Read “Kavitha and Mustafa,” by Shobha Rao in The Best American Short Stories 2015.
Respond to the prompt below in a 200-300 word response. Please refer to Plus / Check / Minus criteria for Reading Responses for guidelines on how to frame your response.
Prompt:
- Why does Kavitha choose to leave the train with Mustafa?
- In order to answer this question, choose one or two images from the story. Your answer should be based entirely on these images.
- First cite the image.
- Then, deconstruct the image, and talk about how it helps answer the question of why Kavitha leaves with Mustafa. Look at specific words in the passage you choose. What kind of feeling does the image give off? What meanings can you discover beneath the surface of the picture that is being created.
- If you feel you have said all you can about one image and you are below 200 words, repeat with a different image. Try and find one from a different part of the story.
- Remember that an image is something that creates a picture in your mind. It can be visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory. In other words, it is something that stimulates the senses.
- A thought, on its own, is not an image.
- “She hated him” is not an image.
- “She thought of the foul smell of his breath” is an image.
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Contemporary American Fiction 
Kavitha chooses to leave the train with Mustafa because she feels the need to escape the stuffiness of the train, but more importantly, she feels the need to escape the stuffiness of her life.
This is especially clear when Ahmed is going around the berth taking peoples jewelry (266) He points to a necklace around Kavitha’s neck, her wedding necklace made of gold. She takes in off and hands it to him, and she notes how the necklace is probably still warm from the heat of her body, and she’s excited another man is feeling that heat. This is an interesting situation because it shows how little she cares about her husband by not caring that Ahmed was taking her wedding necklace. It is also interesting that, despite being in a life threatening situation, she’s thinking about another man feeling her warmth. And this is a man that’s walking around twirling a machete. Normally, a person wouldn’t think this way in a situation. She’s more concerned about her mental suffocation caused by her husband whom she doesn’t really love and it’s actually making her feel calm in a situation where she might die.
Then she meets Mustafa, who’s sitting across her in the berth. To be honest, the whole time I was reading this story I thought Mustafa was going to be a grown man, because it just seemed so obvious. But when she grabbed the little boys hand and ran, I was a bit confused. The most obvious reason was because she was unable to have children. She couldn’t have children, she doesn’t love her husband, so she ran away with a child. That’s the most obvious answer. But maybe she knew deep down that this boy was more trapped by his life than by the current situation as well. This is evident during the last moments of the story (273), when they were on a horse cart on their way to East Pakistan. Kavitha was lying in the shade, Mustafa was lying next to her, sleeping. When she wakes up she says to Mustafa, “What happened to us, it’s ours. Yours and mine. Don’t speak of it.” But Mustafa, being half asleep, heard, “You are mine, Don’t speak.” And so the last sentence, which read “And so he never did,” indicates that Mustafa was also looking for more of a mental escape rather than a physical one. He told Kavitha that the man with him on the train was bringing him to live with relatives in Pakistan, but do we really know if that’s true? This boy could be getting sold in another country because his parents are either dead or too poor to keep him. So both these people were trapped in their lives unable to escape, and when they found themselves in a life threatening situation where they were physically trapped, only when they succeeded at escaping that were they able to shed their past life and break free from what was trapping them mentally.
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Terrific response. I like the idea of her trying to escape “the stuffiness of her life.” You’ve done a diligent job of going beyond the obvious for both of your citations. Some really interesting thought here.
Plus.
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“And she knew that on the train, when she’d laid her head on his shoulder and had felt the roundness and knobbiness of a bone so funny, so irreverent, so unlike him, she had said her goodbye.” Kavitha shows no remorse or guilt, knowing that she left her husband there to die or that it was even the last time that she was going to be with him after ten years of marriage. In this scene, she speaks of her husband as if she has been married to a stranger because despite the familiarity of his body, Vinod himself was an unnatural, even a numbing presence in her life. Their marriage has been dead for a long time and she even says that she has been a widow long before his passing. I question whether she ever loved him or not. Did she ever consider saving him as well? She left the train with Mustafa to leave this dangerous situation and to leave her marriage in which she felt trapped in.
“There was nothing for many, many kilometres surrounding the train. That was of course why Ahmed and his men had picked this spot. And journey through such emptiness was to invite it inside.” In this scene, I believe that Kavitha realizes that Ahmed and his men planned on slaughtering every man, woman and child on that train and that no one was making it out alive. She could feel it inside that no one was safe. Her escape was selfish because she left her husband behind but it was also heroic because she saved Mustafa. I believe she did the right thing for herself because she couldn’t saved everyone and she wasn’t even sure if she was going to survive. Leaving the train was a huge risk she took to ensure the safety of herself and Mustafa. If she could, would Kavitha have chosen to save her husband or have chosen to leave him either way as an escape for a chance of real happiness and love?
Morgan Kane
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A good response. You’ve highlighted two very poignant images. In future work, try to look even deeper at the actual quote. For example, can you think of more symbolic meaning in the “journey through such emptiness?
Check.
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“Again, nothing was quite clear in her mind, but never had two rocks and a piece of twine seemed to hold so much promise. The contents of her shoes- a necklace, some rings, and a set of matching bracelets- had none” (269). This is the moment where Kavitha starts to form some sort of plan in her mind. The image makes me feel like someone has just had a big epiphany. I pictured a spotlight over the little piece of twine hanging out of Mustafa’s shoe, and a nice light bulb above Kavitha’s head (even though it sounds like something that came out of a cartoon). The fact that she described these items, that are so small and useless in almost any other situation, as holding promise shows that she was starting to think that maybe these items can be useful. It was said that “Again, nothing was quite clear in her mind”, indicating that her head was still foggy due to the traumatic situation she found herself in but a part of her (a hopeful part) knew that these items could help her survive. I think that Kavitha took Mustafa with her partly because he owned these items and was the only one who could help her. Her escape could not have been possible if it were not for Mustafa and her quick thinking. How could she not take him with her? The other reason presented itself in the next image: “[…] she had looked at him evenly, a little sadly, and said, Please. No more” (266). This image is of a woman with sad, defeated eyes, who has gone through the extremely tragic event of losing a child and will probably never fully recover from it. It’s supposed to make the reader see how traumatising it is for her and how she is grieving for her lost child. It explains why she took Mustafa with her. Yes, he had the twine and the stones to distract the guards, but he was also young, innocent and did not deserve to be left on a train where he could die. I don’t think that Kavitha would’ve been able to stomach the thought of leaving the Mustafa behind after he had the courage to help her escape.
-Kaylyn Riccucci
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Great response. I especially like this line: “I pictured a spotlight over the little piece of twine hanging out of Mustafa’s shoe, and a nice light bulb above Kavitha’s head (even though it sounds like something that came out of a cartoon). ” You are drawing a very precise mental image in your mind. This is a very productive way to discover meaning in a story.
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“She looked at Vinod. It was growing dark outside, and all the lights in the train had been extinguished, but she could still see his face, wary of Ahmed’s movements, watching him as he unpacked the suitcases of the mother and her daughter. Vinod’s body was as it had always been, since the day they’d married, slim, straight-backed, the recent gray at his temples only accentuating his seriousness, his reserve. She wanted, for the first time in the ten years she’d known him, to collapse into his arms. She wanted to weep. She wanted to say, There has to be a way out. How are you holding up? he whispered. Instead of answering she rested her forehead against his upper arm and felt the knobbiness of his shoulder bone, its hardness against the hardness of her forehead; she felt in that moment that the answer must lie in the body, in its unquenchable will to live” (Rao 269)
It may be surprising at first that Kavitha chose to abandon the train with Mustafa instead of her husband, Vinod. Why would she, without hesitation, grab the boy’s hand and turn her back on her husband, knowing that she might not ever see him again? I believe the answer can be found in the image described on page 269. First off, the narrator describes the setting to be surrounded by darkness, yet Kavitha still manages to her husband’s face. This somewhat describes a series of flashbacks to what she has been seeing for the last ten years of her marriage. Ever since that day, Kavitha neglected her identity and focused solely on pleasing Vinod. Her life was entirely devoted to her husband and his needs. Before even stepping on that train, Kavitha is already in the dark being married to him. Also, darkness symbolises many things, such as fear, mystery, negativity, and uncertainty. Has Kavitha ever loved Vinod? Does she even feel any affection for him whatsoever? Do they even know who the other person is at all? It seems as if the last couple hours she spent with Mustafa in their berth goes beyond the ten years spent with him. The narrator then proceeds to describe Vinod, giving us the impression that he is dreary in every aspect. Even when witnessing a horrifying scene such as this, his body language and facial expression is still blank and untroubled. Ever since her marriage, Kathiva has only witnessed a glimpse of life a handful of times in her husband. Other than those few times, Vinod seems completely unfazed by life in itself and this robbery parts no exception. This is when Kavitha realises that she is married to a soulless body, sharing a disconnected marriage. Therefore, Kavitha chose to escape the train with Mustafa instead of her husband because her relationship with Mustafa, built within a period of a few hours, holds more meaning compared to the empty years spent with Vinod.
Andy Nhieu
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Terrific response. Your focusing on the darkness of this image really leads you to discovering poignant meaning within it. I also like the symbolism of the darkness as applied to their marriage.
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The readers were exposed to two fronts of her identity: that in which she portrayed for her marriage as well as the brave and fearless self she displayed in the berth. These were continually contrasted throughout the story as the narrator integrated pieces of her marriage during the suspenseful journey on the train
“Kavitha reached out and took Vinod’s hand. It was out of habit, she realized, but it was still a comfort. They had talked of this, now and then, in the course of their ten-year marriage: which one might die first. Kavitha had always insisted that she wanted to go first, that she could not possibly bear the pain of living without Vinod. But that was a lie. She knew very well she would manage just fine without him, maybe even better than she had with him. Their marriage, arranged by their families when she was sixteen and he twenty-two, aside from one or two instances, had been mostly uneventful. Boring, really. He’d seemed handsome enough on the wedding dais but when she took a long look at him, a week or so after the wedding, his forehead was squat, and his eyes were dull. As the months went by, she noticed that the dullness persisted; his eyes flickered for a moment, maybe two, when he was on top of her, but then they died out again. Dull eyes? Her friends had exclaimed. Just be happy he doesn’t beat you. True, true, Kavitha had agreed, but she secretly wondered if perhaps that is what it would take to bring his gaze to life: violence” (Rao 262).
This passage allows the reader to gain insight into Kavitha’s true thoughts regarding her marriage. The language used such as “it was out of habit”, “He’d seemed handsome enough”, the “dullness persisted”, and “Just be happy he doesn’t beat you”, allows the reader to recognize the fact that Kavitha has accepted the mediocrity and comfort of her marriage. However, we also learn about her thirst for excitement and something more. I felt both frustrated and confused when she claims, “but she secretly wondered if perhaps that is what it would take to bring his gaze to life: violence”. It is almost as if she says the word “violence” with a sense of hope, wishing to see more life in her husband. I now come to realize that this internal conflict was conspicuous to her striking decision on the train to grab the young boys hand rather than her husbands. In a moment of such intensity, her husband simply held her hand, which she ultimately accepted at the time as it was what she expected of him. However, the boy’s fearless actions and strong will to escape contrasted the husband’s insipidness. Kavitha mapped out a plan to escape the berth, and used this opportunity to also escape her marriage. At home, Kavitha settled for her submissive self and feelings of numbness but on the train, she proved herself to be swift, smart and decisive. This passage is filled with a sense of uncertainty in Kavitha’s desires and a very boring and unfulfilling atmosphere. I think this is very important as it is creates a dissimilarity from the rest of the story, in which action, suspense and passion are all prevalent.
“Most of these clothes were now strewn across the berth. Vinod, who was sitting next to Kavitha, reached over and patted her hand, as if to calm her, but she was already strangely calm. Even with one of the guards standing right next to her, on the other side of the door, close enough to touch, so close that his metal rod was within Kavitha’s arm’s reach” (267).
This passage provides a similar understanding as the other passage, however it is in some way more powerful. Kavitha’s husband attempts to comfort her, however she realizes that she doesn’t need him as she’s already calm, highlighting the disconnection in which she feels. The word “strangely” makes me understand that this sense of independence is new to her. The emptiness portrayed in that moment of her marriage is immediately contrasted by her yearn to act on this sense of assurance and reach out for the guard’s rod, symbolizing her desire to escape.
Emily Sarid
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First-rate response. You do a very thorough job of dissecting these images, and the ideas that you discover are original and very productive.
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“Again, nothing was quite clear in her mind, but never had two rocks and a piece of twine seemed to hold so much promise. The contents of her shoes-a necklace, some rings, and a set of matching bracelets-held none” (269). We realize that Kavitha, who has led a very lonely, depressing life in a bad marriage sees a glimmer of hope for a better life. In the grand scheme of things, these objects do not represent monetary value, but value in meaning that may change the course of her life. The fact that she has lost a son brings even more to the forefront her desperate need of an emotional connection to this young boy. It is obvious that she may be putting her life at risk by attempting to escape this train, yet she feels trapped in her marriage and life as a whole, therefore what does she have to lose? In her mind, the benefits significantly outweigh the downside.
We are told that when Kavitha had lost a child, he had never been named and her reasoning was her weakness emotionally at this time. “But because naming the child, a girl they had told her, would have been an act of bravery, and she didn’t want to be brave”(271). The fact that Kavitha is willing to take the chance, leave her husband shows a sense of bravery that was not part of her past. Kavitha did not stand up to her husband except one time when she spoke back to him and was physically abused for it: “That was when he slapped her. Not hard, but just enough so that she understood” (264). Kavitha experienced emotional pain and taking Mustafa with her off the train would provide with an emotional uplifting and a chance to develop an attachment with somebody that she was lacking so desperately in her own life. In reality, Mustafa may have provided the tools for the both of them to escape but Kavitha did not have the heart to leave an innocent child who potentially could have died when he was providing her with tenderness that she’d been lacking so desperately from her lost child and loveless marriage.
Chad Levett
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A good response. Lots of strong ideas. The citations you provide do contain some imagery, but perhaps don’t give you a great deal of visual content to play with. Choosing citations with stronger images will allow you to get to even more interesting places.
Check.
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“How are you holding up? he whispered. Instead of answering she rested her forehead against his upper arm and felt the knobbiness of his shoulder bone, its hardness against the hardness of her forehead; she felt in that moment that the answer must lie in the body, in its unquenchable will to live” (269). At this point, the reader is able to feel what the characters are feeling and understand that Kavitha made the choice to save herself instead of sticking by her husband and killing herself by doing so. Kavitha felt no love for her husband but, in that moment, she wanted his comfort because that was all that she had left. Feeling nothing but his hard shoulder when she pressed against him, she knew that there was actually nothing there for her. She wanted to save herself and knew that Mustafa had the same intentions and, therefore, planned to flee the train with him. If Kavitha and Vinod’s love had been genuine, wouldn’t she have wanted to save her husband’s life as well and grabbed his hand instead of Mustafa’s? She chose to flee with the boy as she felt a deeper connection with him, a stranger, than with her own husband. She could look at Vinod and feel indifferent, but when Kavitha saw the boy look at her for the first time, she was already invested in him. Perhaps the instant connection between Kavitha and Mustafa was because she felt the need to care for him like she had not been able to do for her stillborn child. Although Kavitha did not love her husband, she would have loved their child. The image of Kavitha pressing her head on Vinod’s hard shoulder is really what gives a reason for Kavitha’s departure. Vinod seemed filled with emptiness, unbothered by the actuality of the dire situation in which he was and Kavitha knew that she did not love him enough to sit by him and let herself die. Even if she had loved her husband, I believe that Kavitha would still have chosen to leave the train with Mustafa because, just like her, he actually wanted to be alive.
Charlotte Vezina-Dufresne
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A good response. You manage to make a lot of true claims about the story. In future work, try to delve even deeper into specifics in the citation. Your response, while true, contains some generalities about the story, rather than specifics about this quote.
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Leaving the train with Mustapha was one of the bravest things the protagonist had ever done. Kavitha and her husband Vinod had an arranged marriage. Through her 10 years of uninteresting married life, Kavitha had been taught to keep her thoughts and dreams to herself. She knew that she couldn’t argue about any of this, because if she did, things would get violent. Therefore, she never had anyone in her life who thought the same way she did. After years of keeping all her smartness and toughness to herself, she was put in a situation where she could finally break free, literally and spiritually. While they were on the train, Kavitha and Mustapha were communicating and strangely understanding each other without speaking. On page 269, they were suggesting and recommending each other ideas in subtle movements. “The boy still seemed as though he was listening to the footsteps, and when he noticed her gaze, Kavitha pointed at his shoes and gestured for him to pass her contents.” This imagery makes us realize how these two think alike, and how they understand each other without words. Kavitha has never felt this type of connection before, even with her husband. From the second she caught the boy’s glaze, she knew she had to escape from the train with him. After years of obedient behaviour, she finally realized she can break free, with someone who thinks the same way she does, and who wants the same things she wants. Even during the worst situation, she felt more alive than she ever has. Is it because it’s an opportunity to break free from her husband as well? Most probably, but mostly, she felt as though this was her opportunity to respect herself and do what she wants to do, especially because her life were on the line.
-Nareh Sarkissian
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Your reading of this image is quite good. In future work, get to the point quicker. The general recap of the story in the first half of your response is not needed.
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In Shobha Rao’s short story “Kavitha and Mustafa”, Kavitha chooses to leave the train with Mustafa because she wants to have meaning in her life. Her relationship with Vinod was empty from his distant character and due to that she felt that her life was meaningless (Rao 263). We see this when Kavitha idealizes the younger couple across from their flat, Kavitha becomes very envious that she does not have that type of life with Vinod (Rao 264). The image of the younger couple is the absence of energy in Kavitha’s marriage (Rao 264). In the opposite flat, the woman wears colourful saris for her husband and he brings her treats to share with tea (Rao 264). This type of liveliness that is shared in the other couple’s life is what Kavitha is lacking in her relationship to the point where Vinod is basically robbing Kavitha of her spirit. Her despair with the marriage is seen with the image of the gold necklace that the thieves took from her (Rao 266). The image represents something that is so cherished being a heavy burden on her. As the thief takes it off her neck and bounces it in his hand, the reader can sense how heavy the gold must have felt in Kavitha’s eyes (Rao 266). When the golden necklace is removed, it’s like a shackle being taken off a prisoner to be finally set free (Rao 266). The reason that she left with Mustafa initiated when the boy was signalling to escape the train (Rao 267). The image is very tense and the connection to the boy is stronger than she ever felt to her husband (Rao 267). Considering that Mustafa is young and wants her acknowledgement to escape the train, it is almost a signal for Kavitha to have a chance for a meaningful life (Rao 267). The whole scene is a symbol that explores how Kavitha feels that Vinod stole everything precious from her life and ultimately needs to be set free with the help of a youthful image embodied in a boy (Rao 267).
Jessica Rupnik
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Jessica Rupnik
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This is a terrific exploration of the symbolic meaning behind many of these images. Really nicely done. I especially like this line: “Vinod is basically robbing Kavitha of her spirit.” A metaphorical robbery happening underneath a literal one.
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In the story Kavitha and Mustafa, written by Shobha Rao, the character Kavitha chooses to leave the train with the young child, Mustafa, rather than her own husband, Vinod, because of the lack of connection with the husband and the bond she formed with the child, while stuck on the train with the robber.
The reason why she left Vinod on the train is because she does not love him and he really does not mean anything to her. She makes it clear in the beginning that she never really got the chance to get to like him because she never got the chance to date him and she what he was like, as she was forced to marry him though the process of arranged marriage. When a couple that lives near Kavitha, it is are described as:
“… there was so much sweetness between them. She could tell just by their gestures, by how they moved, by how they moved, by how their bodies seemed to lighten the moment the other walked through the door.” (264)
This imagery shows that this couple has something that Kavitha wished she had between her and Vinod: true love. It shows how this couple always to be happy when they are with each other. Unfortunately, for Kavitha, she could never try and have a connection with her husband because, in her opinion, he was a boring man who (as the book makes it seem) did not ever want to try to connect or try to get involved more lovingly with his wife. It seems that Vinod was not very interested in his wife and how he doesn’t really support anything that she does or thinks. The mentioning of his dull eyes help to illustrate that not only is he a boring person, but that he isn’t a very open minded person and that he does not have any contribution to wanting to keep a happy relationship with Kavitha, like in these following examples:
“She had once liked taking evening walks, but he’d always said he was too tired. She had liked weaving jasmine into her hair, but their scent made him nauseous. When she noticed fallen eyelashes on her cheeks, she’d put them on the back of her palm, close her eyes, and make a wish… Kavitha looked at him, astonished, then talked for ten minutes about the eyelashes, and the wishes, and the waits, sometimes lengthy, for the next one… That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, he said. It’s just plain silly.” (263)
This history that she had with him gave her very little incentive to leave with him, once she did have the chance to escape. The reason why she chose to leave with Mustafa is because he actually helped her to try and leave the train. I believe for that reason, she felt more compelled to save the life of this child (that she only met on this day). The entire time that she is receiving aid for Mustafa shows that a stranger has shown her more care for her than what Vinod gave her in 10 years. In fact, he was staring more at the leader of the robbers, named Ahmed, than trying to comfort (only later does he ask Kavitha how she is holding up once). At one point, Vinod starts to cringe as he sees that Kavitha is forced to give up an expensive piece of jewelry. At this point, she believes that Vinod is more saddened by the fact that a valuable piece of jewelry is being stolen than the concern that she is a dangerous situation. It goes to further show that their marriage was never stable.
-Justin Aquino
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You make some very true points. In future assignments, try to look even deeper at the imagery in citations. For the second citation, you don’t really explore the imagery at all. What about the walks? The jasmine in her hair?
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“There had been a pregnancy in Kavitha and Vinod’s marriage, but the child had been stillborn” (p.266). Stillbirth is devastating in a marriage. I could only image that Kavitha and her husband, Vinod, felt emotions such as loss, grief, anger, and guilt. However, I suppose it also plays with the dynamics of their relationship. This could either strengthen their bond, or shatter it. During the pregnancy, Kavitha and her spouse were impatiently awaiting the arrival of their new-born. Picture this; having all this anticipation crushed by the worst possible scenario – death. Maybe that’s how Kavitha felt inside; an emptiness that no one could fill, not even her husband.
“And in his half-sleep, perhaps also dreaming, Mustafa heard, You are mine. Don’t speak. And so he never did” (p.273). It occurred to me that Kavitha was an Indian name. Assuming she believed in Hindu doctrine, reincarnation would be relevant in this scenario. Mustafa could possibly represent her dead child. Hence, her affinity towards him. Also, Mustafa figured Kavitha had voiced that “[He] was [hers]”. The author may be inferring that Mustafa feels the same was towards Kavitha – a motherly figure. And, he accepts it, because he didn’t speak after she told him not to.
To answer the question, I think that Kavitha chooses to leave the train with Mustafa because she needed to fill the void left by her dead child. And, Mustafa could do that.
-Sindy Ann Fernando
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What you say is true enough. But, you don’t cite any actual images in the story, which is the point of this exercise.
Minus.
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Kavitha fled the train so quickly without giving it a second thought and grabbed Mustafa instead of her husband which brings upon the question why Mustafa of all the people in the train and not her husband? She describes the past ten years of her life with her husband as a “marriage, arranged by their two families when she was sixteen and he twenty-two, aside from one or two instances, had been mostly uneventful. Boring, really.” (262) Throughout most of the story, she describes her marriage almost as if it was a burden or something keeping her caged in, something preventing her from living a life that allowed her live with happiness rather than something.
While they are trapped on the train, Mustafa gives her small items in which, to anyone on a day to day basis, would think are completely useless and no one would think twice about when seeing the items. However, to her and Mustafa, these items were their key to the rest of their lives. Before their escape, when she receives the items, she automatically says “nothing was quite clear in her mind, but never had two rocks and a piece of twine seemed to hold so much promise. The contents of her shoes – a necklace, some rings, and a set of matching bracelets – held none.” (269) The rocks and the twine were the key to her escaping; these two small items are what assisted Kavitha and Mustafa’s escape from the train. She fled the train with Mustafa to escape from her unhappy marriage and from the burden of losing her baby, which made her feel like she was enclosed in a cage. I think by leaving her husband and unhappy marriage behind and by saving a child, saving one that she could save, allowed her to break free of the cage.
Emilie Cohen
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Some interesting thought here. But, your first citation does not contain any imagery. The second one does, but you don’t really dissect this image enough. Try to go a little further beyond the most obvious response.
Minus.
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Kavitha chooses to leave the train with Mustafa because she forms an unspoken bond with him that is even deeper than that of her and Vinod, her own husband. The two join forces almost by instinct, and look out for each other as though they were mother and son.
After getting to know him, Kavitha describes Vicod as cold and unfeeling, even when he becomes violent; “She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger, or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty” (page 338). Kavitha often references the emptiness in Vicod’s eyes, as though there is no reflection of herself in his thoughts, and therefore no love for or connection to her. In contrast, Mustafa stares directly at her on the train to get her attention. She does not return this stare, as though she feels his gaze is as meaningless as that of her husband, until she realizes that he needs her help. This is the beginning of their unspoken bond. One reason Mustafa may have chosen Kavitha to help him over the others is that she looks the closest in age to his mother, who is most likely deceased, which indicates his longing for a mother figure.
Before escaping, Kavitha symbolically reflects on the past few years of her life by looking into the toilet of the lavatory;“She looked through the hole, lined with excrement, and saw the gravel. Every stone the same color, quarried in some distant place, and varying only slightly in shape. The years following the stillbirth had been like that” (page 346). Kavitha compares the years after her stillborn to the nearly identical stones in the gravel, showing that her life became routine and dull as she coped with her grief, all the while becoming more distant from Vinod. Years that should have been filled with happiness and new experiences remained uneventful and, like her future as a mother, lifeless. She remains calm on the train because she has little to lose. Perhaps the reason she is so eager to cooperate with Mustafa is because she is expressing the motherly instinct that she never had the chance to act upon. When given the opportunity to help the brother who’s bleeding out, Kavitha does not, instead doing what is best for her and the child with whom she has formed a crucial bond.
Kaela-Rose LeBlanc
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This is a very thoughtful reading of the symbolic meaning of some of these images. Original, inspiring thoughts.
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“Sweat trickled down their faces, their clothes stuck to their bodies. Flies entered the berth in droves” … “Kavitha licked her lips and tasted salt.” (265). This scene from the train just after the man who left the berth is killed paints a very vivid picture in our minds of a very unpleasant situation. Although it’s not long it fits a lot in. The sweat on their face and the clothes stuck to the bodies gives a sense of overpowering heat but also confinement. When the flies come in is a very unpleasant image of tons of flies circling the people in the berth, it also reminds us of the uncomfortable buzzing sound of a fly hovering right next to our ear. Finally, when Kavitha tastes salt on her lips it gives a sense of dehydration reinforcing the sense of heat and uncomfortableness. This scene paints a picture of one of the reasons why she wants to get off the train, it’s not a place she wants to be, it’s unpleasant and very uncomfortable. Although I think a major part of this passage is to accomplish just that and set the stage for the reader, it can be related to her relationship with her husband. The confinement and displeasure in her relationship with her husband that is built on from the previous flashback where she talks about how she has lost some of her individuality and how there is no life in their relationship. This is mirrored in the confinement felt by the heat with clothes suck to bodies and the displeasure is mirrored by the flies. This connection would most likely get lost except for the fact that the scene in the berth comes right after the flashback with her husband (she is thinking about this while the robbery is going on) which makes it very easy draws parallels between the situations. So in leaving the train, she is getting away from this relationship too.
Jeffrey Smith
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An excellent and very thorough reading of this image.
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“She knew he was gone, that she was now a widow. The awareness was not startling. Not even frightening. I was widowed long ago, she thought.” (p.273)
I believe her marriage was the reason why she chooses to leave the train with Mustafa. In this image, you can feel that she doesn’t even care what could happen to her husband. She is trying to escape from the life she was living in her house.
Indeed, she was claiming that she felt an emptiness in her relationship with her husband. For her husband, she had to give up all her activities and likings she enjoyed during her life before the marriage since her husband did not like them. She did not express her true feelings while she was with him, always hidden them to please his wishes. He even slapped her when she doubted what he said.
Therefore, I believe that her brave actions in the train are contrasting with her submissive behavior at home. The scene when she was evacuating the train was made to reveal the qualities she couldn’t express because of her marriage: her smartness, rapidity, determination and many others. In other words, she was more submissive and was enduring abusive behavior without arguing with him at home.
Not only she escaped from the train but also, she escaped from the unfair marriage life. She even escaped from herself too; she escaped from the way she was with her husband. Finally, she jumped off the train to prove that she deserves respect from her husband and a better life for herself.
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Your ideas here are true. But, the citation you provide does not contain any images. And, you make general statements about the story, rather than dissecting this particular citation.
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Kavitha leaves with Mustafa because she was finally able to find herself connecting to someone else and fulfilling her need of having a purpose and actually seeing someone needing her compared to her husband who never seems to care about her .
“She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger, or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty” (p.264). After being with each other many years she was never able to find the love and comfort she desired. After being with someone so long an never having a true connection with that person , I think it made her want to connection with just any human being. When she first made eye contact with Mustafa , she suddenly felt connected to the boy especially when later on in the story he secretly sends her signals for help . Kavitha living with the feeling of emptiness , and Mustafa wanting to communicate to her made her feel alive and wanted. I think Mustafa felt as lonely and empty as she did. Mustafa was probably seen as being a son for her , after having miscarried this child made her made her fulfill her need of never being able to have children. The relationship with her husband was never what she had wished for but maybe what was meant to be was for her to be a mother and luckily found that mother son bond and true connection with Mustafa.
Pamela Rochefort
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You’re not on the attendance sheet for Sept. 7. Were you in class? Please let me know if you were.
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My mistake. This was due on Sept. 11. This response starts out well. It would have been helpful to have one more citation.
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“As the months went by, she noticed that the dullness persisted; his eye flickered for a moment, maybe two, when he was on top of her, but then they died out again” (262 Shoba Rao). This picture gave me such heartache and sorrow. Kavitha was always looking for a spark or something from her empty husband. She was so desperate to feel anything that she even considered bringing violence upon herself. He barley felt any emotions even during sex. This was at the beginning of a forced marriage that lasted for ten years. She always kept to herself living through this stranger. “not a sign of anger, or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty.” All the imagery of this marriage can make any reader feel as hollow as Kavitha did. Suddenly, when she encountered an opportunity to leave, and this instinct had been dormant throughout the years. She knew exactly what to do, and how to go about it. That is why she decided to leave with Mustafa because she knew there was nothing left for her. Even if the guards got off the train and she went along safely to her destination, she knew she wouldn’t be safe in her marriage and knew she was as good as dead. She wouldn’t lose anything from trying; there was only room for her to gain. She saw a brink of hope in herself, one she needed to hold onto. “She could not have said how much time had gone by when she saw a small light in the distance, almost a puncture in the night sky. It grew-slowly, because it was so far away” (279 Shoba Rao).
The time in this passage is the time spent in her marriage. She couldn’t even measure how much time went by because she wasn’t spending her time on herself—she only lived for Vinod. She was on the train and saw the hope of escaping and leaving with Mustafa (the small light) and she needed to take that chance. The light was so far, but she was getting closer and it was getting closer to her. After living a lie for ten years, she probably didn’t recognize the face of hope anymore. There was so much contrast to Kavitha in her marriage and her on this adventure; they were like two completely different characters. This imagery gave me so much happiness for this women and excitement, as if it was coming for me as well. The darkness she was staring into everyday for ten years turned into the flicker of light in the distance of her new life.
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Some good ideas here. I wanted to comment on your second citation, but you’ve written the incorrect page numbers.
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‘‘Sitting for these long stretches of quiet, Kavitha was surprised by how often she thought of Vinod. She knew he was gone, that she was now a widow. The awareness was not startling. Not even frightening.I was widowed long ago, she thought. And she knew that on the train, when she’d laid her head on his shoulder and felt the roundness and knobbiness of a bone so funny, so irreverent, so unlike him, she had said her goodbye.’’ (273)
I think that at this point in her life, Kavitha realized that nothing and no one can hold her back, not even Vinod, her husband for nearly ten years. Even after so many years with him, she does not feel safe with him and probably not even loved, which could also explain why she decides to escape from the train with Mustafa. Even if she’s just met Mustafa, I bet that she saw more in an instant in his eyes than in ten years with Vinod, which was worth saving him, but also to saving herself from this ‘‘life’’. She has a more precious connection with Mustafa then with Vinod, which is everything she always wished for, someone who can be there for her and truly care about her. In fact, she is ready to go with Mustafa and to risk everything and leave everything behind her without even regretting it, which means everything in terms of the affection she felt for Vinod in the last ten years of their marriage. Kavitha mentions that she ‘‘widowed a long ago’’, this means that even if she did not lose Vinod because of death, she was still widowed because she did lose him in terms of the affection and love and I think he always been some kind of dead to her. Maybe she wanted to escape the train with Mustafa but she also wanted to escape her marriage. Maybe she knew it from the instant ‘‘The train stopped abruptly at 3:36 p.m.’’ (261) and maybe in the depths of her, that’s what she wanted and this explains why she prepared herself to said her goodbye.
Marie-Claude Champoux
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What you say is true enough, but you have not commented directly on the imagery in these passages.
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The first thing I notice about the story is the way it’s written. There’s no dialogue, just Kavitha narrating what’s happening in the train, and recalling memories from her past. I believe the author purposefully did that so you really feel as if you’re there with Kavitha. One of the images that stood out, throughout the whole story was Kavitha’s description of her husband’s eyes. “He’d seemed handsome enough on the wedding dais but when she took a long look at him, a week or so after the wedding, his forehead was squat, and his eyes were dull.” (Rao 262) She felt that when he looked at her, his eyes held no emotion. I believe this is why Kavitha chose to leave the train with Mustafa. She says that her husband’s eyes were “empty” (264) which made her feel empty too. She wanted to do something that would take away her feelings of emptiness left by her husband. I’m not sure she loved him either. At the end of the story, she says that she knows that her husband died on the train but she isn’t “startled” (273) with that thought because she “was widowed long ago”. (273) I think that she was unhappy in her loveless marriage and tired of feeling empty, which gave her the courage to take a risk, and leave the train with Mustafa.
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Good. Try to go deeper. Your response is true, but a little obvious. You’re trying to discover something here, not just reporting that you’ve understood the story. The emptiness idea is a good start.
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“The boy was still looking at her. Kavitha couldn’t understand it- his – stare –but she felt too faint to return it […] She closed her eyes. There had been a pregnancy in Kavitha and Vinod’s marriage, but the child had been stillborn. The stillbirth had been a culmination of many years of trying for children, and the next time Vinod had reached for her, an appropriate number of weeks after the failed pregnancy, she looked at him evenly, a little sadly, and said, Please. No more.” (Rao 266)
In this passage, Mustafa has been trying for a while to get Kavitha’s attention but she has not been able to understand him due to everything that was happening in the berth at that time. We are able to see that this little boy that has been constantly staring at Kavitha has brought up some unpleasant memories from her life, the flashback begins when the narrator says “She closed her eyes” and we learn that she was not able to have children of her own. Even though we have learned throughout the story that Kavitha and Vinod’s relationship was not based on any kind of connection or love, news like this one can affect someone’s life immensely. This passage creates the image of a broken mother after the loss of her child: “[…] she looked at him evenly, a little sadly, and said, Please. No more.” Not being able to have a child, having someone to pass on her hopes and dreams to can be heartbreaking. Especially in their case, Kavitha and Vinod have been married for over ten years but even then it was as if they were complete strangers to one and other and that child that they could have had together would have represented the hope that could have fixed their shattered lives and relationship. That child could have allowed Kavitha to have someone to confide herself to and be with since her husband is simply a dull and emotionless being as described by her. This memory only surfaced when she saw Mustafa, which could mean that she associated him to the child that she has never had. She found a way out of that train and when she did the only person that she could think of bringing with her was that child: “[…] thinking only of the little boy” (Rao 270), he reminded her of what she could have had and was not able to. She could not have left him behind.
Sahar Jaleel
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The goal was to dissect a couple of images. You do give a nice summary of the story, but you’re not looking closely enough at specifics in the story.
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In the mist of all panic, it was at first strange to me to read Kavitha being calm during the hostage. She was surrounded by fear and uncertaincy for the lives of those around her. She was first said calm after the leader of the thieves held her necklace which was given to her 10 years ago on her wedding day. “She had forgotten about her mangal sutra. She’d wrapped the gold chain of her wedding necklace for turmeric soaked thread just before the trip, for safety’s sake, but the round lockets were made of gold. How could she have forgotten?” (266)You’d figure something so meaningful like a wedding necklace would be the first thing shed want to keep safe, instead she did not even think about hiding this piece of jewelry. It highlights how unsatisfying and unhappy her marriage was. As the cruel killer Ahmed held her necklace, she thought this. “Then she felt a thrill, a rush of heat flooding her body, to think that a man, any man, held in his hand the warmth of her body.” (266)It is unnatural for anyone to want a killer to hold her body, however Kavithas marriage was so lacking life that almost anything is better and more exciting, including the scenario around her. Once the necklace was off, the story focuses more on escaping. I find there is irony in this story. After the still birth of her child, she did not wish to have any more with her husband. She claimed that she had experienced a great loss- and was not brave enough to name her child. “Cause naming the child, a girl they had told her, would have been an act of bravery, and she didn’t want to be brave.” (271) I understand what she means here- when you name a child you are claiming the child yours forever despite the chance of losing it. She was not brave enough to take this leap, yet she was brave enough to leave the train with an unknown man named Mustafa. That brings me to another question I have for this story- why this boy? Why did this boy try to signal Kavitha specifically and no one else? Perhaps it’s a just huge element of the story that I am missing or read over- but maybe he saw that she was also different from the rest because she had the sense of the will to survive and a calm energy around her as she was feeding of the excitement of the situation round her. What they had in that relationship versus the relationship with her husband is livelier and connected- exactly what she needed and exactly what Mustafa needed as well.
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Great response, and great reading of these two images. “Why this boy?” is an excellent question worthy of further investigation.
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“How are you holding up?” he whispered. Instead of answering she rested her forehead against his upper arm and felt the knobbiness of his shoulder bone, its hardness against the hardness of her forehead; she felt in that moment that the answer must lie in the body, in its unquenchable will to live”(269). This is where I see Kavitha’s desire to live and where I believe she realizes that the only person in her life that she has to lean on is her husband, yet when she does seek his support, she feels nothing. She is looking for a feeling between their bodies together but all she senses is the hardness of his shoulder against her forehead, in such a freighting situation she feels no safety or comfort for being with him, making her realize she must finally support and fight for herself.
“Again, nothing was quite clear in her mind, but never had two rocks and a piece of twine seemed to hold so much promise. The contents of her shoes-a necklace, some rings, and a set of matching bracelets-held none” (269). When I read this passage I pictured two lives, the first one is the one she has been living for 10 years, which is represented by the jewelry. The second one being the one she can choose to live, which is represented by the rocks and twine. She says the jewelry held no promise which I think represents her dull and sad life that she has had with her husband. Yet the simple rocks and twine hold so much promise, which I think represent the future she could have is she fights for it. Mustafa also reminds Kavitha of the child that she did not get to create a future with, and this creates a bond between the two of them that urges them to save each other. Kavitha chooses to leave the train with Mustafa because when she becomes faced with a life or death decision, looking into this little boy’s eyes makes her realizes that she wants to fight for the life she has never gotten to live.
Caterina Saletnig
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Great ironic juxtaposing of rocks/twine and jewelry. Excellent reading of these images.
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The reason why Kavitha chose to leave the train with Mustafa is because after such a long time, she had found a connection with a stranger, whom she never even spoken to. A connection that she could never achieved with her own husband, Vinod. This dispassionate relationship was emphasized on page 162: “They had a talk about this, now and then, … bring his gaze to life: violence”. Kavitha saw this as an “uneventful arranged marriage” where she felt like she would manage to have a better life if he was no longer around. These thoughts strongly present an image of a woman, being forced to spend her entire life with a man that does not bring any excitement, having no connection and making her seek for emotional support. Kavitha also realized the “dull eyes” in Vinod eyes, the dullness that never goes away when he’s around her. On the other hand, this is the polar opposite with Mustafa, a kid who she can learn to understand in such a short time without having to say a single word. Maybe Kavitha has been seeking for this rush of excitement for 10 years. A rush of excitement that she knows she can never have with Vinod, a man she was forced to marry. Her decision of leaving the train with Mustafa also raises one question: Why didn’t she try and escape with her husband? Was escaping Mustafa so exciting for her that she forgot to attempt getting Vinod out too? Did, for a split second, she was thinking of a life without the dullness of her arranged husband?
James Dinh
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Good reading of these images. Remember that the purpose of questions is to challenge yourself. “Why didn’t she try to escape with her husband?” is a good question. “Was escaping Mustafa so exciting for her that she forgot to attempt getting Vinod out too?” is maybe a less thorough question. It’s highly unlikely she just forgot that Vinod was there.
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While Kavitha and the other people on the train are being robbed she thinks back on her marriage with Vinod “Their marriage, arranged by their families….had been mostly uneventful. Boring really.” (262). Kavitha thinks about Vinod which she says always had dull eyes. She was even willing to make him use violence against her “she secretly wondered if perhaps that is what it would take to bring his gaze to life: violence.”. Kavitha lived a submissive life and a live to please her husband which is something a lot of women in oppressive cultures must do. How Kavitha describes her marriage is why I think she decided to be brave instead of submissive to the robbers and why she doesn’t leave with Vinod. During the moments before the escape the imagery we are given is that of stones “Every stone the same color, quarried in some distant place and varying only slightly in shape. The years following the stillbirth had been like that.”(271). Kavitha reflects on her loving the unknown baby she would have had. I think this plays into her connection with the little boy on the train. And it’s how she describes her feelings about the stillbirth is why she escaped with Mustafa. Both pictures she describes to us is the cause of the drive she has to leave that life behind with Vinod, and to leave with Mustafa.
Another moment of imagery in the novel is her thoughts after looking at the stones. She continues think about the stillbirth and whether she should’ve have named the baby. She decided not to “…because naming the child, a they had told her, would have been an act of bravery, and she didn’t want to be brave. She wanted all the fears and weakness of a dark, unnamed place. And she wanted to love the child in that way, without hope and without a name.” which is why she escapes with Mustafa. Kavitha cares for Mustafa because she sees herself as his mother during this crisis. She does not know Mustafa’s name, and the fear of a dark unnamed place is figurative and literal. Figuratively the “unnamed place” is the escape which will get her and Mustafa killed if they are caught. The literal sense is during the escape it’s night and there’s not much light “It was dark. There were a few stars, not many. The silver of the moon was hardly any light…Kavitha saw a road in the distance, a full kilometer away, at least; a thin dark ribbon that she assumed was a road.” Deciding to leave with Mustafa would make Kavitha go through dark places. Did she see her submissive and dull past with Vinod darker? I’m not sure, but perhaps she saw Mustafa as a light.
Angelo Bergamin
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There are a lot of worthwhile thoughts to explore further here. Nicely done.
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“Breathe, she told herself […], thinking only of the little boy. (270)
“She had often wondered, during all those years, whether she should have named the baby […], naming the child […] would have been an act of bravery, and she didn’t want to be brave. She wanted all the fears and weakness of a dark, unnamed place. And she wanted to love the child in that way, without hope and without a name.” (271)
She leaves with Mustafa because he reminded her of everything she had lost, she wanted to save him in the way that she could not save her child. These two images that are related to one another and represent a visual image. We can imagine Kavitha’s situation and seeing it makes us feel the unimaginable sadness that she felt. In the first part on page 270, she tries to calm herself by thinking only of the little boy. However, thinking of him brings back the memory of the child she lost. Mustafa brings out peace and also courage in her. The fact that it was a stillbirth means that the baby was born without signs of life, hence she was unable to save her child. Now she thinks that having the chance of saving Mustafa can perhaps compensate for the guilt she probably felt when she couldn’t save her daughter. I think Mustafa gives her the bravery she didn’t want to feel when her baby died. She said that naming her child would have meant being brave and she didn’t want to be brave. I am not sure I understand completely why she did not want to name her daughter, but I think she didn’t want to be brave because she blamed herself for her child’s death. Maybe, in a way, she wanted to hurt herself more by destroying her hope (“without hope and without a name”). Was she trying to punish herself? Or maybe since she did not get to know her own child she wanted her to remain unknown and to Kavitha that meant for her to remain unnamed. Nonetheless, Mustafa gave her the feeling she did not want to feel when she lost her child. She doesn’t feel the fear and weakness anymore, so she decides to leave with him to save him.
Miruna Mincic
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You have some good questions here. Nice development of thought. You haven’t quite discussed imagery in the story.
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Kavitha chooses to leave the train with Mustafa, basically, because of her tragic marriage. As Kavitha says,”I was widowed long ago.”(273). From her recollection, we can see that she’s not happy at all in her marriage. Kavitha wants her husband care about her, she wants to share her preference and feelings with him. But every time ,she is disappointed, because his husband don’t care about her. She shared her secret about eyelash, she is exciting, as she ” talked for ten minutes about the eyelashes, and wishes,and the waits,sometimes lengthy,for the next one”,but her husband just thought” that’s the most ridiculous thing “(263). When she first time talked back to him, he slapped her. “She looked ,in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker.Not a sign of anger,or regret, or even satisfaction.”(266) We can see in the family, Kavitha must obey her husband all the time, but her husband must neglect her all the time.When Kavitha watched the young couple neighbor, they are so closed and sweet, “Kavitha watched them with envy.She nearly cried with it.”(264).Kavitha really wants her husband’s love, but she can’t get it, from that scene, we can know that she is full of grievance about her marriage.
I think the directly motivation is when her mangalsutra is grabbed by the leader,”as mangalsutra is the symbol of marriage.”She’d not once taken off in ten years.”(266). But this time, the leader grabbed her wdding necklace,” her husband seemed to wince.”(266). By contrast, when the young woman is pulled onto Ahmed’s lap, her brother, Mustafa, lurched forward, “his arms reached out as if to strangle the bandit”(265). The comparison between his husband and Mustafa, makes Mustafa a big hero, while his husband a coward. She must be very disappointed with her husband.Also, from the story, we can see that Mustafa always thinks about leaving the train, while her husband is “wary” and “wince”.
Then, Mustafa bravely attacks the guard, in order to protect his sister, that makes Kavitha has good feelings about him. She wonders if the boy might die, so “she look up, and the little boy was watching her. There was, she noticed, intention in his gaze, and she looked away only when Ahmed addressed her.”(266). That’s their first gaze, from then, it seems like they know each other without verbal communication. She wants to live, but his husband can’t give her this chance, “when she’d laid her head on his shoulder and had felt the roundness and knobbiness of a bone so funny, so irreverent, so unlike him, she had said her goodbye”(273).In that moment, she makes her decision, she can not stay to die with her husband, she wants to live with that boy,Mustafa, even the hope is small, she wants to try.
I’m not sure what is it between Kavitha and Mustafa, it’s fate or something? I don’t know why Mustafa staring at Kavitha, as we know there are many people in the bogie. Why Maustfa picks up Kavitha? I think Mustafa just randomly looked people in the bogie, he is waiting for someone to notice him. Finally, he finds Kavitha is looking at him, so he takes his chance, because he can not escape by himself,he needs a partner. Fortunately, they succeed.
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A very detailed discussion of numerous powerful images in the story. I appreciate how you are searching for new ideas here. You have a number of punctuation errors in here which is why you don’t have a plus. Please come and speak to me if this is an area you have difficulty with.
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“She looked in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger; or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty. That was years ago.” (264)
This passage is an image that illustrates the relationship Kavitha wanted to escape, which is why she left the train with Mustafa. There are many elements that are significant in this quote. The first thing that comes up quite often throughout this short story is the “emptiness” of his eyes. Vinod is a man who has lost any passion and ambition he ever had in life. He is living his life day by day, without appreciating all the things life might have to offer. Although that might work for him, this attitude has affected Kavitha’s outlook on life. This is why in this quote; she says that “she too felt empty”. This is a strong image because the reader realizes that this relationship is loveless and lacks happiness and joy. They were set up when both of them were young, and Vinod’s sadness and lack of emotions has made Kavitha’s life depressing. The passage also mentions that she has had this feeling of emptiness for years now and so when Mustafa is looking at her, she gets intrigued and excited. She is so used to living a boring and uneventful life that when this new person seeks her attention and tries to find a way off the train for both of them, she gets excited and starts feeling like her old self. To a certain extent, I think this story reflects the epiphany of a character. She was trapped in a bad relationship with an emotionless man and now she is finally letting go and going after what she really wants. She decides to stop holding herself back and to find a way off the train. I don’t quite know how to explain this but she is having an epiphany and finding her old self again. Rather than completely transforming, she is letting go of all the characteristics she has developed being with Vinod. Another thing I am not sure about is maybe her being trapped in the train also represents her being trapped in her relationship. When she escapes the train, she is not only escaping the guards and what might’ve happened to her but she is also getting away from her husband. To me, this quote sums up the relationship really well and sets up a good basis to compare her character while she was with Vinod and her character once she becomes independent.
Mireille Jauvin
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You manage to say many profound things about this citation. Your focus on “emptiness” is quite productive.
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I think that the main reason why Kavitha abandoned her husband Vinod and ran away with Mustafa his her search for some purpose, some action in her life.
Kavitha felt like her life was empty. In her arranged marriage, her relationship with Vinod was empty, without substance. There wasn’t any connection between the two. She almost hoped he would be violent , so that he would at least have a “flicker in his eyes”. The perfect example of this is when she responds to his criticism on a superstitious habit of hers:“It was the first time she had talked back to him, and she felt good for having done it. That was when he slapped her. Not hard, but just enough so that she understood. Understood what, she wondered. She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger, or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty. That was years ago.” (Rao 264)
One of the most “ intense” part of her whole marriage is when her husband slapped her, but even then, there was no emotions at all in any of them. This is why she saved Mustafa instead of staying with Vinod ( and burning to death in the process). By saving Mustafa, she accomplishes something to fill the void inside of her caused by her emotionless relationship and a miscarriage
Simon Perras-Dyotte
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Good response. But too short. Remember to write a minimum of 200 words (excluding quotations).
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The image that stayed in my head is this— “She’d believed this since she was a child. He noticed her once, collecting the eyelash, blowing it away, and asked her what she was doing. He hardly ever asked her about herself, so Kavitha looked at him, astonished, then talked for ten minutes about [it]. Vinod’s eyes seemed to flicker—or so she thought— and then he frowned (263).” I chose this scene because it contains almost all the emotions a person could ever feel. It has happiness, curiosity, appreciation, and regret. It is very brief and detailed. The first two sentences showed what kind of person Kavitha is. She is imaginative, sanguine and hopeful. She is this kind of girl and she wants to be acknowledged, especially by her husband. The author did a very fascinating representation of how a simple gesture can make someone’s life change. That simple belief is a part of who Kavitha is and the way he asks showed how he wants to know her more, which is very endearing. Kavitha feels the electric shock in her bones for it’s very unusual for her husband to do this. She feels complete happiness because she is noticed, even for a split second. This shows that Kavitha longs for a love she’s deprived for. She needs attention and an expression of interest. Although, all the whoops of glee inside of her is completely robbed by the frown of her husband. She is rejected as if she is not allowed to be who she really is. Her beliefs are repudiated. The image shows how the most precious thing in the world for you can mean so very little to others. For a moment, with that gesture, Kavitha knows that there is something skew. That the line of their connection is crooked. He is not “it”. He is not the man for her. He’s not supposed to be in the train with her. And she needs to go out. Out of a love that isn’t real. Kavitha needs to find someone that can make make her not regret wishing on collected eyelashes for the rest of her life. Thus, I guess, Kavitha’s only ticket in finding true love is getting off a train in the Indian border.
Lenz Layug
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A profound and well-written reading of this very meaningful quote.
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“She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger, or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty” (p.264).
This quote describes the meaningless time spent between Kavitha and her husband Vinod. It almost is as if they both knew everything was worthless and had no sense to go on any longer, but kept going, suffering mentally. When she look at him there was no future for her or maybe there was but it was just nothing what she wanted. What could she be happy about? How could she be willing to live life with someone like this? While truly loving another human being we tend to observe and think about every move they make, but here this action meant nothing to both of them – almost as it never happened.
When the boy appears in the story it turns out almost as if someone threw her a life jacket while she was drowning in the water herself. She gets the chance to escape the emptiness, and realizes she has nothing to lose, especially due to the fact that the boy reaches out to her first. She doesn’t hesitate to at least try to understand why someone is reaching out to her.
In her relationship she had a child which was stillborn. In my opinion this lead to the great love and actual bond between the two. She felt a feeling that she might of not felt before, thanks to Mustafa she might of changed her outlook at life to this point, and tried to carry on like nothing was ever wrong in her life.
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Good. But another quote to explore this idea would have been helpful: “When the boy appears in the story it turns out almost as if someone threw her a life jacket while she was drowning in the water herself.” You say true enough things, but this reads more like a general recap of the story than a deep reading of this quote.
Check.
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Good. But another quote to explore this idea would have been helpful: “When the boy appears in the story it turns out almost as if someone threw her a life jacket while she was drowning in the water herself.” You say true enough things, but this reads more like a general recap of the story than a deep reading of this quote.
Check.
Also, you did not write your name so I don’t know who to attribute this check to.
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She decides to leave the train with Mustafa because there’s a highly recognizable bond between the both of them even though they didn’t verbally speak to each other until later on towards the ending. She feels like she can connect more with him than her husband and that’s why she left the husband behind and took Mustafa instead.
Throughout this story Kavitha and her husband Vinod don’t really communicate a lot especially in the train because Vinod was in the same position for a long time just frozen about what’s going on with the train being ambushed while Kavitha was trying to think of solutions. After she told her husband the story about how she used to put fallen eyelashes on the back of her palm and made a wish, her husband said that that was stupid and for the first time she talked back to him. “That was when he slapped her. Not hard, but just enough so that she understood. Understood what, she wondered. She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger, or regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She felt empty” (Rao 264). This part of the story helps answer the question because it shows the fear of why she doesn’t talk back to him. On the other hand with Mustafa, she feels highly comfortable to have a full out conversation with him. There’s questions about this moment that make me think harder about that moment. Why didn’t Vinod have any emotions towards doing that? Does he like to be talked back to generally? Does he hate when someone finally sticks up to him because he thinks he has a lot of power? Why didn’t Kavitha divorce him at that moment? I think it’s because she still has feelings for him but just doesn’t know where to find it so that’s why the marriage just seems boring to her. Does Kavitha think of Mustafa more like her own child since she feels empty and had a stillborn child during her marriage? It’s possible because Mustafa can be the one to change her life and make her feel the way she always wanted to feel, independent, happy and appreciated.
-Brandon Marshall
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There are a few points in here that demonstrate that you didn’t quite read this story closely enough. Come and speak to me if you’d like to know what I mean by this.
Minus.
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“And she knew that on the train, when she’d laid her head on his shoulder and had felt the roundness and knobbiness of a bone so funny, so irreverent, so unlike him, she had said her goodbye” (Rao 273)
I found this line in the story very interesting, but I’m having a hard time understanding it completely. I think it’s interesting that what was going through her head at that moment was the feeling of his bone, and not the man himself. It does a lot to show us how she felt about him, which explains why she left the train. She wasn’t thinking of the man himself, she didn’t feel that much emotion when she laid her head on his shoulders. It sounds as if she was detached from him, which has proven to be true throughout the whole story. What I’m having a hard time understanding is what makes the feeling of the bone irreverent and unlike him. At first, I was thinking that maybe, when she says that it’s unlike him, she’s saying that the thought of him actually having bones is unlike him. What I mean by that is that she didn’t feel like he was completely human, because having bones is human. Then I realized that it might be the irreverence of the bone that is unlike him, but then I don’t fully know what that means. Obviously, it would mean that he isn’t irreverent, but then I don’t get why this mattered to her. Did she wish that he had less respect? Am I just having a hard time understanding what the word irreverent means? At any rate, I could still feel that she didn’t care that much about the man in question or that he wasn’t what she wished he would be, and that’s why she left him.
Luka Vaguidov
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Great questions. There is an ambiguity in the word “irreverent” here that raises a lot of questions. Looking at ambiguities in specific words is a terrific strategy for uncovering meaning.
Plus.
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“She knew he was gone, that she was now a widow. The awareness was not startling. Not even frightening. I was widowed long ago.” (273)
Shobha Rao knew she wanted to write about a “moment of terrifying conflict” (365) and “the choices we are forced to make during such moments” (365) which is entirely what this story is about. Throughout the narration, we read various examples like the one above demonstrating the unloving relationship Kavitha is in. This specific image is not a joyful one to me. The impression of relief we get from the realisation of her husband’s death implies the misery she’s been living with. Furthermore, the image helps understand that these emotions aren’t new or shocking to her. She has accepted and has been living with her discontented marriage for a long period of time now. In addition, it is clear to me why Kavitha escaped from the train as well as from her unfair marriage. However, why bother bringing Mustafa along? It is obvious that there was a mysterious connection between her and the boy but is it because he reminded her of her husband? Or herself? Or perhaps even her stillborn child? I believe Kavitha recognized someone who needed saving just like herself. Yet, not only saving from the train but from life as well and that is why she chose to leave with him. Various futures are possible for Kavitha and Mustafa and all of them seem better than if they had stayed on the train, whether the robbery had occurred or not.
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Some good thoughts here. The citation you’ve included is not, in fact, an image.
Check.
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Kavitha did not like her life with Vinod as a husband. Her simplest routines had to be ignored for Vinod’s liking, “since they’ve been married, it seemed to her that she’d lost most of her preference… She had liked weaving jasmine into her hair but their scent has made him nauseous” (263). Things that Kavitha likes makes Vinod “sick” or “slightly upset”. And yet, despite the things Kavitha does for him, all Kavitha sees within is eyes is dullness. Even when she was slapped by Vinod, his eyes were completely emotionless and empty. That is when she understood the dullness of his eyes represented their lives together, and that is the point in her life she hearkens back to when she realized “she was widowed long ago”. Their marriage was so dull and mundane that it did not surprise her that Vinod is gone forever.
“She secretly wondered, if perhaps that is what it would take to bring his gaze back to life: violence” (263). I find that quote very interesting, and foreshadows of what to come in the story a little bit. Except that the violence did not give life to Vinod, it gave life to Kavitha. The new life she could have without Vinod could potentially mean she’ll return to her old self and enjoy herself the way she used to. That is what she saw within Mustafa, the life she could have without Vinod. That is something she admits when she thinks “She knew very well that she would manage just fine without him, maybe even better than she had with him” (262). She subconsciously chose to live a life that she will enjoy without him.
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Avishek Paul
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I like your rumination about violence here. But you’ve haven’t quite discussed any images in these citations.
Check.
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There are many different times during the story that demonstrate why Kavitha would want to leave the train with Mustafa. One of them would be because she was living a very unhappy life with her husband, Vinod.
“That was when he slapped her. Not hard, but just enough so that she understood. Understood what, she wondered. She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty. Not a flicker. Not a sign of anger and regret, or even satisfaction. She looked down. She too felt empty. That was years ago (Rao 264)”.
This helped us visualize what had happened the first time Kavitha ever talked back to Vinod. It was at that moment she realized how unhappy she was with him; she did not love him. It was a forced marriage so she never truly loved him. But at that instance, she knew for sure. They both felt empty which means none of them were happy together. She wasn’t allowed to express herself or share her thoughts about what she believed in with him; she even changed her own habits to avoid his judgements; she was trapped.
Another reason why Kavitha would want to leave the train with Mustafa was because she always wanted children but she wasn’t able to have any “the stillbirth had been a culmination of many years of trying for children … she had looked at him evenly, a little sadly, and said, Please. No more (Rao 266)”. This demonstrates that Kavitha would never truly be happy without children but trying and risking the possibility of losing the child again would hurt her even more. Leaving the train with Mustafa gave Kavitha the chance of taking a motherly role for him which pleased her. Even if he wasn’t her son, she felt as if he was, someplace inside. It made her happy and leaving the train with Mustafa finally gave her a feeling of being free.
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Good response. True enough. In future assignments, try to push yourself a bit more to go beyond the obvious.
Check.
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“How are you holding up? he wispered. Instead of answering she rested her forehead against his upper arm and felt the knobbiness of his shoulder bone, its hardness against the hardness of her forehead; she felt in that moment that the answer must lie in the body, in its unquenchable will to live. (269)”
I believe that this image of Kavitha seeking comfort by resting against her husband, only to find discomfort in the way their bodies awkwardly fit together, symbolizes a turning point for her in this story. Their body parts feel rocklike against each other, their bodies symbolically repel each other. I feel as though this is a physical manifestation of her unwillingness to get closer to her husband. This deprivation of the snugness she so desperately needs in this situation sparks a moment of clarity. I believe an important realization takes place here as well since the language in this passage is also very evocative. She feels “in that moment that the answer must lie in the body”, but to me it does not seem that this answer is to Vinod’s question. In fact, I believe she finds the answer to a question that has plagued her since long ago, what if there was more out there for her than a life of compliance alongside her husband? Her incompatibility with Vinod, that lack of the spark she sees between the couple living across from them for which she envies them so much, it is preventing her from living in the symbolical sense. In this moment, she feels a physical, bodily desire to escape her situation, so she takes the literal as well as the figurative leap with Mustafa, a boy that is attentive, witty, full of the initiative and youth she wants for herself, with whom she has that spark of recognition that is missing in her husband’s aging eyes.
Perhaps the timing was just right for Kavitha to escape a life unlived. Perhaps had her eyes not crossed those of Mustafa in that very moment, Kavitha would have continued on her train ride as planned and to this day be living a life which would never feel fully hers.
Anna Romanowski
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Great dissection of this quote. Thorough and thoughtful.
Plus.
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One image I found in this story is the image of visual. ‘’Vinod’s eyes.” Kavitha was not happy in her marriage. There were no fire or passion burning between Kavitha and her husband Vinod of 10 years. This was all foretold through his eyes. She consider them as dull and had no life in them. “She eyes flickered for a moment, maybe two when he was on top of her, but then they died out again. Dull eyes?” (pg. 262). She could never tell what he was thinking nor what he was feeling. His eyes had no life and so she felt no bound nor connection between them.
I don’t really know what she saw in Mustafa eyes. But for the fact that she knew his eyes were trying to tell her something, she felt a bound between the two of them. I guess it give some hope that she was able to connect with someone through their eyes and also freedom of her new life. A life that she yarn for. A life full of life and not emptiness as what she saw in her husband eyes, even when he was angry, his eyes were still dull and empty. “She looked, in the instant after the slap, into his eyes. They were empty”; “not a sign of anger or regret or even satisfaction” (pg246). She knew if she go with Mustafa, there will never feel that emptiness again, even though she was a now a widow.
Tabiesha Thompson.
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Good start. Try to go a bit further in your ideas.
Check.
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Faced with a choice, to risk her life or to stay with her husband, Kavitha makes a choice. Though her choice is based upon years of life experience, one can understand her reasoning through images. Kavitha’s most powerful image is her recollection of when she would watch the young couple from her window, nearly crying when she saw them embrace each other. “Then she went back and, after a few minutes, brought out their teas on a tray. Kavitha watched them with envy. She nearly cried with it.” (Rao, 264). Though this picture, we can see not the powerful climaxes of their sad marriage, but rather a silent testament to everything that it lacked, a climax in itself, sad, silent and uneventful like the rest of their marriage, and in Kavitha’s circumstance, her entire life. Though this passage isn’t very descriptive, and does not give much sensory information in regards to Kavitha, this perfectly showcases her life, so mundane that love and excitement are merely a dream far away. She can watch love and excitement from a distance, but never touch, smell nor taste it. Similar to how she can only hypothesize as to what the couple through the window is actually doing, she can only hypothesize as to what love and pleasure may be like. Her own life felt so empty and forgotten that the mere thought of someone else experiencing love made her want to cry. A bit further through the story, one can observe another brief glimpse of the same image: “And then she felt a thrill, a rush of heat, flooding her body, to think that a man, any man, held in his hand the warmth of her body.” (Rao, 266). This passage reinforces the notion that her life has been made so mundane that a violent and evil male presence would present an emotional improvement from what she has felt for the past years of her life. In this circumstance, evidently not an improvement in substance, but rather in contrast, as for all of her married life she has not simply felt unloved, but rather nonexistent. This is hence why she chooses to risk her life and leave her husband, because she is not alive when she is with her husband. Her decision to risk her life, therefore, is entirely rational, as she has no life to lose. From this risk, she can only gain.
-Samuel Dion-Dundas
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Great response. Great reading of these images and eloquently written. I especially like your discussion of how she can witness a passionate relationship, but she cannot participate in one.
Plus.
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Kavitha chooses to leave with Mustafa because he is a form a liberation for her. Somehow, the train is can be perceived as a reflection of her life as a young married woman. She gets herself involved in a situation where she had no belonging from the start but she has to commit to a lifestyle and a situation that is not made for her from the start. As seen with her marriage with Vinod, she does not make the decision to get married to him. The decision was made by both of their families and she could only do what her parents ordered her to do. Although divorce could have been an option, it was not well perceived by the people so she had to live with Vinod, her husband, with who she has no happiness what so ever. She feels like the dullness of her eyes is slowly invading her life. She is losing interest in things that once mattered to her like evening walks and the scent of jasmine in her hair. The train situation represents perfectly her life. The initial purpose of the train was to bring the couple to their desired destination, a destination that was planned from the start just like their union. The bandits invading the train and threatening everyone’s life on board is the exact representation of her situation with Vinod, she is losing her purpose and her desire of living as time goes on. She knows that is she doesn’t do anything to remediate to both of the situations, she will either be dead spiritually or literally.
Mustafa’s escape plan was for her the exit ticket to the life she no longer wanted to live. By sharing his intentions with Kavitha, he is somehow inviting her to restart her life as a brand-new woman. ¨ Again, nothing was quite clear in her mind, but never had two rocks and a piece of twine seemed to hold so much promise¨ (269). For her, leaving behind the person who offered her the opportunity of starting over would counter the opportunity she was looking for the past 10 years.
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These are due before class.
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