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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Beyond the Sky and the Earth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Culture Shock and Home
Buddhism and Everyday Life
Ethnic Nationalism and the Outsider Perspective
Women’s Role in Society
Summary
Analysis
There’s a three-day holiday from school, and Trevor, an older Australian man who lives nearby, invites Zeppa to go to Tashigang for the weekend in his truck. In Tashigang, Zeppa sees Tony and Leon, two men in their second year of teaching whom she met very briefly in Thimphu. They invite her to come with them to see Catherine, a Canadian teacher in Rangthangwoong. On the bus ride to Rangthangwoong, Zeppa sees a man singing who appears to be groping a girl. She isn’t sure whether to intervene, but she eventually knocks the man’s arm away. The singing stops and the man just shrugs while the girl doesn’t look at her. Zeppa hopes she made the right decision.
When Zeppa witnesses the man who appears to be groping the girl on the bus, this is one of the first times in the book when she decides to intervene. Although it seems like Zeppa is doing a helpful thing, she doesn’t know if she interpreted the situation correctly. As she continues to spend more time in Bhutan, Zeppa continues to struggle with similar situations, where she feels like she can’t just sit back and be a passive observer but also where she isn’t sure if she knows the right way to intervene—or if she should intervene at all.
Themes
When Zeppa arrives in Rangthangwoong with Leon and Tony, Catherine is wearing a gray kira. She cooks them rice, vegetable curry, and dahl. They all discuss places they want to visit once they have a longer break from teaching.
Catherine’s cooking skills show how she has adapted to Bhutanese culture. She provides an example to Zeppa of how it’s possible to overcome things, like Zeppa’s fear of the stove, and engage with Bhutanese culture on a deeper level.
Themes
