Why is Ashima so sad?

Being able to relate to Ashima is tough when trying to understand what she is going through.  Even if one has had to live in a different country each experience is completely different making the feelings Ashima is experiencing quite hard to comprehend.  Even Ashoke cannot understand why she feels so glum sometimes.  Although, what seems most evident in the book is that she misses her family dearly.  The culture shock from Bengali to America must be very acute considering that she is a female.  Ashoke, a male, would have gone work if he still lived in Bengali, which is not any different from what he does now. Ashima, a female, would typically be surrounded by her family working at home.  Not only in America is she away from her family, but the American lifestyle is not nearly as familial.  The elimination of her family and this loss of community is the prominent reason why she is so sad. One particular event that supports this is when Ashima could not stop thinking of her family and how she is missing the equivalent of christmas back home.  She is shopping thinking of everyone she cares of to get them gifts.  After she had put so much effort into her odd gifts for her family and endured a crowded train ride home, she realizes that she left all of her gifts on the train.  She breaks into tears before the public so sad that she wont be able to get gifts for her family she misses so.  When she then finds that no one had stolen her gifts and receives 100% of them back, she establishes her first connection with her city.  This connection was formed because someone saving her bags for her is something only her family would do in Bengali.  This first connection is the start of her settlement into her new world, a sense of community that has long been forgotten.