mrs sen Flashcards
Instead of a knife she used a blade that curved like the prow of a Viking ship, sailing to battle in distant seas.
The description uses vivid imagery and metaphor, comparing the blade to “the prow of a Viking ship.” This simile not only paints a vivid picture but also evokes a sense of journey and battle, symbolizing Mrs. Sen’s own struggles in a foreign land. The detailed focus on the blade and her chopping technique reflects the precision and importance of these cultural practices to Mrs. Sen.
She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest… “Everything is there.”
Mrs. Sen’s words are loaded with emotion, indicated by the change in her physical actions (neatening her sari). The narrative structure here shifts the focus from the external to the internal, highlighting her sense of loss and disconnection from her surroundings.
“‘Eliot, if I began to scream right now at the top of my lungs, would someone come?’”
Mrs. Sen’s hypothetical question, loaded with anxiety and fear, explores themes of isolation and the need for community support. The tone of this question reveals her underlying sense of helplessness and disconnection from her surroundings.
“Mr. Sen says that once I receive my license everything will improve.”
“You could go anywhere’’
“Could I drive all the way to Calcutta?… Ten thousand miles…”
“No more,” she said, her forehead resting
against the top of the steering wheel. “I hate it. I hate driving. I won’t go on.”
She stopped driving after that.
This quotation reflects Mrs. Sen’s hopeful yet uncertain perspective. The driver’s license becomes a metaphor for independence and assimilation. The narrative structure here emphasizes the difference between hope and reality, reflecting the broader immigrant experience.
This dialogue illustrates the contrast between Eliot’s naivety and Mrs. Sen’s longing for her homeland. The rhetorical question underscores her sense of entrapment and the impossibility of returning to her past life, using the motif of driving as a symbol of freedom and mobility.
Mrs Sen’s action – “her forehead resting against the top of the steering wheel” – and the strength of the repeated “hate” used in consecutive short sentences are impactful and suggest that she has been pushed to her limits. This is reinforced in the sentence that opens the following paragraph, “She stopped driving after that.”
The other thing that made Mrs: Sen happy was fish from the seaside.
With ‘fish from the seaside’, the line hints at what we later find out to be true – and Mrs Sen’s response to buying fish at the supermarket symbolises how she perceives quality in America compared to home, also suggesting her broader dissatisfaction with American life.
For the first time she embraced him, clasping his face to her sari, surrounding him
with her odor of mothballs and cumin
We see her joy as she embraces Eliot, again with sensory imagery (“her odor of mothballs and cumin”). Her physical response, embracing Eliot, reflects a moment of vulnerability and a longing for connection.
“Speak English?” The bus began to move again, causing the driver to look at Mrs. Sen
and Eliot in his enormous rearview mirror.
“Yes, I can speak.” ‘
“Then what’s in the bag?”
“A fish,” Mrs. Sen replied.
“The smell seems to be bothering the other passengers. Kid, maybe you should open
her window or something.”
The direct speech here highlights the cultural clash Mrs. Sen experiences. The olfactory detail (smell) serves as a symbol for the larger theme of cultural difference and the challenges of integration. We see this once again where the bus driver addresses Eliot, even though Mrs Sen tells him clearly, “Yes I can speak”.
They think I live the life of a queen, Eliot.”
The use of direct speech brings immediacy and personalizes Mrs. Sen’s experience, contrasting the imagined perceptions of her life in India with the stark reality. The irony in her words highlights the gap between expectation and reality, a central theme in immigrant narratives.
“I am going to put these in a very tasty stew with fish and green bananas,” she
announced. “Only I will have to do without the green bananas.”
Mrs. Sen’s dialogue here is tinged with resignation, as she mentions having to do without a key ingredient. This moment reflects the theme of adaptation and making do in a new environment, using the stew as a metaphor for her life in America.
‘Mr. Sen teaches mathematics at the university,’ was all she said by way of explanation.”
Her reliance on her husband’s identity reflects her dependency and struggle to establish her own identity in the new culture.
Mrs. Sen put away the blade that was still on the living room floor and threw the eggplant pieces…She prepared a plate of crackers with peanut butter… “If he is still hungry give him a Popsicle from the box in the freezer,” she said to Mr. Sen.
The juxtaposition of Mrs. Sen cleaning up her traditional cooking tools and preparing a simple American snack for Eliot highlights the clash of cultures she experiences. The narrative contrasts the elaborate preparation of traditional food with the simplicity of American snacks.
As an aside, at this point, Mrs Sen has had the accident. We see how she remains within her ‘role’ to the best of her ability, before moving to another room to hide her grief.
