"East Meets West And Then Some"
             In E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India, characters often seem to be put into one of two opposing groups. An Anglo-Indian or native Indian. Most of the characters in this novel fit into one of these categories. The characters are in a way stereotype of the groups. Most of the British characters dislike the Indian characters, and the reverse is true for the Indian characters. However, some characters Forster developed to the point that these categories cannot be applied. These characters ought to be viewed as people who have a unique personality, and a unique role in the story. Though there are a couple of characters that fit this description none are better then Mrs. Moore. She is perhaps one of the most interesting people that we are introduced to in this book. The stereotypes of all the other characters even Dr. Aziz does not apply to her. She is as different as any character can be in this novel. Mrs. Moore walks the line between conventional East and West in a number of different ways, and in some cases she goes completely beyond this line. She develops into an essential symbol, a lesson in the novel.
             From her very first appearance in the book, Mrs. Moore is anything but a typical Westerner. So far in the novel all we know of the British comes from an Indian characters point of view. In the beginning Hamidullah and his friends complain about the British at the dinner party, then Dr. Aziz has a summons from Major Callendar, which is abrupt to say the least. We also see the rudeness of Mrs. Callendar and Mrs. Lesley to Dr. Aziz in that they just expect to take his ride as if it was for them in the first place. But when Mrs. Moore is first introduced we can immediately see a distinct difference between her and all the other British characters. First of she visits the dark mosque, a place where whites usually never bother to go to. We are also told that she even respected the na...