Share your literary essay with the rest of the students that chose this short story. Take some time to read 2 or 3 other essays. Comment on them. Your comment should be about something you noticed them doing well from our lessons. For example, "You did a really good job explaining your evidence"
In “The Trip” our main character Sarika was born in India, but she and her parents moved to the U.S. shortly after. The story follows Sarika going on a field trip out of state. While she’s getting everything checked and going through the metal detector, it goes off, prompting both her and her passport to be thoroughly looked through. They decide to take her to a private room and interrogate her. They ask her questions but don’t believe anything she says. Finally, the chaperone comes and picks her up and runs her to the plane. The author of the story uses this to explain the theme; judging people before you get to know more about them can hurt both the other person and yourself.
ReplyDeleteOne way the author used to convey the theme was character actions. First, when Sarika has her passport looked at, the security guard gives her a sour look and takes her to be interrogated. While she’s being interrogated, she notices that her bag has been thoroughly looked through and it’s contents sprawled out all over the floor. The guy interrogating her doesn’t believe a single word she says. For example, the story said this, “Westwood. New Jersey. Twenty-five minutes from here.” “No, where are you really from?” Using these we can now see that the author wanted to imply that the guy thinks she might be a terrorist.
Another way the author used to convey the theme was dialogue. For instance, when she’s being interrogated the guy asks her questions like, where are you from, and, where’s your accent. The guy doesn’t want to believe she’s an American citizen. The guy explains that the system flagged her because she was born in India. Additionally, the guy claims that there have been a lot of fake passports and that he was just following the rules. When the chaperone explains that it doesn’t apply to Sarika he firmly says it does and that they should follow the rules too to not escalate things further. We can now see that the guy thinks both Sarika and the chaperone could be a terrorist, or at the very least a problem, and isn’t afraid to make the situation a whole lot worse.
The final way the author used to convey the theme was figurative language. While Sarika is being interrogated the guy repeats his questions a lot because he doesn’t believe anything she’s saying. We can use this to infer that the author wanted that section to be important, to be something to really focus on.
Now we can see some of the ways the author used to show the theme, whether it be dialogue, character actions, or figurative language.
Part one
ReplyDelete“The Trip” is a story by Sona Charaipotra that takes place in an airport by the security gate and the main character is Sarike. What makes this location and story interesting is that some areas in India are forbidden. And people who have lived there before and aren’t there anymore are still. On the no fly list even if they don’t live there and this story is about Sarika an. 16 year old teenager is waiting in line with her group of models and one teacher as they are waiting in line.
In effect Sarika is pulled out of line while her friends all start to walk towards the plane, the security guard and another. Guard brings her to an interrogation room and starts asking questions that makes. Her afraid that she is going to be deported back to India because the system. Believe that she might be a terrorist and I think the author uses this to show. Us fears that others have to go through when one group of people does something that makes other people look bad.
And Sarika remembers that she has dealt with this before but her parents were with her back then but now. She is alone and this also shows that she is more afraid since she is not with. Her parents would know what to do in this situation and when the security guards. Consequently, come for her as a result she starts to have flashbacks to when her Nani told her about their city in India and in detail on how. Bad it was there and so Sarika starts to get more upset that she might have to deal with that again and that shows that she is going through a lot of fear and.
As Sarika is waiting for them to come back she starts to get up and look through her bag for her phone. “I start to comb through the bin, looking for my phone or at least my ID. Definitely my passport, none of them are in the suitcase”. And then, the main character Sarika starts to worry that she will be on the news of being a “terrorist” and she starts to remember. watching the news that talked about people from india that were in america getting deported in an airport.
At this moment, it certainly could be said the author created a theme of hope for this character. While this is a good point, it fails to account for the parts in the text that show fears of Sarika and others. As a result, the theme is clearly Fear. And when Sarika is worried that she will be deported. This shows that most people are still afraid that anyone from India is bad and they shouldn’t go on planes because they might be terrorists.
Part two
ReplyDeleteAnd as Sarika starts to get back in the chair the door opens and it turns out it is her teacher. Ms. Hollander has come back to get her on the plane and she convinces the security guards that. The passport is real and the security guards give back Sarika's phone and passport as Sarika. Gets her item back the security guards explain that it was a misunderstanding and there has been some fakes lately and they were following protocol. And after that incident Sarika gets on the plane and her friend returns Sarika. Ganesh chain that she lost after she went into the interrogation.
Room is a symbol of a new beginning and that might mean that she is going to have a new beginning and there are some questions that. I wonder like why did the author go for fear as the theme did the author goes through something like this or did. The author wanted to show people that fears are a major problem that groups have to deal with a lot? And I also question why the author chose an airport for the setting maybe the author wanted people to understand. That, groups have to go through many problems in different locations? And its.
Clear, that the theme of “the trip“ is. Fears this is first seen when the author uses dialogue in the text. “I’m sweating now, because this is serious. They really do think I'm a terrorist”. Next, the theme was created when the author used Symbolism. The Ganesh chain could be a symbol of a new beginning and when it's taken away, it. Might mean that her new beginning is getting taken away from her. And Finally, the author used figurative language to create the theme. Readers saw this when Sarika started to panic a lot in the interrogation room and started to get afraid of all the bad things that could happen. As a result, it is evident that the theme of “the trip“ is Fears.
I like the way you explained your reasoning
DeleteI like your introduction because it really got me hooked on the story and just the overall theme
DeleteI like how your theme relates back to her trying to find her phone or ID
DeleteI really liked the explanation of the theme, it really helped me to understand why you chose that theme.
DeleteThe Trip by Sona Charaipotra is a short story about a girls experience at an airport for a school trip and the trouble Sarika Shah encounters at TSA.
ReplyDeleteThe author uses many ways to show racism, sometimes through imagery. The author uses imagery in the story, mainly during the interrogation. During the interrogation, Sarika uses a lot of descriptions of the room as a small cubicle with a wooden table and a chair. She uses these descriptions to show that she feels uncomfortable and trapped.
Another way is repetition. The author writes a lot about her experiences and being treated differently. This is constantly brought up during the interrogation, when she is immediately profiled as a terrorist because of her race. It is also apparent when she is assumed not to be American when the man says, "Where are you really from?" directly thinking that she is not from America and thus not a citizen. This could interpret the theme as stereotyping; however, it created a theme of racism because it immediately stereotyped her as a terrorist rather than a citizen because of her skin color.
The last way is through dialogue between the characters and their interactions. There are many instances where there is blatant racism where the man says, "Your English is very good," which points to the fact that he is surprised she has good English, pointing to the fact that he doesn't take her as an American because of her skin color.
Overall, the theme could be interpreted as many other things, but the overall theme is most definitely racism. All of the instances where she is immediately profiled and assumed to not be an American are all a source of racism and her skin tone.