Nectar in a Sieve portrays virtues in action. There are instances of both faith, love and hope in Rukmani's life yet the greatest theme is hope. Nature can test the hope of human yet in the end nature does not grant the ultimate victory. Two eldest sisters are married off, and later are then given great gifts, but when her and her last older sister are married, they are married into a lower social class and receive very little gifts. She despises that she came from a wealthy home and married a farmer. Many of her relatives call her a disgrace. She questions the traditions when she has a girl first, and then does not a have a second (as of chapter 3) so her husband Nathan does not have a son to take care of the land after him. She does follows the traditions when she does not call her husband by name but only by "husband". This is expected of women no matter the class they are in. In the story, she also is married off to a man who she doesnt know, which is customary to the Indian culture. She does draws upon the way of life there when she helps deliver her neighbor's wife's child!
Both were inspired by the current times and wrote plays that reflected and criticized society. For example, in 1935 Odets wrote a play about union workers going on strike.
