Question

Read the following excerpt from "The Four Hundred Year Old Woman" by Bharati Mukherjee and answer the following question. I have found my way in the United States after many transit stops. The unglimpsed phantom Faridpur, and the all too real Manhattan have merged as "desh." I am an American. I am an American writer, in the American mainstream, trying to extend it. What is the meaning of the allusion unglimpsed phantom Faridpur? her family's homeland that she has never seen the ghost of her homeland calling her back her vivid memory of where she was born another town near Manhattan

Answer 1

her family's homeland that she has never seen is the meaning of the allusion unglimpsed phantom Faridpur.

The writer of the essay, was born in Indian . The excerpt reflects her present feelings. Now, she is living in the U.S and she thinks she has been able to settle down. However, she sees herself as part of her family's homeland. She wants to write about immigrants and inform the American readers about them. As regards the allusion, she refers to the town,Faridpur,  as the place where her father was born. The writer was educated in Calcutta in a walled -off school; the school was run by Irish nuns. As Bharati Mukherjee could not grow up in Faridpur, today is in Bangladesh, she felt the town as a ghost -phantom- . In fact, she was brought up to emmigrate. She was kept away from her Indian hometown.

These options are wrong:

-the ghost of her homeland calling her back. In fact, the writer does not  want to get back to India. She has found  her way in America. Her hometown and Manhattan have merged.

-her vivid memory of where she was born . The writer could not live in her hometwon. She was shut up in an Irish school.

-another town near Manhattan. Faridpur is in Bangladesh, India.

Answer 2

I think the answer is her family's homeland that she has never seen