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Usha
In “Hell-Heaven,” Aparna, Usha’s mother, is a Bengali immigrant who struggles to adapt to life in the United States. Married to Usha’s father through an arranged union, she finds it challenging to accept the lack of choice and autonomy that defines the foundation of her marriage. Traditional and nostalgic, she feels disconnected from American life and disheartened by the western values she sees shaping Usha’s upbringing. When Pranab Chakraborty enters Aparna’s world, her life takes on new meaning. She becomes deeply infatuated with him, clinging to him as a connection to her homeland and a reminder of what she left behind. She’s heartbroken when Pranab marries Deborah, and she nearly sets herself on fire in her grief. Over time, Aparna comes to accept her daughter’s American influences, growing more comfortable with western life as she finds her place between two worlds.
Aparna Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Aparna or refer to Aparna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
1. Unaccustomed Earth
Quotes
Growing up, her mother’s example—moving to a foreign place for the sake of marriage, caring exclusively for children and a household—had served as a warning, a path to avoid. Yet this was Ruma’s life now.
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2. Hell-Heaven
Quotes
There is only one photograph in which my mother appears; she is holding me as I sit straddling her lap [...] In that picture, Pranab Kaku’s shadow, his two arms raised at angles to hold the camera to his face, hovers in the corner of the frame, his darkened, featureless shape superimposed on one side of my mother’s body. It was always the three of us.
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I began to take my cues from my father in dealing with her, isolating her doubly. When she screamed at me for talking too long on the telephone, or for staying too long in my room, I learned to scream back, telling her that she was pathetic, that she knew nothing about me, and it was clear to us both that I had stopped needing her, definitively and abruptly, just as Pranab Kaku had.
Get the entire Unaccustomed Earth LitChart as a printable PDF.
Aparna Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Aparna or refer to Aparna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
1. Unaccustomed Earth
Quotes
Growing up, her mother’s example—moving to a foreign place for the sake of marriage, caring exclusively for children and a household—had served as a warning, a path to avoid. Yet this was Ruma’s life now.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
2. Hell-Heaven
Quotes
There is only one photograph in which my mother appears; she is holding me as I sit straddling her lap [...] In that picture, Pranab Kaku’s shadow, his two arms raised at angles to hold the camera to his face, hovers in the corner of the frame, his darkened, featureless shape superimposed on one side of my mother’s body. It was always the three of us.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I began to take my cues from my father in dealing with her, isolating her doubly. When she screamed at me for talking too long on the telephone, or for staying too long in my room, I learned to scream back, telling her that she was pathetic, that she knew nothing about me, and it was clear to us both that I had stopped needing her, definitively and abruptly, just as Pranab Kaku had.
