The Bridge Home

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Global Landfills”

In this activity, students will research and prepare a presentation regarding global landfills and their effect on the local environment.

In the novel, many of the children who experience housing and food insecurity depend on the local waste dumps in order to survive, sifting through the garbage for salvageable materials. Working in small groups, research and present information on a similar landfill to the class. Use the following questions to guide your research:

• Where is the landfill located? What name does it go by?
• What statistical information is known regarding this landfill?
• What is the history of the landfill? For example, when did it open and when did people start to work there?
• How many people depend on the landfill for employment? Describe the demographic information for the people who work there.
• Are there any government measures to close the landfill? Have they been successful? Why or why not?

After researching your topic, practice your presentation with your group before sharing with the class. Participate in a class discussion regarding the similarities in the landfills, particularly regarding connection to the themes of The Presence of God in the Face of Suffering, The Creativity and Resourcefulness of People Experiencing Poverty, Male Domination and Feminine Powerlessness, and The Richness and Beauty of the Insignificant.

Teaching Suggestion: This Activity provides students the opportunity to make real-world connections with a major motif of the novel through group work and oral presentation. Each group should select a different landfill on which to focus their research. As an entry point, Wrights’s The Rent Collector is a fictional adaptation of a true story of a young woman who lives in Cambodia’s largest waste dump.

Differentiation Suggestion: For an extended writing approach, the above Activity may be offered as a research paper. Students can use the questions to guide their writing process. Depending on the level of the class, students might benefit from introduction to or review of standard research paper process (initial research, annotated bibliography, thesis, outline, note taking, drafting, revising, editing).

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Christians typically believe that there is a benevolent God. One of the most frequent criticisms of Christian beliefs is called “the problem of pain”: If there is a good God, why is there so much suffering in the world?

• Generally, how does Venkatraman’s book demonstrate this idea? (topic sentence)
• Which character’s beliefs and actions best exemplify this idea throughout the novel? Choose the 3 strongest examples to discuss and analyze in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentences, briefly evaluate the ways in which character actions and beliefs help to develop the novel’s larger theme of The Presence of God in the Face of Suffering.

2. Consider the way that Viji and Rukku are treated in terms of their gender.

• How is this treatment different compared to their male counterparts? (topic sentence)
• Identify 3 interactions between genders in the text that support your topic sentence. Analyze the role of gender in these specific situations.
• In your concluding sentences, briefly summarize how these interactions connect to the larger theme of Male Domination and Feminine Powerlessness.

3. Through characters’ choices and decisions, the novel shows how they feel about others’ poverty or wealth.

• To what extent are hardship and poverty relative in the novel? (topic sentence)
• How do individual character interactions help to transform the notions of poverty and scarcity? Choose at least 3 strong examples to discuss in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentences, briefly explain the overall message conveyed by the author on the meaning of wealth.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. By running away, the sisters avoid familial abuse but endure hunger, squalor, danger, sickness, and more. In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, determine whether running away is a good or a bad choice. Are the sisters justified in running away? Should they have stayed? Support your argument with examples from the story.

2. In the final chapter, Viji writes to Rukku that her assumption was upside down; she believed she was caring for Rukku, but in actuality, it was Rukku who provided for and guided Viji. What are some examples throughout the text of Rukku guiding Viji? In what ways does the outcome of the story impact Viji’s feelings about Rukku? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, explain whether Rukku is a hero or a victim in the story. Provide support for your argument with evidence from the text.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following words best describes Appa’s behavior toward Amma?

A) Abusive

B) Adoring

C) Altruistic

D) Apathetic

2. Which of the following reasons best describes why Viji writes her novel in a second-person narrative?

A) She is talking about herself.

B) She is writing a letter to her sister.

C) She is trying to have her readers feel closer to the subject.

D) She is speaking about memory from their childhood.

3. Based on her initial interaction with Arul and Muthu at the bridge, which of the following sentences best describes Viji’s character?

A) She is quarrelsome.

B) She is meek.

C) She is determined.

D) She is easygoing.

4. As Viji reflects on her sister’s new friendship with Muthu and Arul, she writes, “Now you threw back your head the way Muthu was doing. And as the three of you howled away, like a pack of jackals, hungry and homeless though we were, I felt I’d done the right thing by leaving.” Which of the following literary terms does Viji use in this quote?

A) Metaphor

B) Simile

C) Personification

D) Allusion

5. Based on Arul’s characterization, with which of the following statements would he most likely agree?

A) Hinduism is the only true faith.

B) Praying is a sinful act.

C) Heaven and hell do not exist.

D) Having some religion is better than having no religion.

6. Which of the following words best describes Arul and Muthu’s feelings about formal education?

A) Elated

B) Disinterested

C) Serious

D) Anxious

7. Which of the following tactics does Arul use in order to make “climbing the Himalayas” more appealing?

A) He makes it a game.

B) He makes it a theatrical production.

C) He makes everyone work for him.

D) He makes the waste man give them more money.

8. Which of the following phrases best describes how the children use the money they earn as income?

A) For survival

B) For gambling

C) For savings

D) For travel

9. Which of the following sentences best describes how Viji views charity?

A) She believes that rich people should provide charity to her sister.

B) She is generally too proud to accept it.

C) She always takes as much as she can get, no matter the source.

D) She considers it to be an act that only Christians offer.

10. Which of the following sentences best describes how Viji feels about taking Rukku to Celina Aunty?

A) She believes she made the wrong decision to bring her to the hospital.

B) She regrets not taking Rukku sooner.

C) She fears that Celina Aunty will lose her temper.

D) She dismisses any help from mother-like figures.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How does the setting of rural and urban India shape the characterization and plot?

2. In what ways do Arul and Muthu become a kind of family for Viji and Rukku?