This section covers the exploits
and habits of Sunil, a scrawny almost orphan with a dead mom, a drunkard dad,
and a little sister. Sunil is small, but observant. After being too old to stay
at the orphanage, he and his sister decide to head back to Annawadi. Once he
can no longer sell his father’s things in order to eat, he starts scrapping
again in order to put food on the table for his sister and himself. Near the
end of the chapter you see Sunil and his friend/acquaintance Kalu stealing some
scrap metal from the airport and finally experiencing the luxury of a full stomach
and the movie “I Am Legend.”
This character is meant to show us
a very logical, yet very pragmatic person. He’s not as cowardly as Abdul is,
but he still has a pride/fear that prevent him from taking risks without
persuasion. He’s smaller than Abdul, which perhaps makes him more easily
convinced to do things. He doesn’t enjoy the thieving/foraging he has to do to
survive, and feels it’s too much for a twelve year-old. The author here is
introducing to us another semi-protagonist character besides Abdul. Sunil seems
a little more peripheral, but at the same time potentially crucial to the
development to the story. Pragmatically, he has to do what he has to do in
order to get food, but morally he finds it detestable. I think this position is
one we often find ourselves in as humans, though usually less intense or
morally challenging.
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