A Father Analysis

Christie Fitzgerald

Professor Ellis

October 31, 2012

Presentation Analysis

In “A Father”, by Bharati Mukherjee, Mukherjee tells a story of a young woman, Babli and her two parents, who have completely different views on the modern world, in comparison to their Indian culture. Babli’s extremely religious father, Mr. Bhowmick, is somewhat stuck in the past, while Babli and Mrs. Bhowmick have more modernistic views. The reader finds out that Babli is pregnancy, and without a husband or boyfriend. Mr. Bhowmick believes that Babli must be hiding her boyfriend from the family, and runs through all the different scenarios of meeting him in his mind. Once the reader finds out that Babli is in fact pregnant by induced pregnancy, Mr. Bhowmick reacts as if he is a young child, for it does not agree with his traditional views.

The theme of “A Father” is about getting control of your life, and doing something for yourself, other than what is supposedly the right way to go about living. Babli’s induced pregnancy does not mean that she is disregarding her Indian roots, but only that she is moving on with her own life in the way that she wants to. The story was interesting because it took on two different perspectives of Babli’s pregnancy; the reader got to see the different perspectives especially in the ending scene.