Quote:  “She didn’t spend the time she had between rehearsals telling Jasmine how to cook and clean American-style. Mrs. Daboo did that in 16B. Mrs. Daboo would barge in with a plate of stale samosas and snoop around giving free advice on how mainstream Americans did things. As if she were dumb or something!”

Comment: What was interesting about the short story is all the subtle hints made to trying to figure out what type of historical background she should share and how much information about herself to let be known. There is tension between wanting to be modern and American but, at the same time, recognizing those immigrants like Mrs. Daboo who attempt to embrace the American way, seeming transparent and overly done to other immigrants like Jasmine. The idea within Parker’s chapter on Postcolonial and Race Studies addressed the diasporic tensions of wanting to maintain a new identity but the inevitable mixing and changes that occur with those cultures and commerce globally. 

Question: I wondered about the significance of the ending and whether or not it is supposed to be a critique of how the assimilation into American culture and way of thinking is always better than her life before. Yet, I also wonder if it is an awakening – to mix both and have an identity that is not tied to one or the other but instead above both.