Short Story Hell-Heaven

Is it better to settle with what you already have and know or branch out and strive for comfort elsewhere? This is the ongoing debate between sisters Dee (Wangero) and Maggie in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and sisters Bharati and Mira in Bharati Mukherjee’s “Two Ways to Belong in America”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie is a soft spoken homebody who has never found interest in straying from her mother while Dee on the other hand has moved on in life and uses her past as an image to prove how far she has made it in life, she even changed her birth name to cut all ties with her past. In “Two Ways to Belong in America” Bharati and Mira are Indian immigrants who both came to America with intentions of keeping to their Indian heritage but over time Bharati faded from her culture while Mira kept true. While Maggie and Mira decided to stick to their roots, Dee and Bharati chose to immerse themselves in a new culture.

In “Hell-Heaven”, narrated by a young girl named Usha, an immigrant Bengali family and their often-guest Pranab are recent immigrants. At first Pranab is culture shocked by his time in America, and only stays after meeting Usha and her mother Boudi. Boudi is happy for a time, but soon both her daughter Usha and Pranab become Americanized, leaving Boudi alone. Unable to adapt to American culture, Boudi becomes depressed, lonely and nearly commits suicide. Like the grandparents in Children as Enemies, Boudi becomes alienated by her own friends and family, who seek a more American way of life. In “American History”, the daughter Skinny Bones wants to become a teacher, and has a crush on an American boy. Unlike her parents, who dream of moving back home, she has no interest in Puerto Rico and the only time she was there she felt “lost in a crowd of strangers claiming to be [her] aunts, uncles and cousins.” While her parents, who were born in Puerto Rico still hold Puerto Rico as their home, Skinny Bones felt disconnected there, like how the grandchildren felt disconnected from their Chinese

Since the establishment of the colonies, America has been viewed as the “land of opportunity.” It is thought to be a safe haven for immigrants, and a chance at a new beginning for others. “The Clemency of the Court” by Willa Cather published in 1893, tells the story of Serge, a Russian immigrant, who overcame the struggles of a tough childhood and fled to America to receive protection from the state. “Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni published in 1995, tells the story of Sumita, a Indian immigrant, who is moving to America so that she can marry her husband that her family has arranged for her. Both “The Clemency of the Court” and “Clothes” show the evolution of the American immigrant experience.

Love, generations, cultures, and family are the main theme to talk about in shorts stories, and in the story of “Hell-Heaven” by Jhumpa Lahiri, that is not the exception. However, it is an unusual and very enjoyable story where readers can identify themselves with it because the main characters are common people who have the same problems as many of us. If I have to summarize the story in one sentence, I can say that it describes the experiences of people who come from other cultures to the USA, and it is nuanced with an impossible love to make it more interesting and real. Also, the author divided the different parts of it with four important events which mark the transition

Is it better to settle with what you already have and know or branch out and strive for comfort elsewhere? This is the ongoing debate between sisters, Dee (Wangero) and Maggie in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and sisters Bharati and Mira in Bharati Mukherjee’s “Two Ways to Belong in America”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie is a soft spoken homebody who has never found interest in straying from her mother while Dee on the other hand has moved on in life and uses her past as an image to prove how far she has made it in life, she even changed her birth name to cut all ties with her past. In “Two Ways to Belong in America” Bharati and Mira are Indian immigrants who both came to America with intentions of keeping their Indian heritage, but over time Bharati faded from her culture while Mira kept true. Although Maggie and Mira decided to stick to their roots, Dee and Bharati chose to immerse themselves in a new culture.

She explains her thesis by stating “Others who write stories of migration often talk of arrival at a new place as a loss of communal memory and the erosion of an original culture. I want to talk of arrival as a gain,” (360). The key points of the text include Mukherjee describing her transition between Calcutta and the United States, and what it means to be and American and how culture influences that aspect. The information in the text is significant; the people of America are a part of a melting pot, sometimes it is hard for them to find the distinction between American culture and their own. The information in Mukherjee’s story is clear and specific, unbiased, and is relevant to the purpose of the story. I believe Mukherjee has achieved her purpose of informing her audience about cultural differences; she presents certain strengths and weaknesses within the text.

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

The short story "Hell-Heaven" written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is about the clashing of the cultures of a Bengali family settling in the west. While story is told in the child's point of view as she matures to a young woman, we're also given the experiences of the people around her through her eyes. These people include her mother, father and a family friend. They each have a different experience as an immigrant migrating and living in America, which leaves us to wonder what message is the author trying to convey with this piece of literature. However, the message to come from "Hell-Heaven" Jhumpa Lahiri is that immigrant families face struggles and tribulations living in unfamiliar territory and having to choose one culture over another.

In “Two Ways to Belong in America”, Bharati Mukherjee explains how it’s possible for immigrants to come to America and still keep their culture. Mukherjee writes her and her sister experience as immigrants in America. While she adjusts and adapts to America’s culture, her sister still holds onto her Indian culture. This essay shows the different viewpoints of how immigrants adapt when they come to America.

Quietly reaching up, sliding one hand against the sleek stone, his dry, cracked lips tremble muttering quietly, ‘Oh my God, oh my God!’ Faintly heard screams of agony echo in the background, an insane ungodly laughter echoes louder, paralysis spreads immediately through his bones! A ghostly brusque comment followed, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, common reaction!’ The famous Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata began to play!

Bullets screamed past his ear and splintered the bamboo beside him. Sergeant Wolf Foster, dove to the jungle floor and tried to determine the direction it came from. It was the first indication his platoon had crossed into hostile territory.

Neil Bissoondath’s “There Are A Lot Of Ways To Die” is the story of a man named Joseph Heaven who has become disillusioned about his homeland. Joseph had grown up on a Caribbean island and later moved to Toronto with his wife. After some years in Toronto they moved back to the island. However, now that Joseph has settled back in he realizes that the island is not how he had remembered it. The story takes place in one day as Joseph wanders around the island thinking about various moments from childhood and memories from his time in Toronto. At the end of the story Joseph makes an impulsive decision to leave the island. The author makes this decision seem plausible by using several different elements.

Immigrating to a new country is often emotionally taxing. Each country possesses a unique culture, and its citizens reflect the values that are respected in that state. Keeping this in mind, moving to a foreign place and having to embrace a distant set of ideals is a difficult task. Naturally, an inner conflict arises within a person as to whether they should discard the old values in favour of the new ones and become a member of the new country, or to retain the old values and therefore remain estranged from the new citizens. To cope with this struggle, a person might manufacture two identities: one of the old country and one of the new country. In the essays “Life in a New Language” and “An Invisible Woman”, writers Eva Hoffman and Bharati Mukherjee create a new identity to cope with the hardships of immigrating to a foreign country. However, while Hoffman reluctantly accepts her English persona, Mukherjee cannot balance her Indian side with her Canadian one and therefore leaves the country. The two essays explore the strains of changing oneself to acclimatize to a new environment and exemplify the two possible outcomes of creating a second persona in an unfamiliar place: accepting the new identity and staying, or rejecting the foreign values and leaving.

Where does a person who commits a heinous sin go? Where does a person who did legitimate things and prays all his life go? This is what distinguishes hell and heaven. Hell is to people, what school is to students, a place where souls of all morals, good or bad, were consigned after death. This is the place of punishment of Satan and the other fallen angels and of all mortals who die unrepentant of serious sin. On the contrary, heaven is to people, what I would be as president, a place where Gods, gods, or other spiritual beings dwell, and the place of perfect supernatural happiness for the redeemed in the afterlife. Many portray the happiness of heaven as the unrestricted partaking of the joys

Working at an amusement park called Ruby Pier, Eddie, known to the people at the pier as “Eddie Maintenance” because of his name tag, is a lonely man full of pain and resentment. He is eighty-three years old and has worked at Ruby Pier most of his life. His life contains many doubts and uncertainties. By the end of Eddie’s story, he learns the truth behind all the doubts that have haunted him his entire life. There are so many aspects of life, some full of pain, frustration, and confusion, that lead to lessons being learned; Lessons about how to let go of one’s struggles.