Short Story Analysis The theme of the story deals with the struggles an immigrant living in a new cultural ambiance and society. The author is successful in portraying the difficulties that are faced by an immigrant person who aims to make his transition to a new urban milieu. It becomes very clear that the person in context is in a hostile milieu away from his home, and he is endeavoring to fit into the societal ambiance in some way or the other avoiding the cultural, ethnic and racial barriers. Mistry leaves readers feeling the inner core of the immigrant protagonist who succeeds in portraying the impediment of his life in a new cultural ambiance. While he had come to the place with dreams of achieving excellence, the friction and revulsion…show more content… The author uses water symbolically in the course of the story. The protagonist opines, “The water terrified me” (Mistry) Here, water is symbolic of the hostile milieu the character finds himself in the alien land. He is scared to mingle in the new ambiance and is faced with impediments. The culture, society and people work as hostilities for him- all of which have been symbolically represented by the water of the swimming pool. Thus, learning to be in the water is symbolic of his endeavor to fit into the new ambiance in Canada. The author goes on to use a fixation on the body so as to confront the experience of the immigrant. The bodily attributes are symbolic of the psyche and the perspective of the protagonist of the story in context. At one point the protagonist says, “I wonder how everything will stay in place, not that I’m boastful about my endowments. I try them on, and feel that the tip of my member lingers perilously close to the exit. Too close, in fact, to conceal.” (Mistry) Thus, the person is skeptical that his Parsi identity would fail to be contained within a Canadian identity. As such, one might feel that a part of the protagonist wishes to be able to assimilate into the new cultural milieu he is in. But, in reality he wishes to have a harmony between his Parsi identity and the Canadian culture. This becomes clear when…show more content… It seems to be that the entire story is written in first person narrative. The perspective of the narrator or the protagonist goes on to stir readers with the amount of vivid detail. In this way, the author goes on to bring out the affective appeal of the literary work by delving deep into the musings, skepticism, complexities and contradictions of the mind of the immigrant person whose emotions are explicated via the use of imagery and symbols in the course of the short story. The vulnerabilities and skepticism of the immigrant get portrayed in the course of the literary work through the use of the point of view of the narrator. Since we are allowed into the protagonist’s mind, we can get a sense of how his thought process works as he perceives and reflects on his experiences. The importance of knowing the protagonist’s thoughts is displayed when we see how Kersi reacts to the traumatizing incident with the three boys at the pool. Kersi opines, “Maybe the swimming pool is the hangout of some racist group, bent on eliminating all non-white swimmers, to keep their waters pure and their white sisters unogled.” The verbal attack at the swimming pool was treated with no response in person from Kersi as he did not stand up for himself but rather justified it later on after the lesson. Thus, the protagonist’s reaction represents his insecurity and