September 16, 2009

READ:

1. RF Chapters 4 & 5. Guiding questions below.

2. Thumb through pages. 49 - 51 of Hacker.

WRITE: Formal Essay #3: Literary Analysis Essay: Please provide at least one direct quotation from the novel in your answer. Do not worry about citing it. Answer the following question: Chapter 5 is the turning point of RF. By the end of this chapter, the reader is forced to consider a sudden change in perspective about Changez. Write an essay that does the following:

1. assesses your reaction to Changez's views at the end of Chapter 5.

2. describes your initial reaction to his reaction, and then your perspective on his reaction after some reflection: are you empathetic, angry, understanding, sad? Why?

3. discusses what you perceive the future will hold for Changez (if you already read the novel, discuss how this moment is a catalyst for the changes to Changez).

Chapter 4:

1. How does Changez’s story of how he got his scar reveal some of his biases against America? (46-47) (a couple of possible answers here)

2. How, in the pre-9/11 days in NYC, did the narrator feel riding the subways dressed in a white kurta? (48) (look up kurta if you need to)

3. Where does Erica live? What other association does Changez make with her apartment type? (49)

4. What is Erica referring to when she says, “It’s done”? (53)

5. What comparison does Changez make when he comments that alcohol is illegal in Pakistan? (53-54)

6. How does Changez reply to the American when he asks if drinking is considered a sin in Islam? What did they—at that moment—understand about each other’s cultures? (54)

7. Back to NY and dinner at Erica’s, what happens that annoys Changez? (54-55)

8. Later that evening, Changez fails to make conversation with the cap driver he knows is Pakistani. How are the two incidents related? (55-56)

9. What intimacies do we learn about Erica in chapter 4? How is there relationship changing? (55-61)

10. Back to Lahore, how does the American react to the lights going out? How does Changez react? What animal does Changez compare the American to? How is this amusing? (60-61)

Chapter 5:

1. What does the American find “creepy”? How does the narrator react? (62)

2. Why is the narrator so impressed with bats? (63)

3. Why is the narrator impressed that the American has been to the Philippines? (64)

4. Why is the narrator uncomfortable with the wealth he sees in the Philippines? (64-65)

5. What does the narrator do in the Philippines that he had never done before? (65)

6. What examples does the narrator offer to show he was “acting American”? (65)

7. What does the narrator feel as he walks around the factory floor when he was working in the Philippines? (66)

8. What do you think is going on between the driver of the jeepney (like a jitney or small bus) and the narrator? (67-68)

9. Why does the narrator find it hard to sleep that night? (68)

10. What does Jim mean when he calls Changez a “shark”? (70)

11. Why does Jim think that he and Changez are alike? (70-71)

12. What was Changez’s initial reaction to seeing the World Trade Center collapse on Filipino TV? (72)

13. How does the American react when the narrator makes this admission? (72)

14. How does the narrator explain why he smiled? (73)

15. What reminds the narrator of the human cost of 9/11? (74)

16. How was Changez treated on the flight back to New York compared with his colleagues (74-75)

17. What is the narrator hoping to hear from the American at the end of Chapter 5? (76)