Themes and message

Prejudice against immigrants

In “Just below the Surface”, the theme of prejudice against immigrants is illustrated in several ways. Indrani mentions “people putting horrible things through letter boxes” (p. 128, ll. 3-4), probably hinting at how families of immigrants have received hateful letters or dangerous objects in the mail. 

Furthermore, one of Kumar and Indrani’s shops is broken into, and hateful messages are written on the walls (p.132, ll. 42-44). The police also discriminate against Kumar and Indrani by failing to treat the burglary as a hate crime (p. 133, ll. 3-4). However, Kumar expects that they will be safe in the suburbs from this kind of abuse (p. 128, ll. 12-14).  

Note that the comments made by the people that Indrani meets are not obviously prejudiced. In this way, the story illustrates how prejudice and discrimination are not always manifested explicitly and can occur in many situations. More than that, someone could be making a comment they do not think is prejudiced, but that is still built ...