When Mr Pirzada Came to Dine Essay Example

to learn at school…We live here now, she was born here” (2).

Lilia’s mother is obviously proud of the fact that they now reside in America and that she has an American child who has all the opportunities she never did. That question that her father asks is probably symbolic of the main problem faced by the family though: balancing out their Indian culture with the values they are expected to have in America. Throughout out the story, Lilia is caught in a cultural conundrum as she shifts between her Indian and American identities.

In school she is only taught American history and while trying to get in touch with her own culture, she is scolded by her teacher because it is unrelated to the subject being studied at the moment. While she is at home, the situation in Dacca is of dire importance, but “no one at school talked about the war followed so faithfully in my living room” (4). This lack of interest by others around her once again displays the cultural differences that only Lilia can see.

Another great example of the cultural clash prevalent in this short story is when Mr. Pirzada is carving the jack-o-lantern. When they first begin, Mr. Pirzada starts “carving, without the least bit of intimidation, as if he had been carving jack-o’-lanterns his whole life,” but as soon as the news story starts airing and a connection to the other side of the globe is made, Mr. Pirzada drops the knife and ruins the pumpkin. Though the sequence begins with the four individuals trying to assimilate into an American past time, ultimately their foreignness comes back to bite them and

remind them where they are from.