Context - Partition
The division of British-ruled India into the independent and separate countries of India and Pakistan.
How does Mrs. Sen keep her apartment? Clean and organized or chaotic and messy?
Very clean, and very organized.
How is Eliot's mother lonely?
She overworks herself and never has time to spend with her son, which stops her from forming meaningful relationships with Eliot or anyone else.
Where does Eliot stay every day after school?
At Mrs. Sen's
How many previous babysitters has Eliot had?
Two
How many refugees were there?
About 15 million.
What food does Mrs. Sen constantly buy whenever it is fresh?
Fish
What does Mrs Sen's fear of driving represent?
Her dependence on others, especially Mr Sen.
Where does Eliot live?
In a beach house
Where does Eliot live?
In a beach house.
August 15, 1947
Date that Partition took place.
What item does Mrs. Sen use to chop food, mainly vegetables and fish?
A knife from her family.
What does Mrs. Sen's cooking represent? Specifically, why does she only use traditional Indian recipes?
She cooks Indian food because of her homesickness and inability to assimilate into American culture.
Where does Mrs. Sen like to go most days?
The fish market to buy some fresh fish.
When Mrs. Sen receives a letter from her family after a long time, why is she saddened by it?
The letter says that her sister had a baby, and she is sad because she missed the birth of her niece. She thinks that her niece will not recognize her if they sit on a bus together.
Drew the borders for India and Pakistan in Partition (despite never having been there).
Sir Cyril Radcliffe.
How does Mrs. Sen bring her culture into her life in America?
She wears saris, chops food with a traditional cooking knife that Indian women receive when they marry, and keeps in contact with her family in India (although the communication is scarce).
What are some examples of loneliness in the short story?
Both Eliot and Mrs Sen make very few connections with other people. Mrs. Sen only knows four people in America, and Eliot only knows three people in total. Mrs. Sen is also constantly saddened by the distance between her and her family, and often asks if anyone else cares that she is there.
Where is Mrs. Sen's apartment?
In a university where Mr Sen teaches, at the very edge of the campus.
What caused Mrs. Sen's accident?
A car horn startled her into hitting a telephone pole.
Britain decided to dissolve their territory into the independent nations of India and Pakistan due to..
Rising tensions between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims wanted Pakistan to be independent from India, while the Hindus wanted India to unite into a single nation. The Muslims were worried about the rising Hindu population and aggression, and they wanted to live in their own country to avoid hostility.
How do Mrs. Sen's connections to India keep her isolated?
She is unable to assimilate into American culture and refuses to make new friends or meet new people because she knew so many at home in India.
Eliot’s mother nodded, too, looking around the room. “And that’s all…in India?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Sen replied. "Everything is there."
This excerpt reveals a theme of...
Isolation.
How far away does Eliot's mother work?
Fifty miles.
Mrs. Sen has a cassette tape that she plays sometimes to lift her spirits. What is it a tape of?
Her family members who all wished her safe travels and told her what had happened in India the day she left for America.