Q4 7A

I just finished reading The Village Bride of Beverly Hills by Kavita Daswani.

One large cultural difference between American culture and Indian culture that I noticed in the last part of the book was the way a wife was suppossed to behave. American women are more demanding and independent whereas Priya notes that Indian women are obedient and loyal to their in-laws, especially the women in arranged marraiges. Sanjay accuses Priya of becoming 'more American' when she begins to stand up for herself and when she brings him to a marraige counseling session to talk more about their feelings. When Priya tries to tell Sanjay that she is unhappy with their marraige, he doesn't get it because he thinks only of physical needs and not of emotional needs. "He had probably heard from his American friends that women wanted to have these 'talks'... he evidently believed that Indian men didn't need to have these conversations with their equally Indian wives" (p. 209). When Priya leaves Sanjay, some of her family members seem more upset with her getting divorced than they feel bad for her having been unhappy.