1. a. First, define the following literary terms: theme, motif, and symbol.
b. Next, select five items from list below, designate each item as a theme, a
motif, or a symbol, and explain how each chosen item operates in a story by
Kipling (The White Man’s Burden, The Man Who Would be King”; “Wee Willie Winkle; “Without Benefit of the Clergy))
Rushdie (The Courter, the Prophets Hair)
or Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies, “Mr. Sens” and “This Blessed House”, “The Treatment of Bibi Halder” and “The Third and Final Continent”)
Communication and its Absence The Pit of Imperialism Food
Sunglasses The Prophet’s Hair Marriage The Immigrant Experience
Inevitable Tragedy of Anglo/Indian Relationships Camera Game of Chess
Names of Characters Western Pop Culture Daniel’s Decapitation
2. a. What is one thing that makes studying Rudyard Kipling a bit of a conundrum? How does the author appears less problematic in his short fiction?
b. Briefly compare/contrast Kipling’s and Orwell’s views of British Imperialism as
presented in Kipling’s poems “The White Man’s Burden” and “Gunga Dun” and in
Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant.”
3. Answer five of the following quotations. Identify the speaker of the quote, the title of the work, the author, and provide a couple of brief interpretative comments explaining the significance of the quotation to the larger work.
a. “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din”
b. “You’re sexy.”
c. “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own
freedom that he destroys.”
d. “Eliot, if I began to scream right now at the top of my lungs, would someone hear me?”
e. “That you and me, while this matter is being, look at any Liquor, nor any Woman
black, white, or brown, so as to get mixed up with one or the other harmful”
f. ‘Ven I won’t…But my faver says it’s un-man-ly to br always kissing, and I didn’t fink
you’d do vat, Coppy.”
g. “Then I looked up and saw a head peering down into the amphitheatre—the head of Dunnoo, my dog-boy who attended my clothes. As soon as he had attracted by attention, he held up his hand and showed a rope.”
4. a. Define diaspora. How does this term apply to Lahiri’s work?
b. What is a short-story cycle? Consider how Lahiri’s collection Interpreter of
Maladies fit the description of this literary categorization.
c. Elaborate on one of the examples you considered in part b above.
d. Finally, explain how the title of the collection characterizes the sorts of stories found within the collection.
5. a. Define magical realism.
b. To which story does this term apply and what is one example of magical realism in the text?
c. In “The Courter,” discuss several ways that the author insists upon hybridity.
6. Discuss the depiction of gender roles in two of Kipling’s stories or two of Lahiri’s stories.
To what degree does the text criticize prevalent gender stereotypes and to what degree do they reinforce them?
Choose EITHER two female OR two male characters from the texts as examples for
your discussion. Dedicate a paragraph to each character.
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