DRAFT ESSAY

WL201

ANUSHKA SHARMA
SHAA2D1903
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Anushka Sharma

Dr. Kate Scheel

WL201

July 19 , 2022

The Outrival of Collectivist Culture over Individualistic Culture

In the short story , Mrs. Sen’s , the protagonist is brought into an individualistic culture from a

collectivist culture against her wish , where she struggles to make America her home and her

mind and heart are still in India where she thinks her permanent home is. She moved to the

foreign lands as her husband gets the job at the university as a professor , she doesn’t get a say in

this decision. She constantly misses her family and her people . Her home where she came from ,

people loved being together , helped each other out in their sorrow and happiness. Whereas the

place she has landed to is isolated and lonely , where nobody has time for one another. She

thinks people here are broken and live their lives independently. We read the story from the point

of view of Elliot , who sees and understands the emotions and feelings of Mrs. Sen as his

caregiver through her ways and behaviours. To draw a comparison between an individualistic

culture and the collectivist culture ,the process of immigration is difficult , but one decides to

follow through in order to make their lives better and to seek the future in a different country

which they find it hard or impossible to achieve in their own lands.

The collectivist culture outweighs individualistic culture upon revaluation by prioritizing

togetherness and solidarity of its people , while establishing effort in making each other happy

and the sense of belongingness people long for in the North American Culture.
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Elliot when first meets Mrs. Sen along with his mother , draws a comparison between the

American culture and the Indian culture based on the attires his mom and Mrs. Sen are in. The

author introduces Mrs. Sen as, “ she wore a shimmering white sari patterned with orange

paisleys , more suitable for an evening affair than for that quiet , faintly drizzling august

afternoon .( Lahiri ,112) Yet it was his mother , Elliot had thought , in her cuffed , beige shorts

and her rope – soled shoes , who looked odd. Her cropped hair , a shade similar to her shorts ,

seemed too lank and sensible , and in that room where all things were so carefully covered , her

shaved knees and thighs too exposed.” ( Lahiri , 113). The clothing styles in these two cultures is

very different from one another . Mrs. Sen represents the Bengali culture by wearing a white sari

, she looks sophisticated but a little outlandish and overly dressed for the occasion. Whereas in

Mrs. Sen’s apartment everything is covered and his mother’s naked legs look too western and

exposed. The Indian culture ideals women being fully dressed and the western culture allows

women to dress however they desire.

Mrs. Sen belonged from a collectivist culture where there were so many people around her

always , as compared to her life in the States she has nobody around her and that loneliness

bothers her every day. She tells Eliot, “ whenever there is a wedding in the family , my mother

sends out word in the evening for all the neighbourhood women to bring blades like this one, and

then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building , laughing and gossiping and

slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the night..”(Lahiri , 115). The author distinguishes both

the cultures as India being a collectivist culture where people come together for preparations of a

wedding ceremony and they help each other out. The women sitting on the roof cooking and

chatting with one another represents how women take care of the cooking responsibility and it’s

a job for them to work for some other family’s ceremony . But they enjoy doing it and do not
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consider it as a job. It can also be seen that how selfless these people are and how unconditional

their love is for one another. She also tells Elliot , “Here, in this place where Mr. Sen has brought

me , I cannot sometimes sleep in so much silence”. This reflects that this decision was not in

favour of Mrs. Sen nor was she given the opportunity to say no , it was obvious for her to follow

her husband wherever he goes for his job regardless of her wish where she wants to live. She

also mentions that she finds it difficult to sleep here which shows she is not at ease and comfort

here which troubles her throughout the night as she continues to miss her people and her home.

The individualistic culture in America makes life lonely and focuses on meeting the goals in life

and that journey for most people is with themselves only . As we go along the story , we realise

how beautiful the Asian culture is to bring its communities together and provides the opportunity

to interact and know each other better.

The relationship Mrs. Sen and Elliot share is motherly love and care , they make each other

wholesome , he somehow makes her feel less homesick. She prepares food for him and

essentially likes to do that for him besides the fact that it is her job. She takes care of him like his

own son. Elliot also enjoys her company as she gets him after school , makes him these dishes

that he loves . The narrator tells us that, “Each evening she insisted that his mother sit on the sofa

, where she was served something to eat : a glass of bright pink yogurt with rose syrup , breaded

mincemeat with raisins , a bowl of semolina halvah ” ( Lahiri, 118). Mrs. Sen believed everyone

who came to her house shouldn’t go without eating anything. She loved to prepare food for

others which showed her effort , love and care for others . This strengthens the bond Elliot and

Mrs. Sen share. However , “ first thing she did when they were back at the beach house was pour

herself a glass of wine and eat bread and cheese , sometimes so much of it that she wasn’t hungry

for the pizza they normally ordered for dinner . She sat at the table as he ate ,drinking more wine
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and asking how his day was , but eventually she went to the deck to smoke a cigarette , leaving

Eliot to wrap up the leftovers ” (Lahiri , 118). Food is an important aspect of sharing a bond

within the collectivist culture. Mrs. Sen establishes that bond with Eliot whereas his mother gets

him pizza for dinner which they don’t even seem to share. It implies that they share less of a

relationship. The caregiver Mrs. Sen is to Eliot establishes a motherly love and connection

among them. The collectivist culture emphasizes on mother taking care of the child at all times

whereas the individualistic American culture is more independent where the child misses on

connecting and spending time together with the parents. After a day of work Eliot’s mother does

not have time to cook for him or spend time chatting with him. She has a stressful and long day

and she rests when she gets home , which doesn’t allow her to do other things with Eliot.

Mrs. Sen leaves her country and tries to see her future in America where she realises the ways

and culture of this country. She asks Eliot , “ will you put your mother in a nursing home when

she is old? Maybe he said. But I would visit everyday” (Lahiri , 131). This conversation makes

her see the life in the States where kids do not stay with their parents and do not connect with

them in their old age. This characteristic of the collectivist culture ensures stability for the

parents when they need their children the most and is important for every child to be with their

parents when they need them the most.

In conclusion , the individualistic culture seems otherwise to be linked with emptiness in life and

leads to isolation. It emphasizes more on the other aspects of life such as building a successful

career , staying debt free , it focuses more on the growth of oneself rather than an entire

community. Whereas a collectivist culture focuses on bringing people of their communities

together and to preserve the care and love for one another. It focuses majorly on the growth of its

individuals rather than just caring about oneself. Moreover the individualistic culture is more
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about independence and freedom for oneself, the autonomy to do things for themselves however

one desires. Another characteristic of collectivist culture is to bring harmony and solidarity to its

people which would in turn provide happiness to oneself .

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Work Cited

Lahiri , Jhumpa . Interpreter of Maladies Stories . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , 1999.

https://moodle.fraseric.ca/pluginfile.php/528871/mod_label/intro/Lahiri%20pt.%202.pptx

https://moodle.fraseric.ca/pluginfile.php/528872/mod_label/intro/Lahiri%20pt.%203%20v.2.ppt