In Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter, by Chitra Divakaruni, is about a widowed Indian grandmother who immigrates to America hoping to pursuit happiness with her son and his family. Despite the cultural conflicts she encounters, Mrs. Dutta continuously tries to convince herself to be happy. However, she eventually comes to admit her true feelings. She responds to her friend's letter by writing that she does not know what happiness is anymore, but would like to rent her apartment when she returns. At the end, she discovers that "now that she no longer cares whether tears blotch her letter, she feels no need to weep." I feel that this ultimately shows that Mrs. Dutta did find happiness after writing the letter because she overcame her weaknesses, vulnerability and fears. As a result, the unexpected ending concludes to a comic plot.
The short story comprises a comic plot. Mrs. Dutta stays back at home in India even after her husband dies and her son's immigration to America. She enjoys the newfound freedom of not having to attend to her traditional duties as a wife and mother. However, the fear of not being needed anymore pressures her to move to America with her son in order to reacquire her role. Contrary to her beliefs, Mrs. Dutta does not find happiness in her immigration to America. She endures cultural shock and denies her feelings in her new environment. Eventually, she writes a letter telling her friend that she is not sure if she is truly happy or not, what happiness is and that she plans to go home. Her admittance in her true feelings reveals her rejuvenation and her triumph over her fears and doubts. Although she does not realize it while writing the letter, Mrs. Dutta finds mere pride and happiness after all when she discovers she lacks the need to cry; a perfect comic ending in which the character finds a higher standing than the start of the story.
Although Mrs.
For Foua, a Hmong mother, the United States was a complete opposite to the life she was use to living and right now preparing this wedding shows the skills that she possess even if they are not very relevant in her new home, “‘I [Foua] am very stupid.’ When I [Anne] asked her why, she said, “Because I don’t know anything here. I don’t know your language. American is so hard, you can watch TV all day ad you still don’t know it” (Fadiman 103). This wedding bought Foua and Anne close in a different way, it created a new level of understanding and appreciation. Anne is starting to discover what it is like to be from another country where the language is different, the clothes are different, the entire way the people live is different. Basically, the world has been flipped upside down and the people need to find their new source of living. It is never easy to pick up a perfectly settled life and suddenly decide that moving and changing it all around is exactly what we need to do. But that was not the case of Foua, her family was forced to move to the United States. This would have made it even harder to adjust. Everything is suddenly thrown at Foua and there is no looking back only forward and the forward might be a lot more difficult. This is why this wedding is like a dream to Foua, it combines her old life with her new life. Although, the skill of creating a Hmong wedding might not be useful in the United States they still create a lot of joy and this joy can lead people to understand one another in a new found way. A new joy that was found in the new life of the bride and groom, but also there was the connection between two cultures. There was a greater understanding and
Joy's sour temperament and her introspectiveness have both taught her nothing about the world, people, or how to judge a person's character. All of her degrees have done nothing but push her farther into books and farther away from the world. It is Joy's own qualities that put her in the vulnerable situatio
In Duman's "Sweet, Sour, and Resentful," the author uses humour to address a rather taxing situation their mother has found herself in. With the daily need to cook, or plan, or head to the market, or answer phone calls, she is constantly focused on a secular task. She is not allowed a moments rest, because she cannot allow herself to slip up, and have her rice overcook once more, or anything to be a step less than perfect. The story uses humour to cover the hardship this woman is facing; that she must work herself to the bone because it is expected of her.
Be happy for what you have is one of the many possible themes for," Amir". The main character in the story is Amir. Amir is unhappy with how people treat each other in America. He says," In India we have many vast cities as in America. There, too, you are among millions. But there at least you know you neighbors. Here, you cannot say that. The objective in America is to avoid contact." Even though he dislikes something he is happy for what he has. Amir has a house and a community garden. No one in the garden talked usually because, they were scared of getting judged. When people started to talk Amir said, "No one had ever spoken to me before- and now how friendly they turn out to be." In that garden no one was judged. It was as if it was a safe place. Everyone helped each other. Everyone was loved no matter
Mrs. Sen was forced to face the reality that she was no longer in India and her life was completely different from how it used to be whenever she was on the driver seat. It was something she did not need to do in India, she used to have a chauffeur to fetch her around in India. So, Mrs. Sen tried her best to avoid driving by coming up with lots of excuses. When Mr. Sen asked her the reason why she refused to drive, she used Eliot as an excuse to not to drive. Even when she was practicing driving with Eliot, Mrs. Sen shared with Eliot that Mr. Sen told her everything will improved once she gets her license. She, then, proceeded to fantasize about driving all the way back to Calcutta. In Mrs. Sen’s world, better means putting everything back in place, going back to where she truly belongs, India. On top of that, when Mr. Sen forced Mrs. Sen to drive, she chose to turn on the radio as an distraction to delude herself from facing the overwhelming reality. And, when Mr. Sen told her what to do and shut off her radio. Mrs. Sen snapped. She vowed to not driving anymore. Mrs. Sen just couldn’t bear living without her family around her. So, she chose not to move on but stuck in her past, and not to live in the
It tells the story of a woman who lives secluded in mind, body, and soul for about three months in what is a “hereditary estate” (Gilman 462) , but how she portrays to the reader as “a haunted mansion” (Gilman 463). Extremely unhappy in her current situation (a suffering woman who nobody believes is truly ill), she escapes through her writing. Having to keep her passion of writing a secret and hiding it from her husband, housekeeper, family and friends, the story has untold endings to her thoughts due to the abrupt arrival of unexpected guests. The diary helps us to see the quick, spiraling downfall and eventual breakdown of an unstable woman whose isolation from society may have encouraged her imminent disease. Through quickly written journal entries, the audience can see the unfolding of the unstable woman. This enlarges the view of the narrative because it helps show a plot line of the progression of an illness (which is the theme as a whole of the
Some were as young as fourteen while some were mothers who were forced to leave their child behind in Japan, but for these women the sacrifice will be worth it once they get to San Francisco. Yet, the women desired a better life separate from their past, but brought things that represent their culture desiring to continue the Buddha traditions in America; such as, their kimonos, calligraphy brushes, rice paper, tiny brass Buddha, fox god, dolls from their childhood, paper fans, and etc. (Otsuka, 2011, p. 9) A part of them wanted a better life full of respect, not only toward males but also toward them, and away from the fields, but wanted to continue the old traditions from their home land. These hopes of a grand new life was shattered when the boat arrived to America for none of the husbands were recognizable to any of the women. The pictures were false personas of a life that didn’t really exist for these men, and the men were twenty years older than their picture. All their hopes were destroyed that some wanted to go home even before getting off the boat, while others kept their chins up holding onto their hope that maybe something good will come from this marriage and walked off the boat (Otsuka, 2011, p.
...lthough consciously made will not be of her own influence. In addition to her youthful inexperience regarding matters of life and love, the American’s dominance over her and her fear of being without him will be what forces her hand. In a sense, she was trapped. This is undoubtedly the first of many major discords in their relationship. After maturing with age, Jig will grow weary of the American’s manipulative ascendency; thus allowing her to bolster her own self-esteem and present him with an ultimatum.
Encountering struggles in life defines one’s character and speaks volumes about their strength, ambition, and flexibility. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes life changing decisions, adapts to an unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates resilience to overcome adversity and struggles.
Funny In Farsi: written by Firoozeh Dumas is a memoir about an Iranian girl that came to America with her family, where they settled in Southern California. Throughout the story, the author shares stories about herself and what it was like to grow up in the United States. Out of many books, this one explains what it means to be an American from the author's perspective using her own experiences and comparisons. Her father Kazem is a very optimistic, encouraging, and clever man that raised his children to be kind-hearted and goal oriented; especially his daughter, Firoozeh.
...not even wanted to think about having any further personal conversations. This teaches us how two entirely different people can carry one mutual heritage but being brought up into different cultures can be very different and UN mutual. Looking back in the story we realize and feel how important it is to keep our cultural believes when it comes to interact with different people as we are not only representing ourselves but also putting the county, believes and family hood on line. Having any kind off self issues should not be shown to people that are not involved in the situation, that also helps us to stay open minded and not selfish, which in the story Mrs. Das seemed to forget.
Friends are reuniting with each other. There are many themes present in the book, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian.One particular theme that is prsent throught the story is that there is always hope for friendship. This theme is very important, because it deals with friendship and how they fight, but forgive each other. Friendship is very solidarity. The reader should care, because maybe this has happened to you where you had fought with your best friend and it hurt. Also this could could happen to you in the future, so maybe you would want to be
In the story, the main character, Louise Mallard, is a woman who is described as a submissive wife who endures the oppressions of marriage to fit in with the societal norms. Louise Mallard, who suffers from heart trouble, is told the news of her husband's death in a railway accident by her sister, Josephine. Her reaction to the tragic news would be considered as appropriate as she openly grieves for him. When
The average person wants one thing more than anything else, and that thing is to belong. Usha, a young girl from Calcutta, is no different. Already trying the find her place in the world, Usha must now assimilate into cultural society within the United States. Usha’s uncle, Pranab Kaku, came from Calcutta as well having first come to America, his experiences start off worse than Usha’s, which causes him to join the family in an act of social grouping. With the Old World trying to pull them back and the New World just out of reach, both must overcome tradition and develop their own personal values.
Bharati Mukherjee’s story, “Two Ways to Belong in America”, is about two sisters from India who later came to America in search of different ambitions. Growing up they were very similar in their looks and their beliefs, but they have contrasting views on immigration and citizenship. Both girls had been living in the United States for 35 years and only one sister had her citizenship. Bharati decided not to follow Indian traditional values and she married outside of her culture. She had no desire to continue worshipping her culture from her childhood, so she became a United States citizen. Her ideal life goal was to stay in America and transform her life. Mira, on the other hand, married an Indian student and they both earned labor certifications that was crucial for a green card. She wanted to move back to India after retirement because that is where her heart belonged. The author’s tone fluctuates throughout the story. At the beginning of the story her tone is pitiful but then it becomes sympathizing and understanding. She makes it known that she highly disagrees with her sister’s viewpoints but she is still considerate and explains her sister’s thought process. While comparing the two perspectives, the author uses many