Humor in Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard Essay

Every one's opinion of what is funny and what isn't funny differs, some like the tawdry jokes, while others prefer dry wit. Others find sarcasm funny, while still more may find it offensive. Each person has their own particular sense of humor. In Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard Kiran Desai creates relatable characters and situations that allows for the reader to have easy laughs throughout the novel no matter what their humor preferences may be.

Kiran Desai is able to create ample amounts of humor through the unpredictability of her characters. One such occasion where humor is created through unpredictability, which occurs in chapter 25, is during one of Pinky's crazy antics. During the Hullabaloo of attempting to remove the monkeys from the Monkey Baba's orchard, everyone is completely distracted, but Pinky manages to notice the figure of the 'dashing' Brigadier (208). Her attraction for the Brigadier comes to light after the hungry hop boy becomes a captive of the army per the Brigadier's orders and Pinky becomes disenchanted with the boy (206). This moment is particularly humorous because not only does Pinky wish to pinch the Brigadier's bottom, but she justifies her feelings with her fathers advice to seek a potential matrimonial match with a higher social ranking than herself and her family (149), somewhat twisting her fathers words. This attraction of Pinky's is also funny because the Brigadier is the man whos actions led to Pinky's disenchantment with the Hungry Hop Boy an example of dramatic irony. Some readers are able to relate to this instance to a certain degree because everyone has been disappointed by a loved one and some choose to look to another for comfort, but Pinky's way is slightly more immature, much like a teenage boy, creating humor in the situation.

The love of Pinky and the Hungry Hop Boy seems to be very immature. During the first encounter, after Pinky realizes that she has feelings for the boy, she bites his ear (113), an occurrence which is very much like when a school girl or boy will pick on the object of his or her affections. This immature love provides a chuckle for the reader because they themselves can usually relate to the silliness of his or her own school day's 'love life'. The 'love' of Pinky and The Hungry Hop Boy also shows the fickleness and tumultuous nature of love, something most readers have seen and can relate to. To many a reader, the nature of love can be saddening, but in the case of Pinky and her lover, it turns out to be humorous. The hungry Hop Boy's insistence of being with Pinky is shattered when he meets the girl like ice cream, like birthday cake, like wedding cake (192) whom his family had chosen for him, this leads to the comical and indecisive drive to the orchard where the boy is constantly in the way and apprehended by the army (206); Pinky's disillusionment with the Hungry Hop Boy leads to the humorous situation of wanting to pinch the bottom of the Brigadier (208).

Another unpredictable character is that of Kulfi. Kulfi creates some humor through her randomness as seen with her chanting of different spice names (200), her obsession with food from pregnancy to her sleep (4), and her desire to cook a monkey (155). Kulfi is almost synonymous both figuratively and literally with food in Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard considering that almost every time Kulfi says anything, it is of, relating to, or pertaining to food and her name is also a type of Indian dessert. Kulfi's obsession with food can be considered humorous because of its exaggerated and extensive nature, many people do have something that they are obsessed with, but not to such a degree. Kulfi goes so far as to actually invent her own recipes with unknown spices that could potentially be poisonous (103), showing her devout nature towards discovering more interesting foods.

Another point where readers, especially mothers, can connect with Kulfi is during her pregnancy. Many a pregnant woman will complain about odd cravings for random foods; cravings are seen in television shows, movies, books, and real life. Despite being able to relate to cravings, no one can reach the same level as Kulfi. Her cravings come during a time of drought, where there is a lack of food (4), especially specialty items. These cravings during her pregnancy with Sampath end up highlighting her slightly unbalanced nature when she begins to draw on the walls of their home, this is where the relatable becomes exaggerated. Desai also creates humor during this time by making Kulfi seem child-like, by having a grown woman draw on walls (8), which tends to be the ire of many parents and Mr. Chawla.

Mr. Chawla's is known for his practicality and considering that he is surrounded by a family with an extremely fanciful nature, he seems to be even more practical in comparison. When Mr. Chawla attempts to exploit Sampath's running away to the orchard, his practicality is exemplified. The reader may not feel that they can relate to such an occurrence, but everyone has taken advantage of a situation at one point or another. The fact that the exploitive nature of Sampath's father is so exaggerated is what adds humor to the novel; the endorsements Dr. Sood's Dental Centre, Gentleman Tailors 'God made man, we make Gentleman' for Campa Cola... (126), the selling of offerings (, and the selling of Sampath's pictures (119). Through these moves used to inflate the family bank account, the reader can truly see how practical Mr. Chawla's mind set really is.

The situations that Desai creates for her characters also stands to add to the humor of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. To a certain degree, the reader can really relate to some of the situations, like wishing to escape a pressured life. However, many of these situations are very fantastic. For example, when Sampath follows his desire to escape his life as an office drone, he finds himself running away to a tree in a guava orchard. The reader may find such an action to be humorous because seldom to grown men run away to live in a tree (51). The audience would be able to relate to Sampath because everyone feels daily pressures in life, however, because his pressures are so exaggerated and the way he deals with these pressures are so different than expected, he actually goes through with running away, the situation can be found humorous.

The result of Sampath's escape from the life of a drone is also humorous because of the unexpected result. At first Sampath found the respect and admiration beneficial (66), but he slowly came to change his mind. By running away, Sampath hoped to find his own peace in the orchard, but instead the chaos of his home followed him. The wild band of monkeys even joined him, headed by the infamous Cinema Monkey (105), bringing along the craziness supplied by alcohol (123); Drunken animals often provide a laugh due to the absurdity and almost personification, because its usually people who are getting drunk. Many people can relate to not having things go as planned, much like Sampath's case and they can relate to the hilarious drunken antics of friends, much like the monkeys are to Sampath, but the fact that Desai amplifies the emotions involved in the situation is what makes the scenes so hilarious.

Another relatable instance, is the dress-up scene during Mr. D. P. S.'s daughter's wedding. Everyone has played dress-up at one point in his or her life, either as a child, for Halloween, trying on clothes, or just trying to figure out what to wear on a particular day, but Sampath's game of dress-up was much more hilarious. During the wedding Sampath manages to locate the clothing and jewelry of the women who are attending the wedding. He uses the silk of the saris and the jewels of cousin-sister's jewelry box to completely decorate himself,glittering nose piercing and all (308). After dressing up, much like a child, he wishes to show-off his work; However, his fashion show quickly goes south as he begins to remove his clothing in the presence of the shocked wedding party (41). The absolute folly of the scene garners a laugh from the audience because not only is a man playing dress-up, but he feels the need to 'moon' the audience of his own fashion show, taking a relatable situation and amplifying it to the point where it is absolutely ludicrous.

Another occurrence that the reader can find relatable is the indecision of The Hungry Hop Boy in whether or not to marry Pinky or the girl that his family has chosen for him (192). Many people often have conflicted feelings, be it towards a lover or lovers he or she has feelings for or just whether or not to go to class on a particular day, life is full of hard choices to make. Kiran Desai is able to create humor through Hungry Hop Boys indecision by, again, embellishing his feelings and amplifying them to the point where the Hungry Hop Boy can be seen as being melodramatic. His indecision leads to the hilariousness of being captured (206).

Through the creations of different characters and situations in Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, Kiran Desai is able to garner laughs from the ability of her readers to relate to her characters even though the characters and their actions are much more exaggerated than would be in real life. Things may not be an exact match to some one's own experiences or personality, but there are some underlying characteristics of the situations and characters that people face fairly often throughout their lives.