Lahiri often uses rich imagery to paint the setting of the events in the story, especially those concerning Mrs. Sen and her apartment. Imagery is used in literature to emphasize physical objects and places and to appeal to the reader’s senses. Eliot immediately notices the colors of Mrs. Sen’s clothing, including “a row of Mrs. Sen’s slippers, each a different color” (225). Color is used to characterize subjects in the story, such as Mrs. Sen’s saris, Eliot’s small beach house that he shares with his mother, and the food that Mrs. Sen cooks. Eliot notices the colors around him and how they relate to the emotions surrounding places and people. While Mrs. Sen is associated with bright colors, the suits that Eliot’s mom wears are dull and lifeless, like the gray beach house that he lives in with her, which he describes as small and lonely.

Lahiri makes use of dialect to characterize Mrs. Sen and to show the communication barrier that she faces in America. A dialect is a language or manner of speaking that is unique to a geographical region.