Mrs. Sen's part two

" It's delicious," she would conclude, setting down the plate after a bite or two. Eliot knew she didn't like the tastes;she'd told him once in the car...She sat at the table as he ate, drinking more wine and asking how his day was, but eventually she went to the deck to smoke a cigarette, leaving Eliot to wrap up the leftovers." This quote characterizes Eliot's mother. She lies to Mrs. Sen, which shows she's fake. She's not a maternal figure. Smoking cigarettes shows she doesn't care what kind of example she sets for her son. Leaving her young child to clean up the leftovers by himself is selfish of her. She is not acting like the adult. The characterization of Eliot's mother is so important because it is a foil for Mrs. Sen who is completely opposite, she is maternal and warm. The immaturity and selfishness of his mother highlights the warmth and maternal instincts of Mrs. Sen.

Mrs. Sen's

"And thats all in India?' 'Yes,' Mrs. Sen replied. The mention of the word seemed to release something in her...She too looked around the room, as if she noticed in the lampshades, in the teapot,in the shadows frozen on the carpet, something the rest of them could not. 'Everything is there." Here the author is portraying the emptiness that Mrs. Sen feels in America and how she longs to go back to her home. Lahiri portrays this this through the cold diction and imagery. Lahiri uses words such as frozen to show the coldness of her new home. The word shadows creates a feeling of emptiness and things that are behind us, remanent of what things once were. Representative of the good life Mrs. Sen had in India. The word "everything," when used by Mrs. Sen is meaningful because while in America she has objects and even her husband if she thinks that "Everything" is left in India then she does not care about anything in American in her new home.

Sexy

"Tell me something,what does it mean, that word sexy?" ..."It means loving someone you don't know." This is what Rohin, Miranda's coworkers son, tells Miranda. This is significant because his answer describes Miranda's affair with a married man. She feels so connected to him and her world revolves around the little time he can spend with her yet they are not a part of each others everyday life. Even though they know each other intimately they don't truly know each other on a deeper level. The choice of the word sexy is vital to the theme of the story because of it's different meanings and the effects of it's use by different characters. When Dev tells Miranda she is sexy in the mapparium Miranda felt happy and excited and loved. However when Rohin describes being sexy Miranda feels numb as she realizes how empty her affair with Dev was.