AMITAV GHOSH'S 2008 EPIC - SEA OF POPPIES: the beginning

You should build your post on the first reading from Sea of Poppies on the topic that interests you as a term paper idea. However, here are some suggestions: i) focus on the book's characters as "types" with significance: an orphan, a disenchanted wife, a former slave... why does Ghosh put these figures in his mix? ii) the stories in the book take place in various locales: aboard a boat, in a marital residence, etc. Initially, the book lacks a stable setting. Why does the author set up his various stories the way he does? iii) Languages: the mix of accents and dialects and manners of speech is one of the most immediately striking aspects of the book: comment on this and connect it to the "language wars" in other books of the S. Asian diaspora; iv) like Bharati Mukherjee, Ghosh is a Calcutta-born Bengali who lives in New York: do you sense a similar project or point of view in this book and Mukherjee's "Management of Grief"? v) comment on Ghosh's storytelling style, the exposition, the authorial voice: compare with other authors; does the author appear to have a voice or a point of view? vi) comment on the story itself: what sustains the reader's interest in this book as compared  with "classic" authors of the S. Asian diaspora like Naipaul or Rushdie? vii) do you, at this early stage of the book, discern a political perspective or project? viii) Sea of Poppies is an historical novel; how does this make it fundamentally different as a statement about the S. Asian diasporic experience? ix) the book is full of images and descriptions, perhaps more so than anything we've read: pick some choice passages and comment on Ghosh's use of imagery, specific things, etc. Do objects in his world have symbolic significance? x) who is a hero and a villain in the book so far? pick an example of each and a passage illustrating his or her character (i.e. one hero, one villain).