Himani Bannerji's The Other Family

Overcoming challenges in life requires one’s mental strength and courage. Though challenges are demanding, challenges can also be very rewarding and valuable. Even the most strenuous challenges prove to be beneficial. This applies to Himani Bannerji’s story “The Other Family” in which a ethnic family immigrates to Canada. The mother is often questioning her decision to immigrate her daughter to Canada and ponders if it caused more harm than help to immigrate. Obstacles appear when the daughter paints a white family instead of her family of colour, aggravating the mother. Despite struggling to face these challenges, the daughter grows and develops courage. Firstly, the daughter contradicts her mother and defends the way she painted the picture. Secondly, the daughter has the courage to see the situation from the mother’s perspective and look in the mirror to discover her …show more content…
At this point in the story, the daughter has returned to school. However, she has a new understanding of her difference. The texts reads, “The little girl was looking at the classroom. It was full of children of all colours, of all kinds of shapes of noses and of all different colours of hair. She sat on the floor, placed the incomplete picture on a bit piece of newspaper and started to paint,” (Bannerji). Now the daughter not only sees the difference of herself, she is able to see the differentiating qualities in others. She applies that when she has the confidence to paint another family that resembles her own. All the events up to this point aided the daughter in growing in strength and courage. In this final act, she realizes everyone in her class is unique. This inspires an act of courage to contradict the stereotypical image of a “family”. The daughter’s bravery proves that she sees her differences in her appearance and has the fearlessness to add more than what society is showing