Compare and contrast the different cultures, which are shown in the short stories 'The Gold Cadillac' and 'A Stench Of Kerosene' by the authors Mildred Taylor and Amrita Pritam.

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09/05/2007

Compare and contrast the different cultures, which are shown in the short stories ‘The Gold Cadillac’ and ‘A Stench Of Kerosene’ by the authors Mildred Taylor and Amrita Pritam.

              In the short stories ‘A Stench Of Kerosene’ by Amrita Pritam and ‘The Gold Cadillac’ by Mildred Taylor both authors follow the conventions of a short story to create an impact on the reader. In ‘The Gold Cadillac’ Taylor creates a large impact on the reader by showing how the young girl Lois is confused by racism and slowly develops a fear of it. This helps the reader to clearly see how racism affects families and cultures. ‘A Stench Of Kerosene’ is very similar. Pritam creates an impact by portraying prejudice, not against race but against sex. She portrays this prejudice by showing the reader how women are treated badly in an Indian society and how men are valued more in society. By focusing on these topics both authors give us their views on racism and female powerlessness.

              ‘A Stench Of Kerosene’ is about a mother who lives in India in a matriarchal society and is concerned about the betterment of her son called Manak. Manak’s mother wants him to have a son, as she wants the family name to carry on. After seven years of no children with his current wife Guleri, Manak’s mother buys him another bride while Guleri is away, in the hope that she will be able to give Guleri a son. When his first wife discovers this she commits suicide. ‘The Gold Cadillac’ is set in America and is about a black family who seem to be treated as equals. The father of the family Wilbert brings home a Golden Cadillac. His two children Lois and Wilma are thrilled but their mother is less than satisfied as feel he is wasting his money as they already have a car. Wilbert decides to take a trip down to Mississippi, which is in the south of America where black people have fewer rights and where some people are notoriously racist. After her boycott of riding in the car Wilbert’s wife, Dee decides that the whole family will go including herself. Halfway to Mississippi, Wilbert is arrested and fined unreasonably for speeding. At this point I think that he begins to understand why his wife had protested so much to the car, it had caused his youngest daughter Lois to be so scared that she had to hold a knife for her own protection. It was at this point that Wilbert decides to go home and get his cousins car. When the family got back from Mississippi the car was sold bringing their whole family closer together.

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              Although the themes of the story are quite similar the endings are clearly different. At the end of ‘The Gold Cadillac’ we see a note of happiness, as the family are brought closer together giving us closure. At the very end of the story we see Lois who has been telling the story say: ‘ I would remember that ride and the gold Cadillac all my life’. While on the other hand Pritam chooses to complete her story with a note of irony and tension: ‘ take him away he stinks of ...

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