20 pages 40 minutes read

Bharati Mukherjee

The Management of Grief

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1988

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Essay Topics

1.

What is your interpretation of the story’s ending? Do you find the ending sad, hopeful, or both? 

2.

Shaila Bhave’s relationship with her husband seems to have been formal and traditional, from what she tells us. How does her idea of love seem to differ from that of a Western reader’s?  

3.

How does Judith Templeton’s idea of “grief management” differ from that of the narrator’s? Are there also ways in which it is similar to the narrator’s? What do you think are some advantages and disadvantages of their different approaches?