Born Behind Bars

Padma Venkatraman

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-16

Chapters 17-32

Chapters 33-44

Chapters 45-57

Chapters 58-70

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Cages

In Born Behind Bars, cages symbolize both literal prisons and metaphorical “prisons” that some people still live in despite not actually being imprisoned. Kabir learns that cages are usually negative but sometimes for security. Luckily, most types of “cages” can be “unlocked.” Upon Kabir’s release from prison, he’s confused about why wealthy people intentionally put bars on their windows when they’re allowed to live free in the world. The reason that they don’t want other people breaking in is initially a foreign concept to Kabir because he’s used to the dangers being locked in prison with him. However, he learns that being locked in helps some, like the parrot Jay, feel secure. Kabir realizes that not all “cages” are necessarily negative, depending on who controls the locks. In Jay’s case, Rani is not a prison guard and will let him out of the cage whenever he wants or needs to go, so his cage is very different from the prison where Amma is. An involuntary, permanent cage is different from a voluntary, temporary one.

Despite being literally free from prison, Kabir still feels “caged” at times by fear. His grandparents tell him that his father used to say, “Fear is a lock, and courage is a key we hold in our hands” (227). This alludes to how people can build mental “cages” for themselves, using fear and doubt to prevent themselves from even trying to achieve their goals. Without trying, one can’t succeed, so Kabir must learn to use the “key” that he already possesses—courage—to “unlock” his potential. Cages and keys thus help develop the theme of Resilience and Positivity as Tools for Change, as well as being more obviously pertinent thematically to The Drawbacks of the Caste and Prison Systems.

Homes

Throughout the novel, Kabir grapples with the question of what makes a “home.” Amma tells him it’s not so much what the home looks like as what goes on in it: A home is a place where someone is taken care of, safe, and looked after. Kabir immediately decides that, by this definition, his home is wherever Amma is. This establishes homes as a symbol for family. However, Amma insists that prison isn’t a home, even though they’re together. Kabir can’t understand what exactly she means until his release from prison, because he has lived there his entire life and, although he knows it’s not a great place, he doesn’t fully know what he’s missing out on until his release, when he sees real “homes” like what Amma described.

Kabir first sees a real “home” when he and Rani spy on a man who worships at the same mosque as Kabir’s grandparents. Kabir remarks, “I feel like I’m watching the end of a happy TV movie” (161), and he thinks what he’s seeing is too good to be true. Kabir doesn’t believe that he’ll ever have a “home” like this man does. He eventually does, but only through resilience, hope, and help from new loved ones. Although it seems like a miracle, having a home and a family is within reach for Kabir. Likewise, Rani finds a home, although hers is entirely different from Kabir’s: She lives at a residential school and sleeps outside in a tent, but she’s safe, secure, and taken care of. This echoes Amma’s sentiment that a home’s specific attributes don’t matter so much as who shares that home and the values that are celebrated within it. Homes thus thematically illustrate The Importance of Family and Friendship as well as Resilience and Positivity as Tools for Change.

Puzzles

Puzzles represent the world—not just prison but also everything that lies outside it—and Kabir’s place within that world. In the prison, Kabir wrestles with a jigsaw puzzle of the world, which he finds challenging and mysterious because he has never seen most of “the world” before. At first, the outside world truly is a “puzzle” to Kabir: The way the world outside prison works is a mystery, and he must work hard to understand it. Throughout the text, characters repeatedly remark that the world is “strange” and point out contradictions in how it works, such as how children often receive more kindness from random strangers than from people tasked with looking after them, like prison wardens. Such observations are puzzle pieces that Kabir and Rani must fit together to make sense of an unfair, confusing, and often cruel world. Moreover, Rani and Kabir are both trying to determine where they “fit” in this world puzzle. Both have separated from their parents and, having nowhere to live, drift until they help each other find where they each fit in.

Both Kabir and Rani solve the puzzle of where they fit in the world by finding their families, although the two families differ from each other and from what they were expecting. Kabir remarks, “Amma and Patti and Thatha are smiling nervously at one another and standing […] sort of awkwardly apart. And I know what’s missing: me. I’m like a missing puzzle piece they need […] that will make everything else fall into place” (257). Kabir’s place in the world is between these family members, whose combined powers make them stronger together. Rani’s place is at Viji Aunty’s school, where she can make friends, remain true to herself, and fulfill her mother’s dream for her to attend school. In this sense, puzzles also help develop The Importance of Family and Friendship as a theme.