Answer TWO of the
following:
Q1: Abdul’s younger
brother tells him, “Everything around us is roses...And we’re the shit in
between” (xii). According to the book, why does the government tolerate the
illegal settlement of Annawadi? And why do people stay there if they’re treated
like “shit” by the entire world?
Q2: How does the Indian
idea of privacy compare with what we read of China in One Person Means Alone? How might this
lack of privacy—and the utter impossibility of being alone in a crowded city or
slum—shape how their society views the world? Do you think the author realizes
this, or wants us to be shocked by it?
Q3: According to the book,
Annawadi is “one of the most stirring success narratives in the modern history
of global market capitalism, a narrative still unfolding” (6). What do you
think she means by this? How could a slum be a success story? And what does
this say about its place in the world-wide web of capitalism (which implicates
us as well)?
Q4: In one passage, Boo
writes that “As group identities based on caste, ethnicity, and religion
gradually attenuated, anger and hope were being privatized, like so much else
in Mumbai” (90). While most people would applaud the removal of the old rules
of caste and race, what has replaced them? Why might Boo suggest that even
abstract things like anger and hope can be “privatized"?
No comments:
Post a Comment