A Review of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Novel 'One Amazing Thing'

The short story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is about an Indian tour guide who has an epiphany once he realizes that one of his clients finds his side job, an interpreter for the doctor, romantic. Mrs. Das, the one who appears to show interest in the tour guide’s occupation, struggles throughout her married life to remain loyal and loving to her husband. This characteristic of Mrs. Das’ is highlighted through the author’s use of tone, which is defined as the way the author feels about a certain character. As well, the use of tone, seen specifically in the diction, syntax, and detail of this story, helps to identify and support various themes. Lahiri’s use of a condescending tone towards Mrs. Das bolsters the theme that unfaithfulness causes someone to become alienated from their family.

In order to earn her degree in creative writing she needed to complete a novel or set of short stories. She intended to write her memoir but ran into some issues. The emotions about what had happened were still too raw and reliving her memories was too much for her to handle at that time. Instead, she wrote an autobiographical novel. The events that happened in the book all happened to her, but the presence of a fictional character to represent her helped create tolerable distance between her and her experiences. This novel prepared her to write her memoir. Writing her memoir allowed her confront her past in a new way. It required her to revisit her memories as a writer rather than as herself with all her entangled emotions. Examining her life through a different lens allowed her to heal.

“They wept together, for the things they now knew.”(104) The last sentence of the first story in Interpreter of Maladies, reveals the cruelty of the elapsed romance in a marriage. In the two collections, A Temporary Matter and The Third and Final Continent, Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates that a marriage can be either uplifting or discouraging depends on the mindset held by the couple and the strength of human bonding. Lahiri emphasizes the significance of mindset and human bondings through the ending of the two stories. The endings of the two stories are polar opposite : In A Temporary Matter, Shukumar and Shobha weeps for the termination of their relationship; The Third and Final Continent, by contrast, the protagonist(MIT) enjoys a fairytale-like

Adichie is able to use her own life experiences, her personal knowledge, and her undeniable farcical character to create another side to the single story. Adichie’s inspirational words are nothing short of being honest, palpable, and sufficient enough to cause all people to reconsider their views. The end to Adichie’s speech is inspired by a thought, “That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise” (Adichie). Concluding with the thought that we ourselves achieve a serenity whilst remaining open minded to the goodness of the people around

In “Hell-Heaven”, the actions of Pranab Chakraborty, a Bengali family friend of the narrator, shapes those around him, including the narrator’s family; as the story progresses, his influence on those around him becomes more profound. The two characters that are affected by Pranab in

Being subjected through sets of dramatic circumstances, both Shukumar and Lee attempt to strive forward to keep what is left of their relationships close, yet their unforgiving fates drive their determination toward their very limits. Throughout my readings in “A temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri and “Coming Home Again” by Chang-Rae Lee, the authors of both novels foretell that unresolved conflicts and despondent settings are very detrimental to the development of human character.

The comparisons between the regimented setting and how it reflects on characters are similarly employed by Scott, within the introduction of Pris, who is a sex purpose replicant, which is depicted through the long shot of her walking in scanty clothing through the grimy streets of Los Angeles, highlighting how Pris mirrors her setting which she is controlled by. Both authors imply the controlling nature of the environments, consequently affecting the characters and constricting them to what the setting reflects them to be.

Her unforeseen actions are due to the rest care tradition, which has progressively worsened her mental state and caused her to overlook her role as a caring wife in desperation to escape the imprisonment of the tradition. As witnessed from the two short stories, conflicts arise amidst families due to the events of old traditions, establishing a divide between family members that is difficult to overcome once constructed.

After the riots, the Wakatsuki family moves to a nicer barracks by the hospital. They got to move because of Mama’s job as a dietician. Jeanne and her siblings attend school. Manzanar begins to resemble an American small town. Jeanne explores a variety of hobbies. She explores baton twirling, Japanese dance, ballet, and catechism. With her interest in “American” past times, Jeanne and her father drift farther apart.

In daily life, people encounter many concepts such as emotions, thoughts, actions, and situations. These concepts can often be categorized into two atmospheres: positive and negative. In “The Old Masters” and “The Racer,” Amit Chaudhuri and Hanif Kureishi convey their atmospheres through character relationships involving greed and symbolic ideas. Within “The Old Masters,” the reader is focused on the relationship between Pramathesh and Ranjit--two colleagues who work together--and their lives as time progresses. Throughout “The Racer,” the reader experiences the failing marriage of a husband and wife and their desire to compete in a race and win to show superiority over one another. Although Chaudhuri and Kureishi utilize symbolism,

In the story we learn the toughts and voice of a husband who finds out that his wife previous love of her life still remains a huge part of her life,even tough this man no longer physically esxist he is still in his wifes toughts,how she has not been able to overcome that lost,and how this affects this character,his ego and how he learns to deal with the issue.

Finally, Jayanti’s first exposure to the world outside her Aunt’s house and the events that lead after, changes who she really is,

The plot in the short story “Hindus” demonstrates how a certain sequence of events can help people better understand themselves. Leela meets many different and unique people on her journey throughout

In the speech, the Danger of a Single Story the writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells us the dangers of believing just one thing about a stereo type. In the speech Adichie repeats the phrase ‘single story’ as I think it is very important to her and by saying it repetitively she gets it to stick in peoples minds. I think the main point of the speech is to tell people the dangers of believing just one story about a country, a person or a religion etc. and to see past the stereotype we can be tricked into believing and instead see past it to see for example the person for who they are, for example, she as an eight year old girl believed a single story about their houseboy, Fide she says, ‘The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor... when I didn’t finish my dinner, my mother would say, “Finish your food! Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing.” So I felt enormous pity for Fide’s family. Then one Saturday we went to his village to visit, and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket made of dyed raffia that his brother had made. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor.’ This was her single story of Fide’s family, because all her mother had told her was that they were poor she did not see past that and had no idea that anyone poor was capable of creating something so beautiful.

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.