Question

Which part of this excerpt from Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Once in a Lifetime” indicates Hema’s mother’s Bengali heritage?

A) I asked how long you would be staying with us

B) My mother couldn’t say; it all depended on how long it took your family to get settled

C) The prospect of having to give up my room infuriated me

D) I’d regularly slept with my parents on the cot in their room, and not in the room where I kept my clothes and things

E) My mother considered the idea of a child sleeping alone a cruel American practice

Answer 1

The part of this excerpt from Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Once in a Lifetime” that indicates Hema’s mother’s Bengali heritage is

E) My mother considered the idea of a child sleeping alone a cruel American practice.

Evidently, if Bengali women view leaving a child to sleep alone as a cruel practice because their habits are totally different. Probably, Bengali mothers naturally allow their children to sleep in the same bed with them, wheras, in USA that practice is much less common.

Answer 2

Answer: E) My mother considered the idea of a child sleeping alone a cruel American practice.

This sentence shows that the mother had a cultural background that was different from the American one. Even though for most Americans, a child sleeping alone would be common, for her it was a cruel practice. The excerpt shows that Hema's mother does not endorse all American practices, which indicates she has a different cultural heritage, in this case, a Bengali one.