“Just a word of warning my dear. Fond as I am of my nephew, I feel I should tell you that he’s one of those men who likes to think of himself as being irresistible to the other sex. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t lack for women who’re foolish enough to confirm such a man’s opinion of himself, and Kanai seems always to be looking for them. I don’t know how you describe that kind of man nowadays, my dear – but in my time we used to call them ‘fast’.” She paused. raising her eyebrows. “Do you get my meaning?”

“I sure do.” (208)

Kanai is a man of the present. Even in his love life, this becomes evident. “Although unmarried, he was, as he, liked to say, rarely single: over the past many years, several women had drifted in and out of his life.” (14) He’ll go to whoever women interests him and it wouldn’t last long. He would move on to the next like an uninteresting book. Recently he was seeing an Odissi dancer, which did not last long. The Odissi dancer told him to never call her or go after her. Which like any in this situation, tried to, but ultimately failed. He truly thinks he is irresistible, the only attractive man out there. His looks, his jobs, his ideals, never looking back at the past, he’s a running red flag.

Until Piya enters the scene, the first thing he sets his eyes upon is her body. “His eyes settled on her slim, shapely figure.” (3) It’s quite strange, it’s like he is objectifying her. Upon interacting with Piya, he instantly thought of the idea of starting a fling with her. “If Piya decided to avail herself of his invitation, then there was no reason not to savor whatever pleasures might be on offer.” (14) Kanai can not seem to interact with a woman normally without it being sexual or of romantic interest. He wouldn’t say no to the offer either, as he is already self-aware that all his relationships will flop, so there is no point in being committed.

Continuing reading Kanai’s uncle’s letters, his uncle mentions the dolphins that Piya has been searching for. “I turned to see another of these creatures, rolling through the water. This time I also caught a glimpse of a small triangular fin. Although I had never before seen this animal, I knew it had to be a dolphin.” (194) With this knowledge, Kanai joins Piya in search for them. Though not for the dolphins, but for himself. This is his way of getting close to Piya if it means he has some sort of connection. He says that Piya would need a translator, as he is one himself. It would make her journey easier since she does not speak Bangla like the others, but at the same time, it’s more of an excuse to be closer to her. It is beneficial to him. Kanai tells his aunt that he will be leaving with Piya. His reasoning is that translator excuse. But Kanai’s aunt caught him in this act, she is aware of his antics. “She looked at him shrewdly. “It’s the girl, isn’t it? Piya?” Kanai looked away in silence, and she said, with a bitterness he had never heard in her voice before, “You’re all the same, you men. Who can blame the tigers when predators like you pass for human beings?” (202) Kanai never bothers to defend himself, as he knows this is the truth. Kanai’s aunt as a woman, would know all too well what her nephew’s actions entail.

Kanai talks to Moyna, Fokir’s wife. She is worried that Piya and Fokir may get together. She asks Kanai to intervene, which then prompts Kanai to ask if she was ever curious what would be like to be with another man. Moyna then responds: “She rose angrily to her feet. “Kanai-babu, you’re making a fool of me, aren’t you? You want me to say yes and then you’ll laugh in my face. You’ll tell everybody what I said. I may be a village girl Kanai-babu, but I’m not so foolish as to answer a question like that. I can see that you play this game with every woman who crosses your path.” (215) Kanai told Moyna that he was joking, but knowing him it most likely wasn’t. Once Moyna shows how upset she is by his comment, he retaliates. Kanai makes it very clear when he wants to flirt with a woman. But every women around him won’t fall for this and crictize him for his actions. Kanai knows nothing about love and Moyna tells him he needs to see this through a different perspective.

Piya is aware that Kanai is trying to flirt with him, but so far she does not seem interested. Will they get together or will Piya leave like the others? Piya won’t fall for him, she’s even glad that Kanai’s flirting was interrupted by Fokir. Kanai was annoyed. Another failure.

“Do be careful, my dear. It’s dangerous in the forest – and not just because of the animals.” (209)

The Hungry Tide follows Kanai and Piya, our two main characters. Each new section will switch perspective constantly, following the days lived out by the two. They come from different worlds, Piya growing up in America and Kanai growing up in India. Piya struggles to understand those around her, and can only understand body movements. Kanai is on a journey to discover what his uncle has written to him, and what it means. Why did he die so suddenly? “The Matla will rise! The Matla will rise!” (23) What did Kanai’s uncle mean by this before he died? The mystery unfolds.

Piya is in search of a rare breed of dolphins that were thought to be extinct. When boarding the Launch with the guards they seem to take advantage of her due to not being knowledgeable in their language. “On cue as if to show her that she had not gotten off lightly, the guard held up her walkman- he had managed to extricate it from her belongings before handing them over.” (50) Piya’s walker was taken, most likely as payment. As Piya decided to go with the fisherman Fokir, the guards were irritated by her decision. But still accepting payment. Piya held her money closely, I think Piya was afraid of the guards stealing her money. When she had almost drowned in the muddy waters, she checked if she still had it. An interesting thing I noticed was how the guard was expecting Piya to give him some reward for spotting a crocodile. “Med-ja’s motives for bringing them to her notice were made evident when he rubbed his fingers together to let her know that he deserved a tip.” (35) They are very greedy and couldn’t care less if she had almost died in the muddy waters.

Kanai has traveled to Lusibari to visit his aunt and read his uncle’s letters. Fokir, someone that his uncle knows was mentioned. “As I look on the scene before me I cannot help wondering what it has meant to them – to Fokir, to Kusum – to wake to this sight, through the better part of a year.” (59) This is interesting as Fokir and his son are currently missing. Not only that but the fisherman that Piya encountered, who also saved her from drowning in the muddy waters, was also named Fokir. “With a finger in his chest, pointing at himself, he said “Fokir”.”(54) Fokir also had his son, Tutul. Was this the same Fokir mentioned in the letters? It feels like no mere coincidence that Piya has managed to stumble upon him.

Kanai’s and Piya’s stories are connected, showing what’s to come on both sides. It is almost missable, that you just have to go back and re-read those sentences to put the pieces together.

Octavia Butler writes a unique story of the modern world now in shambles due to climate change. Fashion and style, food, technology, and nature are now gone; deteriorating. It has affected so much of humanity. “A lot of the houses were trashed, burned, vandalized, infested with drunks or druggies or squatted in by homeless families with their filthy, gaunt, half-naked children.” (10). Neighborhoods are all built on broken pieces of rocks, whatever works as a house. It feels like something straight from Mad Max with how everything is detailed, you can see it in your head. A wasteland of a world, just barely hanging on, humanity fighting for food, stealing, killing, all to survive what they brought upon themselves. Constantly saying to each other: “The world will be back to normal!” as if forgetting how they got there in the first place.

The world has gotten so dangerous that adults carry guns, even the younger generation if see fit. They must fend their neighborhood off pests (birds, squirrels, etc.) to protect the crops they grow for food. In real life, birds and squirrels eat whatever they find, but in Parable of the Sower, they must be eliminated as crops are limited. “All three had to be killed, though. They ate our food or ruined it. Tree-crops were their special victims: Peaches, plums, figs, persimmons, nuts…. And crops like strawberries, blackberries, grapes…. Whatever we planted, if they could get at it, they would.” (38)

One thing I noticed that reminded me of Haraway’s article was creating kin. In Lauren’s (Main character), neighborhood, her father is practically the leader. They are in a small community but her father intends to keep everyone intact. He will have meetings with the community, building trust and having them protect themselves; and each other. “I have a wife and five children, he said. I will pray for them all. I’ll also see to it that they know how to defend themselves. And for as long as I can, I will stand between my family and any intruder. He paused again. Now that’s what I have to do. You all do what you have to do. By now there are at least two guns in every household.” (39) Lauren’s father has a strong impact on the community, whatever he says the people will listen, and they will follow.

This feels like slow violence.  The world is getting worse day by day. People dying because they have no food and because of natural disasters. But no one seems to bat an eye, like how in the real world no one cares about what will happen to our world. The world has already suffered, and the people in Lauren’s neighborhood may think “How worse can it get? It can’t get any worse, things will go back to normal.”

“I can remember the rain six years ago.” (47)

After reading the three assigned novels about climate change, they all have a unique outlook on climate change. That allows us to think more in-depth about the subject. From the “Great Derangement” by Ghosh, “Would it follow, then, on the analogy of Kohn’s suggestion in relation to forests, that to think about this era of climate change will be to think in images, that it will require a departure from our accustomed logocentrism? Could that be the reason why television, film, and the visual arts have found it much easier to address climate change than literary fiction?”(Chp. 18) . While reading, this particular line stood out to me. I stopped to think because it is true when writing about climate change, it is easier to write about it through fiction. Creating these horrific disasters or what the world would be like if it was empty and dry, having the characters survive this apocalypse world. It is made solely for the entertainment of readers, viewers, etc. At this point, the stories stray further away from the historical context of climate change. Literary fiction helps readers understand the impact climate change has on our lives. With television, film, and visual arts, you have a visual representation of what climate change is, or what events are unfolding in front of you. People like to escape into a different fantasy-like reality when reading books, reading a literary fiction book about climate change will be hard to understand. Thinking about the deeper meaning and reality of said books may make the reader distant. But those books giving us heavy subjects such as climate change, allow the reader to understand how much climate change affects the world, affects the characters in the story, and how they overcome it. In the film, you see it happen, but is it affecting you and your critical thinking compared to the book?

In “Slow Violence” by Nixon, a quote I took from the book was “How can leaders be goaded to avert catastrophe when the political rewards of their actions will not accrue to them but will be reaped on someone else’s watch decades, even centuries, from now? How can environmental activists and storytellers work to counter the potent political, corporate, and even scientific forces invested in immediate self-interest, procrastination, and dissembling? We see such dissembling at work, for instance, in the afterword to Michael Crichton’s 2004 environmental conspiracy novel, State of Fear, wherein he argued that we needed twenty more years of data gathering on climate change before any policy decisions could be ventured.” ( Pg 10) I took an interest in this part of page 10 due to it being another quote that made me critically think about climate change. Climate change has been going on for decades, passed down to a new generation where nothing is done. It’s as if the older generations truly believe that the newer generations will fix their problems, when in reality that does not seem like the outcome. On the news, articles, or wherever, they always state “We’re going to combat climate change!” Nothing happens, the world gets crispier by the second. Even now, it feels as though no one has taken action, as if they still haven’t figured out about climate change enough to prevent the planet from becoming unliveable.