Answers for the teachers page The Inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai Close reading

The students are supposed to have read the novel. The time needed to do the web quest in groups is approximately one hour. Students may choose between the three themes. The purpose of these tasks is to show the conflicting desires which come with the binary oppositions in post colonialism literature. The colonized wants to become the colonizer and betrays his own people. There is the feeling of alienation and a sense of loss. One struggles to find his own identity at the cost of others. Theme I Task A How the judge lost his identity and got a sense of loss The judge-to be lost his speech and his confidence. Loss of identity and a sense of loss

Example 1

In racist England in his time as a student the judge found he began to be mistaken for something he wasnt- a man of dignity. This accidental poise became more important than any other thing. He envied the English. He loathed Indians ( P 161). Example 2 The judge to-be saw himself through the eyes of the British as inferior

He was to find his only friend in England: Bose. They had similar inadequate clothes, similar forlornly empty rooms, similar poor native trunks. A look of recognition had passed between them at first sight, but also the assurance that they would not reveal one anothers secrets, not even to each other (P 160). Example 3 On his return to his country of origin the judge was thinking as if he was a British citizen yet he felt isolated from the same British. The judge read How to speak Hindustani since he had been posted to a part of india where he did not speak the language. He sat alone because he still felt ill at ease in the company of the English( P 162). B How Biju lost his identity and felt at a loss.

Example 1 Biju thought that all the people in the world would hate Indians (p 104) and he was left alone by Saeed who he used to consider a friend. Biju had never seen Saeed again. He had been abandoned among foreigners (P 132). Example 2

Biju delivered food to three Indian female students and overheard them talking about the favourite Indian man: She wont look at an Indian boy, she does not want a nice Indian boy whos grown up chatting with his aunties in the kitchen. She wants the Marlboro man with a Ph.D. (p 67). C The message of the writer is to find your own identity within your family . Success does not matter, neither money, but strong family ties do. Biju came back to his father, empty handed as he was robbed to the bone. For the cook the only thing what mattered was to have his son in his arms even when he was dressed in a womans gown. The judge found redemption in his granddaughter.

Theme II Task A

Binary opposition: The oppressor and the oppressed

Bijus biggest challenge in America is to get a decent job, decent accommodation, but most of all to get the Green Card and stop being an illegal. With a green card he could visit his relatives in India and return to America. He did not cope as he broke his leg. He was fired but his employer bought him a ticket home. Saeed was the one who helped him around to get a job and a place to sleep, but for the rest he learned so- called friends to disappear overnight since the shadow class of illegals was condemned to movement (p 137). Bijus biggest opponents in America are the authorities who are chasing illegals and employers who exploit their workers.

B C

Theme III Task 1 A The judge

Alienation

his Indian wife, formerly called Bela Bomanbhai, after her marriage she is called Nimi Patel.

B He expressed his suppressed anger and his victimization in racist England against his fragile wife in post colonial India. He a Cambridge educated Anglophile was angry with his wife who squatted on the toilet seat as regular Indians are used to do.

Task II A Bose, the judges only and Indian friend from his students days in England. Bose dares to speak up against discrimination while the Judge does not.

a picture of punting

C D

Cambridge, about 40 years ago, 1946 He thinks those days are awful and full of humiliation and suffering.

Characters in The Inheritance of loss: any answers are fine.

The judge The judge was thinking of his hate. P 219 His dandy puff . p 224 High caste, but poor in the eyes of the locals, living high on the mountain in a derelict house that used to belong to a Scot

The cook The cooks fake recommendations of his son (p 238) I was because of all the puddings I told the boy about(p239) Cooking up stories

Biju the cooks son Sleeping between the rats in the basement of the restaurant, the lowest level for the shadow class of illegal workers p 137 Born poor, works hard, ends up being robbed on his return to India

Mutt, the dog The dog smiled. It had an elegant snout, a bump of nobility at the top of its head, ruffly pantaloons, elaborately fringed tail .Your dog is like a film star, said Sai. May be an Audrey Hepburn, said the judge, but certainly not one of those lurid apparitions on the

Sai Misty Sai is educated. She likes reading: Even the Dalai Lama, sai had read, had a collection of war games and toy soldiers. P301 Calm and cheerful, 16 years old p 143

Gyan Descendant of Ghurka mercenary and joins a group of ethnic insurgents, 20 years old p 170 Gyan to Sai p 218 What is the point of teaching you? It is clear all you want to do is copy. COPYCAT

bazaar poster. P 45

Small and plump p116

Individual answers

Motifs Post colonial elements : the use of English language versus the use of native language. This enhances the theme of alienation. The sisters Noni and Lola in India watch the British series To the manor born and Yes, Minister. Biju sings : oh yeh ladki zara si deewani lagti hai ( p 68) to express his happiness. The void of language makes the judge to-be in England and Biju in America feel lonely and alienated. Find a quotation to illustrate the inability to speak in English for the judge-to-be, and the inability for Biju to speak in American language . The jugde to-be : but Jemubhai had barely opened his mouth for whole years and his English still had the rhythm and the form of Gujarati (p 152). Biju does not speak and is not spoken to: For entire days nobody spoke to him at all, his throat jammed with words unuttered( p 54) .

The memories and the lost dreams : the memories provide the structure of the novel and enhance the theme of conflicting desires. Find a quote of how Noni thinks of the good old days under the British.

I used to dream of becoming an archaeologist. Id go to the British Council and look at the books on King Tutankhamen.You must do it on your own, Sai (p 94). Post colonial element : the binary opposition in the love of Sai and Gyan : The desire of Sai for the love of Gyan but she is rejected by him as he thinks she is a copycat of the British: P 218 )You are like slaves, thats what you are, running after the West (p 217). In our country, the country we fight for, we are treated like slaves (P 212). The binary opposition of oppressor and victim: Biju was angry at Harish- Harry after his slipping in the kitchen :Without us living as pigs, said Biju, what business would you have? ( p250)

Symbols A Powder puff is the idea of misplaced superiority. A whitened skin refers to the white skin of the British, the colonizers. the green card represents a sense of belonging, a new identity. p 110, when one has a green card, one can travel home and return to America. One will not be chased anymore by authorities. The green card represents a desire to be rich and a desire to be near ones family as all legalized persons do. p 133 the National Geographics are symbols for Sais desire as they affected her, the feeling they created was so exquisite, the desire so painful. She felt a desire for her father she did not know and she imagined that she, too, must have the same urge for something beyond the ordinary ( p 93)

The setting
Fill in the sensory details and the mood for the following two places Place the town of Kalimpong on the Indian side of the Himalaya in 1986

Sensory details : the village is isolated in the hills; there were no streetlights in Kalimpong. It is misty and dark in the mountainous area of Kachenjuga. By the riverbank of Teesta river the water runs wild p 42. It is dark in the judges house as there is no more gas (p 2). His house is on the top isolated from other houses. Mood: there was dissatisfaction in the hills, Indian-Nepalese this time (p 12); dead-end feeling

Place

New York 1986

Sensory details : Biju rides a bike in the midst of lots of taxis and heavy buses. He works amidst a lot of people, illigals from other societies.; he works in a restaurant all of mirrors (p 180) Mood: always on the run for the authorities, Biju feels at a loss; Biju does not feel at home (p232).