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Question: Conversely, how might lack of change within the setting impact the text?

Answer: The lack of change within within the setting can indicate a lack of change in the character development. As Ashima continues to constant describe the differences between the US and India, she almost portrays the new atmosphere negatively. When refers to home in India, she is going back in her comfort place. Every time she feels an uncertainty in America, her thoughts goes back to explain how her life would have been in India. I agree with Joseph on his standpoint with how he views the lack of change revealing Ashima’s true insecurities. This lack of change within the setting can show how there isn’t any growth or big change in the character yet, supporting the rising action to the climax. It could also be a state of building suspense towards the change or next turning point.

Evidence: “Ashima looks up from a tattered copy of Desh magazine that she'd brought to read on her plane ride to Boston and still cannot bring herself to throw away. The printed pages of Bengali type, slightly rough to the touch, are a perpetual comfort to her.”

“American seconds tick on top of her pulse point. For half a minute, a band of pain wraps around her stomach, radiating toward her back and shooting down her legs. And then, again, relief. She calculates the Indian time on her hands.”

(Here is where she even compares time from American and Indian time.)

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Question: How might the characters’ feelings about the setting change over time? Why? What might that change reveal about the characters, plot points, or theme(s)?

Answer: As Ashima is 8,000 miles away from home, the setting is in Cambridge, where she is forced to adapt in this completely new environment. Currently, she is in a state of mind of uncertainty, doubt, and being ‘abnormal’ while she hates the idea of giving birth and raising her child in this foreign country. But throughout her character development, she started off as an innocent girl in India, and has slowly changed into a hesitant, worrying woman in America. I assume that as soon as she gives birth, she holds this new sense of responsibility over her baby daughter or son. This change or turning point may help towards the development of the plot and contribute to the theme. Ashima may even begin to think positively of the new environment in the States, as she now has a role as a mother. Of course she will always be anxious in this native country, but her next life will begin as her feelings about the ‘setting’ change over time.

Evidence: “Throughout the experience, in spite of her growing discomfort, she'd been astonished by her body's ability to make life, exactly as her mother and grandmother and all her great-grandmothers had done. That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare.”

“Eight thousand miles away in Cambridge, she has come to know him.In the evenings she cooks for him, hoping to please…”

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Question: How do weather and climate elements contribute to events, conflicts, and experiences of the characters themselves? How might the weather shift or change over time? Why?

Answer: Weather and climate elements are crucial parts to setting the scene of the story and for the development of the characters. They can help set the tone and image in one’s head. Throughout character development, weather can shift over time, indicating a change, or progression in their lives. This shift can be mentally, physically, or even the start of a new day. Authors often use specific connotations to describe this change, especially if the change is directly focused as positive or negative. In this story, you can see in a flashback, where when Ashima was just meeting Ashoke, his father questioned whether or not she was ready for the “severe, snowy winters, alone.” These harsh dictions set the difficult scene for when she would be living in Boston. Whereas in the present, the story is set as a “sticky August evening” almost the direct opposite of the weather described by Ashoke’s father. We imagine this wet, hot type of weather, possibly indicating the small progress Ashima has made now that she is in the US, and with her last name now Ganguli.

Evidence:

“She was asked whether she was willing to fly on a plane and then if she was capable of living in a city characterized by severe, snowy winters, alone.”

“1968 On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date,

Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment…”

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Question: Does the story take place in the past, present, or future?  How does that perspective shape the events, choices, and the characters’ experiences?

Answer: The story mainly takes place in the present and past. With several flashbacks, we are provided with extra intel about their past lives, explaining how their past got them to where they are today. So here, is where I agree with Andy and Joseph. It is almost as if these flashbacks reveal secrets that possibly their partner doesn’t know about. From Ashima comparing her traditional ways back home to what and where she is today, shows us how home in India for her was different compared to the US. There is another flashback of Ashoke, and here is where we get to see his childhood of constantly reading as a boy. We also get to see when they first met, their conditions, and other small details the author specifically includes in these past moments. Their past choices and experiences have led them to where they are today, as for Ashima, hesitantly sitting in the hospital waiting for her birth, and Ashoke as he impatiently paces in the waiting room.

Evidence:

“It had been after tutoring one day that Ashima’s mother had met her at the door, told her to go straight to the bedroom and prepare herself; a man was waiting to see her. He was the third in as many months.”

“Looking more closely, she saw the shoemaker’s name written on the insides, in gold lettering that had all but faded: something and sons, it said. She saw the size, eight and a half, and the initials U.S.A.”

“Since childhood he has had the habit and the ability to read while walking, holding a book in one hand on his way to school, from room to room…”

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Question: Does the setting isolate characters or provide community / connections? What might that suggest and how does it impact the characters?

Answer: The setting of the story isolates the character, specifically Ashima, as she is far from her homeland in India. While she is giving birth in an unfamiliar country, the US, she experiences these doubtful feelings that illustrate a hesitant tone in her voice. Not only is she physically far from home, but there are mental aspects regarding the cultural differences and practices when a woman is pregnant. She almost presents this fearful factor or raising a child in a native land, in a country she has always been intimated by. Trying to do her best to fit in, we can see she struggles mentally, as she continues to attempt to grasp the idea of becoming, “normal.” Because of these reasons, the unfamiliar setting forces Ashima to feel isolated, and it impacts how hesitant she is towards her next chapter of her new life.

Evidence: “She wonders if she is the only Indian person in the hospital, but a gentle twitch from the baby reminds her that she is, technically speaking, not alone.”

“But nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she's arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It's not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. It's the consequence: motherhood in a foreign land.”

“But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare.”

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Q Conversely, how might lack of change within the setting impact the text?

A The lack of change of setting in this text could cause a issue on understanding the character Ashima's true insecurities when it come to living in the states and her country, and if she truly believes that life here woulde be better in india for her child on the way.

E "American seconds tick on top of her pulse point. For half a minute, a band of pain wraps around her stomach, radiating toward her back and shooting down her legs. And then, again, relief. She calculates the Indian time on her hands. The tip of her thumb strikes each rung of the brown ladders etched onto the backs of her fingers, then stops at the middle of the third: it is nine and a half hours ahead in Calcutta, already evening, half past eight. In the kitchen of her parents’ flat on Amherst Street, at this very moment, a servant is pouring after-dinner tea into steaming glasses, arranging Marie biscuits on a tray. Her mother, very soon to be a grandmother, is standing at the mirror of her dressing table, untangling waist- length hair, still more black than gray, with her fingers. Her father hunches over his slanted ink-stained table by the window, sketching, smoking, listening to the Voice of America. Her younger brother, Rana, studies for a physics exam on the bed. She pictures clearly the gray cement floor of her parents’ sitting room, feels its solid chill underfoot even on the hottest days."

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Q What emotions does the setting generate within characters? What might
those emotions reveal about the characters?

A The setting begins to make the character reminisce on the past of her life and the Experiences she had with her upbringing, and now that she is bringing a baby into this world she is trying to make sure that she is making the right decision on if they be better off here.

E "It is the first time in her life she has slept alone, surrounded by strangers; all her life she has slept either in a room with her parents, or with Ashoke at her side. She wishes the curtains were open, so that she could talk to the American women. Perhaps one of them has given birth before, can tell her what to expect. But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of their miniskirts and bikinis, in spite of their hand-holding on the street and lying on top of each other on the Cambridge Common, prefer their privacy. She spreads her fingers over the taut, enormous drum her middle has become, wondering where the baby’s feet and hands are at this moment."

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Question  Is it possible that certain setting elements might be symbolic? If so, what
might the symbolism reveal or suggest?

Answer - I will say that there a certain times throughout the story when Ashima describes American people and the people there and how she compares them to not be the same as her countries people. She also goes on explaining the pros of her past when she lived in her country and how it would be better for raising her baby, symbolizing her love for india, and her family in this moment she is most vunerable.

Evidence - "Throughout the experience, in spite of her growing discomfort, she’d been astonished by her body’s ability to make life, exactly as her mother and grandmother and all her great-grandmothers had done. That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare."

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Question - Does the story take place in the past, present, or future? How does that
perspective shape the events, choices, and the characters’ experiences?

Answer - I again can respect what Andy stated about how the story takes place in the past, but breaks down how the past is explored all throughout the text. To add on even more Ashima's life is happening in the present but she keeps referring to past events leading up to this moment in her life and majority of the time her perspective is positive itve when it comes to her past in her home country dealing with community and support.

Evidence - "Eight thousand miles away in Cambridge, she has come to know him. In the evenings she cooks for him, hoping to please, with the unrationed, remarkably unblemished sugar, flour, rice, and salt she had written about to her mother in her very first letter home. By now she has learned that her husband likes his food on the salty side, that his favorite thing about lamb curry is the potatoes, and that he likes to finish his dinner with a small final helping of rice and dal. At night, lying beside her in bed, he listens to her describe the events of her day: her walks along Massachusetts Avenue, the shops she visits, the Hare Krishnas who pester her with their leaflets, the pistachio ice cream cones she treats herself to in Harvard Square. In spite of his meager graduate student wages he sets aside money to send every few months to his father to help put an extension on his parents’ house. He is fastidious about his clothing; their first argument had been over a sweater she’d shrunk in the washing machine. As soon as he comes home from the university the first thing he does is hang up his shirt and trousers, donning a pair of drawstring pajamas and a pullover if it’s cold."

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Question:  When settings change or transform, how might those changes reveal shifts in other elements as well (such as shifts within characters, themes, or important plot points)

Answer: The shifting in settings from India to the US reflects the character growth and shifts of culture of the main character.  They impact Ashima's emotions, guiding her through the trials of adapting to a new culture and the intricacies of being a mother in an unfamiliar place. Her engagements with the hospital and the process of giving birth foster her individual development, demonstrating her strength and flexibility. The hospital environment acts as the central place where important occurrences take place, ultimately resulting in the arrival of Ashima's baby. The changes in the setting mirror the advancement of the story, highlighting the obstacles and successes linked with Ashima's labor and her adjustment to a fresh cultural setting.

Evidence: "For an instant the weight of the baby vanishes, replaced by a scene that passes before her eyes, only to be replaced once more by a blue strip of the Charles River, thick green treetops, cars gliding up and down Memorial Drive."

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Question:  How might the characters’ feelings about the setting change over time? Why? What might that change reveal about the characters, plot points, or theme?

Answer:
Ashima's perspective on the environment might change as she goes through the life changing experience of childbirth and adapts to a different cultural setting. These shifts in her perception offer significant clues about how her character develops, how the story unfolds, and the deeper themes of cultural assimilation and personal identity. During the process of giving birth and her interactions with the hospital, Ashima might develop an emotional bond with the surroundings, acknowledging the significance of this location as her child's birthplace. This emotional shift might indicate her developing affinity for the unfamiliar setting and her increasing sense of belonging in her new role as a mother, emphasizing themes of family, personal identity, and the assimilation of different cultures.

Evidence: "Patty comes to fluff the pillows, tidy the bed. Dr. Ashley pokes in his head from time to time. 'No need to worry,' he chirps, putting a stethoscope to Ashima’s belly, patting her hand, admiring her various bracelets."

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Is the location rural or urban? What is the impact of this? JOSEPH KARKI

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Is the location rural or urban? What is the impact of this? JOSEPH KARKI

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Answer: I have to agree with Andy by how he talks about the story taking place in a urban area and the effect it had on the character because of it. The biggest effect on Ashima i observed from the excerpt is how alone she felt, and how she felt her child would be alone in a country that they would not be related to anyone and be so much different as if she would of had her baby where she is from. The people and abundance of family they would have access to is more than what they would have in the united states.

Evidence "Throughout the experience, in spite of her growing discomfort, she’d been astonished by her body’s ability to make life, exactly as her mother and grandmother and all her great-grandmothers had done. That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare."

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Question: How do natural and manmade setting elements interact?

Answer: In the story, the natural and the manmade setting elements interact through different visual perspectives of Ashima's. The contrast between the natural and manmade settings is depicted through Ashima's varied visual experiences and also through memories and reality. It emphasizes the sharp distinction between the comforting, lively memories of her Indian past and the detached, sterile atmosphere of the Cambridge hospital.

Evidence: "For an instant the weight of the baby vanishes, replaced by a scene that passes before her eyes, only to be replaced once more by a blue strip of the Charles River, thick green treetops, cars gliding up and down Memorial Drive."

"On the maternity floor she is assigned to a bed by a window, in a room at the end of the hall."

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Question: Is the time of the narrative unspecified? Why? What impacts might this have?

In the beginning of the passage, the author does mention that the story took place in 1968; however, the story does lack the mentioning of the specific time mentioning. The absence of a clear timeframe makes the story timeless, enabling people from various periods to connect with Ashima's challenges and emotions. This choice also correlates with the examination of persistent themes like immigration, adjusting to a new culture, and the conflicts between traditional values and contemporary life, which hold significance regardless of historical or cultural background.

Evidence: "1968 On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl."
"The child is no longer restless; for the past few days, apart from the occasional flutter, she has not felt it punch or kick or press against her ribs. "
"For the past eighteen months, ever since she’s arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It’s not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. "

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When setting elements are similar, what might those similarities reveal?

Answer: Throughout this story excerpt, when similar setting elements are present, they reveal that they can be the same thoughts or feelings as before. For example, when Ashima resided in the hospital, she notes the words, ‘I love you,’ was not heard or expected from her husband. Later, while she was reminiscing her younger years in India, she mentioned how stepping into the man’s shoes was the closest she’s gotten to the touch of a man before which is the same setting element of forbidden forms of touch routing from where she was raised in India. Another can insinuate the loneliness she feels while in the hospital. When she was isolated from other patients, when she had a contraction and no help from nurses arrives, and even feeling she was the only Indian person in the entire hospital can all relate to emotions of loneliness and the hospital coinciding.

Evidence: “It is the first time in her life she has slept alone, surrounded by strangers; all her life she has slept either in a room with her parents, or with Ashoke at her side. She wishes the curtains were open, so that she could talk to the American women. Perhaps one of them has given birth before, can tell her what to expect. “

“Eight thousand miles away in Cambridge, she has come to know him. In the evenings she cooks for him, hoping to please, with the unrationed, remarkably unblemished sugar, flour, rice, and salt she had written about to her mother in her very first letter home.”

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Question: What are the implications of the map/ location? Does the location include cultural beliefs, customs, practices, etc. (past and present)? How do the invisible elements “color” the story or impact the characters / events?

My Answer: In this passage, the implications of the different locations show the changes of Ashima's feelings throughout her experience of childbirth. Her house, the central square apartment, represents a significant departure from Ashima's cultural norms. However, when she is at the hospital, the unfamiliarity of the environment amplifies her sense of isolation and made her uncomfortable. The passage highlights how her experiences and interactions in the hospital differ from her expectations based on her preference in India. In the beginning of the passage, the author describes the different variety of food and vegetables Ashima was cooking, and they are flavorful and colorful, but when she eventually ends up in the hospital, all she sees are the color white which makes her worry about the future.

Evidence: "Ashima thinks it’s strange that her child will be born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to die. There is nothing to comfort her in the off-white tiles of the floor, the off-white panels of the ceiling, the white sheets tucked tightly into the bed. In India, she thinks to herself, women go home to their parents to give birth, away from husbands and in-laws and household cares, retreating briefly to childhood when the baby arrives."

"1968 On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl. She adds salt, lemon juice, thin slices of green chili pepper, wishing there were mustard oil to pour into the mix. Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms throughout India, spilling from newspaper cones"

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How do various characters respond to their physical environments and/or the larger setting or backdrop? What does this reveal about them and/or their situation (externally or internally)?

Answer: Various characters respond to their physical environments differently. The character readers get an insight to how they are feeling is mainly Ashima, however readers get an insight to Ashoke’s feelings toward the end of the excerpt. Ashima overall seems to feel a sense of dread the whole time, understandably. This reveals she is a naturally worried person in the right situations but worrying about the wrong things at the time. The story elaborates how she’s hoping the future is livable for the child and only hoping the child comes out the way it is supposed to, while doctors are wondering about her hopes for the gender of the child. Ashoke seems only a little bothered by the situation at hand, a physically usually neat person. However, he is worried about his wife, pacing around the waiting room, and internally wishing for a cup of tea.

Evidence: “’As long as there are ten finger and ten toe,’ Ashima replies. For these anatomical details, these particular signs of life, are the ones she has the most difficulty picturing when she imagines the baby in her arms.

Patty smiles, a little too widely, and suddenly Ashima realizes her error, knows she should have said "fingers" and "toes." This error pains her almost as much as her last contraction.”

“He now desperately needs a cup of tea for himself, not having managed to make one before leaving the house. But the machine in the corridor dispenses only coffee, tepid at best, in paper cups. He takes off his thick-rimmed glasses, fitted by a Calcutta optometrist, polishes the lenses with the cotton handkerchief he always keeps in his pocket, A for Ashoke embroidered by his mother in light blue thread. His black hair, normally combed back neatly from his forehead, is disheveled, sections of it on end. He stands and begins pacing as the other expectant fathers do.”

“He returns to the Globe, still pacing as he reads. A slight limp causes Ashoke’s right foot to drag almost imperceptibly with each step. Since childhood he has had the habit and the ability to read while walking, holding a book in one hand on his way to school, from room to room in his parents’ three-story house in Alipore, and up and down the red clay stairs. Nothing roused him. Nothing distracted him. Nothing caused him to stumble.”

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Are certain elements emphasized, recurrent, or prominent? To what end?

Answer: I believe certain elements are emphasized, recurrent, or prominent to the extent that might help readers feel an emotion based on the environment the story places readers in. Because this part of the story focuses mainly on Ashima’s experience of visiting the hospital to give birth, emotional elements play a part in the story. The author of course emphasizes the amount of pain Ashima is in, the contractions, the confusion, and the emotional pain she is left fearing before being wheeled to the delivery room about whether the new life she will bring into the world survive knowing she is so unknowing about the world around her. However, the author also utilizes elements of imagery to help readers understand the physical reality Ashima is in and what she might be feeling in the moment.

Evidence: “She is seated in a wheelchair and pushed through the shining, brightly lit corridors, whisked into an elevator more spacious than her kitchen. On the maternity floor she is assigned to a bed by a window, in a room at the end of the hall. She is asked to remove her Murshidabad silk sari in favor of a flowered cotton gown that, to her mild embarrassment, only reaches her knees.”

“Another contraction begins, more violent than the last. She cries out, pressing her head against the pillow. Her fingers grip the chilly rails of the bed. No one hears her, no nurse rushes to her side. She has been instructed to time the duration of the contractions and so she consults her watch, a bon voyage gift from her parents, slipped over her wrist the last time she saw them, amid airport confusion and tears.”

“Throughout the experience, in spite of her growing discomfort, she’d been astonished by her body’s ability to make life, exactly as her mother and grandmother and all her great-grandmothers had done. That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare.”

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Is the time of the narrative unspecified? Why? What impacts might this have?

Answer: While the time of the narrative is not specific, there is a clear timeline of events within the story’s excerpt. The story provides the reader with memories Ashima thinks about within the hospital, waiting to be transferred to the delivery room. These memories the story provides help readers envision Ashima’s younger years. However, because the narrative’s time is not specific it can impact the story by leaving readers unknowing about what political or environmental issues might be going on in the moment of delivery. If these issues were explained by what year it might have been in, she was giving birth, it would have an ultimate impact on more reasons for Ashima to be worried about raising her child in a new world she is now living in and what resources she may or may not be able to access to seek help for her worries.

Evidence: “The child is no longer restless; for the past few days, apart from the occasional flutter, she has not felt it punch or kick or press against her ribs. She wonders if she is the only Indian person in the hospital, but a gentle twitch from the baby reminds her that she is, technically speaking, not alone.”

“Ashima thinks it’s strange that her child will be born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to die.”

“But nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she’s arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It’s not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. It’s the consequence: motherhood in a foreign land. For it was one thing to be pregnant, to suffer the queasy mornings in bed, the sleepless nights, the dull throbbing in her back, the countless visits to the bathroom.”

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What are the “invisible” elements that accompany the setting / place of the story (i.e. values, superstitions, beliefs, biases, traditions, etc.)?

Answer: “Invisible” elements such as values, superstitions, beliefs, biases, or traditions accompany the setting by introducing multiple scenarios in which Ashima observes different ways of life in her surroundings. It was hinted within insight about how Ashima had grown up and how her family had the tradition of being introduced to men and married to expand the family. Ashima and Ashoke have a relationship that seemingly works for them based on a tradition of two families arranging marriages, however Ashima notices in the hospital and from previous mentioned experiences how Americans show affection differently. An example would be how the story shows Ashima doesn’t express love to Ashoke through mentioning his name, as a husband’s name is intimate on the same levels of caressing and kissing. However, Ashima finds in the hospital husbands beside their wives in support and embracing one another. These elements seem in touch with the setting by further elaborating what the character’s beliefs or values might be while also being within the setting of the hospital and mentioning other times at which Ashima has noticed a clear difference between traditional views.

Evidence: “When she calls out to Ashoke, she doesn’t say his name. Ashima never thinks of her husband’s name when she thinks of her husband, even though she knows perfectly well what it is. She has adopted his surname but refuses, for propriety’s sake, to utter his first. It’s not the type of thing Bengali wives do. Like a kiss or caress in a Hindi movie, a husband’s name is something intimate and therefore unspoken, cleverly patched over.”

“And then a man’s voice: "I love you, sweetheart." Words Ashima has neither heard nor expects to hear from her own husband; this is not how they are. It is the first time in her life she has slept alone, surrounded by strangers; all her life she has slept either in a room with her parents, or with Ashoke at her side.”

“In India, she thinks to herself, women go home to their parents to give birth, away from husbands and in-laws and household cares, retreating briefly to childhood when the baby arrives.”

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Question: What emotions does the setting generate within characters? What might those emotions reveal about the characters?

The hospital setting causes a lonely, sorrowful response from Ashima Ganguli because she is stuck in America, miles away from India. When she reaches a big milestone in her life, giving birth, she realizes that she is far away from home and can’t share this precious moment with her family. Instead of birthing her child surrounded by her parents, she is alone in a stark white room without familial support. This loneliness is then emphasized when Ashoke isn’t by her side and the woman who she shares a room with is being comforted by her husband through the pain. She comforts herself by reminiscing about her life back in India and how happier she felt living there than now. This reveals that she never really became accustomed to American life, she just pushed her way through it.

Evidence: “Ashima thinks it’s strange that her child will be born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to die. There is nothing to comfort her in the off-white tiles of the floor, the off-white panels of the ceiling, the white sheets tucked tightly into the bed. In India, she thinks to herself, women go home to their parents to give birth, away from husbands and in-laws and household cares, retreating briefly to
childhood when the baby arrives.”

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Question:
Conversely, how might lack of change within the setting impact the text?

Answer:
A lack of change within the setting would completely change the theme of the text. Instead, Ashima would be familiar with her environment and her emotions towards the setting would be the opposite of how they are now. She would be giving a new life for her child and though she would still be living a new life as a mother, there won't be as many challenges as there would be with getting used to a completely new environment.

Evidence:
" In the kitchen of her parents’ flat on Amherst Street, at this very moment, a servant is pouring after-dinner tea into steaming glasses,"

"For an instant the weight of the baby vanishes, replaced by the scene that passes before her eyes, only to be replaced once more by a blue strip of the Charles River, thick green treetops, cars gliding up and down Memorial Drive"

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Question:
How might the characters’ feelings about the setting change over time? Why? What might that change reveal about the characters, plot points, or theme(s)?

Answer:
The characters' initial feelings about the new setting are unfamiliar and uncomfortable due to the huge change and there not being many things to relate to. I think the feelings will change to a more familiar feeling and comfort. I think this change will happen because though the current setting is different than what the characters are used to, after spending more time there and learning with their new child, they will eventually adapt to these differences. This change might reveal the theme of the story potentially being about big changes in life and being able to go through and adapt to these differences.

Evidence:
"She is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare"

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Question:
Is it possible that certain setting elements might be symbolic? If so, what might the symbolism reveal or suggest?

Answer:
I think that the setting being being in a hospital could be symbolic. In hospitals, new lives may begin. At that is what Ashima is in the hospital for. She is there to give life and start a new life with her child. I think this is symbolic to Ashima also living a new life in a different country. As her child grows and learns throughout his/her life, Ashima will also be growing and learning new things in New England.

Evidence:
"Ashima had never heard of Boston, or of fiber optics. She was asked whether she was willing to fly on a plane and then if she was capable of living in a city characterized by severe, snowy winters, alone."

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Question:
What timespan does the narrative cover? A small window of time? Many years or generations? How does the timespan shape the narrative and/or impact characters?

Answer:
This Narrative covers a timespan of eighteen months. This timespan shapes the narrative by showing how different Ashima's life has been for the past year compared to what she's been used to for the previous years of her life.

Evidence:
"For the past eighteen months, ever since she’s arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all."

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Question: When settings change or transform, how might those changes reveal

shifts in other elements as well (such as shifts within characters, themes, or important plot points)?

Answer: When the setting changes from places in India to present day United States, it reveals a phase change for the character. It represents a new beginning or start for the character. It further reveals a shift in how the characters may change and adapt to the new environment and traditions that they may not be familiar with. We already see an attempt to assimilate with the new setting in the United States when Ashima tries to speak and communicate with the nurses.

Evidence: "After a minute they continue on, toward the nurses’ station. "Hoping for a boy or a girl?" Patty asks. "As long as there are ten finger and ten toe," Ashima replies."

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Question: What emotions does the setting generate within characters? What might those emotions reveal about the characters?

The setting generates a sense of loneliness and isolation with results in fear for the main character. The main character feels isolated and lonely as no one who is related to her is able to help or comfort her in the hospital room. On a larger scale, she is in a foreign country and does not have anyone to support her. She is clearly far from a place of familiarity and peace. These emotions reveal the possible flaws of the character. We see that she is likely more dependent on others and relies on people to help her with tasks. The idea of being dependent on others is further reinforced when the excerpt states that her mother helped with the sleeves of the cardigan.

Evidence: "That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare."

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Question: What geographic locations are present? Are some more prominent than others? Why? How are the events and characters impacted by various locations?

Answer: Two primary geographic locations are mentioned. (India and United States) In the excerpt, India is more prominent than the United States. This is because it allows for the exploration of the characters' past and their background. It provides the necessary information for the reader to understand the character's perspective. The characters are impacted by these locations as Ashima seems to be more familiar with India and the traditions there while her husband seems to be more familiar with the United States. This impacts the characters and events as Ashima is a foreigner on foreign land. She is unfamiliar with what is normal in the United States. Furthermore, she is not completely fluent in the language. This creates further conflict when she is separated from her husband in the hospital.

Evidence: "It is the first time in her life she has slept alone, surrounded by strangers; all her life she has slept either in a room with her parents, or with Ashoke at her side."
"'As long as there are ten finger and ten toe," Ashima replies...Patty smiles, a little too widely, and suddenly Ashima realizes her error, knows she should have said "fingers" and "toes.'"

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Question: Does the story take place in the past, present, or future? How does that perspective shape the events, choices, and the characters’ experiences?

Answer: The main storyline takes place in the present. However, there are many sequences in the excerpt where the past is explained and explored. The main character's past and her traditional ideals are brought up to contrast reality and the present. The viewing of the past and applying that knowledge to the future helps the reader develop multidimensional thinking that reveals the inner thoughts and reasonings to the character's choices and experiences. The exploration of the character's pasts reveals the traditional ideals that heavily contrasts with her present experiences. Her past contrasting her present state also reveals her loneliness in a foreign country adding onto a sense of sadness that the character is experiencing.

Evidence: "But nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she’s arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It’s not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. It’s the consequence: motherhood in a foreign land."

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Question: Is the location rural or urban? What is the impact of this?

Answer: The location is mainly in an urban setting in the United States. This is significant and impacts the characters in the story by creating contrast that highlights the difference between the location of where the parents grew up with how their children will grow up. Furthermore, the urban location creates contrast with the urban and modern ideals in the United States and the rural and traditional ideals in India.

Evidence: "At dawn a taxi is called to ferry them through deserted Cambridge streets, up Massachusetts Avenue and past Harvard Yard, to Mount Auburn Hospital."
"In India, she thinks to herself, women go home to their parents to give birth..."
"Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment."

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Question:
Does the setting isolate characters or provide community/connections? What might that suggest and how does it impact the characters?

Answer:
The setting in the story isolates the characters. This might suggest that the characters could experience confusion or discomfort. This impacts the characters because it differs from what they are used to. Ashima has been away from home for 18 months, and life in New England is different from what she's used to in India. In the text, Ashima isn't used to the idea of being in a hospital away from her family when giving birth.

Evidence:

"Ashima thinks it’s strange that her child will be born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to die."

"In India, she thinks to herself, women go home to their parents to give birth, away from husbands and in-laws and household cares, retreating briefly to childhood when the baby arrives"

"That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare."

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Question: Does the setting isolate characters or provide community / connections? What might that suggest and how does it impact the characters?

The setting, which takes place in America, isolates the characters Ashima Ganguli and her husband Ashoke Ganguli from each other and within the community. To start off, Ashima and Ashoke were arranged by their parents to marry one another and set off to live in America. Moving to a foreign country with an arranged partner creates an almost non-existent relationship as shown in the excerpt. The two are in each other’s presence yet mentally so alone. Additionally, the setting at the hospital provides another example of how isolated Ashima and Ashoke are to America and American culture. While in the hospital room, Ashima lists how public Americans are with affection, inferring that her culture is 180 and remains very reserved.

Evidence: “It’s not the type of thing Bengali wives do. Like a kiss or caress in a Hindi movie, a husband’s name is something intimate and therefore unspoken, cleverly patched over.”

“They smoke cigarettes, ashing onto the floor. Ashoke is indifferent to such indulgences. He neither smokes nor drinks alcohol of any kind. Ashima is the one who
keeps all their addresses, in a small notebook she carries in her purse. It has never occurred to him to buy his wife flowers.”

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Samira Bregeth (be sure to put your name)

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Samira Bregeth (be sure to put your name)

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Question:
Is the location rural or urban? What is the impact of this?

My Answer: Here is where I'd add my answer. If someone else already answered this question, I'd acknowledge their answer and add more info, too.

Evidence: Here is where I'd copy/paste direct evidence from the story to support my answer above.

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Question: When authors deliberately emphasize specific elements (through repetitious references, in-depth descriptions, emphasis of specific elements, or telling details (like diction or imagery), what might be implied about the setting, characters, or theme(s) through those choices?

The author emphasizes both Ashima emotional attachment to India and her past with repetition. Most of the story takes place in the memories both characters created in India. What leads Ashima to look back at the past in multiple instances is when she sees something of significance and connects it to a moment she experienced in India. This is a common instance throughout the story when she lives in the moment, observes an object she sees, and is taken back to a time it reminds her of, almost as if she’s going in and out of consciousness. This repetition gives readers insight to how important India is to her and the cultural significance it has.

Evidence: “Ashima looks up from a tattered copy of Desh magazine that she’d brought to read on her plane ride to Boston and still cannot bring herself to throw away.”

“There is a pen-and-ink drawing on page eleven by her father, an illustrator for the
magazine: a view of the North Calcutta skyline sketched from the roof of their flat one foggy January morning.”

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Question: What geographic locations are present? Are some more prominent than others? Why? How are the events and characters impacted by various locations?

India and America are the geographic locations present in the excerpt. India is where Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli are from, and America is where they moved to. Though they are physically in America, India is extremely prominent in the story. Everyday, the characters are constantly reminded of India in the different objects they encounter. They’re constantly living in their memories which is shared with readers as we can read their thoughts, therefore India is the geographic location with the greatest impact on the story.

Evidence: “1968 On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl.”

“Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms throughout India, spilling from newspaper cones.”

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Question: Is there a specific historical situation or “backdrop” that is influencing the story (directly or indirectly)? If so, what impact(s) might this have?

The backdrop influencing the story is life back in India. The amount of time Ashima spends reminiscing is what continues the story. As she goes through labor, readers are informed of her past and how she got to her current situation. Her watch that reminds her of her times in India also shows how much the past has impacted her present. The memories that showcase her culture help contrast the culture of America and how it isolates her from everyone else.

Evidence: “The tip of her thumb strikes each rung of the brown ladders etched onto the backs of her fingers, then stops at the middle of the third: it is nine and a half hours ahead in Calcutta, already evening, half past eight. In the kitchen of her parents’ flat on Amherst Street, at this very moment,”