Both Shame and Sour Sweet have an enormous number of victims and a small number of masters.
Many individuals are victims of circumstance, government, and other groups of people.
The Chens, for instance, are victims of the secret Triad societies and British culture in general. Harappa and Hyder are masters insomuch as they control the destiny of Peccavistan by governing it, and yet are also totally controlled, to the point of death, by the whims of the people, their own supporters, and the supernatural. All characters in Mo and Rushdie are victims of their environment. Omar Khayyam Shakil is the victim of his mothers and his home town, his childhood environments. Hyder and Harappa are victims of politics and passion.