"The Third And Final Continent"
Before Reading:
Anticipation Guide
During Reading:
Reading Guide Questions
Full Text
Summary:
This story follows an ordinary and simple Indian guy as he travels three different continents. Set in 1969, the short story provides brief glimpses into the lives of three very different individuals: the narrator, Mrs. Croft and Mala. As an immigrant the U.S., the narrator has to learn to adapt to the customs of a new continent. He has the opportunity to board for a short time with an elderly woman (103 years old) Ms. Croft. Her dress and manner are all out of fashion and she is perpetually astounded by the lunar landing. She remonstrates the narrator for his timidness and makes him proclaim that the event is "Splendid!" The narrator's arranged marriage with Mala also is a feature of the short story. Mala adapts to her new home and husband much more slowly and her Sari (Indian dress) and cooking all present a challenge of integration versus celebration of one's ethnic identity. In class, we will read and discuss significant passages, as well as discuss the nature of courage as it pertains to the "immigrant experience."
Analysis: The Immigrant Experience in America
This travel story follows a young Indian man from Calcutta as he travels from his home to London, England and then to Boston, Massachusetts. Interestingly enough, we never learn the narrator's name...only the ladies in his life. Mrs. Croft is a fierce old lady who rents a room to him in Boston before he finds a larger apartment for he and his arranged wife, Mala. Dress is an important motif that develops the stark cultural divides that characterize cultural and social assimilation. In flashbacks we learn about the narrator's mother and how she died in a fragile and broken state of mind. It seems to be a powerful memory that propels the narrator to define himself in a new and strange land. This reconciliation between memory and self-identity comes full circle at the end of the story when the narrator passes his own memory to his son.
Anticipation Guide
During Reading:
Reading Guide Questions
Full Text
Summary:
This story follows an ordinary and simple Indian guy as he travels three different continents. Set in 1969, the short story provides brief glimpses into the lives of three very different individuals: the narrator, Mrs. Croft and Mala. As an immigrant the U.S., the narrator has to learn to adapt to the customs of a new continent. He has the opportunity to board for a short time with an elderly woman (103 years old) Ms. Croft. Her dress and manner are all out of fashion and she is perpetually astounded by the lunar landing. She remonstrates the narrator for his timidness and makes him proclaim that the event is "Splendid!" The narrator's arranged marriage with Mala also is a feature of the short story. Mala adapts to her new home and husband much more slowly and her Sari (Indian dress) and cooking all present a challenge of integration versus celebration of one's ethnic identity. In class, we will read and discuss significant passages, as well as discuss the nature of courage as it pertains to the "immigrant experience."
This travel story follows a young Indian man from Calcutta as he travels from his home to London, England and then to Boston, Massachusetts. Interestingly enough, we never learn the narrator's name...only the ladies in his life. Mrs. Croft is a fierce old lady who rents a room to him in Boston before he finds a larger apartment for he and his arranged wife, Mala. Dress is an important motif that develops the stark cultural divides that characterize cultural and social assimilation. In flashbacks we learn about the narrator's mother and how she died in a fragile and broken state of mind. It seems to be a powerful memory that propels the narrator to define himself in a new and strange land. This reconciliation between memory and self-identity comes full circle at the end of the story when the narrator passes his own memory to his son.