What do you think of the final chapter? What function does it serve?

What do you think of the final chapter? What function does it serve?

Chapter Forty is written from Meena's first person perspective. Meena explains that she named her daughter Abru because Abru means Honor. The name was selected in memory of the child's father because Meena felt that Abdul embodied Honor with every word he spoke and every action he took.

The final chapter tied the whole plot together. We needed to hear that final word from Meena.

The last chapter told from Meena's voice ties the theme of the book together when she explains that her daughter Abru meaning honor was given that name internationally.

The final chapter gives us the opportunity understand the most important reason for the title of the book. Naming her daughter Abru was the highest honor of all other interpretations, and a hint at maybe a bright future for Abru.

There are so many different meanings of the same word. While I try not to, I often find myself interpreting a word's meaning negatively or positively depending on how it is used in the sentence; for example, honor killing, bad- -honoring a promise, good. For me, Meena's explanation of honor at the end of the book was the most pure, truest form of the word. This book really was a difficult read. I felt sad, powerless, and outraged. But I loved how the author left me with a feeling of hope at the end.

According to one of the characters (Shannon or Anjali?), Meena was the bravest person she’d ever met. The last chapter eloquently shows this bravery. It also illustrates the very best of us. It’s moving and humbling.

To me this chapter is so appropriate. It gives Meena the “last word,” and shows the reader (this reader) that despite her death, Meena is triumphant. Her child Abru(Honor) is preserved, the fruit of her brief life with the man she loves. I thought the strongest chapters of the book were those narrated by Meena, and the last chapter closes out her story in her own words.

To make me cry!
No seriously, it was the ribbon that tied up the entire package of the story. Abru was named Honor for her Father who was the embodiment of Love.
I seriously did cried so much reading that and I don’t do that often! It was a brilliant ending to the story!

I loved the final chapter. It was a beautiful way to wrap up the book - a moving and personal tribute from Meena to Abdul, the man he was and their love, as well as to their daughter, Abru. Also, by explaining the naming of Abru, it brought the idea of HONOR back into a positive light (versus the perverse ways in which some in the book used the word to justify their deplorable behavior).

And quoting from that chapter, "my daughter, who may yet live to see the new Hinduism..." It's a hope that pioneers, activists, continue to hope to achieve. And perhaps it was one of the incentives for Smita's decision to stay in India. I guess progress requires some who are willing to sacrifice in the hope of evolution, greater good. I'm not sure I would ever be that brave. So that final chapter does provide a rationale for the, what I considered overly romantic, ending.

Chapter Forty of Honor stressed Abdul and Meena's stalwart belief that good and honorable people will come to the conclusion that the people of India--- regardless of their differing faiths---will realize that they are Indians first and foremost. Meena's paean to Abru, the daughter named for Honor, celebrates this belief in a future modern India that is stripped of its blatantly cruel racism against minority religions. The chapter, in my opinion, stands as a beacon of hope.