Assignment on Analysis of the Literary Work

Book: When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine

            Every story has its own themes to portray for its readers, but it is also up to the choice of readers, how they take those ideas and themes. Moreover, every story can have its own cultural and social context, which may be narrated differently, and it may be understood differently by the readers. In this story, the author has tried to cover different themes, where she has tried to show the understanding of the world from adults’ perspective, but then she also tried to give a version of a child to show, how a child sees things around him/her. The narrator of the story is 10 years girl, Lilia, who is the daughter of a couple, who is Indian American, came from India and settled in America. The story is happening in the period of 1971 when the world was observing a civil war in the sub-continent between India and Pakistan, and different events were happening. Lilia reminds of Mr. Pirzada, who used to come to their home every night for dinner. It is one of the themes of the story, which throws light on the lives of people, who have migrated to other countries, and living a life different than their homeland. It is obvious, when people leave their homeland, the life changes in every context for them, and for their children (Iwamoto and Liu)

            This is what is narrated in the story, as Lilia is a child, who does not have an understanding level of the world, as an adult can have, so she looks at things with her own perspective. Like, she thinks that Mr. Pirzada comes from the same kind of social and religious background, which is contained by her parents. It means that a child is not able to distinguish people on the basis of their overall social status and getup. Mr. Pirzada was a Muslim man from Dacca, a part of Pakistan, going through a civil war, where Lilia’s family belongs to Hindu religions, and they came from India. The other interesting thing to look at in this story is the change in cultural and social background. Lilia was having its time in America, where she was also going to her school. The story reveals that Lilia knows a lot of things about America and its culture, as this is what she learns from her school. But when it comes to her own native country, India; she knows nothing. It is quite strange to learn that someone does not know about her native country, but she knows a lot about a country, where they have migrated. But it is quite obvious to happen, especially for growing children, who are trying to get an understanding of the world around them. It is obvious when a child will grow in a different society, where things are much different than the native land, and then the child will start learning about the culture, where he/she is growing. And this is the case with Lilia as well.

            It is evident that Lilia is having a better understanding of America as compared to India. Even it was narrated in the story that when her father found out about her ignorance regarding India, he was not happy. But then her mother comes to defend her by saying that they are now living in the United States, so there is no need to have knowledge of India with all of its food scarcity, riots, and curfews. For many, this statement will be a shock, like how someone can think like this about her country, but the bitter reality is that when people flee out of their developing world and experience the better system of the developed world, they want to forget about their native land, where life was much more difficult. However, in the same story, the role of Lilia’s father also shows that wherever people go, they keep their love relationship with their land, at least in their hearts. Lilia’s father certainly missed his country and people, and that’s why he made an effort to find someone, who comes from the same region, and then he found Mr. Pirzada, who also came from sub-continent. It also shows that people do miss their culture and native land when they start living in a foreign land (The Economist)

            One more thing, which is being narrated in this story, is the connection of people of sub-continent with their land and people. It was mentioned earlier that Lilia’s father had some feelings for his homeland and culture, and that’s why he found Mr. Pirzada and invited to a dinner at his home as they shared similar kind of culture, social background, as well as, similar language. The same is the case with Mr. Pirzada, who knows that a civil war is happening in his country, and that’s why he was worried about his family. It is vital to mention here that the wife and seven daughters of Mr. Pirzada were living in East Pakistan, and he was worried about their safety. The other worrisome part was that he was not able to get in touch with them. So, he was really worried about them, as well as, for his homeland, and praying that everything goes well. It again shows that when people leave their homeland for any reason like to earn something better or to settle in a better and developed country, but they are not able to forget their country. This thing is more strongly associated with the people of the sub-continent, who tend to leave their land to find better opportunities, but they also miss their people, land, and culture. This family union with Mr. Pirzada is evidence, how they wanted to connect with each other (Lahiri)

            This social connection between Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s family got stronger with the passage of time. He used to bring candies for Lilia, and she loved this gesture by Mr. Pirzada. His daily visit for a dinner at their home created a unique connection in the mind of Lilia. Especially, when she came to know that Mr. Pirzada’s family is stuck in a war zone, and he is worried about his wife and seven daughters. To show her care and love for Mr. Pirzada and his family, she used to eat candy every night before bed, thinking about the safety of Mr. Pirzada’s family. This was her innocent way of showing care for others. It shows the innocence of a child, how she developed her own way of living and connecting with others. It is true that Lilia was becoming an American, but she has a heart, which still feels for the pain and miseries of others. She was not thinking like her mother, who uttered the very strict word for her homeland India, and showed that she won't have a soft heart maybe. But Lilia was different in her approach, and she was having a pity feeling for Mr. Pirzada and his family.

            The story also comes with a theme that children are so different when it comes to looking at social, cultural, or political perspectives. They don’t see things by keeping these contexts in view; rather they have their view of the world, which is quite different from the view of the world contained by adults. An adult does look at the above-mentioned perspectives when he/she tries to get an understanding of the world around, but Lilia’s understanding of the world was based on love and humanity, rather having a basis on cultural, social, and political backgrounds. So, an idea of a better world is being narrated in the story, where people should connect and socialize with each other regardless of their social background and nationality. That’s why; this story was very simple in its themes and narration because it did not come up with any complex ideas to understand. The story is simple to show the daily life of a family living in America, who left their own country to live a better life. This family may have a lot of other things to do if they were in India, but their life in America was so different (Lahiri)

            It can be concluded in the end that when people leave their native countries and settle in other developed countries, they have to experience so many changes in the pattern of their lives. Nothing is similar to life, which they spent in their homelands. They also miss their own culture and people, and that’s why, Mr. Pirzada went back to his native land, and wrote a letter to Lilia’s family, which revealed that his family remained safe during the war, and he has been reunited with his family; his wife and seven daughters. The social connection between Mr. Pirzada was there at the end of the story as well, which was created during his stay in America. It was the first night after learning about the safety of Mr. Pirzada’s family that Lilia did not eat candy, as she thought, now; there is no need for that. However, the overall story depicts a life-changing experience of people becoming foreigners in other countries and having a different taste of life in so many ways (Lahiri)

Works Cited of Analysis of the Literary Work

Iwamoto, Derek Kenji and William Ming Liu. "The Impact of Racial Identity, Ethnic Identity, Asian Values and Race-Related Stress on Asian Americans and Asian International College Students’ Psychological Well-Being." J Couns Psychol. 57.1 (2010): 79–91.

Lahiri, Jhumpa . Interpreter of Maladies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000.

The Economist. Why children’s lives have changed radically in just a few decades. 2019. 2 May 2020 <https://www.economist.com/special-report/2019/01/03/why-childrens-lives-have-changed-radically-in-just-a-few-decades>.