When I first got the short fiction of “Out on Main Street” by the author of Shani Mootoo on my hands, my attention has been drawn to it’s title. Because I was born in B.C. and undoubtedly Main Street is one of the very iconic areas in Vancouver, therefore, it has caught my sight. Regarding to the context of the book, the author has successfully encapsulates the multiculturalism in regards to the issues of human rights, sexual orientations, and discrimination. The author has illustrated these issues from a setting of an Indian restaurant in Vancouver Main Street, and the fiction reflects these issues through different events that took place in the restaurant. Given that the author himself is a Caribbean Canadian, the author also sees the Canadian society as well as the culture different than the general public.
Hi Kevin,
When i first read the title of the book, i pictured that ‘All Indian Sweets & Restaurant’ on the corner of Main, strong aroma of spices coming from small family owned restaurants, and women dressed in sari window shopping. I find it really interesting how the name of some streets and cities in B.C. can evoke images of different races and ethnic groups in them. For example, Richmond, Kingsway, Coquitlam.
Drawing back to the novel, I agree that the author does a good job at capturing multiculturalism, especially the fourth story ‘Out on Main Street’ where the narrator and her girlfriend Janet spend their day on Main Street. The theme of cultural mosaic versus melting pot is really brought to life in this novel in addition to, like you’ve mentioned, human rights, sexual orientation, and discrimination.
Hi, Kevin,
Try to land on more specific scenes and details to support your larger arguments. It sounds as though you have many important observations to make, but from the way you have written the post it’s hard for me to know how closely you read the story, just because your interpretations are so general. But, if you added specific examples from the text itself (with pages numbers, quotes, etc.) then that would really support your arguments well. Does that make sense?
For instance, you wrote: “Regarding to the context of the book, the author has successfully encapsulates the multiculturalism in regards to the issues of human rights, sexual orientations, and discrimination. The author has illustrated these issues from a setting of an Indian restaurant in Vancouver Main Street, and the fiction reflects these issues through different events that took place in the restaurant.”
Now, you would want to write 3-4 sentences that include several specific details from the story itself to support these general observations and analyze the “different events” you mention. Otherwise, the observations remain too vague, and it’s hard to tell how closely you’ve read the text. So, try to move between larger observations (which you offer in this post) to specific examples within the text itself. (And feel free to email if you have questions or I can be of further help explaining this approach to textual analysis.)
Warmly,
Kimberly