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Rahul
In “Only Goodness,” Sudha and Rahul’s parents are Bengali immigrants with high expectations for their children, emphasizing the importance of education, success, and the preservation of Bengali customs. They are somewhat distant and emotionally reserved, especially with Rahul, whose struggles they largely deny or overlook until they become impossible to ignore. They come to view Sudha as a source of pride and Rahul as a disappointment. Their inability to acknowledge or properly support Rahul in his issues with alcohol places strain on the family, but their genuine love for their children remains clear.
Sudha’s Parents Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Sudha’s Parents or refer to Sudha’s Parents. 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:
).
4. Only Goodness
Quotes
They relied on their children, on Sudha especially. It was she who had to explain to her father that he had to gather up the leaves in bags, not just drag them with his rake to the woods opposite the house. She, with her perfect English, who called the repair department at Lechmere to have their appliances serviced. Rahul never considered it his duty to help their parents in this way.
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She’d always had a heavy hand in his life, it was true, striving not to control it but to improve it somehow. She had always considered this her responsibility to him. She had not known how to be a sister any other way.
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And so he became what all parents feared, a blot, a failure, someone who was not contributing to the grand circle of accomplishments Bengali children were making across the country, as surgeons or attorneys or scientists, or writing articles for the front page of The New York Times.
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Sudha’s Parents Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Sudha’s Parents or refer to Sudha’s Parents. 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:
).
4. Only Goodness
Quotes
They relied on their children, on Sudha especially. It was she who had to explain to her father that he had to gather up the leaves in bags, not just drag them with his rake to the woods opposite the house. She, with her perfect English, who called the repair department at Lechmere to have their appliances serviced. Rahul never considered it his duty to help their parents in this way.
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She’d always had a heavy hand in his life, it was true, striving not to control it but to improve it somehow. She had always considered this her responsibility to him. She had not known how to be a sister any other way.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
And so he became what all parents feared, a blot, a failure, someone who was not contributing to the grand circle of accomplishments Bengali children were making across the country, as surgeons or attorneys or scientists, or writing articles for the front page of The New York Times.
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