Betrayal and Disappointment
Chanda and Lillian are repeatedly betrayed by the people they love and even by their bodies. Over and over again, Lillian learns that the men she loves all fail her. After he husband dies, she struggles to make sense of the cruel randomness of his death and the combined loss of her sons as well. When she learns that Issac has molested Chanda, she blames herself for trusting him. She's beginning to recognize a pattern. Mr. Dube promises her the world, but he dies before being able to deliver. Finally Jonah is the last man she welcomes. After so much disappointment, she isn't eager to start over again, but this final relationship still ends with betrayal after things get rough. Jonah checks out after Lillian miscarries a few times and gets sick. She and Chanda need him the most in this trying time, but he takes up drinking and stays away for days at a time, leaving Chanda solely responsible for caring for the rest of the family. Finally, after Sara's death, Jonah commits suicide in the ultimate betrayal. Lillian's illness increases, and then she learns that she has AIDS. Who knows who gave it to her, but she's once more been given the short end of the stick. Her death leaves Chanda the sole survivor of one final disappointment.
Fate
Chanda shows so much promise early in life, especially in school. Everything looks up for her for the first several years of her life, starting with her dad's promotion and their move. Unfortunately fate has other plans for the course of her life. She expresses no concrete belief in fate, but she tries to conduct herself with a large degree of forethought. As her situation becomes increasingly tough with her family and their finances, Chanda is too busy to glance backward and interpret her life events according to fate. The line can clearly be seen, however. Chanda's dreams are stripped from her piece by piece with every betrayal and death and birth and illness. Her affairs play out in a way that seems absolutely predetermined to test her. Enduring the loss of all of her family members but a few young siblings, financial loss, constant moves, illnesses, sexual assault, and even the loss of her best friend, Chanda proves her fortitude in this narrative. Perhaps fate has tested her so cruelly when she's young in order to prepare her for something great which is yet to come.
Lost Love
Although Chanda abandons her dreams of romantic love fairly early, her mom remains hopeful. She takes up with a series of men after her husband's death, all of whom she loves. Stripped of her husband by a mining accident, Lillian does not allow herself the appropriate grieving period before latching onto Issac Pheto. She's looking for a capable, committed man to help her raise Chanda and to recover from her grief, and he appears to be the perfect candidate. For a while they're happy and even have a baby girl. When Lillian discovers that Issac has been sexually assaulting Chanda, however, she immediately cuts all ties. He seemed so perfect that she wanted to make it work between the two of them, but he too could not last. She loses her next boyfriend to chance as Mr. Dube dies of a heart attack.
By this time, Lillian is desperate to find a stable social and economic situation to protect her children, so she risks her heart once more with Jonah. He promises more stability because of his respectable job in construction and his eagerness to marry her, but she won't get married again. After losing three men already, Lillian is hesitant to set stock in this last one, and she's wise to do so. Unfortunate circumstances lead Jonah to start drinking heavily until he's an unrecoverable alcoholic. When their youngest dies, he commits suicide. Once more Lillian loses the man she loves, the last in a surprisingly long line of tragic losses.
