connections he wishes to have. But we also see how the two men mirror each other in their relationship to their families. Kanai has come back to the islands to reconnect and understand the past of his uncle and Fokir is trying to connect to his mother through visiting Garjontola. They are both chasing after something they can’t fully grasp and their families and lives are weaved together. Fokir seeks out these answers through being on the water and Kanai seeks these answer through his uncle’s notebook.

In the chapters we have read of The Hungry Tide, Ghosh takes us through a journey that weaves the past histories of the Sundarban Islands and the perspective of a native to the land, Kanai, with the present realities of the environment there through the lense of Piya. Piya still has a strong connection to the land since she is Indian but communication is a barrier throughout the novel, specifically when she is working with Fokir on his boat studying a rare species of dolphins. For Piya, the emotional connection and mutual understanding she has with Fokir transcends their need to speak through language and this idea is closely mirrored by the ways she observes the dolphins communicating and the ease of interacting through natural instinct.

Although Kanai is able to speak 6 languages, his ability to communicate and connect with others is a conflict throughout the novel. He is on a respective journey to decipher and understand Nirmal’s final months of life. He has to confront his own ideas of fear and arrogance, reflecting on the way he moves through the world. For example, the way he views and treats Piya speaks to his perception of women despite Piya being an intelligent and independent individual. However, we see the start of character development with the way Kanai starts to view the poor people of Lusibari as well as how he interacts with Moyna. He sheds himself of some of his arrogance when he places himself on the same level and in the same environment of the people there.

These chapters are developing a multifaceted argument and discussion about the ways in which we treat the environment and how conservation efforts can in some ways be more harmful. Ghosh explores the relationship between humans and nature and the gray area of protecting what is natural and/or sacred. This provides a really interesting perspective when we see how the ecological preservation efforts negatively affect the impoverished communities there and how the government values wildlife over humans. There is a need to find the balance between protecting animals but also giving the same service and resources to people who have a connection to the Sundarban Islands and the natural world than the rich and privileged. In the chapter, “A Hunt”, Piya describes what can be seen as a metaphor for finding this balance when the fishermen are able to catch fish while simultaneously the dolphins get a “catch of their own” through the fishermen’s help .

Nixon presents the idea of slow violence as a “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight…delayed destruction that is dispersed across space and time” (2356). He also presents the question of how can slow violence be seen in a way that goes against its insidious nature of not being tangible so that people will react in an urgent way? In an age where we don’t have the attention span even for media representations of fast-paced, action-packed disasters with immediate and evident consequences? Nixon notes that this is why the work of writer-activists is so important and the tools novelists use to tell a story must be used to express the complexities of slow violence. Unlike corporate media, which often doesn’t have interest in highlighting climate issues, novelists have the ability to build the story of the climate crisis with all its nuances and important contextual complexities of how we got to where we are today and what communities are being affected. One way novelists are able to do this is by “making social worlds by modeling individual consciousness in a relationship with imaginary but possible worlds” (LeMenager, 4). Writers have the technical and creative skills to tell a story and the devotion for it to be truthful in what it represents. These stories allow for the reader to connect the experiences of the characters living through the “everyday Anthropocene” as LeMenager calls it. We are able to see ourselves in “what it means to live, day by day, through climate shift and the economic and sociological injuries that underwrite it” (LeMenager, 6). These representations are, however, hard to find. Ghosh writes,” the mere mention of the subject [climate change] is often enough to relegate a novel or a short story to the genre of science fiction” (11). In the modern day novel, we see more of the everyday and the decline of the “improbable” (21). That makes us question where the themes of climate change lie when its effects are seen as something improbable yet evident in the experiences of our everyday lives. Ghosh says, “ the very gestures with which it conjures up reality are actually a concealment of the real” (28). Similar to stories of fiction, we must work hard to persuade people of the improbable yet blatant realities, using modes of storytelling to do so. And it must be done in a way that challenges how we see nature as a force unaffected by humans in fiction. Because we have contributed to the creation of climate change, our relationship to it is different. I think it instead parallels and relates to the narrative of humans creating the evil. It is not a separate force that has come to destroy civilization but something human-made. Through that representation, we can then hopefully take responsibility in taking urgency against it.