Evaluate the difference between the response of the Westerner (the narrator) and the Indians to the dying beggar woman.
The pages 103 to 109 are about the narrator’s finding of an old, dying beggar woman. While the narrator is shocked by the state the old woman is in all other people she is talking to seem to feel indifferent about it. In the following text I am going to list a number of reasons that may explain the different attitudes.
The narrator grew up in a Western, civilised country where the medical system is highly developed and almost all sick people get a chance be treated by professional and educated doctors. In the normal case it is no problem to get a bed and treatment in a hospital as they are well organised and updated. When she is confronted with the dying beggar woman it seems impossible to her that she is not being treated and that no one takes care of her. Since she has never experienced a pollution or infection evolving from a human being and handed on to fellow humans the thought of just ignoring the sick woman doesn’t even cross her mind. On top of that she is not aware of the fact that the bad hygiene in India can assume vast proportions.
Most of the Indian people on the other hand have always been living under those circumstances. They have learned to numb themselves to the affliction predominant in India. They have got used to the sight of homeless, sick and degenerated people gadding in the city. In comparison to the people living in Westeurope the average Indian lives in a considerably bad state; Many people suffer from their medical condition. Due to that the Indians are mainly concerned about their own, their families and friends well-being. Many of them lack strength which would be required for a dedication to the improvement of strangers conditions.
