Chitra Divakaruni Essays (Examples)

33 that she and her husband saved together (Albert 99). Her husband, a proprietor of a 7-11 in a dangerous neighborhood, has worked hard for the family to establish a foothold in American society, and to leave his dream behind her seems like a defeat and a betrayal of his memory, as well as betrayal of her new identity.
hen her husband dies, Sumita knows that to return to India will mean a regression for herself as an individual as well as a loss of her husband's dreams. Sumita calls widows who are serving their in-laws in India doves with cutoff wings, reflecting her own fear of losing her newfound freedom. By using her marriage as a springboard for independence, even after it ends, the author shows how Sumita is engaged in "the strenuous balancing act of having one foot in one country, the other foot in another" (Prose 20). Her…

Peter Singer and Chitra Divakaruni each offer a powerful commentary on world poverty. Both of their respective essays, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" and "Live Free and Starve" demonstrate good writing skills and rhetoric are therefore worthy pieces for inclusion into any book club. However, of the two authors only Divakaruni has first-hand experience of poverty. Singer's argument, while more shocking and powerful than Divakaruni's, falls short because of his lack of personal credibility and his over-reliance on making the reader feel guilty.
According to Australian author Peter Singer, We live in a cold and heartless world. The analogies in his essay "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" bluntly suggest that we in the Western world are guilty of crimes against humanity simply by not donating $200 or more each month to charitable organizations. His first story is based on a Brazilian movie called Central Station. The protagonist in the…

find me a quiet, pretty girl, he wrote, not brash, like Calcutta girls are nowadays, not with too many western ideas. Someone who would be relieved to have her husband make the major decisions. But she had to be smart, at least a year of college, someone he could introduce to his friends with pride (Divakaruni).

This quotation shows how superficial and self-absorbed the narrator is. He does not desire an equal, or even someone he is compatible with. He wants a mate who will not oppose him ("quiet"), traditional, and who will not embarrass him in front of his friends due to an inferior intellect. This "pride" the author has referenced is truly the downfall of the narrator, who proves extremely dull-witted for believing if a woman can fulfill those limited requirements denoted in this quotation that she will love him, or stay with him. This quote also proves how…

The characters in the poem are enjoying an Indian movie with a simple plot that makes them cry and feel good among themselves although for as long as the film was running, they have returned to their Indian identity completely loosing their American features.
The two authors share the same revelation that came later in life and made them write the two respective literature pieces. but, while Divakaruni is writing in a manner that presents things in the light of a lightly self mockery, although the topic remains as serious as possible, Liu describes what appears to be a crisis. Despite of his life achievements, he places himself among those who needs to find the contact with reality by going back to his roots, but is not capable to do it anymore. The second generation Chinese-American boy cannot be both Chinese and American, but at the end of his writing,…

Clothes
Do Clothes Make the Woman?

Clothes, Silence, and Rebirth in Chitra B. Divakaruni's short story entitled "Clothes"

Chitra B. Divakaruni's short story entitled "Clothes" begins in India and ends in the Indian community of America. However, Divakaruni clearly hopes to impart in the readers' mind a more universal lesson than one confined to the central protagonist Sumita's immediate cultural context, despite the many details present in the tale that are particular to the Indian community Divakaruni chronicles. Rather, the main idea of "Clothes" is how clothes symbolize the status of women, and specifically how women's visual rather than verbal display defines female status in traditional and modern contexts. The author first uses the cultural symbolism of clothing in a wedding setting to demonstrate specifically how women in India are seen as visual displays, rather than thinking human beings. Secondly, the author uses the literary symbolism of Sumita biting her tongue on…