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The Mistress Of Spices

The Paradise

Encarta World English Dictionary defines Paradise as “a place or state of perfect happiness: a place, situation, or condition in which somebody finds perfect happiness”.   In 1997, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni wrote “the Mistress of Spices”, a novel based around Tilo, a very mysterious shop keeper, who fells in love with Raven, an ordinary American.   The author uses Tilo and Raven to show how in three separate stages of their lives their definition of paradise changed.   It is the evolution through these stages that the author proves that Tilo and Raven ultimately reach their personal paradise.
The three stages that Tilo and Raven went through were very different.   In the first stage as Tilo was born, “the midwife cried out at the veiny purple cowl over my face, and the fortune-teller in the rainfly-filled evening shook his head sorrowfully at my father” (page 8). The author goes on to explain “They named me Nayan Tara, Star of the Eye but my parents’ face were heavy with fallen hope at another girlchild, and this one colored like mud.” (page 8).  
Shortly there after, Tilo and her family realized that she possessed special powers.   “I cured the daughter of a potentate, foretold the death of a tyrant, drew patterns on the ground to keep the good winds blowing for merchant sailors” (page 9).   The knowledge of these special powers grew from village to village, bestowing luxuries on Tilo and her family.  
Tilo defined her first paradise in her special powers until her powers did not offer any defense against the pirates who wanted her fortune.   This was evident when she yelled as they took her away, “Mother, I never thought it would be like this...Father, sisters, forgive me, I who had been Nayan Tara, who had wanted your love but only won your fear.   Forgive me , my village, I who in boredom and disappointment did this to you” (page 19).
The first stage for Raven was quite different from that of Tilo.   Raven came from a typical American family....