seeing ghosts in "Song of Solomon"

The book "Song of Solomon" has a lot of supernatural features. From Pilates lack of a navel to Hagar's mysteriously failing to kill Milkman to characters seeing ghosts everywhere, there are a lot of references to the supernatural. Pilate and Macon see the ghost of their father, Macon 1, while in the woods. He leads them to the cave where they kill the white man. After they have split up, the ghost appears to Pilate and tells her not to leave the dead body so she goes back for it. She does not however have her father's dead body. This shows her being disconnected from her family in a way similar to her disconnect from not having a navel. Seeing ghosts is a strange thing and symbolizes the characters' connection to their past and their family. The supernatural in this book plays this role of connecting the past and the present in a way that real things cannot.

Song of Solomon 1

In the beginning there is a singer who is singing. Is there any significance to the repetition of sugarman in the song?

The deads have very strange family issues. To what extend does this affect milkman and his future?

There is allusion to the Bible in the title and throughout. Why is this allusion and the Bible themed naming process significant?

word: family

The God of Small Things in "The God of Small Things"

          In the book, The God of Small Things, the God of Small Things is referenced a lot. The small things and the God of them is ambiguous throughout the novel, but it is possible that Velutha is a representation of the God of Small things. In the last chapter of the book, Ammu and Velutha’s relationship is seen firsthand by the reader instead of hearing of it from other characters in the earlier parts of the book. They know that their relationship breaks the love laws and that they could never be together in public. In the end, Ammu says tomorrow to Velutha referring to her seeing him tomorrow. They take their lives one day at a time because their relationship is not socially acceptable. This makes sense too with Ammu’s dream about the one armed man who is  constrained by something so he cannot be fully with her. Velutha is the God of Small Things because he cannot be the God of Big Things because of society’s constraints. He and Ammu only have small time together and small moments not big things like a future together. The novel focuses on how seemingly small things do have much larger effects on the characters. As an example, Estha’s singing leads him to be returned. Because he is singing, the Orangedrink Lemondrink man molests him, he thinks his Two Thoughts about the need to be prepared, then he and Rahel and Sophie Mol run away and Sophie Mol dies, then Margaret blames Estha and Baby Kochamma gets him returned. Another example of events causing bigger events is Joes accident and death causing Sophie Mol’s death, Velutha’s death, and Estha’s returning. because Joe dies, Sophie and Margaret go to Ayemenem, Sophie runs away with Estha and Rahel and dies. Then Baby Kochamma blames Velutha and he is murdered and Estha is later returned. The God of Small Things is about seemingly unconnected events influencing the future.

"The God of Small Things" 10-14 questions and word

Questions:
1. Is there any significance to the story that was told while Estha and Rahel are watching the actors? The story is about Karna and his siblings and his strained relationship with his mother.
2. Why is Ammu so upset and worried about her future? What effect does Ammu's mental state have on her children? What brings her to return Estha?
3. What is the significance of the water and the river? Estha says water always helps, but it did not help Sophie Mol in the end. Is water supposed to be good or bad in the story?

Word: crumbling

"The God of Small Things" family relationships chapters 4-9

In this section of the story, the family's relationships are explored further, especially the family's relationship with Sophie Mol. Love is referenced many times in this part of the book beginning with Ammu's love toward her children. They are afraid of offending her because she will "love them a little less." Rahel questions Chacko whether he loves his daughter most in the world or if it's possible that parents don't love their children most. Ammu and Chacko are not the most loving people to Estha and Rahel. The older generation is not very kind either. Mammachi and Baby Kochamma are not loving to Estha and Rahel either. When Pappachi was in the story, he beat Mammachi and the rest of his family which shows that the family does not have the best relationships. The only person who shows kindess to the twins is Velutha who also showed Ammu kindness when he made her little gifts when they were young. The whole family shows Sophie Mol love though. They idolize her because she is a foreigner from London. Mammachi offers to give Sophie Mol the important job of braiding her hair and counting her moles and take the job away from Estha and Rahel. Ammu and Chakco are overly polite to Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol leading to a very fake seeming family reunion. At the end though, the twins begin to accept Sophie Mol and she becomes their friend after she rejects the family and Baby Kochamma's fake attempts to win their favor.

"The God of Small Things" Chapter 3 Question and Word

Question: Why is Estha so quiet and unfriendly to Rahel and Baby Kochamma? Since Baby Kochamma expects this to happen, is it possible she knows something the readers don't? Is his behavior foreshadowing at all?


Word: ghosts

Classes in “The God of Small Things”

            In the first two chapters of “The God of Small Things,” class plays a major role. The main characters Estha and Rahel face people looking down on them because of their class. At Sophie Mol’s funeral, Estha Rahel and Ammu are standing apart from everyone else and are ignored by the rest of the family. Estha and Rahel are children of Ammu and her divorced husband Baba. Since divorce is not accepted in their culture, this causes Ammu, the divorced woman and the children of the divorced parents to be thought of and treated differently. The family is a family of well off Syrian Christians. They own a pickle factory and a car which demonstrates that they are fairly well off, but Ammu, Estha, and Rahel are still treated differently. When Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma come to Ayemenem, their arrival is a big event and their opinions are valued. The family tries to force Estha and Rahel to only speak in English when these two come so that they can be seen in a more favorable light than they would be. Later, Miss Mitten comes and tries to get them to read and write forwards because thats how its done in English. Baby Kochamma also treats them differently because they are the children of divorced parents. Baby Kochamma also treats Velutha and Paravans differently because of her experience on the way to The Sound of Music. The distinction of the main characters’ class sets up conflict for the rest of the story. The class conflict between Estha and Rahel is set up to occur in society as against the Marxists, in their culture because they are children of divorced parents, and in their own family against Baby Kochamma.

"Untouchable" Questions Response

Response to Kelsey’s questions about religion:

In the story “Untouchable” by Mulk Raj Anand, religion is used to convey the themes. Religion is the reason for much of the conflict in the story as the caste system is a creation of the Hindu religion. Within the Hindu’s there are the different castes, but the people within the caste don't want anything to do with the out castes or the untouchables. They are not supposed to touch them and this creates a visible divide within the same religion. There are two other religions referred to in the story, Christianity and Islam. The clothes of the people of the different religions are different in the story suggesting that they are even more divided. The Christian missionary is sympathetic to Bakha as he suggests that the people who think he is untouchable are wrong. The Muslim is also kinder to Bakha than the priests and people from his own religion. Overall, religion connects the characters throughout the story and is a way for the author to show the divided nature of the country of India. Because people of different religions are kind to Bakha, the author shows that different religions do not have to be as dividing as they seem.

"Untouchable" Question - 3

Discussion Question

The story “Untouchable” ends with Bakha running home to tell his father about the new invention that the poet told him about. He considers the fact that this invention that disposes of waste may end the need for sweepers and thus end untouchability. Do you think this is an ending of hope or merely the author’s statement about the futility of Bakha’s efforts to escape his class? Why?

"Untouchable" Questions 2

Questions

1. Is there any significance of things being ochre colored?
2. Why do they never give Ram Charan's sister a name? The author only refers to her as Ram Charan's sister.
3. When Bakha's father tells him the story of him almost dying, this brings Bahka closer to his father and expresses a totally different side of Lakha as a caring father.  Does this expression by Lakha help Bakha cope with his distress about the upper caste or drive him further into his feelings of isolation?


word: defiled

“Untouchable” Questions

1. The caste system in India is very strict as seen in the book. Why then are the children of a very high ranking man able to be bribed to teach Bakha who is in the opinion of their caste, untouchable?

2. Sohini's experience at the well is confrontation with someone from her own rank. Another untouchable verbally abuses her and is very mean and gets very angry when she is given water first. Why does the author include this abuse from another untouchable when he includes all the abuse from the caste people?

3. Bakha’s mother has died from cleaning the human and animal refuse. Bakha claims he cannot find sadness in himself over her death. His father Lahka is a very lazy, mean man. To what extent has Bakha’s family life affected him and his hopes for an educated, British-like future? 

Word: caste

"A Temporary Matter"

     In the short story, A Temporary Matter, Jhumpa Lahiri tells the story of husband and wife Shoba and Shukumar. The tone of this story is sad and dark. This is enhanced in the story by the power outages each day. The couple receives a notice that there will be times with no electricity. This dark setting is the backdrop for a dark story that ends sadly. The sad tone is seen in the diction, imagery, and details of the story. 

     Lahiri uses words with negative connotation such as "hauted" to describe how Shoba feels when she walks in to the room that would have been for the baby. Also, she refers to Shoba's face as "contorted" when she and Shukumar are talking about her moving out. These negative sounding words contribute to the sad tone. Lahiri also uses imagery in this short story When Shukumar describes the boy baby that dies, he refers to it's red skin and this makes Shoba even more grief stricken over the loss of the baby and contributes to their becoming more separated. The author also focuses a lot on the details of this couples life after their baby's death which are monotonous and contribute to the depressing nature of the story and the sad, dark tone.

     The tone contributes to the themes of the story. The author talks a lot about the death of the baby and how it affects Shoba and Shukumar. Their grief over the loss of their baby and their struggle to stay together afterwards is a theme of the story. At the end, Shoba says she is going to move out which is not necessarily "a temporary matter". This sad ending is reinforced by the sad tone throughout the story and the message that grief and loss divides people.