My Two Lives

Group members: mary, pengliyu, hanrunli, william, sophia

author: JHUMPA LAHIRI

Summary• Jhumpa Lahiri wrote “my two lives” indicated that she

was an Indian -American. This article reflects the author’s heart, she told

us that in the early American life she was embarrassed to be a two “lives”, which means she was an Indian but she has been live in America for 37 years. She hides her customs from her American friends because she was afraid that her

friends know she was an Indian. Also, the author’s family never allowed her to

become an American. The author says: "I felt intense pressure to be two things,

loyal to the old world and fluent in the new” The author’s main point is that she felt under pressure to be a “two lives” person because she can’t focus on either one side or another. And the reality doesn’t allow her to do that.  The author uses several

examples to support the main point, such as her family, the author’s parents were old fashion, they don’t like to live in American and they followed many Indian customs so that the author always plays two roles- “Indian –American”. The author also gave another example is that her first writing, since then, she didn’t feel doomed because the term ?Indian -American? appeared from people’s mouth. She felt happy about that because the author thought that she never explains herself anymore. Later

years, everything changed because the author changed her mind.

♂Determine your audience

☻publication: Essay was published in America Now, Seventh Edition in 2007

☻audience: Immigrant, especially Indian-American people and people who have same experience as author.

☻Audience affect: People who belong to Immigrant will integrate author?s experience with them own experience

the weakness

۩ example1: First when she was a little child, she felt she was neither Indian nor American and she felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new.

۩ example2: In the article <My Two Lives> what does the title mean?

۩ question: why? how? ۩ need to be specific

the strengths

۩ example1: Childhood

She could speak English without an accent and she was grow up in American

(made she felt she is a American)

۩ example2: But her distinguishing name; looks; did not attend Sunday school; disappeared to India for months at a time

(made she felt she is a Indian)

confuse in childhood

۩ According to her parents she was not American nor would she ever.

۩ So she said her first lesson of arithmetic ,1+1 =0 （ American+ Indian=nothing ）

change in middle age

۩ when she was in middle age 1+1=2（ American + India =bicultural upbringing

۩ She thought after her parents dies, everything will change, as she said an anchor will drop, and a line of connection will be severed. She will be real American

LOGOS• I think the writer has a good logic. In the beginning, when

she was young, she was wonder that if she was Indian or American,and she use some evidence to show that in some areas, she was belong to Indian according their parents, but in other areas, she was belong to American such as she spoke English

without an accent. With the time passes, she grow up, she use

the growing time as the key to show that she was proud to use

the term--Indian-American.

PATHOS• definition: the empathic side--it’s the feeling. It m

eans that you are in the emotional that trust another person’s communication.

• example:I think the writer use a lot of pathos. From the begi

nning that she was shamed to show her American friends her Indian cultural, to the ends that she was even proud that s

he was Indian-American. It is contains many emotion of her. When reading this article, I can have a deep impression of her em

otion from her words, such as in the beginning, she thought one plus one did not equal two but zero.

ethos• definition: is appeal based on the character of th

e writer. It is your personal credibility, the faith people have in your integrity and competency.

• example:the writers developed the ethos with the ethic language that appropriate to readers.

how the three appeals overlap• the logic is needed

• emotion is also an important part to move people

• to use the appropriate words to attract readers is also needed

• Therefore, these three rhetoric are overlapped

Conclusion♪♫♫

• at the end, the writer find out it's not ashamed to be a Indian-American.

• in the article, the author use the three appeals to indicate her writing style is more logical than emotional. and through the ethos, i can see she is really care about her identity.

The end

PPT made by dan

Thanks for listening