"Who's Irish?" by Gish Jen; "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

 Jen_Who_s Irish.pdf

 divakaruni_mrs-dutta.pdf

4. The "Who's Irish?" narrator says that Sophie's skin is darker than her mother's. Why does she mention this? What does it mean to her?

6. The story is peppered with many Bengali words and references to Indian popular culture that many of you may not have heard before. How does this affect you as a reader? If we take for granted for a moment that writers are trying to communicate an idea to readers, and this story, written and published in English, contains many references that are foreign to many readers of English, discuss why the author would choose language that might exclude some readers. (Note: "The weird words made it hard to understand." is not going to be a satisfactory answer, nor is "It made it interesting.")

Question 4. "Sophie's Skin"

The obvious answer, given in short-order not long afther the observation is made, is that the narrator suspects (maybe even hopes) that John may not be the father. She doesn't care much for her son-in-law, "Even his name is plain-boiled: John". And then later, "It seems like Sophie should be a color in between Nattie [the daughter] and John". As a grandmother, she feels out of place, and that her traditions are being forgotten. She babysits, yet sees this as an exploitation... "We do not have this word in Chinese, supportive." She is lashing out at the situation, even though she obviously loves the grandaughter very much. It's a typical and universal syndrome, especially for the matriarch of any given ethnicity: a grandmother will see a weakness in their own child (male or female, but especially more critical of a daughter); the son- or daughter-in-law will suffer even harsher judgement, and the grandchild, though perhaps problematic, will get little to none of the blame. It's always the parents' faults. This particular dig referencing Sophie's brown skin is simply a symptom of the bigger problem.

Question 6. "Foreign Words"

The intentional use of foreign words, I would hope, is to make the reader more curious about the culture those words originate from. If you are an author named Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Bengalese, and you find out that your short story is going to be published in English, you would not want to dumb-down the text for this audience. Instead you would want to challenge them, and let some of your unique heritage resonate in the story. "Unoon", "garam masada", etc... these have so much more impact than "stove" and "spice blend". They convey the musicality of the particular language, and that should not be watered down.

I personally am usually pleased to see some foreign words in a story, if it doesn't get too out of hand (such as having to consult a glossary as in when I read A Clockwork Orange). Although the risk of "excluding" some readers is there, I applaud an author that demands more from their readers. If you can't handle a smattering of unfamiliar words, you are not growing as a reader, are you?