3. The Marabar Caves are fictional caves. The
caves are based on the real life Barabar
Caves located in the Jehanabad
District of Bihar, India. They serve as an
important plot location and motif in the novel.
Key features of the caves are the glass
smooth walls and a peculiar resonant echo
magnifying any sound made in the caves.
4. The Marabar Caves represent all that is alien
about nature. The caves are older than anything
else on the earth and embody nothingness and
emptiness—a literal void in the earth. They defy
both English and Indians to act as guides to
them, and their strange beauty and menace
unsettles visitors. The caves’ alien quality also
has the power to make visitors such as Mrs.
Moore and Adela confront parts of themselves or
the universe that they have not previously
recognized.
6. The green bird that Ronny and Adela observe and try to
identify but cannot (chapter 8) symbolizes India. India is
elusive; it cannot be neatly categorized. Categorization
is the Western, but not the Eastern, approach to
understanding. It relies on rational understanding, and is
part of the scientific approach. But as far as India is
concerned, "nothing is identifiable, the mere asking of a
question causes it to disappear or to merge in something
else." This is why India will always baffle and defeat
those Westerners who seek to understand it. The
Indians have a different attitude to understanding, as is
shown in the following chapter, when Aziz recites poetry.
The poetry reminds the Indians that India is one, a
unity, but they grasp this at the level of feeling, not of
intellect.
8. The wasp appears several times in A Passage to
India, usually in conjunction with the Hindu
vision of the oneness of all living things. The
wasp is usually depicted as the lowest creature
the Hindus incorporate into their vision of
universal unity. Mrs. Moore is closely associated
with the wasp, as she finds one in her room and
is gently appreciative of it. Her peaceful regard
for the wasp signifies her own openness to the
Hindu idea of collectivity, and to the mysticism
and indefinable quality of India in general.
However, as the wasp is the lowest creature
that the Hindus visualize, it also represents the
limits of the Hindu vision. The vision is not a
panacea, but merely a possibility for unity and
understanding in India.
9. Early in the novel , Mrs. Moore returns from the club
and sees a small wasp asleep on a coat peg. She
does not disturb it. Indeed, she seems to feel quite
affectionate toward it, addressing it as "Pretty, dear."
The wasp is a symbol of the unity of all life, as
understood in the Indian religious tradition.
Everything, even an insect, is a manifestation of
Brahman. Mrs. Moore does not know this
intellectually, but she is sympathetic to the idea of
the oneness of the universe. Her reaction to the
wasp shows she is in tune with this way of thinking .
