Previous
Symbols
In Unaccustomed Earth, the consumption of alcohol symbolizes escapism and disconnection, especially when that disconnection occurs due to a character’s shifting cultural identity. Because Indian culture has a history of stigmatizing drinking, alcohol is considered a taboo coping mechanism that thus increases some characters’ alienation. In “Only Goodness,” for instance, Rahul’s alcoholism stems from his desire to rebel. While he began life as the “ideal” immigrant son destined to make his parents proud, he later turns to alcohol to evade the pressures of his family’s expectations and the weight of his own disappointments. It is, in part, a way to embrace American culture and reject his family’s very traditional dreams for their son. Rahul’s drinking, which strains and eventually shatters his formerly close relationship with Sudha, ultimately isolates both siblings.
“Year’s End” presents a less extreme picture of using alcohol to cope, as Kaushik’s Bengali parents begin to share a nightly Johnnie Walker after his mother, Parul, is diagnosed with terminal cancer. This habit of drinking whisky signifies not only their western assimilation but also their desire to experience life fully before Parul dies. In this sense, it is a private acknowledgment of the mortality all humans share, regardless of cultural identity. However, when Kaushik’s father remarries to Chitra and renounces alcohol to match her traditional values, Kaushik sees this as a betrayal, an attempt to erase his mother’s legacy in favor of Chitra’s cultural conservatism. Through these nuanced portrayals, alcohol is both a bridge and a barrier—uniting characters in shared understanding or alienating them through unresolved pain.
Alcohol and Drinking Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below all refer to the symbol of Alcohol and Drinking. 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.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
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.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It was like the painting they’d first looked at together in London, the small mirror at the back revealing more than the room at first appeared to contain. And what was the point of making Roger lean in close, to see what she was already forced to?
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
8. Hema and Kaushik: Going Ashore
Quotes
It was her inability, ultimately, to approach middle age without a husband, without children, with her parents living now on the other side of the world, and yet to own a home and shovel the driveway when it snowed and pay her mortgage bill when it came [...] to abide that life indefinitely that led her to Navin.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Unaccustomed Earth LitChart as a printable PDF.
Alcohol and Drinking Symbol Timeline in Unaccustomed Earth
The timeline below shows where the symbol Alcohol and Drinking appears in Unaccustomed Earth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. Hell-Heaven
...becomes strained. She rebels against the traditional Bengali image her parents hoped she would embrace, drinking beer and kissing boys in secret. Usha begins to view her mother’s existence with pity,...
(full context)
3. A Choice of Accommodations
...pair formed a bond during their early years on campus. Once, at a party, a drunk Amit boldly kissed Pam. She briefly kissed back before pulling away, gently letting him know...
(full context)
...hoped to meet. Later, while Megan waits in line for the bathroom, Amit grabs fresh drinks and catches up with old instructors and classmates. Mr. Nagle, his former English teacher, is...
(full context)
...engage them in separate conversations. Felicia asks Amit about their wedding, and Amit, growing increasingly drunk, explains that they eloped at City Hall. At the time, it had felt exciting and...
(full context)
...promises they’ll dance together when he returns and stay up to watch the sunrise. Amit drunkenly stumbles back to the hotel—only a few minutes’ walk from Langford—but is angry that he...
(full context)
4. Only Goodness
When Sudha gives her little brother, Rahul, beer for the first time, he thinks it’s repulsive. But by the following summer, she’s regularly...
(full context)
During Rahul’s first Christmas home from college, he asks Sudha to buy him more alcohol. She’s surprised, figuring he’d left that behind in high school. Reluctantly, she agrees, purchasing the...
(full context)
...Late that same night, while his family is at home asleep, Rahul is arrested for drunk driving. When Sudha and her father bail him out of jail, her father is stoic...
(full context)
...The visit is smooth, but Sudha discovers that her brother, though now 22, is still drinking alcohol in secret. Her concern for him grows.
(full context)
...could move her wedding reception to a venue without a bar, hoping to curb Rahul’s drinking. Frustrated, Sudha refuses, feeling it’s unfair that she’s always expected to “fix” her family’s problems.
(full context)
At Sudha and Roger’s reception, Rahul makes a drunken toast that ends with his father forcing him off the stage and Rahul fleeing the...
(full context)
...with Rahul even for a couple hours, but Roger—ignorant to the full extent of Rahul’s alcoholism—urges her to trust him, saying they deserve a night out. Halfway through the movie, Sudha...
(full context)
...to wake him, and an argument erupts between the couple. Sudha confesses to her brother’s alcoholism. Furious, Roger bans Rahul from their home indefinitely, and though it breaks her heart, Sudha...
(full context)
6. Hema and Kaushik: Once in a Lifetime
...the Choudhuris have become and how much Bombay changed them. They fly first class, drink Johnnie Walker , and dress “stylishly”—all terrible things, in the eyes of Hema’s parents.
(full context)
7. Hema and Kaushik: Year’s End
Kaushik wonders why Dr. Choudhuri isn’t drinking Johnnie Walker as he typically would at this time—when Parul was first diagnosed, they’d picked...
(full context)
