Christian Jørgensen

2) First person narrator: “I” asked him how he could tell all this.( It is also a short story).

3) Her name is Indrani. She is married to Kumar and have two kids (Hanif and  Laila). She lives a life ruled by her husband. She is afraid to disappoint her husband: “ I would say nothing to Kumar, or he would say I was a bad housewife” (last line on page 1 – First line on page 2) Indrani and her family are Asians. They just moved to their new house in Broadmead. She seems like a caring housewife, who is taking care of her kids.

4) The story takes place in one of the more civilized neighborhoods in London: “ I had no idea that there was this sort of thing in a place that was supposed to be civilized” (last page L. 7-9).

Social Settings: From the story we can tell that Broadmead is one of the more civilized neighborhoods. Such thing as mice in the house is not supposed to happen, and Indrani and her husband are afraid of what the neighbors might think. Kumar: “We will tell no one about this” (page 4. L. 33)

5) The rats symbolize the white majority’s view on integration (Indrani and her family is looked at as rats): Anyway, we can’t kill them all. The main thing is to send them back where they came from, and then pretend they ain’t there. Know what I mean? Oh yes, this time I knew exactly what he meant” (Last page. Middle section) – Racism.

6) Title: Just below the surface – I think, that the title is a way to judge other people’s background and culture. In this story, Indrani lives with her family on London. However, since they are Asians, they will never be seen as British, no matter how British they become.

7) Themes: Class of culture, Integration, Racism, Repression.