A Powerful Choice

I was really impressed with the Omishto's choice to remain in the "natural world." Her decision in Kili really does embody her strength and illustrate her transformation. I talked a little bit about this in class, but for the longest time I just did not feel comfortable calling her a "strong" character. I felt as if her beliefs were too "wishy-washy" and she kept going back and forth from the two different worlds (the natural world and the modern world). So, as I was reading page 231, I felt as if I could finally call her a strong person. I felt as if I was watching someone (or in this case, reading about someone) who was right there making the decision to be strong. It was like I was witnessing her becoming powerful. That page really does illustrate her transformation from believing that knowledge must come first in order to believe in something, to realizing that you can believe in something or someone without ever having hard evidence. I feel as if in Omishto's case, knowledge of self equals strength.

I really enjoyed this book because it embodies every phrase we've covered in the course so far: place, displacement, and culture. I felt like this was the perfect book to end with because not only did it seemingly wrap up the course, it also had a "happy" ending in the way that I felt as if we came to a place with Omishto that we felt like we could leave her knowing she had found her place and had come to terms with herself.