CHAPTER 54

Summary

• The chapter is set in 1951 in the Indian village of Parambil and primarily focuses on Elsie's difficult childbirth.
• Elsie managed to stay away from her increasingly erratic husband and was helped by Big Ammachi, who hired the widow Anna from the church to help with the preparations for the upcoming birth.
• Anna brought with her her young daughter, Hannah, who Big Ammachi ended up caring for like one of her own.
• Big Ammachi prepares the old bedroom in the house for Elsie's impending labor.
• Philipose, Elsie's husband, is behaving unusually, planning a feast in advance of the birth, and Big Ammachi strongly rebukes him.
• Elsie builds a sculpture in the form of a giant bird's nest by her old bathing spot, a place her husband never visits. She ties objects she finds around the nest, similar to a tailorbird.
• Elsie, near her due date, begins to express fears about her impending labor to Ammachi. She shows signs of labor and intense sadness, and her physical condition worsens, suggesting complications during the childbirth.
• The chapter also juxtaposes memories of Big Ammachi’s past childbirth experiences in the same room that Elsie is set to deliver in, and her preparing for the task of helping with the difficult labor.
• During childbirth, Elsie experiences a convulsion and becomes unconscious. The baby is a breech birth, which is considered dangerous as it implies that the baby is delivered feet-first instead of head-first.
• Anna manages to stop Elsie's bleeding by placing her hand inside Elsie and applying external pressure, an unconventional method she'd heard about from a nurse.
• Elsie shirks death and remains in a deep, unnatural sleep due to blood loss but survives, thanks to Big Ammachi and Anna.
• Big Ammachi presents the new baby to an anxious crowd that includes Elsie's husband Philipose and thanks God for bringing them through the ordeal.

• The chapter begins with Big Ammachi informing a man, likely her son Philipose based on context, that his wife has given birth to a daughter.
• Philipose is startled and apparently disappointed, saying “God has failed us again,” suggesting he desired a son.
• Big Ammachi chastises Philipose for his reaction, criticizing him for regarding the birth of a daughter as a failure and for belittling the mother's sacrificial act of childbirth. She laments that men who express such views should be punished by law and implies that Philipose lacks common sense.
• She then describes to Philipose how the child’s birth could have gone tragically wrong - referring to potential situations where his wife, the mother, could have died or both mother and child could have perished. But she emphasizes that none of that happened, and instead they have a living baby, which she describes as God's grace.
• Philipose doesn't respond. He doesn't look at the baby, and his disappointment is so profound that it's almost as if he's mourning a death, possibly hinting at a previous loss (Baby Ninan).
• Without waiting for Philipose's input, Big Ammachi forcefully announces that the baby's name is Mariamma according to the mother's wish. This happens to be Big Ammachi’s own childhood name, which has not been used since she was a young bride.