Clothes by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Summary
Clothes by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a short story written in 1995. It is about Sumita and her arranged marriage. Her friends in India are jalous of her because she is going to marry a man who lives in America.
She moves to America to live with her husband Somesh and his parents, and she slowly starts to fall in love with him. Eventhrough Somesh's parents, lives in America they are still very Indian and therefore Somesh and Sumita hides that she secretly wears Americans clothes. Sumita is torn between the Indian culture and her new life in America.
Sumita's husband is killed at his workplace by a man with a gun, and now Sumita has to choose between a life with her in-laws or move back to India but she choose to put her American clothes on, and not go back to her home country.

The narrator 
First person narrator
Seen from Sumita's point of view

Place
Both America and India

Themes 
Identity, Arranged marriage, Clash of cultures, Integration.

The clothes
Sumita dresses in many different kind of clothes, and it is a important element in the story. The clothes is symbolic, to her development and identity.

Perspective
Dusk over the Atlantic Wharf, both of the girls in these texts, gets married to a man they doesn't love in the beginning, they are both moving to a new country, and are going through a process figurering out how to fit in.

Aspects of the American Dream - Keywords

• Life = Liv
• Liberty = Frihed
• Pursuit of happiness = Stræben efter lykke
• Opportunities = Muligheder
• United people = Forenet folk
• Justice =Retfærdighed
• Civil rights = Borgerrettigheder
• Freedom of religion = Religionsfrihed
• Hope = Håb
• Human Rights = Menneskerettigheder
• Segregation = (Race-) adskillelse
• Oppression = Undertrykkelse
• Equality (-or lack thereof) = Lighed (-eller mangel på samme)
• Prosperity = Velstand
• Survival = Overlevelse
• Independence = Uafhængighed

I hear America singing

Eftersom jeg ikke er på toppen i dag, og derfor ikke kommer til fremlæggelsen, kan I se hvad jeg har lavet her: 

I hear America singing: 

It is written by Walt Whitman in 1867.

Setting: it is in America, in the working classes 

Speaker: is Walt Whitman who speaks in the poem, it is like he goes around and hear the people sing their song.

Composition: 11 stanzas in the poem.

Poetic: there is a metaphor, because the sound and actions of the workers is compared to music.

Theme: celebrates the individual workers of america 

5 word: america, workers, culture, national solidarity

Revision Notes

The night before your presentation put a few Revision Notes on the text in question on the blog - write the most important points in your notes so that the rest of the class can use your notes afterwards.

Name your blog post the title of your text and put it under the label "Revision Notes" - in that way they will be easy to find during your reading period (læseferie).

Guide to Student Presentations and Oral Exam

When you are revising you have to prepare a 10 minute presentation of a text as well as put some notes for the rest of the class on the blog (see the blog post Revision Notes).

Depending on what type of text you get these are the things you have to look at. This is a good exercise for the exam where you have to do the same thing.

Remember to always use examples from the text to support whatever you are saying.

(Look for further inspiration for your presentations on pp. 244-256 in Contexts.)

Fiction

• Plot
• Setting (time, place, social environment)
• Characters
• Composition
• Narration
• Atmosphere
• Language
• Title
• Theme
• Message
• Perspectives

Non-fiction

• Type of text
• Structure
• Sender
• Receiver
• Language (specific vocabulary, tone/style, rhetorical devices used, imagery, quotations (if yes by whom and how are they used?))
• Arguments - strong or weak?
• Message
• Intention
• Reliability

Poetry

• Title
• Setting
• Speaker
• Composition (stanzas, verses)
• Rhyme
• Poetic language (metaphor, style, symbols etc.)
• Theme
• Message
• Perspectives

Speech

• Type of speech (informative, persuasive, special occasion)
• Topic
• Structure
• Speaker
• Audience
• Language
• Rhetorical devices (alliteration, repetition, anaphora, epistrophe, imagery, tricolon, references (direct/quotes or indirect/allusions))
• Forms of appeal (logos, ethos, pathos)
• Message/intention
• Perspectives
• (Inspiration - think of the pentagram we worked with)

Revision Plan

Below follows the list of when you are going to revise what themes in the remaining English lessons. It will also say whether there will be student presentations of text or group work about texts.

Below you can also see which text you have to make a presentation of.

Tuesday 23 April 2013
Growing Up - Student presentations

"Indian Camp" Ernest Hemingway Luna
"Clara's Day" Penelope Lively Christian
"The Shining Mountain" Alison Fell Jeanette

Tuesday 30 April 2013 (2 lessons)
Violence - Student presentations and group work

"Just Like That" Michael Richards Villy
"Serrusalmus" Lesley Glaister Vicky
new text - "Rendezvous" Daniel Ransom

Tuesday 7 May 2013 (2 lessons)
Aspects of the American Dream - Student presentations and group work

"I Hear America Singing" Walt Whitman Tina
"I, Too" Langston Hughes Lene
"I Have a Dream" Martin Luther King, Jr. Jakob
new text - "Our America" LeAlan Jones

Tuesday 14 May 2013 (2 lessons)
Clash of Cultures - Student presentations
"A Sikh Girl's Bridal Path" Madeleine Fullerton Jan
"Clothes" Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Signe
"Dusk Over Atlantic Wharf" Susmita Bhattacharya Philip
"Just Below the Surface" Kate Nivison Rune L.

Thursday 16 May 2013 (2 lessons)
Horror - Student presentations

"The Boogeyman" Stephen King Rune W.
"The Tell Tale Heart" Edgar Allan Poe Morten
"Suffer the Little Children" Stephen King Tommy
"Dracula" (excerpt) Bram Stoker Line P.

Tuesday 21 may 2013
Robots - Student presentations

"Supertoys Last All Summer Long" Brian Aldiss Henrik
"Segregationist" Isaac Asimov Kristoffer
"The Life and Times of Multivac" Isaac Asimov Martin

Robot Revolution: Androids are coming