There are mainly 5 main themes in the story, they are,

• Change and Adaptation
• Urban and Rural India
• Poverty and Wealth
• Family
• Benefactors

Characters

There are altogether 18 major characters in the story:

1. Hari
2. Lila
3. Bela and Kamal
4. Ramu
5. Jagu
6. Hira Lal
7. Hira Bai
8. De Silvas
9. Mr Panwallah
10. Biju
11. Mahe
12. Hari's father
13. Hari's mother
14. Pinto
15. Mina
16. Watchmen of factory
17. Sayyid Ali Sahib
18. Mrs Jagu

Character Analysis:

1. Hari: He is the protangonist in the story and is also the only son in the family. He assumes the duty of taking care of his parents and younger siblings.
2. Lila: She is the eldest in the family and has to cook and do chores for her family.
3. Bela and Kamal: They are the younger sisters of Hari and Lila and helps to pick shellfish from beach as food for their family.
4. Ramu: He is Hari's friend and does not go to school.
5. Jagu: He is the proprietor of Sri Krishna Eating House in Bombay. He lives in a slum with his family.
6. Hira Lal: He is the watchman of Seabird for 10 years and lives in Gowalia Tank.
7. de Silvas: They are rich people who lives in Bombay and likes to come to Thul for their holiday where they own a bungalow, Mons Repos.
8. Mr. Panwallah: He owns Ding Dong Watchworks in Bombay. Used to live in a villa but now lives in a little room overlooking Grant road station.
9. Biju: Richest fisherman in Thul. Owns a diesel engine-powered boat and is suspected to be involved in smuggling.
10. Hira-bai: The mother of the Khanekar brothers and loves toddy.
11. Mahe: A Thul farmer who went to Bombay to protest against the building of the factories.
12. Khaneka brothers: They loved to drink toddy and were almost always drunk.
13. Hari's father: Likes to drink toddy but turned over a new leaf at the end of the novel.
14. Hari's mother: Was sick with anaemia and lay in bed everyday.
15. Pinto: He is Kamal's dog but was killed supposedly by one of the Khanekar brothers. When he was alive, he was devoted to Lila.
16. Sayyid Ali Sahib: He has a very strong liking for birds of all kinds and helped the villagers present their views during the protests.
17. Watchman of factory: Thinks badly of Thul's villagers and lives in a tiny hut.
18. Mina: She is Lila's good friend.

Theme - Family

Hari's family is a dysfunctional family, where the parents are not responsible and the children are the ones who have to bear the responsibility prematurely. Especially the drunken father, who goes to the village to drink every night. He squanders away the money that his family desperately needs and does not contribute to the family income at all. Because of the debts he collected drinking, Pinto the dog was killed. 'He (Lila's father) no longer fished, he had sold his boat to pay his debts' (pg 3)Hari is so fed up with the behaviour that he wishes that his dad is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. 'Maybe a poisonous snake will bite him. He may step on one of them and be bitten' (pg 33).Hari's mother is so sick but since his father doesn't bring the mother to the hospital, she had to rest in bed and had to leave the duty of running the household to Hari and Lila. This continues until Hari went to Bombay in search of a job that could help increase the income of the family. The family recovers into a normal family when the mother regained her health and the father quit drinking.