Under The Moonlit Sky by Nav K Gill
Under the Moonlit Sky July 2017.pdf
“It's the spring of 1984 in British Columbia, and life is just getting exciting for Esha. A secret that looms over her family has reinforced her proud resistance to her family's Indian identity. However, one day changes everything, and Esha’s well-thought-out rebellion is put to the test. In the blink of an eye, she is forced to step up and fulfill her father's last wish, taking her thousands of miles away to a place she never dreamed of visiting: India. Forced to follow traditions she has denied her whole life and fighting the temptations of an unlikely love interest, Esha must now confront her new reality. As she comes to understand her heritage, she also becomes a victim of the highly unstable political climate in 1984 Delhi. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has just been assassinated, political tensions rise, and now only one chant can be heard: Blood for blood. Esha must fight to survive the three days of brutal chaos that erupts throughout Delhi in the aftermath of the prime minister's assassination.” (Chapters-Indigo)
Nav K. Gill is the author of Under the Moonlit Sky, which draws upon her family's immigrant experiences and the turmoil of 1980s India. She lives in Brampton, Ontario.
Curriculum Connections
Reading: Understanding Form and Style (Elements of Style) The author includes a prologue that foreshadows what will happen in the novel. Ask students to contrast the writing style between the prologue and the first chapter. What can they predict will happen later in the novel?
Oral Communication: Listening to Understand (Extending Understanding of Texts) Read a passage from the text aloud and ask students to listen for points where they can make a connection to their own personal knowledge or experience (for example when Esha describes her mother’s expectations, pages 9-10)
Media: Understanding Media Texts (Critical Literacy) Show students the video for Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun and ask them to identify the perspective presented. How do young women behave in the video? What part of that identity does Esha embrace in the novel? What part of her parents culture is she rejecting?
Writing: Developing and Organizing Content (Research) Ask students to use different research strategies, such as reading news reports, viewing websites and if appropriate asking adults in the community, to find out the significance of November 1st, 1984 in the history of India. They can also research Operation Bluestar, the death of Indira Ghandi and the Golden Temple. Be aware that there may be different reports about the events depending on the source, which is a good starting point for discussion.
Essential Questions
- What does identity mean to you?
- What does identity mean to others?
- What happens when identity holds the balance between life and death?
- How much of a person’s identity is determined by their parents / family / community and how much is determined by the individual?
- Can parents who were born in one culture understand their children who were born in a different culture?
- Have historical events been represented accurately in the novel?
- Who decides what point of view is right when looking at historic events?
- What if sources do not agree about the events that happened in the past?
- Is violence ever justified, even in self defence?
- Does Gill do a disservice to the important issues of this text by adding in a love story?
Key Quotations
“Never lose sight of who you are,” my grandmother had told me...These words are at the very core of identity. This damn word identity, had haunted me for months, and now suddenly it has tipped the scale between life and death (Gill 2).
“Every child born into this world has a home...perhaps hers is not with the people who gave birth to her, and that does not mean that her home does not exist” (Gill 173-174).
“History is trickier than people think” (Gill 207).
Trigger Warnings
Trigger Warnings
“The purpose of trigger warnings is not to cause students to avoid traumatic content, but to prepare them for it, and in extreme circumstances to provide alternate modes of learning” Lockhart
Some swearing
Description of a rape (Pg 27)
Attempted sexual assault of main character (Pg 113-119)
Infanticide in rural India (Chapter 12)
Timeline of political events in India’s history (Pg 203-212)
Graphic violence of events from November 1-3, 1984 in India. Chapters 17-18
Students may have heard about this as a Sikh genocide or Sikh massacre, but the choice of language could be controversial. There is a negative representation of Hindus. The text implies that the Hindu majority used the assassination of the president as an excuse to kill Sikhs without any repercussions (Pg 282). As with all historical events there are different perspectives on what actually happened and the number of fatalities is controversial.
Text to Self Connections
Esha struggles with her identity and whether she is Canadian, Indian, Sikh, a daughter or something else. How would you describe your identity? How do you understand Esha’s struggles?
The novel compares and contrasts Esha’s life in Canada and her life in India. What is the same and different between your experiences and Esha’s?
Text to Text Connections
"There are No Coconut Trees in Toronto" by Randy Soharn Boyagoda from Reality Imagined: Stories of Identity and Change.
iLit Collection
“Making Peace with Change” by Asna Adhami from Discord to Discourse: A Collection of Canadian Essays.
iLit Collection
Texts where young people find themselves forced into a different culture or where they resist the expectations of their parents and try to determine where they belong.
"Shadeism" from Voices in the Hall iLit Collection.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Text to World Connections
Potential Strategy from Mini Lessons for Literature Circles
Savouring Powerful Language (190-192)
Each group member finds a short passage that they feel has powerful language and reads it aloud. The group discusses what makes the passage special, beautiful or powerful. The group can select one passage to share with the whole class and explain why it was chosen.