For Friday: Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies: First Two Stories (see below)

Be sure to read the first two stories in this collection, "A Temporary Matter" and  "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine." I'll give you a little context for the stories in class, but you won't need much, since they're the most modern stories in the book, and they're originally written in English (the first in our class)! 

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the narrator writes, “Most of all I remember the three of them operating during that time as if they were a single person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence, a single fear” (41). What does this memory of his parents and Mr. Pirzada as a child say about the immigrant experience? Why did the three of them become “one”?

Q2: The narrators of both stories are the second generation, “Indians” but also “Americans.” What does being “Indian” mean to them, and do you feel it’s even how they seem themselves? What makes it difficult to maintain their identity in the new world?

Q3: Why do you think the power outage allows Shukumar and Shoba to finally stop avoiding each other and tell teach other the truth? Ironically, what about darkness helps them to ‘see’ each other after all this time?

Q4: Why do you think the narrator remembers Mr. Pirzada after all this time, especially since he was only part of their lives for a short time? What does he come to represent about her heritage, but also her childhood?