Brotherless Night

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and rape.

In the first chapter in Brotherless Night, titled “The Boys With the Jaffna Eyes,” Sashi describes her brothers’ and K’s dark eyes that symbolize their depth, intensity, and intelligence. She says that their eyes represent “these Tamil men [she] love[s] and who belong[] with [her]” (11). Their eyes connect them to their country and its causes. She says, “All of them had what some people call Jaffna eyes—dark and piercing. If you have seen such eyes, you will know what I mean” (11). She believes that their eyes are so distinctive that they are instantly recognizable.

Later, however, the same Jaffna eyes assume a sinister quality as they foreshadow the passionate intensity with which K, Dayalan, and Seelan will commit themselves to the Tigers. At the disastrous political rally near the beginning of the book, Niranjan spots K talking to someone who appears to be a militant. As Niranjan coaxes K away from the scene, Sashi says, “K glanced back at the other man, whose Jaffna eyes were trained on them” (38). K has become a target, either for recruitment or elimination. As Sashi acknowledges later, all the young men of Jaffna were destined for war: “The boys with the Jaffna eyes slipped out of their beds or classrooms, turned their faces from their mothers, fathers, sisters, and teachers, and walked to the sea” (94).