Literary Context:
Would it have been more beneficial to include the historical facts within the poems themselves, rather than having epigraphs that pertain only to certain poems?
Style:
In the poems like “Oil” and the first “Partition”, how do you think the space between stanzas, the page breaks, and the distance between thoughts translates Asghar’s intentions for the poems?
How do her metaphors contribute to the emotional divides she feels between her culture from Pakistan and Kashmir and her life as an immigrant in the United States?
Background:
Asghar provides a bias point of view regarding Partition and the division of the Kashmiri territory in history. Do you find that this viewpoint is better — providing a greater overall experience of the poems — or do you think it would have been more beneficial to have a more rounded viewpoint of the political atmosphere in Pakistan and India?
Immigrant Experience:
In which poems do you find a more universal immigrant experience, and in which poems do you think the stories are more specific to growing up as Asghar? Why?
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Grace McKenna ’19