Distance-Learning Practice I: Questions

Earth, “Gainda” and “Honour”

* This file is not to provide information, but to stimulate you to think more actively.

General Questions

What are the common themes among the three texts? Children’s experience (initiation), class differences, sex a

nd marriage, the year 1947, radicalization of one’s belief (Shamshad and the men in Earth).

What do you feel about learning from lecture videos? Can you focus and what are the ways/strategies you take to focus your attention and think actively?

What do you feel about the gaps in the videos (when you can not hear what the student

s said)? What do you feel about watching your school sisters and brother

s?

Earth: Key Words

Race and Cultural Differences; main symbols; Filmic techniques (contrast and main

colors) The roles of children and women.

Characters across the Racial Divide

Character Names: Dil Navaz -- the Ice Candy Man, Shanta -- the Ayah (played by Nandita Das);  Hassan -- the Masseur,the Sethna family -- Bunty, Lenny; Singh –the Sikh. Compare the characters of Hassen and Dil Navaz. Discuss Dil Navaz’s changes in the film. Why do think

the original novel is subtitled The Ice Candy Man? What do you think about the betrayal at the end of the

film?

The Roles of Women and Children

1. The child bride (untouchable) saved by marrying a Christian dwarf;

2. The Muslim refugee child (clip 14)

3. Shenta

4. Lenny: unhappy birthday; breaking plate and doll, nightmare

The Role of British Empire

Independence: Ironies

Partition: Violence

Partition: an Interpretation

Is it correct?

Race Relations: the Role of Sikh

The differences between Hassen and Dil Navaz

Refugee Muslim Child: wanting to play marble, not knowing what a cake is

Climax: what do they each see and feel?

Gainda: Key Words & Questions

the bride’s game Dulhan-Dulhan the narrator and Mewa, Gainda and Bhaiyya the contrast between the narrator’s life, the birth

experience of Bahu, and that of Gainda; Ending: the narrator’s growth and realization. Q: Experience of Growth: Do you have experien

ce of envying your older siblings or friends who are more physically mature—and or wanting to win the attention of the other sex?

Honor: a victim of Purdah system

symbol: bathroom; the internalization of the purdah/honour sy

stem in Shamshad; Her views of her cousin Aziz; of the family deaths; of Aziz’s attempt to help; of Kallo Bai and Aziz’s death; of having to work first as an ayah, and then a ‘h

ouse-keeper.’