Mr. Pirzada
Lilia
Connections to Real Life
Motifs and Maladies
Common Motifs/Maladies
100
"Mr. Pirzada won't be coming today. More importantly, Mr. Pirzada is no longer considered Indian, my father announced.. not since Partition. Our country was divided. 1947." (page 25)
What event happened that made Mr. Pirzada no longer considered Indian?
100
"The press had been censored, removed, restricted, rerouted." (page 34)
What type of government does this resemble?
200
"Though I had not seen him for months, it was only then that I felt Mr. Pirzada's absence. It was only then, raising my water glass in his name, that I knew what it meant to miss someone..." (page 42)
What is the malady?
200
"Though I had not seen him for months, it was only then that I felt Mr. Pirzada's absence. It was only then, raising my water glass in his name, that I knew what it meant to miss someone..." (page 42)
What malady appears in this quote that appears in another story?
300
"Before eating, Mr. Pirzada always did a curious thing. He took out a plain silver watch without a band, which he kept in his breast pocket, held it briefly to one of his tufted ears, and wound it with three swift flicks of his thumb and forefinger. Unlike the watch on his wrist, the pocket watch, he had explained to me, was set to the local time in Dacca, eleven hours ahead." (page 30)
What does this quote about Mr. Pirzada?
300
"I was assured a safe life, an easy life, a fine education, every opportunity. I would never have to eat rationed food.." (page 26)
How does Lilia's feeling resemble the feeling that Hitler brought onto the Germans?
400
"No one at school talked about the war.. We continued to study the American Revolution, and learned about the injustices of taxation without representation, and memorized passages from the Declaration of Independence." (page 32)
How does this relate back what the students in Japan today learn about the Rape of Nanking?
500
"Eventually I took a square of white chocolate out of the box, and unwrapped it and then I did something i have never done before. I put the chocolate in my mouth, letting it soften until the last possible moment, and then as i chewed it slowly, I prayed that Mr. Pirzada's family was safe and sound... That night when I went to the bathroom, I only pretended to brush my teeth, for I feared that I would somehow rinse the payer out as well." (page 32)
What does the candy represent?
500
From what you've learned during the presentation and from previous questions,
What do you think is a motif in this story? Why?
500
From what you've learned during the presentation and from previous questions,
What motif in this story can you apply to other stories?
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