English Language

From the novel The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi, I was introduced to a country and culture that I knew nothing about. You are immediately drawn into the culture of India, and the values of Indian family life. It is Mango Season and Priya returns home to tell her parents of news she knows they wont want to hear. She has become engaged to everything that they are against. Living in the United States, Priya meets an American man and falls in love. Returning home to face the sweltering summer heat, the mango harvest, and her family has consequences that she is far from prepared for. She becomes taken aback by her lack of ability to accept the cultural things that were once second nature to her. The characters are so interesting and the events that are natural to their society seem so foreign to me, making it all the more interesting. While reading I could smell the mangoes and hear each characters voices. Based on the novel, the character that I like the most is Priya. The reason why I like her is because, Priya who went to United States fall in love and engaged with an American man and she is very loyal to her fianc. We can see this when Priya went back to India during mango season to visit and tell her family something that will not pleased her family. In India, Priyas mother is arranging her marriage with an Indian man. But, Priya who is loyal to her fianc was trying to against her mothers will. Loyal is one thing that should be keep in our mind because without loyal, a relationship between two person is useless and wasting time. Priya who is loyal take her relationship with her fianc very serious and its a good thing. Other than that, Priya is obsessed with the American style and culture. We can see this when she went for shopping with her mother at Monda Market. They were buying mangoes from a mango seller and when Priyas mother eat the sliced mango with her bare hand, it digusted her different from the years before she went to United States where she eats mango with her bare hand. Apart from that, Priya also wearing sexy clothes like she always do in America. Even though she was obsessed with the American style and culture, it is still a good thing because by following the Americans style and culture, she became more mature and realized that she doesnt have to follow her familys decision to arrange her marriage
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with an Indian man when she knows that she can just refuse it. Priya is also a determined young woman where she did not want to listen to her parents about her

ELISHA PAUL PPISMP PJ/BI/BM JULY INTAKE 2009 |

English Language
marriage with an Indian man. I really admire her for being so determine and not losing hope for her relationship with Nick. From the novel, I also like Sowmya, which is Priyas cousin. I like her character because, she is a hardworking woman where she always spent her time in the kitchen doing her work and sometimes helping her parents. Other than that, she is an obedient daughter. She always listened to what her parents told her to do without complaining. Apart from that, she is very open-minded. We can see this through her conversation with Priya where she asked Priya whether she already had sex with Nick. You have had sex, right? She even asked how it feels when doing sex. We can see this from the conversation between Priya and Sowmya, does it hurt?, Does it hurt a lot the first time?. Priya and Sowmya are very close to each other and I like both of their characteristics where they give a positive sight to everyone through their characteristics. From the novel, I have chosen one theme to be elaborated which is family conflict. In this novel, the story consisted of many family conflicts which happened to Priyas family. For example, Ammama and Thatha with the rest of the family always wanted to pick the right guy or women to marry their grandchildren without their permission. Priyas arranged marriage with the guy that her mother had chosen brings conflict between Priyas and her mother. We can see this from Priyas conversation with Ma, you are not putting me through one of those cattle-seeing ceremonies. Other than that, we can see the family conflict between Neelima, Anands wife and Priyas family especially to her grandparents where they seem to dislike Neelima. We can see this from the conversation between Priya and Neelima. I mean, they treat youwell, they treat you like they dont like you. This family conflict also can be seen in the situation where Ma has an argument with Nanna. To be more specific about this theme, Ma represents the character which has contributed more conflict in the family. As I already said before, in every situation that involved family conflict, Ma always involved. The setting from this novel can be divided into three parts which are time, place
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and people. The time setting that take place in this novel is during mango season where Indian peoples starts to harvest their mangoes. Other than that, the time also takes place during the day and night. For the place setting, it takes place at Ammama and
ELISHA PAUL PPISMP PJ/BI/BM JULY INTAKE 2009 |

English Language
Thathas house where they all gathered around. Other than that, the place setting also takes place at Monda Market where Priya and Ma went to buy mangoes, and at Priyas house. Other than that, it also takes place at the airport of United States, City Hyederabad a vegetables shop, Juice shop, at Minerva, a restaurant which serves Indian food, in the kitchen at Ammamas house and at the Chaat or al so known as a small restaurant. Apart from that, the peoples setting that takes place in the novel is the Indian society and some American like Nick and his mother. Like any other novels, this novel also contributes moral values which allow readers to look fixedly towards the values in the novel and relate it with their lifes. The moral values that can be seen in the novel are we must have our respect towards our parents and people that is older than us. Even if they have made a bad request or done something without getting our permission, we must respect them. Other than that, the novel also teaches us to be more caring to the peoples that we love. For example, Nanna shows that he care for Priya by telling her to wash the glass filled with frothy greenish brown juice properly to avoid any germs and bacteria. We must also amend ourselves. For example, Priya tries to make an amends to herself as she didnt mean to raise her voice to the rest of the family. This novel not just giving us the experiences and knowledge about Indian and its culture but it also has given us many good examples of life that we havent met or experience it ourselves. By reading this novel, we can be even mature than we are before as it gives us chance to look back to our own life and the life they have in India.

ELISHA PAUL PPISMP PJ/BI/BM JULY INTAKE 2009 |