A television in simple terms, is a form of communication used for transmitting moving images. In the story of Mr.Pirzada and Lilia, it is a lifeline into another world. The television forces both characters to confront their emotions about living safely in America while others are suffering in Dacca. The television also highlights to Lilia how and why she is different. Lilia has a unique perception of both an American and India perspective. She tells the story as she is navigating through this middle ground. The mention of the television indicates Lilia realizing something about herself or others within her surroundings. Lilia uses the television to compare herself to others, notice differences, and expand her knowledge of the world.
The first
…show more content…
This shows that in Lilia’s family dynamic, the television is a central part of their life. In this story, it is important that Lilia’s family is not from America. They appear to fit into an American stereotype of sitting around the television to eat dinner. Their reason for sitting in view of the television is different from their counterparts. Lilia’s family is intensely following the war in Dacca. Lilia noticed that her family is different from others when she visits her friend Dora’s house after trick-or-treating. After calling her mother to tell her that she arrived safety, Lilia noticed that, “The television wasn’t on at Dora’s house at all” (39). She describes the atmosphere as relaxed with Dora’s father having a glass of wine and “saxophone music playing on the stereo” (39). These two scenes both depict households in America but one is facing a different reality than the other. Lilia’s family is on edge following a war while Dora’s family is relaxed and enjoying a quiet evening. Lilia is caught in between two worlds, one filled with war and the other with wine and soothing music. The only struggles she has known are sore hands from collecting so much candy, not the dusty …show more content…
Once the television is turned on and her parents and Mr. Pirzada gather around it, Lilia starts to notice certain things. Lilia says, “I began to study him…to try to figure out what made him different. I decided that the pocket watch was one of those things” (30) Lilia describes Mr. Pirzada’s character as different but she declares what makes his different is not that he is from another country, instead it is his pocket watch. Lilia comes to this conclusion because the pocket watch is set to the local time of Dacca, the place from the television. All Lilia knows of this place is tanks, dusty streets, and fallen buildings as displayed on the television. When Mr. Pirzada takes out the pocket watch, Lilia realizes it was already night in Dacca and Lilia says, “Life, I realized, was being lived in Dacca first” (30). She is realizing that life exists elsewhere and that they are completing their days before her. Lilia is forced to confront her emotions about the war, and this realization brings an uneasiness to her. She defines Mr.Pirzada as different due to this pocket watch. This shows that unlike her parents she does not define him by religion or nationality, but instead by the experiences he has such as his life in Dacca. Mr.Pirzada helps Lilia to discover that life occurs even in the places she has not been to and these unknown realities bring a discomfort to her. This discomfort leads Lilia to wonder, “What
As the next few weeks go on we see Pedro and Tita's relationship develop. The biggest change is when Pedro's son Roberto is born. Tita begins to breast feed Roberto because Rosaura had no milk after the strain of her pregnancy. The author uses imagery to express the feelings of longing between Pedro and Tita by writing about the looks they gave each other. Specifically when Pedro looked at Tita, it was a look that, when matched with Tita's "fused so perfectly that whoever saw them would have seen but a single look, a single rhythmic and sensual motion." This look changed their relationship forever, it bonded them together and they would never be separated in their hearts. This shows that the theme of, true love can withstand anything, is true. After this interaction between them they had been less careful about hiding from Mama Elena and when the baptism rolled around Mama Elena had seen enough. She decided, in the middle of the party that Pedro, Rosaura and Roberto would be moving to San Antonio to be with her cousin. They left and after about a year Mama Elena passed
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
When the protagonist, Maria, understands first-hand the struggle that she must endure when her family forces her to pay for her sister’s baby’s care without being able to enjoy any of the money she worked hard for. Maria starts to work for Javier, a representative of the cartel that attempts to smuggle drugs into the United States for money. She needed to swallow pellets of heroin that were to be well wrapped. It was a struggle for Maria to consume sixty-two pellets at first and it was difficult for her to endure her trip with the pellets inside of her belly, knowing that there was a risk that the pellets could open up and kill her quickly and painfully. Lucy, one of the women on board the flight that Maria was on, had a pellet rupture inside of her upon her arrival to New York. She died shortly after meeting with the drug
In “Confetti Girl”, the narrator disagrees with her father and questions how much he cares about her and in “Tortilla Girl”, the narrator questions if her mother was taking her into account of her new plans. Tension is shown to be caused in the stories “Confetti Girl” and “Tortilla Sun” due to the parent and narrator not having the same point of view. In this story, a young girl named Izzy lives alone with her mother. One day, the mother surprises her by explaining that she is going to Costa Rica to do some research, and that Izzy is going to her grandmother’s house while she is away.
Esperanza tries to be a good friend to Sally, but ends up appearing immature and silly. Esperanza feels shame, as she “wanted to be dead”, to “turn into the rain”, and have “my eyes melt into the ground like black snails” (Cisneros 97). With sensory-rich imagery, the author uses similes and metaphors to describe Esperanza’s feelings of utter mortification as she embarrasses herself in front of Sally. Esperanza becomes confused about her newfound sexuality and her loss of innocence when she begins acting strangely, yet awkwardly around boys. She doesn’t know whether to act like a child or an adult because although she wants to be mature and glamorous like Sally, and she gets exposed to the harsh nature of society. The disillusioned view of becoming mature and having boys notice her is especially realized by Esperanza when she gets raped at a carnival. Through detailed imagery, Cisneros describes the dirtiness of the boy, elaborating on “his dirty fingernails against my skin” and “his sour smell again” (Cisneros 100) and the confusion and anger from Esperanza. After this experience, Esperanza blames Sally instead for covering up the truth about boys and is heartbroken about the real truth of sexuality and men. It is clear that Esperanza vividly remembers this awful experience, and just reflecting on this experience causes her thoughts to
When she was washing the pot it slipped out of her hands and the pot fell into the heavy wash. The pot was her grandmother it was something special to her that had just broke. She started thinking about the pot that her grandmother and mother both use to stir the beans. Her husband Jose began to complain about pain in his face when two purple bulbs kept growing and growing in fact which they were plague that had spread around. Tomasita lost everything her friends build her a two room house out of scrap next to the river.
Each one complimented the other and it was as if they were two halves of one whole. Like many things in life, they each secretly enjoyed the immediate surroundings of the other. As much as Nel regarded the neatness of her house with dread, Sula felt the house to be comfortable and relished the neatness. On the same token, Sula disliked the disarray and lack of privacy in her house, but Nel found it to be a welcome change and a taste of real life. Sula and Nel found friendship in each other, because they were both lonely people. When they were young girls, they would go to Edna Finch’s Mellow House together to purchase ice cream. The ice cream representing the end of one’s life, the real treat was on getting there. They looked forward to the looks and sly comments of the boys as they made their way to the ice cream parlor, and as most girls do, exhibited an air of indifference while secretly relishing in the attention they received. It was an ...
To understand fully the implicit meaning and cultural challenges the film presents, a general knowledge of the film’s contents must be presented. The protagonist, Tita, suffers from typical Hispanic cultural oppression. The family rule, a common rule in this culture, was that the youngest daughter is to remain unwed for the duration of her mother’s life, and remain home to care for her. Mama Elena offers her daughter, Tita’s older sister Rosaura, to wed a man named Pedro, who is unknowingly in mutual love with Tita. Tita is forced to bake the cake for the wedding, which contains many tears that she cried during the process. Tita’s bitter tears cause all the wedding guests to become ill after consuming the cake, and Tita discovers she can influence others through her cooking. Throughout the film, Tita’s cooking plays an important role in all the events that transpire.
Elisa life in the “closed pot” of the Salinas Valley is not one that she wants, but it is one that she cannot escape. Without the encouragement of a man, she cannot find the strength to look beyond her life of gardening and household chores. Until she does, she will remain trapped in role as a house-wife.
Camillo receives multiple letters. However, the last letter posed the most threat as it symbolized hate. The fact is unbeknownst to the reader at the beginning of the short story. After Camillo receives the letter from his best friend, readers are still unable to distinguish the importance of the letter. However, readers soon discover that Villela writes the letter out of anger and suspicion that something strange was going on with his wife. Villela was determined to figure out what it was. The author, Machado de Assis, ensures that the letter and its meaning remain questionable and ambiguous throughout the story. The letter states “‘Come immediately to our house; I must talk t...
In the story The Stolen Party, Liliana Heker shows symbolism, figurative language, and irony. Rosaura could not understand the differences between the rich and the poor. She was accepted by the rich family and was friends with their daughter, Luciana. Even though her mom told her that they only accepted her as a maid and nothing else. Nevertheless, she was eager to go to the party and decided to go with excitement. Symbolism, figurative language, and irony are expressed in the story and play an important role because it tells us the difference between the upper class and the lower class.
In this novel, the society is centered around dichotomies; “youth and dotage” (Balzac 67), “the young man who has possessions and the young man that has nothing” and “the young man who thinks and the young man who spends” (87). Any person who falls outside of either box is called a “[child] who learn[s]… too late” or can “never appear in polite society” (87), essentially meaning they are undesirable in a formal society because they cannot follow expectations. The titular character, Paquita, is an “oriental” foreigner, from Havana, domesticated in Paris when she was sold to a wealthy woman who desired her. She fits into no culture entirely, as she is “part Asian houri on her mother’s side, part European through education, and part tropical by birth” (122). She is bisexual, choosing neither men nor women over the other. She is controlling, dressing Henri in women’s clothing (119), but controlled as she is reduced to a possession. However, there are ways in which a person can still be desired even if they are not easily pigeonholed. With her golden eyes and sensuality, Paquita fulfills both of the main pursuits of this society, “gold and pleasure” (68). Consequently, unlike the Marquis and his irrelevance in society, Paquita is highly sought after, thus making her a valuable commodity. Her desirability is not because of who she is as a human, but instead what
As Clarice Lispector was writing what would become her last literary creation, The Hour of the Star, little did she know that while her body was plagued with the devastations of cancer, her mental struggle for peace and grace in death would inspire her most renowned novel. Perhaps it is because of those circumstances, she created a novel with intuitive reflections on both life and death, as seen through the life of the main character, Macabea. The story is narrated by Rodrigo S.M., and although Rodrigo attempts to maintain a neutral stance, he is often conflicted by his own perceptions and feelings. At the book’s commencement Rodrigo spends quite some time explaining that while the story is mainly about a woman, having the book narrated by a female would weaken the richness of content. He explains that a woman is incapable of clearly emphasizing the harshness of reality; that she is too emotional and attempting to explain the life of a wretched girl would be hard because her emotions would not allow an unbiased depiction of the cruelties of life. Macabea is introduced in the novel as a poor girl who does what she must to survive in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. She is, Rodrigo remarks, nothing out of the ordinary. Physically there is nothing about Macabea which sets her apart from the other countless street rascals who live hand to mouth. He then provides readers with some of her early life history, including how she almost died at birth because of rickets, and how both her parents succumbed to typhoid fever when she was a toddler. Finally after their death Macabea was forced to move in with her aunt, who too eventually passed away, but not before procuring the child a job to support herself. In the course of the novel the popular culture, though vague and metaphorical at times, affects Macabea and the secondary characters personalities and actions.
- - -. “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine.” Interpreter of Maladies. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1999. 23-42. Print.
They were making the cake for Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding. However, this kind of gathering is not just a small gathering but rather a huge one in which 180 people are coming. While making the cake, a lot of things reminded Tita of some