1.“Old colonies wear down. Patels—the new pioneers—have to be suspicious.” What is the geographical itinerary of the narrator, and what are the reasons that cause her to arrive in Manhattan? How does Panna Bhatt’s Americanizing journey compare to other patterns of immigration we have seen this semester? When Mukherjee uses the word “pioneers” to describe new Asian immigrants, how does that compare to other strategies of ethnic identification we have seen thus far?
2.“I don’t hate Mamet. It’s the tyranny of the American dream that scares me. First, you don’t exist. Then you’re invisible. Then you’re funny. Then you’re disgusting. Insult, my American friends will tell me, is a kind of acceptance” (3063). Who is Mamet? Discuss this quote as a comment on assimilation.
3.“I know how both sides feel, that’s the trouble. The Patel sniffing out scams, the sad salesmen on the stage: postcolonialism has made me their referee. It’s hate I long for; simple brutish, partisan hate” (3063). Discuss ambivalence and ambiguity in the story. How are we supposed to react to the narrator’s statement “Patels must have made it” (3064).
4.Discuss Mukherjee’s depiction of the U.S. as a land of commodities. Is this a good thing, a bad thing, does it depend on the particular moment in which commodification surfaces?
5.Locate some of the images of “floating” in the story. How would you relate these recurring images to the thematics of the story?