Question

Read the following excerpt from the story "Once in a Lifetime" by Jhumpa Lahiri. Note that the two women in this story are both Bengali. What difference between them can you identify based on this excerpt? How can you tell? How does the passage illustrate that diversity? Cite examples from the text in your response.

At the mall our fathers sat together in a sunken area of benches and potted plants, waiting, and you were given some money and allowed to wander off while I accompanied our mothers to the lingerie department in Jordan Marsh. Your mother led us there, with the credit card your father had handed to her before they parted. Normally we went to Sears. On her way to the bras she bought black leather gloves and a pair of boots that zipped to the knee, never looking at the price before taking something off the shelf. In the lingerie department it was me the saleswoman approached. "We have lovely training models, just in," she said to your mother, believing that I was her daughter.

"Oh, no, she's far too young," my mother said.

"But look, how sweet," your mother said, fingering the style the saleswoman presented on a hanger, lacy white with a rosebud at its center. . . . Despite my mother's protests, your mother bought me my first three bras, insisting that they were a gift. On the way out, at the makeup counter, she bought a lipstick, a bottle of perfume, and an assortment of expensive creams that promised to firm her throat and brighten her eyes; she was uninterested in the Avon products my mother used.

Answer 1

The first woman is rich, while the second one is poor. The rich woman got the credit card from her husband, while the second one didn’t have any money.

The rich women didn’t look at the price before taking something, and she didn’t have to justify her poverty with the fact that her daughter is still too young for having bras, and she bought some expensive cosmetics; she didn’t use low-quality products like the second woman.

The text illustrates that diversity by comparing the attitude and possibilities of the two women:

- Your mother led us there, with the credit card your father had handed to her before they parted. – The other woman didn’t have money to afford a credit card.

- On her way to the bras, she bought black leather gloves and a pair of boots that zipped to the knee, never looking at the price before taking something off the shelf. – The woman doesn’t pay attention to the price because she has money.

- On the way out, at the makeup counter, she bought a lipstick, a bottle of perfume, and an assortment of expensive creams that promised to firm her throat and brighten her eyes; she was uninterested in the Avon products my mother used. – She uses high-quality products.