Grade 10 Novel Unit
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Pre-reading Activities
As background information before we will study Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s novel Heat and Dust there are activities for you to do based on your use of the site called Before Heat and Dust, which is found within ISB’s Home Page Student Curriculum Links in the G10 section.
The activities have been designed for you to learn something of the time and place in which the novel is set and also something of the characters living in this real life setting. Further, you will learn a little about the author and consider her suitability as the teller of this story. Lastly, you will analyze ideas based on topics related to the novel and present your personal response to one of them.
The work you produce from these activities is to be word processed in the usual format. You need not start a new page for a new activity. Staple multiple pages at the top left.
First, go to the following web site described above:
http://www.isb.ac.th/internet/SunyWeb/grade10/Erin/html4.html
1. Click on India: Land and Climate. Read the section under Environment then go back to the top and click on the section at the left, Facts for the Traveler. Imagine you want to visit India. You intend to fly to Delhi, spend a week visiting Agra and Jaipur and return to Delhi to fly out. In one carefully worded sentence state when you would do this trip and why and what precautions for your health you would take prior to and during the trip.
2. Click on British India. Read this two-part history of British India. Summarize the information into a one-page timeline: dates at left, description of events at right.
3. Click on Social Interaction in British India. Read the first two paragraphs and pages 80 to 83 and pages 101 to the end. Next go back to the original web page and click on The Movies of Merchant Ivory. Find the link Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and click on this then scroll down to find the link Heat and Dust. Study the still shot from the film of the novel. In the light of your previous reading, write a paragraph commenting on the situation in the picture with particular reference to the time, place and characters involved. Ensure you state clearly, with reasons, whether or not the young woman is typical of Englishwomen in India at this time.
4. Click on the three “hippie trail” sites. Read the text and study the photos. Decide on some commonalities among those who traveled the hippie trail during the 1960s and 1970s. Under a heading The Hippie Trail, take bullet point notes under the following left justified subheadings: age/nationalities/other characteristics of travellers, purpose in travelling, activities undertaken while travelling, interaction with the people and culture of countries visited.
5. Click on Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Click on the second listed article and all the links to book reviews and read, paying particular attention to the information about the author’s life. Consider that Jhabvala has been called a “multicultural author” by Robbie Clipper Sethi and that he also wrote that “Jhabvala’s work, to a large extent, has interpreted for the West...the Indian perspective on the postcolonial ”invasion” of Westerners in search of spiritual resurrection.” Discuss the extent to which Jhabvala can be considered an authority to write a novel set in India in two twentieth century time periods in which the main characters are Englishwomen. Contain your discussion in a succinctly worded page of writing.
6. Click on Quotations Bank. Input words to access quotations on each topic from the following list: marriage, prejudice, racism, culture, society, and radical. Choose a quotation you agree with and write a personal response that calls on your own experience as support and that may also have relevance in the wider setting.