20/05/2008 Writing an Alternative Ending

When I left Maji’s hut, I felt much better and went directly to get a ticket back home to England. Two years after I had left India I met Chid again and we fell in love. I lived another 20 years and got 6 children with him.

(I know it is not very likely that the narrator can tell when she died)

13/5/2008 Tasks pp. 154 – 165

How does the narrative style in these last chapters and paragraphs differ from the rest of the novel?

The novel is written out of the point of view of either the narrator (first-person) or Olivia (third-person) and in these last chapters the stories come together and the reader learns how the narrator found out what happened to Olivia after her abortion. It is not like the narrator tells about her own experiences she made in India or one of the parts in which Olivia’s story is told but more like the narrator tells what had happened to the people of the 1923-story and what she wants to do next to find out why Olivia acted the way she did. The last part seems to contain also a lot more background knowledge than the rest of the novel.

13/5/2008 Tasks pp. 149 – 154

Explain the narrator’s state of mind as it develops in Maji’s hut.

When Maji starts to massage the narrator’s abdomen she suddenly finds out what she wants. At first the narrator is just curious about the abortion like she was when Maji told her earlyer in the book about the abortion technices there are, but after a while she realizes that she is having a baby which she was hoping for when she went with Inder Lal’s mother and her friends to the “Husband’s Wedding Day” and later when she was alone with Inder Lal at the shrine.

How does Olivia manage to get the abortion done?

Olivia had Harry ask the Begum to arrange an abortion for her. Olivia was lead by some midwives to a place where it should be done. Just before the midwives started the Begum also came to attend the procedure. After massaging Olivia’s belly for a while they inserted a twig to kill the baby.

13/5/2008 Tasks pp. 143 – 149

What information does the reader get about the British at independence?

The reader finds out that after or while India became independent of Britain many of the officers who had worked in the name of the crown left India and returned to Britain while others stayed untill they died because they have had their best time in India. With the Indian independence proceding it got more and more uncomfortable for British people to live in Inida because most of the Indian people disliked the British.

Explain Olivia’s decision to have an abortion.

Olivia decided to abort her pregnancy because she was not sure who was the father of the baby. Both, the Nawab and Douglas, had no doubt of being the father themselves. And when Olivia heard that Douglas had send for the family’s christening robe and the Nawab partly just wanted to use the baby to seek revenge on the British she knew she was about to loose one of them if the baby comes.

29/4/2008 Task pp. 127 – 143

Describe the narrator’s feelings about being pregnant.

The narrator does not really think about being pregnant at first but rather gets distracted from the topic by Maji telling about her past and her ancestors. Even when Maji is telling her about the time she was a midwife and also the abortion practices there are the narrator forgets about herself and the decision she has to make. When she finally thinks about her baby she is “amused and interested” and does not seem to take this very seriously.

14/4/2008 Task pp. 90 – 102

Compare Olivia’s and Douglas’s views of the Nawab and the dacoits.

Olivia thinks about the Nawab as an honest and very nice person who could never participate in anything criminal or injust. She says that he is a “ruler”, a “prince” and has “some sort of English title” and so he must be a trustworthy person. Douglas in comparison explains that he got his titels and his power becuase his great-grandfather once decided to take sides with the British in an uprising by the people in Satipur after he realized the British were winnig. And so there was distrust all along with the Nawab’s family and it is most likely that the rumors about him are true.