Do you think Sampath finally achieves his freedom from society?

On the other hand towards the end many people like the chief brigadier and the police superintendent follow Sampath and try to solve the monkey problem. In effect society has followed Sampath. Moreover they tried using techniques which society found ‘acceptable’. Secondly, Pinky is still deeply involved in social life (Hungry hop boy and shopping). Pinky makes a big scene about those two things when she’s with Sampath. For example she asked if Sampath would like ‘to come along with the hungry hop boy’ and herself. Finally, at the end of the novel, it is only implied that Sampath turned into a guava for all we know he didn’t, they find him and then he returns to everyday life.

How can you link the end of the novel back to the beginning

Firstly, at the beginning of the book there is havoc in Shahkot as the Shahkotian try and solve the problem of the monsoon. This is mirrored by the Shahktoians trying to get rid of the monkey problem. The effect this has is it shows that there will always be problems and Shahkot will try to solve them as a community.

Additionally, towards the beginning of the book Desai describes Kulfi’s obsession with food. Again the book ends with Kulfi’s obsession of food however more emphasised since the beginning of the book. So as we can see so far, Desai introduces key ideas at the beginning of the novel and then builds on them throughout.  

Finally, early on in the book Sampath claims that he ‘wished he could be a guava’. Ironically at the end of the book he supposedly turns into one. Again this emphasizes the fact that Desai develops key ideas at the start of the book until they are very prominent towards the end of the novel.