One Amazing Thing

Reading Journal

This journal covers chapters 13 to 16 of Divakaruni’s novel One Amazing Thing.

PLOT: What happened in these chapters? Give a brief overview, chapter by chapter, especially noting any events that surprised you or confused you.

CHARACTER: Which characters appear in these chapters? List each one along with what we learned about them in these chapters, especially noting any developments that surprised you or confused you.

KEY PASSAGE: Choose what you feel is a key paragraph or two where the plot or a character develops in some surprising way. Write down the page number and the first line of the paragraph. Flag it in your book as well.

VOCABULARY: List at least five words you were unfamiliar with or unsure of as you read. List each word, the sentence it appeared in, the dictionary definition, and page number where it appeared. Flag each word in your book as well.

RESPONSE: Talk back to the characters or the author. What is your response to these chapters? What questions do you have?

Post your notes here (which will NOT be visible to other students).
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PLOT

Chapter 13: Mr. Mangalam starts his story by telling the survivors that he was once married before. In his marriage, he began to become unhappy due to the fact that his wife was too controlling of everything. Mangalam started to develop feelings for a co-worker, Naina, and had decided to ask his wife for a divorce so that he could be with the other woman.

Chapter 14: Mrs. Pritchett starts her story by explaining how her and her friend were supposed to run a bakery together, but had decided to run away and elope with Mr. Pritchett. As time passed, Mrs. Pritchett began to feel as if her relationship with Mr. Pritchett wasn’t satisfying her needs, wanting to get a divorce. Feeling as if there was a strain in her relationship with her relationship, Mrs. Pritchett overdoses on pills to help her get over her depression, which causes her to get hospitalized.

Chapter 15: In this chapter, we learn that Cameron develops feelings with a girl and ends up falling in love. With college just around the corner, Cameron decides to leave everything behind to go to school. Due to the amount of stress and discomfort from the college experience, Cameron realizes that college isn’t the place for him. Cameron then decides to join the army, and serves in the Vietnam War. Due to the fact of being at an old age and no spouse, Cameron feels lonely and decides to sponsor a young child in India, which he develops a very good relationship with over time. When Cameron is done telling his story, the earthquake strikes again which causes more damage to the building and causes the survivors to be put under an abundant amount of stress.

Chapter 16: The earthquake has stricken, which has caused the survivors to run to a safety. The water has risen to a greater level and the building is continuing to fall apart. Uma, then tells her story. In the chapter, we learn that Uma has gone away for school and starts to feel as if school is not that important to her when she finds out that her father wants a divorce from her mother. The news then causes Uma to lose all type of motivation, and causes her to run away. After running away, she learns that running away from problems never solves them. At the end of the chapter, a sense of ambiguity occurs when we aren’t informed if the survivors are rescued or die.

CHARACTERS:

Cameron – Cameron’s asthma is beginning to get the best of him because of the conditions they are in. We learn that Cameron is starting to stare out into space and think of all the possible things that could happen to his life and the others that are in his life. We learn that he cares for the young girl her sponsors, for that is the only person because he constantly thinks about her.

Mangalam – We learn that Mangalam is very unhappy with his marriage. We can conclude that Mangalam does not like to be controlled he likes to have some say in some arguments. Mangalam also is very caring and also unselfish when it comes to the people who he truly loves.

Mrs. Pritchett – Mrs. Pritchett is not afraid to be judged on her feelings. We learn that happiness does not exist in her marriage with Mr. Pritchett. We can also infer that envy strikes through her when she sees couples in happier relationships that she is. Mrs. Pritchett is also affected mentally and emotionally by her marriage.

Uma – Uma is distraught by all the things that are happening around her. She feels the need to share her story. We find out that Uma is very affected by her parents, and instead of solving the problems surrounding her. Instead of solving her problems, she decides to run away from them. We learn that she thinks things through to make sure if she is making the right decision.

KEY PASSAGE:

“Then the earthquake struck and—“ P. 200

VOCABULARY:

“Failure to do this, he said, smiling jovially, could be dangerous to my health.” P.164

- Good-humored.

“She had given the gardener a ten-rupee note as baksheesh when she left.” P. 170

- Payment to expedite service (bribe).

“This need for rest would have irked her when she was younger, she accepts it with equanimity now.” P. 176

- Evenness of mind especially under stress.

“Over the next weeks he waited—at first with trepidation, then with concern, then with a strange disappointment—for her to make contact.” P. 194

- A nervous or fearful feeling of uncertain agitation.

“Against his silence, the comments about hope and forgiveness that she had planned to offer seemed platitudinous.” P. 202

- The quality or state of being dull or insipid.

RESPONSE:

The ending was very ambiguous which caused the reader to wonder what was to happen to the survivors in the story. I feel as if the author should have the ending more descriptive or with more information on what happened to the group of survivors. By doing this would help the readers get a better understanding of what had happened to the survivors which could help tie the whole story together.