Isolation and Loneliness
“Mrs. Sen’s” depicts a relationship between two lonely and isolated people: Mrs. Sen (a woman who has immigrated to the U.S. from India for her husband’s job) and Eliot, the American boy she cares for after school. Outside of each other, Eliot and Mrs. Sen lack community and connection. Mrs. Sen knows few people in America; her husband Mr. Sen works constantly, and the only other person she speaks to regularly is the man…
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Assimilation and Foreignness
Throughout “Mrs. Sen’s,” the Sens struggle to assimilate to American culture after they emigrate from India to the U.S. for Mr. Sen’s job as a professor in a small college town. The couple’s life in the United States is different than they or their family in India expected it to be: while Mrs. Sen’s family assumes that living in the U.S. automatically guarantees happiness and a lavish lifestyle, the Sens’ standard of living…
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Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture
“Mrs. Sen’s” depicts the relationship between 11-year-old Eliot, his mother, and Mrs. Sen, the woman Eliot’s mother hires to babysit Eliot while she’s at work. The two women play very different domestic roles: Mrs. Sen does more traditionally feminine tasks like cooking, while Eliot’s mother fulfills the role of breadwinner outside the home and has little time for these duties. Eliot’s mother is like many American women, in that she raises…
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