Brooke Findlay

ENGL-1003

Ross Bullen

16/11/2022

Comparative Essay

both "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" by Anothony Veasna So, and "When Mr.

Pirzada Came to Dine" by Jhumpa Lahiri, convey strong themes of loss through the

representation of father figures. Although these stories have the same theme, the characters are

impacted in immensely different ways.

In "Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine", Mr. Pirzada had been experiencing extreme loss due to his wife

and daughters being stuck in Pakistan during the war with India. Through this difficult time in

his life, he took comfort in Lilia and her family. Instead of the usual trope of the man becoming

the father figure, this is a story of the child filling in the spot of a daughter. Mr. Pirzada being a

man who raised seven daughters would feel a great hole of emptiness in his life. He no longer

had someone to look after, to father and guide. In an attempt of bonding with Lilia, he gives her a

piece of candy every time he sees her. In return, she uses it as a ritual to pray for the safety of his

family every night. In not being naïve about the horrors that were occurring in Pakistan, Lilia

understands the importance of the candy to Mr. Pirzada. The dynamic between both Lilia and

Mr. Pirzada reveals the importance of family roles and a sense of community. Even though the

simple gesture of accepting the candy that he offered her did not seem important, it allowed him

to feel normal again for just a moment. It shows that everyone longs for the familiarity of their
everyday life. It was through Lilia that Mr. Pirzada was able to find the comfort that he did in the

time of war.

The role of the father figure of Tevy and Kayley in "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" is a large

change in tone from the story of Mr, Pirzada and Lilia. From the beginning of the story, it is

apparent that their father has been absent for some time. He had left their mother Sothy, a single,

struggling parent with money issues for his secret second family. The father had been using 20%

of the money from their donut business to provide for his second family, screwing them

financially, and leaving Tevy and Kayley fatherless and in scrambles. Throughout the story, it is

apparent that the absence of their father has affected almost every aspect of their lives. In every

scene, they are trying to cope with ways of getting over the loss. This is depicted when the girls

are trying to figure out who the mysterious man in their shop was. They mentioned multiple

times that he looked just like their father. This is because he is still in the back of their minds,

almost like a ghost. Constantly being haunted by the past, they try to move on, but everything is

a reminder of what they used to have. Always bringing up old stories of their father and the

things that he used to say about being Khmer. "Nothing makes me feel more Khmer than the

smell of fried fish sauce and fried dough."(Veasna, 11) They were wondering throughout the

story of the memories with their father were ever really "good ones". They eventually came to

the understanding that the memories were in fact not wonderful when they said in the last line of

the story "Yes, they think, we know him. We've carried him our whole lives." (Veasna,29) This

reveals that Tevy, Kayley, and Sothy have all been grieving over the loss of their father even

before he left. Was not a good partner to Sothy while they were together and he was not a good
father to Tevy and Kayley. The last line in the story is them fully accepting and mourning the

absence of their father.

In both stories, there is an abundance of loss and grief. "When Mr. Pirzada Comes to Dine" is a

story about how Lilia and her family helped Mr. Pirzada to keep his faith and hope that his

children are still going to be in his life, while "Three Women of Chucks Donuts" is about a

family helping each other accept the loss of their father. In both stories, the characters are

learning to live with loss and all of the ways to cope with it. Through community within their

environments, they grew and learned the importance of family dynamics

Work Cited

“Three Women of Chucks Donuts”, Feb.10,202

“Mr. Prizada Came to Dine”, 1999