Fire is an element of life, a factor that has been forgotten in Neville's civilisation, where electric ovens are part of daily routine. The warmth and kindness are sometimes on the verge of Neville's limits and when the poor family offer him yak meat, a luxurious delicacy, the shame becomes unbearable for him. This treatment is remarkable even for an experienced guidebook author like himself. Then he broods over the decadence, violence and hatred in his own civilisation, a cutting bitterness overwhelms him, a kind of bitterness deeply rooted in the aftermath of his wife leaving him.
"How different from his own world, spoilt and depraved. Where people wallowed in their greed. Where teenagers goaded and attacked old people for pleasure. Where children were not safe from molesters. Where wives left their husbands without warning and conscience. As had Neville's own wife. No, here was something wiser, better."(lines 39-44) .
The passage above represents Neville's hatred and resentment towards his own background. However, it is important to notice how he keeps on lying to the villagers. Neville becomes the personification of all the things he hates when he continues with the lies.
Neville is not the only dishonest person; the villagers have also a hidden agenda. The only man in the village with sufficient Anglo-linguistic abilities was sent to meet Neville and trick him into visiting Drughat. The villagers can be seen as a business company, the village is a product and Neville is an investor. Therefore the company must spoil him and display all the assets of the product. By selling the product to Neville more investors will come and business will flourish. But Neville is not aware of Thakali's slyness and furthermore he feels at home in the village. There are no machinery and no technology and still they the village copes. Neville believes that he is part of something special and almost a member of this unique, secluded community.