Welcome, my friends, to our Brooklyn College Core 10.01 class blog. Hopefully, this will be a place where we can all learn from one another. Be honest, be inquisitive, be challenging.
Leah Armout- Levy Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs - Close Reading
“ It is probably snowing later today.” Aunt says. “ That’s wonderful! You know, I’ve only seen snow in movies! It always looked so pretty and delicate. I didn’t think I’d get to see any this late in the year…” Aunt pulls her shapeless coat tighter around her. “It is not that great,” she says. Her tone is regretful, as though she is sorry to disillusion me. “It melts inside the collar of your jacket and drips down your back. Cars are skidding when it turns to ice. And see how it looks like afterward…” she kicks at the brown slush on the side of the road with a force that surprises me. (Divakaruni, 78)
This quote, taken from Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs by Chitra Divakaruni, is part of the dialogue that takes place during Jayanati and her Aunt’s walk. It is a quote that especially caught my eye and that I feel has many hidden depths and meanings that go beyond the surface of the passage. First we see that Divakaruni chose the late winter season to be the time of year that the story took place. The time of year that Jayanati comes to America is the time where it’s still cold but getting nicer every day. One reason why Divakaruni might have chosen to start the story during cold weather is so that Jayanati’s first impression of America would be a cold place. This can show the reader what America was like for her Aunt and Uncle. To them it was a cold place. Another reason could be to further contrast the life in India versus the American life that Aunt and Uncle are living. In India it’s hot and dry as opposed to America, where its cold and snowy- moist. The passage begins with her aunt saying that it will probably snow today. To this we see two different responses. One is Jayanati’s response to snow and the other is the aunt’s. To Jayanati snow is ‘wonderful’ news. She describes snow as looking pretty and elegant. She gives it a kind of fragile, beautiful, and attractive image. Something almost magical and special. We see throughout the story that this is the kind of picture that Jayanati has painted for herself. She has certain images in her head from movies, magazine, pictures, etc. that she expects America to be like. (Other examples are the apartment- she thought it was going to look a certain way but it didn’t. also her imagination about the professor- she was doing things like she’s seen on TV.) The opposite reaction to snow is that of her aunt. She simply starts with “ It is not that great.” This seems to be a sorry-to-bust-your-bubble kind of answer to Jayanti. Divakaruni describes her tone as “regretful,” as if to say I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you this. Then her aunt lists some reasons why it’s not the greatest thing. One reason is that when it snows it melts inside the collar of your jacket and drips down your back. Two is that card skid on it when it turns to ice. And third is how it looks afterward- all dirty. In my opinion, since the author already connected the cold to America and life in America as opposed to India, I would like to suggest that the aunt’s reaction and the problems that are being laid out here through snow can also be broadened to problems that her and her husband had in America as a whole. There has to be a reason why she specifically chose these three reasons as to why snow wasn’t so great. The word ‘regretful’ could not only mean that she regrets having crushed Jayanati’s ideas but that she sometimes regrets coming to America altogether. The word regret to me is associated with regrets about life and having wished one had done things differently. The first problem was that snow melts inside the collar of a person’s jacket and drips down his or hers back. Throughout the story this recurring idea of the Uncle’s scar keeps on coming up. In the beginning when she first meets him she notices this scar that runs up the side of his neck and points out that she hadn’t noticed it in the picture from the wedding. It could be that here Aunt Pratima is referring to America as the cause of her husband’s scar. My guess is that he got it when they broke into his shop and started a fire. So just like the snow melts on to you and trickles all the way down your back leaving this wet feeling, the American life had melted down her husbands neck leaving a scar and this feeling of hate. The second problem is that snow turns into ice, which causes cars to skid. I interpreted this problem to imply that America can be a very icy and slippery place for immigrants and it is very easy for them to slip and fall but it’s not so easy to pick oneself up. Also if something were to happen it would be very unexpected and all of a sudden just like a car that skids it’s a very sudden event. There is a notion of slipperiness and unsteadiness that is being shown. And being that her husband is a car mechanic, especially the ideas of cars skidding can mean their livelihood and income skidding also. The third and most important reason is how snow looks after the beauty of it falling. It becomes dirty and brown. It turns into slush, which has a very muddy and grimy connotation. This is her aunt saying sure it looks all great and beautiful at the beginning but afterwards it turns into slush and it gets you dirty just like America. She thought she was coming to an amazing life but it wasn’t all that great when they got there. Also relating to her husband, we are always told by Jayanati that her uncle is always dirty and greasy and slimy which could relate to the slush as well. The last line is the most interesting. “She kicks at the brown slush on the side of the road with a force that surprises me.” This can sum it up for us. Aunt Pratima is kicking the brown slush. It’s as if she is kicking America in the face while saying “ha- you are nothing more that dirt.” And the fact that she does it with force shows her possession of power for the short time being. Where she is letting all her frustrations and regrets about her life out and seizing power for a while, no matter how short of a time it was.
Thank you, Leah, for posting your close reading. Very well done. I'm interested if you think that distinction between the "brown" snow and the "white snow" is important in terms of race, or perception of race. Think that Oprah show, right? Is it significant that the "brown" snow is "dirty" and a figure for dissillusionment? Maybe, maybe not.
In a story about the beginning of a new life, a girl from Calcutta finds transition of life to America different than expected. With the prospect of living the rich life, she finds that her extended family lives quite simply and her uncle is even quite bitter about this fact. His bitterness, in contrast to her aunt’s more positive and accepting outlook, leaves bitter feelings regarding his view on overall society. At one point the author symbolically points this out. The girl says “I look beyond Uncle’s head at the window. All I can see is a dark rectangle. But I know the sky outside is filled with strange and beautiful stars” (Divakaruni). In this instance the author seems to create a sense of negativity toward the uncle. The author describes him through the girl’s point of view as one that is directly in front of a dark rectangle in the window. This dark rectangle may very well signify darkness in a pessimistic way. There quite possibly can be a binary created in which dark and light are distinguished and manifested through different views on America. The girl, quite contrary to her uncle, looks toward the positives of the opportunities that the country has to offer and sees the strange and beautiful stars that are in her uncle’s dark rectangle. These stars are the bright spots in the darkness, and even exist in the very same sky that the uncle’s darkness is representing, yet she sees them and he does not. This character difference may be shown similarly through each individual character portrayal. The uncle is shown as one who is not as attractive, rich, or successful as he was originally envisioned to be by the girl. He is one who has sub ceded his expectation, and therefore may possibly be the portrayal as the general negativity throughout this story. The girl on the other hand, is one that is an attractive girl who is strong willed smart, and planning to attend a coveted university in her new city. This identity associated with positive traits, may be a continued character description much deeper than physical description alone. The overall attitude and portrayal is much more than simple financial situation or physical stature, it is an overall character depiction, in which class is simply a tool to describe the overall positive or negative attitudes of the characters. The author seems to describe certain things not by actual definite physical boundaries but rather by their representations. This would be a possible outlook on the story as a whole, in which the setting and characters are merely pieces in an otherwise symbolic tale. The story could be one in which there is exploration in to human psyche deeper than is the surface depiction of the words alone.
3 comments:
Leah Armout- Levy
Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs - Close Reading
“ It is probably snowing later today.” Aunt says.
“ That’s wonderful! You know, I’ve only seen snow in movies! It always looked so pretty and delicate. I didn’t think I’d get to see any this late in the year…”
Aunt pulls her shapeless coat tighter around her. “It is not that great,” she says. Her tone is regretful, as though she is sorry to disillusion me. “It melts inside the collar of your jacket and drips down your back. Cars are skidding when it turns to ice. And see how it looks like afterward…” she kicks at the brown slush on the side of the road with a force that surprises me. (Divakaruni, 78)
This quote, taken from Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs by Chitra Divakaruni, is part of the dialogue that takes place during Jayanati and her Aunt’s walk. It is a quote that especially caught my eye and that I feel has many hidden depths and meanings that go beyond the surface of the passage.
First we see that Divakaruni chose the late winter season to be the time of year that the story took place. The time of year that Jayanati comes to America is the time where it’s still cold but getting nicer every day. One reason why Divakaruni might have chosen to start the story during cold weather is so that Jayanati’s first impression of America would be a cold place. This can show the reader what America was like for her Aunt and Uncle. To them it was a cold place. Another reason could be to further contrast the life in India versus the American life that Aunt and Uncle are living. In India it’s hot and dry as opposed to America, where its cold and snowy- moist.
The passage begins with her aunt saying that it will probably snow today. To this we see two different responses. One is Jayanati’s response to snow and the other is the aunt’s. To Jayanati snow is ‘wonderful’ news. She describes snow as looking pretty and elegant. She gives it a kind of fragile, beautiful, and attractive image. Something almost magical and special. We see throughout the story that this is the kind of picture that Jayanati has painted for herself. She has certain images in her head from movies, magazine, pictures, etc. that she expects America to be like. (Other examples are the apartment- she thought it was going to look a certain way but it didn’t. also her imagination about the professor- she was doing things like she’s seen on TV.)
The opposite reaction to snow is that of her aunt. She simply starts with “ It is not that great.” This seems to be a sorry-to-bust-your-bubble kind of answer to Jayanti. Divakaruni describes her tone as “regretful,” as if to say I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you this. Then her aunt lists some reasons why it’s not the greatest thing. One reason is that when it snows it melts inside the collar of your jacket and drips down your back. Two is that card skid on it when it turns to ice. And third is how it looks afterward- all dirty.
In my opinion, since the author already connected the cold to America and life in America as opposed to India, I would like to suggest that the aunt’s reaction and the problems that are being laid out here through snow can also be broadened to problems that her and her husband had in America as a whole. There has to be a reason why she specifically chose these three reasons as to why snow wasn’t so great. The word ‘regretful’ could not only mean that she regrets having crushed Jayanati’s ideas but that she sometimes regrets coming to America altogether. The word regret to me is associated with regrets about life and having wished one had done things differently.
The first problem was that snow melts inside the collar of a person’s jacket and drips down his or hers back. Throughout the story this recurring idea of the Uncle’s scar keeps on coming up. In the beginning when she first meets him she notices this scar that runs up the side of his neck and points out that she hadn’t noticed it in the picture from the wedding. It could be that here Aunt Pratima is referring to America as the cause of her husband’s scar. My guess is that he got it when they broke into his shop and started a fire. So just like the snow melts on to you and trickles all the way down your back leaving this wet feeling, the American life had melted down her husbands neck leaving a scar and this feeling of hate.
The second problem is that snow turns into ice, which causes cars to skid. I interpreted this problem to imply that America can be a very icy and slippery place for immigrants and it is very easy for them to slip and fall but it’s not so easy to pick oneself up. Also if something were to happen it would be very unexpected and all of a sudden just like a car that skids it’s a very sudden event. There is a notion of slipperiness and unsteadiness that is being shown. And being that her husband is a car mechanic, especially the ideas of cars skidding can mean their livelihood and income skidding also.
The third and most important reason is how snow looks after the beauty of it falling. It becomes dirty and brown. It turns into slush, which has a very muddy and grimy connotation. This is her aunt saying sure it looks all great and beautiful at the beginning but afterwards it turns into slush and it gets you dirty just like America. She thought she was coming to an amazing life but it wasn’t all that great when they got there. Also relating to her husband, we are always told by Jayanati that her uncle is always dirty and greasy and slimy which could relate to the slush as well.
The last line is the most interesting. “She kicks at the brown slush on the side of the road with a force that surprises me.” This can sum it up for us. Aunt Pratima is kicking the brown slush. It’s as if she is kicking America in the face while saying “ha- you are nothing more that dirt.” And the fact that she does it with force shows her possession of power for the short time being. Where she is letting all her frustrations and regrets about her life out and seizing power for a while, no matter how short of a time it was.
Thank you, Leah, for posting your close reading. Very well done. I'm interested if you think that distinction between the "brown" snow and the "white snow" is important in terms of race, or perception of race. Think that Oprah show, right? Is it significant that the "brown" snow is "dirty" and a figure for dissillusionment? Maybe, maybe not.
Marc Gamss
Professor Hopes
CC 10.01
Close reading: Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs
In a story about the beginning of a new life, a girl from Calcutta finds transition of life to America different than expected. With the prospect of living the rich life, she finds that her extended family lives quite simply and her uncle is even quite bitter about this fact. His bitterness, in contrast to her aunt’s more positive and accepting outlook, leaves bitter feelings regarding his view on overall society.
At one point the author symbolically points this out. The girl says “I look beyond Uncle’s head at the window. All I can see is a dark rectangle. But I know the sky outside is filled with strange and beautiful stars” (Divakaruni). In this instance the author seems to create a sense of negativity toward the uncle. The author describes him through the girl’s point of view as one that is directly in front of a dark rectangle in the window. This dark rectangle may very well signify darkness in a pessimistic way. There quite possibly can be a binary created in which dark and light are distinguished and manifested through different views on America.
The girl, quite contrary to her uncle, looks toward the positives of the opportunities that the country has to offer and sees the strange and beautiful stars that are in her uncle’s dark rectangle. These stars are the bright spots in the darkness, and even exist in the very same sky that the uncle’s darkness is representing, yet she sees them and he does not.
This character difference may be shown similarly through each individual character portrayal. The uncle is shown as one who is not as attractive, rich, or successful as he was originally envisioned to be by the girl. He is one who has sub ceded his expectation, and therefore may possibly be the portrayal as the general negativity throughout this story.
The girl on the other hand, is one that is an attractive girl who is strong willed smart, and planning to attend a coveted university in her new city. This identity associated with positive traits, may be a continued character description much deeper than physical description alone. The overall attitude and portrayal is much more than simple financial situation or physical stature, it is an overall character depiction, in which class is simply a tool to describe the overall positive or negative attitudes of the characters.
The author seems to describe certain things not by actual definite physical boundaries but rather by their representations. This would be a possible outlook on the story as a whole, in which the setting and characters are merely pieces in an otherwise symbolic tale. The story could be one in which there is exploration in to human psyche deeper than is the surface depiction of the words alone.
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