Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter

In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s text “Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter”, there are three characters that go through the stages that Didion talked about. Death, test, challenges and rebirth are all present in the characters. Mrs. Dutta goes through some of the hardships living in U.S. Her husband is dead and her entire life is devoted to the family she had been taking care of. Dutta talks about how early she had to wake up in the morning due to constant habitual actions she had been doing for past years. The death part of the Dutta life can be portrayed in this excerpt “In India she would never had venture to sing, but everyone gone, the house is too quiet, all that silence pressing down on her like the hell of the giant hand.” (311). Dutta is eventually beginning to adapt to her situation and began to live for herself. There were some of the tests and challenges she had to go through. Some of the challenges were the longing for her husband and wanting to go back where she came from. There were overcame by her children who gives her the power to live in U.S.
Dutta’s son, Sagar also had to go through some of the factors of the three stages of the journey. He acknowledges Dutta’s responsibilities and her sacrifices and tells her that she should not wake up so early. Sagar is now becoming a one that not only asks for things to her mother but also asks her to let go of the chores and live more freely. Sagar in this text was viewed as a child who is troublesome and who needs Dutta’s advice and help in order to achieve life in U.S. Dutta seems he is completely reborn in U.S. since he is young and adapts faster than his family members.
Shyamoli is Dutta’s daughter-in-law. The excerpt “…it was an Americna habit” Mrs. Dutta did not remember the Indian shyamoli, the docile bride she’d mothered for a month before putting her on a Pan Am flight to join her husband, pursing her lips in quite this way to let out a breath at once patient and vexed” (315). This statement defines some