Animal’s People Summary and Analysis

Section Seven Summary [The Revelation, Finding Peace] Tapes 22–23

Animal wakes up on a truck heading to the hospital. He refuses to go and departs into the forest so that he may truly live like an animal. He hears the datura talking to and taunting him. The Kh�-in-the-jar whispers to Animal, who snaps his fingers and frees it from the jar. It becomes two angels in the moonlight.

He hallucinates that Nisha arrives, declaring her love and asking for sex. Then, Elli invites him to watch her undress and promises to fix his back. Farouq arrives next, apologizing for all the bad he’s done. Zafar, who is carrying the world on his back, offers to carry Animal, too. The buffalo-lawyer offers Animal a Kampani job, followed by Somraj, with a bird in each hand making music. Ma is the last to arrive, carrying and eating a headless corpse. Animal demands all of them to leave him alone. He rejects all gods and things, living and dead. He vows to live alone and sees himself as his own universe.

Animal believes he has died and is in paradise. The heat of the Nautapa has ended and rain falls, washing him clean. He is disappointed to find that even in his death-paradise, he is still on all fours. However, he is thrilled when he sees his dog, followed by Farouq, Zafar, and others from the Nutcracker. He welcomes them to paradise and, despite Zafar and Farouq telling him he’s alive, continues to believe he’s dead. Zafar tells him of the preceding days: the end of the fast, Elli, Nisha, and Somraj’s departure, and the secret company deal, thwarted by a mystery woman. Zafar also reveals that Ma died saving the Khaufpuri people from the gas accident. Animal breaks down in sobs, and Zafar and Farouq hug him, telling him he’s a full human being.

Life soon returns to normal. Animal returns home, and Nisha, Elli, and Somraj return from America. The hearing has again been postponed, but Zafar remains confident they will find justice. The people continue to seek treatment at Elli’s clinic.

Shortly before recording his tapes, Animal received news that his surgery has been funded in America. He recorded this story in hopes that it would help him decide what to do, and he decides to use the money he had been saving to instead buy Anjali’s freedom. He chooses to stay as he is, the one and only Animal.

Section Seven Analysis [The Revelation, Finding Peace] Tapes 22–23

Animal’s demand to be let off the hospital truck is his rejection of salvation, perhaps his lowest, most hopeless point. He no longer just talks about being an animal but decides he will finally and fully live as the animal he has convinced himself to be. The datura-induced hallucinogenic breakdown that follows serves as his own spiritual battle as he nears death; it becomes his apocalyptic revelation. When he finally frees the Kh�-in-the-jar, he is able to do so purely of his own will. The Kha’s transformation, a sort of rebirth, points to Animal’s own transformation. Like the deformed victim Kha, Animal may be free of that which binds him, if only he wills it to be.

Animal’s hallucinogenic vision of his friends further points to the humanity he so desperately tries to deny. The caricature parade of Animal’s people through the forest offers to fulfill his wishes and take care of his needs. Although each represents everything Animal has longed for, he rejects them outright: in a sense, rejecting his human identity. His detachment to be his “own universe” and subsequent masturbation is an act of pure self-gratification and imagined fantasy, an act of animal instinct and total isolation. His “death,” then, suggests he cannot actually exist in total isolation.

Animal’s redemption and revelation come with the falling rains that end Nautapa. The rain that washes his body as he lifts from his hallucinogenic trip is symbolic of his rebirth, complete when he learns of the previous days’ events— of Zafar and Farouq using their power of influence to thwart the Kampani’s deal; of a mysterious burqa-clad woman doling poetic justice when she “gassed” the Kampani lawyers and politicians; of Ma’s heroic, self-sacrificial death. He breaks down sobbing and is finally open with his emotions. He allows himself to fully experience the complexities of human emotion.

As a “full human being,” Animal is also able to finally accept his physical deformation for what it is and turns down the surgery. Although standing upright was his greatest wish—born of his desire for human intimacy—finding intimacy through friendship has made it unnecessary. The “animal,” whose sole purpose was to look out only for himself, now takes care of others; there, he finds renewed hope.