This story basically describes the nature of war, its effects and how it destroys the healthy happy families. The story revolves around Sam’s life, a young Sri Lankan village boy, steeped in utter poverty. Sam comes to work at the River House, where he develops a liking for both the house and its inhabitants. He likes his friendly master, the Big Boss, who pilots an aero plane, admires the lady of the house who is generous with food, and loves their two children, especially the boy. He eagerly waits for their vacations as they study abroad and visit home during their holidays.
At the River house, Sam’s duty is to sweep the garden, water the flowerbeds and the lawn, wash the cars, open and close the gates when the cars come and go, and feed the dogs. This makes Sam an errand boy and a gardener because there are others who do the other, more important jobs: Leandro, the cook, and Janet, the housemaid. Though Sam likes his master very much but dislikes Leandro and Janet, as they constantly remind him of the racial war of ‘their kind’ who is raging in the villages and killing the state’s soldiers.
Their presence makes him a virtual pawn in the war and he feels to be under enemy fire all the time between Leandro, the vocal enemy, and Janet, the silent type enemy. Elmo has shown, through this, the kind of hatred among the man on the street, the level of rottenness in the country’s society.
Meanwhile, Sam’s brother is forced to join the military. Elmo has described the situation where every young man of the house is forced to join the military and fight civil wars or else they are considered as a traitor. Things change when Sam’s brother could not take the torture and runs away. His family is threatened by the military men. Leandro realize that the images of war’s violence cease to become mere images on the television screen. Leandro changes for good. One of the most humanizing moments in the novel is when Sam and Leandro sharing the same pain forget the divide of race and politics. Their loss becomes common now when their dear master and mistress too becomes victim of the war. They both die in a bomb blast.
Sam’s Story demonstrates the helplessness of the poor, and even the rich, who don’t choose to be a part of this conflict, but yet suffers its consequences. Sam’s boss, who wanted no part of the war, pays the price for being at the wrong place in the wrong time. His innocence, his non-partisan attitude does no good to him. He used to say: “That war is purely political; to fulfil the empty ambitions of our leaders… It is a war for the rich to get richer and for the poor to die.”
This is not the condition of just one country but today almost the whole world is going through the same things and all victims of war share the same thoughts as Sam’s masters.
Deepali Desai
BA (Journalism, English,
Psychology)
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