Fasting, Feasting

The final chapters resolve the troubling patterns at the center of the Patton family’s dysfunction and resolve Arun’s conflict with yet another difficult family environment. In Chapter 26, Melanie’s bulimia paradoxically symbolizes her hunger for real nourishment and her desperation to rid herself of all the waste she consumes. While Mrs. Patton literally removes her clothing and exposes her flesh, Melanie’s sickness in the woods figuratively exposes all the pain and suffering she has successfully concealed from her mother up until this point. Trembling on the ground and covered in mud and vomit, Melanie’s episode parallels Uma’s tantrums. Like Uma, Melanie is mostly ignored and starved for the nourishment of attention and understanding. 

The final chapter pairs separation with connection, ending and new beginning in the resolution of the plot. Melanie has been sent away to a treatment facility where she shows signs of improvement, Rod has left to pursue a football scholarship, Mr. Patton now works nights to pay for Melanie’s treatment, and Mrs. Patton has abandoned her earlier fads—shopping, sunbathing, vegetarianism—for new fads like yoga and astrology. Ironically, the very parcel that was the primary preoccupation of Mama and Papa in the opening chapter has finally arrived, but Arun cannot find room for it in his new life and in the limited space of his suitcase. He re-gifts it to Mrs. Patton, who misinterprets it as a symbol of Arun’s fondness and friendship. More accurately, it is Arun’s attempt to unburden himself from the weight of familial responsibility and connection. In his final moment, Arun has managed to both unburden himself literally and figuratively of family baggage while simultaneously leaving behind the equally troubled Patton family home for the promise of a new school year and a return to independence.