Mrs. Sen’s
I chose Mrs. Sen’s because of the interesting
relationship between the woman, Mrs. Sen, and the boy, Eliot. They both seem very different—a married woman
from India and a young boy from the US— yet they both share a similar loneliness,
which I thought could lead to some interesting passages for analysis.
Passage 1:
The mention of the word seemed to release
something in her. She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally
across her chest. She, too, looked around the room, as if she noticed in the
lampshades, in the teapot, in the shadows frozen on the carpet, something the
rest of them could not. “Everything is there.”
Page 113
This passage
seems to epitomize Mrs. Sen’s attitude towards her own country, and through
that her attitude towards her new home. She neatens her sari, and becomes more
aware when India is mentioned. Throughout the story she continues to mention
the differences between India and America—the relationships within a town, mode
of transportation, her lifestyle—and in this passage she states that in India,
“everything is there.”
Passage 2:
“Mr. Send says that once I receive my
license, everything will improve. What do you think, Eliot? Will things
improve?”
“You could go places,” Eliot suggested.
“You could go anywhere.”
“Could I drive all the way to Calcutta?
How long would that take, Eliot? Ten thousand miles, at fifty miles per hour?”
Page 119
To Mrs. Sen,
cars and the ability to drive mean so much more than being able to get from
point A to point B. It gives her freedom, something that she has not
experienced at all while in her new home. She feels trapped and alone (she asks
earlier if she cried out would anyone hear her). She has been told it will
improve everything (though she does seem skeptical of that). However, in the
end, this driving does not improve everything. In fact, it worsens both her and
Eliot’s situation, as it results in Eliot no longer visiting Mrs. Sen and loneliness
for both of them. This driving perhaps leaves them both feeling more trapped
than before.
Passage 3:
“It is very frustrating,” Mrs. Sen
apologized, with an emphasis on the second syllable of the word. “To live so
close to the ocean and not to have so much fish.” In the summer, she said, she
liked to go to a market by the beach. She added that while the fish there tasted
nothing like the fish in India, at least it was fresh. Now that it was getting
colder, the boats were no longer going out regularly, and sometimes there was
no whole fish available for weeks at a time.
Page 123
Access to fish
is one of the main problems Mrs. Sen faces throughout the story, and is the
ultimate cause for the car crash, and the end of Mrs. Sen’s looking after
Eliot. Fish tastes differently, is prepared differently, and is viewed
differently in America, similar to how she personally feels about herself.
Fish, and food in general, is the one familiar thing left in her life, which is
perhaps why the lack of it often brings her to tears. She is careful with the
fish, cutting it to get the most use out of it, she spends so much of her time
caring for and acquiring the fish. Yet, to everyone else, it is just something that
smells bad (as with the situation on the bus with the old woman). It is this
constant cultural clash represented by this fish that results in her car crash
(as it was the fish that brought her to drive in the first place) and then the
consequent lack of freedom now that she will no longer drive.
A Relative
Stranger
I chose A Relative Stranger because of Oliver’s
internal conflicts he faces throughout the story. He is constantly searching
for some idea of identity, whether it is with his biological family, adoptive
family, or his own place within the world. I thought Oliver’s relationship with
the ocean and his time at sea was also interesting and had the potential to be
further analyzed.
Passage 1:
My mind, day and night, was muzzy with
bad intentions. I threw a light bulb against a wall and did not sweep up the
glass for day. Food burned on the stove and then I ate it. I was committing
outrageous offenses against the spirit. Never, though, did I smash one of the
model ships. Give me credit for that.
Page 63
This passage
shows how lost he is. At this moment, Oliver doesn’t know what is true—his
biological family, his adoptive family, his family through marriage—they all
seem distant from him. I also think it is strange that he mentions he was
committing offenses against the spirit, yet did not harm his ships—are his
ships more valuable than himself? Or do they represent something deeper than
their material value, something about his connection to the sea. He continues
to mention his relation to the world and to the water, as though he has a
deeper connection to his environment to even his biological brother. Or,
perhaps, by not harming his ships he is protecting his spirit also?
Passage 2:
No, the only thing I missed was the
world: the oceans, their huge distances, their creatures, the tides, the
burning waterlight I heard you could see at the equator. I kept a globe nearby
my boy’s bed. Even though I live here, now, no matter where I ever was, I was
always homesick for the rest of the world.
Page 77
In this passage,
Oliver seems to know more about the ocean and the creatures within is than his
own family. He is homesick for the rest of the world because, perhaps, he
really has no home. While at the beginning of the story he describes how his
childhood was a happy one, he really has no place to call home besides the rest
of the world. And his family does not understand this.
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