Roustad Quotes

The events in a person’s life can change the way a person thinks and behaves. In the novel such a long journey by Rohinton Mistry, the main character Gustad faces many obstacles in life, and that leads to him becoming a better person as the novel progresses. Gustad Noble starts off as a negative, tough, and a stubborn person, but later on he turns into more of a perceptive, open minded, and a positive person. The main character Gustad, goes through the events such as father and son conflicts because of the university of IIT, political conflicts within India and between India and Pakistan which causes trouble and violence, the illnesses and problems faced with his own family and his friends, and his religious beliefs changes him in the journey

He realizes that nothing is perfect in life, and everyone has ups and downs in their lives, which impacts a person’s life greatly. Mistry uses the tower of silence as a symbol to express Gustad’s true feelings when Dinshawji’s body is carried there. When he is at the tower of silence he is “in his thoughts…Such a wonderful voice Like Nat king Cole’s when he sang, You Will Never Grow Old, soft, smooth, rich as velvet” (Mistry 247). Gustad, who is facing many problems in his life, understands the truth of life, which is that people are always going back and forth between happiness and sadness, and good and evil, and that changes his beliefs, making him into a more open minded person, and less stubborn. Through the use of the father and son relationship, Mistry shows us the problems that are caused in between modern tradition and religious beliefs. Gustad believes that modern tradition is “the bloody problem… In the name of progress they [discard] seemingly unimportant things, without knowing that what they [are] chucking out of the window of modernity [is] tradition. And if tradition [is] lost, then the loss of respect for those who [respect] and [love] tradition always followed” (Mistry 61). The religious environment Gustad grows in leads to him becoming a stubborn character in terms of how much freedom his children should get, but as the novel progresses he understands why keeping up with modern culture is important, and that leads to a stronger father and son bond. Religious beliefs Gustad grows up with is eventually proven wrong in terms of keeping every member in the family