The Other Family Himani Bannerji Summary

The mother in the story "The Other Family," by Himani Bannerji, is an emotional character with unchangeable traits throughout the story. In the first paragraph, the mother "[stands] at her window and [watches] the [small] hooded figure," to which she introduces herself as remorseful: "What did I do, I took her away from her own people and her own language" (1). Her negative view of immigration to Canada demonstrates her uncertainty. Although her daughter has not complained, this implies an unsatisfied decision. Furthermore, the mother is emotional about taking away her daughter's "people" and "language," which causes her to yearn for her home country. (1). As the story unfolds, the mother and daughter argue, revealing her as insecure. The little girl gives her mother a

Don’t you want us anymore? You want to be a mem-sahib, a white girl" (2). The mother's ease with the words "don't you want us anymore" demonstrates the built-up insecurity that eventually leaks out of her (2). The daughter's drawing and the uncertainty of immigration eventually overwhelm the mother. At the same time that she is insecure, she is also apprehensive. The aftermath of the argument causes her to reflect on her daughter: "Someday, she thought, this child would be ashamed of her, someday would move out into the world of those others. Someday they would be enemies" (2). As the mother ponders the little girl's future, her anxiousness is evident. The sentence after describes the mother’s thoughts as confusing, "like images on an uncontrollable television screen" (2). The author uses the "television screen" to dive into the mother's mind. Her mind cycles through images of her daughter abandoning her mother in the future, which represents a mother's worry. It is a tendency for mothers to worry about their children, which makes it "uncontrollable"