Genre
a collection of short stories
Setting and Context
Place: various through the stories, includes: USA, Canada, India, Germany; Time: towards the end of 20th century
Narrator and Point of View
In some stories the narrator is third-person omniscient while in others the narrator is the main character first-person.
Tone and Mood
Tone: questioning, speculative
Mood: depressed, contemplative
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists vary through the stories, but it could be summed up to the protagonist being immigrants in western world; Antagonist: struggles that come with being an immigrant
Major Conflict
Immigrants, mostly from India or Middle East, coming to America (or western countries) in search of a better life
Climax
Immigrants accepting the new way of life; in "A Wife's Story" the process of this acceptance is beautifully described with insults to the culture they came from being a part of that
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
In the story "The Tenant" Maya understates the intentions of her creepy tenant. She believes that he has a sort of perverse hatred for her but it turns out that he only wants her out because he is ready to remarry.
Allusions
Allusions to English poets: In the story "Buried Lives" allusion to Matthew Arnold; in the story "Fighting for the Rebound" allusion to William Butler Yeats.
Imagery
Imagery of clothing
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
"First you don't exist.
Then you're invisible.
Then you're funny.
Then you're disgusting."
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
"Where did America go? I want to know. Down the rabbit hole, Doc Healy used to say. Alice knows, but she took it with her."
