Reading Skills #1: Climbing the Stairs

Now that I have finished reading this book, I look back and fully understand both literal and figural meaning of the title "Climbing the Stairs." The literal meaning that the reading draws from the text is the scene where Vidya has just discovered the library and in order to do so she had to go up the stairs. If you think about it  the connection behind climbing the stairs and her character and all of human nature is there, you just don't understand until the very end of the book. I think that climbing the stairs refers to the progress Vidya made as a person. She started off being a very tom boyish girl (the very first step of the stairs) and as she progressed to becoming a strong- willed, hardworking girl she climbed the stairs to the very last step. In that sense that can apply to anyone in real life as well. Whether you are  just starting a new sport or in the process of learning something, you start at the very bottom step, and once you are good at it, you end up the very first step. Not only does this concept deal with learning something, "climbing the stairs" can refer to a person changing through experiences they have encountered.

This book finished on the fact that Vidya is writing to Raman telling him how things are going there and that one day they will meet. If this book was extended I predict the author would do something in a way that would allow Vidya to go herself and visit Raman in America because the book ends by
saying, "A nation I will one day visit to join you..."(243). Or I predict that a turn of events happen and fate would never bring them together because you start to notice a pattern of plot twists in this novel starting with when a\her father was hurt.

I wonder if the author's own experiences ever contributed to any of the events in this book? Partially because she really complexes some of the scenes. I would also like to know if any of the characters were meant to portray types of people in society or maybe even in her own family.

Text to Self Connection: Vidya is an Indian girl who lives in a typical indian household and I relate to that as well since I am also Indian. Many of the festivals mentioned in this book are also celebrated by my family and the reason why some don't match is because different parts of India celebrate and believe different ideas. In the novel the women don't eat until the men are finished, and during large family gatherings at my house, most of the time, the kids eat first, then the men, and finally the women. However on a daily basis this doesn't happen.

Text to Text: This book can be connected to Whirligig because both Brent and Vidya had their lives changes phases ever so quickly and were forced to cope with circumstances they never wanted to. Brent had to travel around the U.S to make four whirligigs as a result of killing an innocent girl and Vidya was forced into her grandfather's house.

Text to World: Since the setting of this novel is during the time of WWII, you can connect it to the events during that times such as the evacuations and the air- raid drills.