Monday, March 17, 2003

Reading Response #5

Instructions

Choose one question and construct a 3-page essay based on that question. You do not need to answer every one of the questions under each number. Rather, use the questions to springboard your own thinking to create an argument about the novel and the specific passages or ideas.

Remember: an argument should be arguable, meaning that people should disagree with you. In an essay this small, you should state a very clear thesis near the beginning of your essay. Then you should back up your thesis with evidence from the text. Do not merely quote from the text but explain what the passages say and mean. Try to go beyond mere summary to really argue an important point about the text.

You do not need to include the question in your essay. Your thesis and evidence should be enough for me to know what question you are dealing with. Begin with your own introduction that leads into your thesis.

Questions

1.                     "One day my sister-in-law remarked with a cutting laugh: 'What a wonderfully hospitable Chota Rani we have! Her guest absolutely will not budge. In our time there used to be guests, too; but they had not such lavish looking after--we were so absurdly taken up with our husbands. Poor brother Nikhil is paying the penalty of being born too modern. He should have come as a guest if he wanted to stay on. Now it looks as if it were time for him to quit . . . Oh you little demon, do your glances never fall, by chance, on his agonized face?'” (69)

How could Nikhil be said to be “paying the penalty of being too modern?” Write an essay that examines this idea and what Bimala’s sister-in-law means by the rest of this passage about guests.

2. On pages 73-74 Sandip discusses Bimala as a figure of worship, as the country itself. How does this association work? Why does he think of Bimala this way and what does it mean?

3. What “confusion” does Nikhil want to end and why? Why does he see the two things as opposed to one another (if he does), and why is that a problem? Make an argument about what the confusion is and why Nikhil sees it that way.

4. Examine Bimala’s dream on 93-94. What does it symbolize and why is it important? How does it fit into the rest of the novel? Be sure to make an argument about the dream and its function in the novel.