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Humanities I: Year's End
description
Transcript of Humanities I: Year's End
Birthdate: 11 July 1967Birthplace: London, EnglandHometown: Kingston, Rhode Island
- a daughter of Bengali Indian immigrants father: worked as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island mother: taught her their Bengali heritage
- had moved from England to the U.S.A.
- had considered herself an American
Educational Attainment
South Kingstown High School
Barnard College - B.A. English Literature
Boston University- M.A. English- M.A. Comparative Literature- M.A. Creative Writing- Ph.D. Renaissance Studies
Worksaddresses sensitive dilemmas in the live of Bengali Indian immigrants, disconnection between the first and second generation of US immigrants
"When I first started writing I was not conscious that my subject was the Indian-American experience. What drew me to my craft was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page
as I was not brave enough, or mature enough, to allow in life."
Some Notable Works
Interpreter of Maladies (1999) a collection of stories of Indian-American experiences (Pulitzer Prize for fiction and PEN award)
The Namesake (2003)a novel, which later had a film adaptation, about generational gap (first and second generation immigrants)
Unaccustomed Earth (2008)a collection of short stories (Pulitzer Prize) (includes second and third generations)
Some Notable Works
Interpreter of Maladies (1999) a collection of stories of Indian-American experiences (Pulitzer Prize for fiction and PEN award)
The Namesake (2003)a novel, which later had a film adaptation, about generational gap (first and second generation immigrants)
Unaccustomed Earth (2008)a collection of short stories (Pulitzer Prize) (includes second and third generations)
Kaushik- narrator- 21 years old- born in 1965 at Cambridge, Massachusetts- 9 years old: went to Bombay, India- 16 years old: went back to Cambridge, Massachusetts after his mother got sick- 18 years old: his mother died- studied at Swarthmore; lived in a dorm
Kaushik’s Father- 55 years old- had his first job at Cambridge, Massachusetts- first married in 1962 (arranged marriage)- after wife got sick, he would arrive home with flowers, and would go to work late- wrote Bengali poems and read them to his wife but stopped when she died- married Chitra, whom he met for just a few weeks and had only seen twice before their marriage- reason for remarrying: he was tired of coming home to an empty house
Kaushik’s Mother- married in 1962 (arranged marriage) and moved to Massachusetts- would occasionally return to Calcutta to cheer up her parents- was fond of the ocean and swimming and modern architecture- died at the age of 42 because of cancer- her ashes were tossed from a boat off the Gloucester coast- her jewelries were distributed to the poor women in Calcutta who had worked for their extended family as ayahs or cooks or maids
Chitra- 35 years old (20 years younger than her 2nd husband)- lost her spouse to encephalitis two years before a schoolteacher- traditional- had two daughters: Rupa and Piu- didn’t speak English well- asked Kaushik to call her Mamoni
Chitra’s Daughters
Rupa- 10 years old
Piu- 7 years old
Kaushik’s Maternal Grandparents- didn’t believe when their grandchild, Kaushik, and his father told them that their daughter died- they were still hoping that their daughter would come back, boarding a plane once again
Jessica- Kaushik’s girlfriend whom he met at Spanish class
Mrs. Gharibian- middle-aged woman with short brown hair and a soft Southern accent- Kaushik’s mother’s nurse
Zarin- family cook at Bombay
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
• Their house was a stark structure of concrete and glass that Kaushik’s mother preferred more than the shingled, shuttered homes typical of the towns• Modernist architecture, proximal to the
ocean, somewhat isolated, enormous, “more befitting of an institution than a private home”• Where the new wife of Kaushik’s father and
her children moved
This was where the family of Kaushik moved after his mother got sick. Before moving, they had been living in Bombay, India.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
• Probably in the 1980’s since Kaushik’s
parents married in 1962 and Kaushik is 21 in the story.
• Jimi Hendrix, Paul Strand – icons who were famous during Kaushik’s adolescent year; cassettes were famous in the 1980’s; Family Feud; Dunkin’ Donuts
• Winter
It was set during the Christmas Season
IntroductionPoint of AttackComplication
ClimaxResolution
Characters Environment
Kaushik Father
Kaushik Chitra
Kaushik Stepsisters
THEME
“Not easy. It’s not easy for me.” - Kaushik
“We are bothmoving forward, Kaushik.”
- DaD
ADJUSTMENT
“Things weredifferent now, of course.”
-Kaushik
I don’t ask you to care for her,even to like her. I only ask
that you understandmy decision.
-Dad
“I did not know how to respond…”
The steps are slippery…Why is there no railing?
-Chitra
The knowledge of death seemedpresent in both sisters – it was somethingabout the way they carried themselves,
something that had broken too soon and hadnot mended, marking them in spite of
their lightheartedness.
SILENCE
“It would remain
between the
three of us, that
in their
SILENCE they
continued both
to protect and
to punish me.”
• DESCRIPTIVE• USE OF PLAIN LANGUAGE• AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
Characters are often Indian immigrants to America who must navigate between the cultural values of their birthplace and their adopted home
Graphic Credits…http://www.simpsoncrazy.com