Essay Questions

How does the “Unaccustomed Earth” short story address the complex cultural tensions between Ruma and her father?

In this short story, the main character is Ruma, who lives with her son, Akash in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington and who has recently left her successful legal job to raise her children. Ruma’s father—a recent widower who has lived in Bangladesh his entire life—pays her a visit now that he is retired, and his wife has passed away. As Ruma and her father begin to reconnect in the United States, Ruma struggles to negotiate the culture that she has adopted in the United States with the culture that she once felt connected to through her father.

In a rather ironic turn-of-events, Ruma’s father—having had time to explore the world and his own identity after retirement and the passing of his wife—has grown away from the traditional cultural of his home country; he is enjoying his cultural independence and the freedom that travel provides. Ruma also exhibits her own cultural struggle, as it is customary in her home country for children to take care of their parents in their old age. Though Ruma feels culturally obligated to invite her father to move in with her and her family, she is unsure that she will be able to manage taking care of her children and her father, whilst navigating her father’s new relationship. Though Ruma’s Bengali roots would support her decision to stay home and raise her children, Ruma feels conflicted about her decision to do so; she wonders if she shouldn’t continue to pursue her success or remain loyal to her Bengali heritage. As such, this short story explores the cultural differences regarding gender norms and tradition from both Ruma’s perspective and her father’s.

How does Lahiri use “Only Goodness” to explore the complexities of siblings and culture?

In “Only Goodness,” Lahiri details the history and experiences of a brother and sister—Sudha and Rahul. At the beginning of the short story, Rahul convinces his older sister, Sudha, to sneak alcohol into their parents’ home. Despite her feelings of reservation and discomfort, Sudha agrees. As she watches her brother drink, Sudha begins to suspect that Rahul has been drinking for some time and may, in fact, be an alcoholic. Rahul’s alcoholism escalates and he eventually drops out of Cornell due to his poor grades. As they grow older, Sudha and Rahul begin to live inverse lives. Afflicted by alcoholism, Rahul ultimately drops out of school completely and begins to work a manual labor job, while living with his parents. Sudha, however, has found great success in life and is due to be married to a successful British man—a move her parents greatly approve of.

Tensions between the siblings escalate when Rahul announces he is engaged to a woman his family disproves of and when he instigates a fight at Sudha’s wedding. Though Sudha loves her brother deeply, she struggles to negotiate his alcoholic tendencies with her familial sense of love and forgiveness. Sudha’s emotional struggles come to a culminate when, after she has given birth to her son, Rahul comes to visit and offers to babysit, having claimed that he has given up alcohol completely. When Sudha returns home after agreeing to leave her son with Rahul, she finds the baby alone in the bath and Rahul nearly black-out drunk. Though Sudha loves her brother deeply, she realizes that the safety and sanity of her new family—with her husband and son—must come before her relationship with her brother. This difficult decision perfectly captures the intricacies of sibling relationships and hints at the implications of culture. Though Sudha feels responsible for her brother, she ultimately chooses to go against the familial culture she was raised with so as to tend to the immediate needs of her husband and child.