Question

Read the excerpts and answer the question that follows.

once in a lifetime by jhumpa lahiri (excerpt) my feelings were complicated by the fact that, until rather recently, to my great shame, 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. my mother considered the idea of a child sleeping alone a cruel american practice, and therefore did not encourage it, even when we had the space. she told me that she had slept in the same bed as her parents until the day she was married and that this was perfectly normal. but i knew that it was not normal, not what my friends at school did, and that they would ridicule me if they knew. freeway 280 by lorna dee cervantes (excerpt) i scramble over the wire fence that would have kept me out. once, i wanted out, wanted the rigid lanes to take me to a place without sun, without the smell of tomatoes burning on swing shift in the greasy summer air. maybe it's here en los campos extraños de esta ciudad where i'll find it, that part of me mown under like a corpse or a loose seed.




which of the following descriptions most clearly details the difference between hema, the narrator in "once in a lifetime," and the speaker in "freeway 280"?


a. hema is chicana, and the speaker of "freeway 280" is bengali american.


b. hema is an adult, and the speaker of "freeway 280" is a child.


c. hema's identity is influenced by her parents, whereas the speaker of "freeway 280" is searching for her identity.


d. hema was born in the united states, while the speaker of "freeway 280" is an immigrant.

Answer 1

The key difference between Hema and the speaker in "Freeway 280" is that Hema's identity is shaped by her parents, while the speaker independently searches for their identity, making option (c) correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks which description most clearly details the difference between Hema, the narrator in "Once in a Lifetime" by Jhumpa Lahiri, and the speaker in "Freeway 280" by Lorna Dee Cervantes. In analyzing the given excerpts, we can deduce that Hema's identity is heavily influenced by her cultural upbringing and her parents' practices, as exemplified by her experience of sharing a cot with them.

Conversely, the speaker in "Freeway 280" seeks to carve out their identity independently, reflecting an internal struggle and a desire for self-discovery in what seems to be a harsh urban environment.

Therefore, the correct answer to the question highlighting the difference between the two characters is c. Hema's identity is influenced by her parents, whereas the speaker of "Freeway 280" is searching for her identity.