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Here are some possible questions to choose from for this writing activity. Most of them are similar to the ones you received for your response to Thomas King’s series of stories. You may use these questions with any of the short stories:
1 ) How do Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters cope with missing people or feeling disconnected from their culture?
2 ) How does storytelling help characters form personal connections, positive or negative?
3 ) How do characters use storytelling to form an identity, personally or culturally?
4 ) Do the characters ever use storytelling to cope with hardship?
5 ) How does storytelling help characters understand each other and/or learn new things about the world?
6 )”Wisdom,” says Jan Zwicky (in her book Wisdom and Metaphor), “is to be able to say ‘Oh, I see now how it is for you.'” make any of Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters learn wisdom, as Jan Zwicky describes it? If so, how do the characters come to understand different perspectives?
And here is a more general question:
7 ) What role does storytelling play for the characters in this book?
Think about how the characters tell stories to each other, the stories they tell themselves, and any inferences that can be made as a result of these stories. I will provide specific prompts for this question, but you could use it as a starting point to write about any of Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories (you don’t have to respond to every prompt; you can focus on one or choose to do more than one):
In “A Temporary Matter” when Shobha and Shukumar have to spend time together, they tell each other brief stories or secrets. What connections are formed or broken between the characters because of these stories? What is the purpose of them telling each other stories? Is the timing of when they choose to tell a story significant? What do the stories reveal about them as characters? What does it tell you about how they feel?
Think about Boori Ma in “A Real Durwan.” How does she use stories to identify herself? What purpose do these stories serve? Is the plot of the story influenced by this storytelling? What do the people around her think about her stories?
What stories does Mr. Pirzada tell in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”? What do these stories tell you, not just about his background, but about his personality? Again, think about connections between characters as a result of storytelling, the purpose of the stories, what is revealed about the character through this act of storytelling, etc.
In “The Third and Final Continent,” how does storytelling help the narrator form a connection with Mrs. Croft and/or his wife?
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These are some points to consider, but you are free to use whatever stories you want.
Avoid plot summary but provide evidence by making reference to specific examples or giving quotes. Keep in mind that you should always discuss literature in the present tense. In most cases, you should avoid the use of personal pronouns when you are writing formal essays. That means avoid words like I, me, we, us, our etc. Switch your wording around to avoid giving an opinion and change it to a statement instead. Instead of saying “I think the characters are…”, just say “the characters are…”. Instead of saying “we can see the character is…” you can say something like “the character is…” or “the reader/audience knows the character is…”.
Remember, when you give an example or refer to a text, always write a couple of sentences clearly explaining how that evidence proves your point. To put it briefly, a body paragraph content should follow a pattern like this: Make a claim, give evidence, then write several sentences explaining how the evidence proves your claim: Point. Proof. Explanation.
