79 pages • 2 hours read
Vikas SwarupQ & A
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaEpilogue Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue Summary
After six months of fighting the quiz company in court, Thomas finally receives his money. The company that produces the game show has gone bankrupt, and Prem Kumar has died from foul play, and it is suggested that the financers of the show sought their revenge for Thomas’s success and took it out on Kumar.
After winning the money, Thomas realizes that “dreams have power only over your mind; but with money you can have power over the minds of others” (316). Thomas influences the police to free Lajwanti, the maid, from jail and also has them free the thirty-five remaining crippled children on Maman’s property. He also secretly produces Salim’s upcoming films, and ends up marrying Nita. As the epilogue closes, he is walking along Marine Drive with Smita, the lawyer, and throws his lucky coin into the ocean. He tells her that he “won’t need it anymore. Because luck comes from within” (318).
Epilogue Analysis
The epilogue offers denouement and definitive conclusion to the prior tensions of the novel. Not only does the reader find out that Thomas received his money and what he did with it, but Thomas also explains his definition of luck, which for Thomas has more to do with choice than random good fortune. Throughout the novel, Thomas has carried around a lucky coin, and often seemed to rely on it to make important decisions for him. However, by Thomas throwing the coin into the ocean and saying that luck “comes from within,” he’s admitting that all along he has made his own luck. Each action he took led him to where he is now. This is a turning point for Thomas, who, for much of his life, felt helpless to circumstance. Yet, by the end, he realizes that he was never helpless, that each action he took was a choice that led him to the happiness he finds.
