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Chapter 3
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
It’s Zeppa’s third day of teaching her second-grade class at Pema Gatshel. She struggles with taking attendance because she doesn’t know how pronunciation matches up with the spelling. She is equally confused when she learns that many Bhutanese people don’t have last names related to their family, just two names, so people who share a name may not be related.
Zeppa’s difficulties with names show how she is still struggling to understand Bhutanese culture. The fact that people who are related may have totally different names forces Zeppa to reevaluate ideas she has about identity. Zeppa’s pronunciation difficulties further show how she struggles to adapt to a new language and culture.
Themes
In the staff room later, Zeppa meets with the other teachers, many of whom are from India. Fellow teacher Mrs. Joy informs Zeppa that she doesn’t have to wear a traditional kira to school every day, but Zeppa wants to anyway.
Mrs. Joy’s attitude toward the kira and toward Bhutanese culture seems to be condescending, showing how in spite of Zeppa’s challenges with Bhutanese culture, she distinguishes herself by making an effort.
Themes
Zeppa lives across from the school in a two-story concrete apartment building. There is no water in the taps, and she hasn’t unpacked yet. When she goes home in the evenings, she usually tries to focus on learning Sharchhop or writing letters home, but she struggles to concentrate. She is afraid of the kerosene stove in her apartment, which needs to be pumped before use and seems in danger of exploding. One evening it rains hard, but Zeppa wants to stop feeling sorry for herself, so she leaves buckets outside to collect rainwater like the others in town do.
Zeppa’s modest apartment helps to emphasize to her what the living standard in rural Bhutan is like compared to what she’s used to in Canada. The kerosene stove in particular, which may or may not actually be as dangerous as Zeppa imagines, shows how everyday life can seem perilous and complicated. Things that Zeppa took for granted, like having enough water for everyday tasks, turn out to be more complicated and require more thought than she expected.
Themes
Later, one afternoon, Zeppa goes to the local bazaar and suddenly gets bitten by a dog. She panics, trying to figure out the Sharchhop word for “rabid.” She makes her way to the hospital, where the doctor is Norwegian but speaks fluent Sharchhop. He goes to the bazaar himself to ask about the dog. When he comes back, he reassures her that the dog isn’t known to be dangerous and there have been no local reports of rabies. Zeppa mentions that she needs to talk to her landlord about running water, but the doctor says he heard that the landlord for the apartment where Canadians stay lives in Thimphu. He just says, “what to do,” and Zeppa realizes this means nothing can be done.
The dog bite is a reminder to Zeppa about how even simple injuries could be more complicated in Bhutan due to hospitals’ limited resources—and what seems like a lackadaisical attitude on the doctors’ part. The doctor’s stoic response to hearing that Zeppa’s landlord hasn’t provided her with running water shows how people in Bhutan have gotten used to living with hardships that were previously unimaginable to someone like Zeppa.
Themes
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