S. Sujaritha
Changing Identities: A Selected Study of Asian Diasporic Women Writer’s Fiction
In the globalization era, migration has become an unavoidable factor for human beings. When they are uprooted from their native to be transplanted into an alien environment, they experience sense of homelessness, isolation and alienation. Lacking a sense of belonging might develop an inner urge to confirm their own identity. All human beings have an embodiment of norms and values which they carry along with them, whenever they move to other places. In this way the migrant people initially tend to follow their cultural practices strictly. Later some of them are inclined to follow other cultural practices. In such cases identity is not a fixed one. Doughlas says identity is a freely chosen game. Through transformation and difference, identities are constantly producing and reproducing themselves. Many researchers on identity and dislocation such as Woodward, Appadurai believe that identity is dynamic. This idea can be substantiated with the words of Stuart Hall, “Identities are never unified and in late modern times, increasingly fragmented and fractured; never singular but multiply constructed across different, other intersections and antagonistic, discourse, practices and positions” (4).
The term identity is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as, “the fact of being who or what a person or a thing is”. Identity is a term which is constructed by a society and it is complicated to define it deeply. Stuart Hall says that this conceptual difficulty arises due to its unlimited connection with other theories such as Psychoanalysis, Postcolonialism, Semantics and many more. Its superficial meaning is, “constructed on the back of recognition of some common origin or shared characteristics with another person or group, or with an ideal and with the natural closure of identity and allegiance established on this foundation” (3). Identity can be divided into several types: some of them are political identity, cultural identity, individual identity and this paper concentrates on cultural identity and identity problems that are faced by the immigrant community. Cultural identity is a “one shared culture, a sort of collective, ‘one true self hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed ‘selves’, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common” (Woodward: 394)
According to the nature of the movements, several terms are attributed to migrant community such as diaspora, exile, expatriate, and immigrant. The term diaspora is often mistakenly identified or used synonymously with terms such as exile, expatriate, migrant and transnational. Tololyan substantiates this view with the idea that the term diaspora denotes, “a larger semantic domain that include words like immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guest-worker, exile community, overseas community, ethnic community” (5). It is also understood that there is a differentiation in the terms diaspora and migration. As explained by Alan McLeod in Beginning Postcolonialism, migrant identities means a person who is influenced by the past migration history of his/her parents or grandparents (207). He further states that because of emotions and experiences several differences are available between these two terms.
Another word synonymously used with diaspora is exile. Although diaspora uses the notion of displacement it cannot be equated with exile, as exile refers to a forceful migration. Many times diaspora emerges due to voluntary movements. Diaspora, is also linked to the term, transnationalism and the difference between these terms is pointed out in Braziel and Anita Mannur’s work Theorizing Diaspora. According to them, diaspora refers to a movement: either forced or voluntary movement of people from one place to another. Transnationalism talks more about impersonal forces such as globalization and global capitalism as a result for the migrant movements (8).
When a diaspora community moves away from their home country to a new country, they carry their home culture with them. Therefore in the settled land, they attempt to create ‘imaginary homeland’ which are culturally and traditionally similar to the homes which they left behind. They carry their absent homes with themselves and try to construct the environments of the homelands they have left. This can be substantiated by the words of Salman Rushdie in his article “Imaginary Homelands”, wherein he thinks that the people who have immigrated have identities that are both “plural and partial”. He points out,
Sometimes we feel that we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools. But however ambiguous and shifting this ground maybe, it is not an infertile territory for a writer to occupy. If literature is in part the business of finding new angles at which to enter reality, then once again our distance, our long geographical perspective, may provide us with such angles. (257)
In spite of living for a long time in the settled land, they consider the land which they left as their own country and this restricts them to mingle with the society in the settled land. The nature of changes that occur in the settled land may be varied. In some cases, the diasporic community happily accepts the practices of the settled land and assimilates with it. Some prefer to follow certain practices from both cultures, homeland and settled land, and integrate with it. Few others due to rigid ideas about the settled society live in isolation and strictly follow only homeland culture. Through the diasporic community’s preference of cultural practices their identity formation varies such as, homeland identity, settled land identity and split identity, which leads to the formation of multiple identities. When time passes some strictly follow their home culture, some tend to adapt the new culture and some others follow certain cultural practices from both cultures. According to the identities of diaspora community can be broadly divided into three types such as a) Homeland identity, b) Settled land identity and c) Hyphenated identity.
‘Homeland identity’ includes people who strictly follow their own culture by being blind to the new cultural practices. These people feel proud to be identified with their homeland identity. As Malkki mentions, they “are often thought of, and think of themselves, as being rooted in a place and as deriving their identity from that rootlessness” (56). ‘Settled land identity’ is followed by the people who completely assimilate/accept the settled land’s identity. They totally neglect the home country’s cultural practices and accept the new culture as theirs. This type of assimilation can be equated to Homi Bhabha’s concept of ‘Mimicry’. Bhabha used the term ‘mimicry’ to denote the colonized, who in a way try to mimic the colonizer by the way of attire, manner, speech, etc. They, the people who mimic, completely hide their cultural practices and innate nature in order to resemble their masters. Here, the diaspora community, may be to escape from the discrimination, alienation and other such problems, try to mimic the cultural practices of the country in which they have settled.
The third type of identity, ‘hyphenated identity’ denotes the group of diaspora people who takes some of their homeland cultural practices and some from the settled land. The term ‘hybridity' commonly refers to “the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonisation.” (Ashcroft, B: 118). This type of integration again can be equated to Bhabha’s concept of ‘hybridity’. In his article entitled ‘Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences' he talks about the cultural hybridity. He argues that international culture is “not based on exoticism or multi-culturalism of the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation of culture's hybridity” (209).The paper focuses on the Asian diasporic women writers and the portrayal / problematic of identity in the select fictions of Jhumpa Lahiri, Amy Tan and Monica Ali.
Jhumpa Lahiri was born to Bengali parents in July 1967, in London. Later with her family’s move to Rhode Island, she began her life in the US. She grew up in the background of traditional Bengali culture. Her debut work, Interpreter of Maladies, published in 1999, was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Her second work, The Namesake, was published in 2003 and later on filmed. Her latest work, The Unaccustomed Earth was published in 2008. At present she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children where she works as a Vice-President of the PEN American Centre. The Namesake presents the tension of the contemporary generation and the cultural gap between the parents and the children in the Indian-American community. Ashima comes to the US after her marriage with Ashoke, a student in the US. After his studies, Ashoke begins to work as a professor in an American university. They name their first child as Gogol, in remembrance of the Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol. The name becomes a problem for Gogol, because he feels uncomfortable with the Russian name. It makes him to detach himself from his family members. When he grows up he changes his name to Nikhil and feels comfortable to mingle with others and slowly he gains contact with some girl friends. But this too leads to a sense of loss of identity and later when his father dies, his attachment with his home renews. The novel concludes on the day of a send-off party to Ashima, where Gogol finds the book which his father presented to him during one of his birthdays and looks at the name Gogol. The novel focuses mainly on the identity problem faced by the diasporic community.
Amy Tan, the Chinese American writer was born in Oakland, California in 1952. The death of her father and brother made her mother, Daisy to move to Switzerland. After her initial schooling in Switzerland, Tan moved to the US. She has written several novels. The novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter is narrated by Ruth, a second generation Chinese-American, who works as a freelance writer. She lives with her partner Art for twelve years. Her mother LuLing lives alone and due to old age she suffers from loss of memory. She forces Ruth to translate the writings of her life from Chinese to English. The translation gives details of LuLing’s life in China, and the story of her mother Precious Auntie, who becomes pregnant before her marriage and so was destined to live as LuLing’s aunt. In order to stop LuLing’s marriage with Chang’s son (who is responsible for the death of Precious Auntie’s father and lover), Precious Auntie commits suicide and it results in LuLing’s stay in orphanage. There she marries Kai Jing, a researcher but her life with him soon comes to an end due to his death during the civil war. After many sufferings, she comes to the US and marries a doctor. Her second marriage too ends soon after, when her husband dies in an accident. Later, she lives with her daughter, till Ruth leaves LuLing for Art. Ruth admits her mother, finally in an old-age home, and the novel ends with hope for Ruth’s future life.
Monica Ali is a Bangladeshi disaporic writer, settled in England. She was born to English and Bangladeshi parents on 1967, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At the age of three, she came to England with her parents from Bangladesh. Her debut novel, Brick Lane, named after a street at the heart of London’s Bangladeshi community, published in 2003, is about experiences of the Bangladeshi family living in U.K. The book caused several controversies within the Bangladeshi community. They felt that Monica Ali presented Bangladeshi community as uneducated and unsophisticated and yet Ali was voted as the Best of Young British Novelists in 2004. Her latest book, Alentejo Blue was published in 2006. The novel Brick Lane narrates the story of Nazneen, who settles in London. Through her story, the novel also depicts the life of the Bangladeshi community in London. Nazneen, the protagonist of the novel, is a village girl from Bangladesh, marries Chanu, who is living in London. After her marriage with Chanu, Nazneen lives in an unknown land with her newly wedded husband. Due to the lack of her English knowledge, she is unable to communicate with others but only with her own community people. Her life slowly changes when her daughter begins to teach her English language, life and culture. Later on when she begins to earn independently by working, Karim enters into her life and she finds that her life takes a twist. Due to this aspect of self reliance and her friendship with Razia, she is able to reject Karim’s proposal of marriage and Chanu’s wish to return to Bangladesh. Chanu leaves for Bangladesh by leaving his family back in London. Through Hasina’s letter (Nazneen’s sister) the author portrays Bangladesh’s political condition to the readers.
The three writers by using history and culture accentuate the problems faced by the diasporic community in the settled land. In most of the cases, when the second generation people, who are born and brought up in the settled land, are questioned about their identity later it suppresses them from mingling with others. The novels present how cultural difference affects the mentality of the diasporic people and their identity formation in the settled land. Different cultural practices inside the home and outside the home affects the younger generation of the diasporic community. Gogol in The Namesake and Shahana in Brick Lane suffer due to the practices of two different cultures. In the case of Gogol, he faces identity problem once again due to his Russian name. He feels that his name does not show him as an Indian or as an American but instead a Russian. Till the end of the novel Gogol suffers due to the cultural difference. In The Bonesetter’s Daughter through the recovery of Ruth’s throat problem, the author symbolically mentions that Ruth comes away from her problem of fractured consciousness about the Chinese and American culture. When time progresses, the mentality of the diasporic characters changes and gives way for the understanding of their position in the society. The three novels have open endings where there is a way for the protagonists to accept their split identities. In the three novels various kinds of diasporic characters are presented and they are used by the writers to portray their identity problems. The reading of these different characters led to an understanding of the rise of multiple identities such as hyphenated identity (split identity), homeland identity and the settled land identity. In each novel one can find the usage of multiple identities by the writer.
In Brick Lane, Nazneen, during her initial stay in London follows her homeland identity. Almost the majority of the Bangladesh community is presented in the novel as staying separately and also distancing themselves from the settled community. This kind of cultural withdrawal from the social set-up of the settled land and blindly following the homeland culture reveals to the readers the predicament of the diasporic individuals. Even within such a kind of circumstance, some of them try to assimilate with the new society. Nazneen’s relationship with Karim, her urge to live economically independent, her interest to learn English and its culture, her desire to have secrecy about herself (by eating at night) and her desire to decide her future shows her interest to assimilate with the British culture. “I will decide what to do. I will say what happens to me. I will be the one. A charge ran through her body and cried out again, this time out of sheer exhilaration” (405). In the closing of the novel the writer symbolically presents Nazneen’s acceptance of her split/fractred identity by making her to skate in saree. Nazneen’s daughter Shahana prefers an identity that belongs to settled land. As a second generation, she feels U.K as her home country. When her father forces her to read Tagore and compels her to speak in Bengali at home, she feels upset. She complains at her father’s politics about the usage of the English language at home. Whenever her father insists on matters related to Bangladesh and its culture, she rejects it:
Shahana did not want to listen to Bengali classical music. Her written Bengali was shocking. She wanted to wear jeans. She hated her kameez and spoiled her entire wardrobe by pouring paint on them. If she could choose between baked beans and dahl it was no contest. When Bangladesh was mentioned she pulled a face. She did not know and could not learn that Tagore was more than poet and Noble laureate, and no less than the true father of her nation. Shahana did not care. Shahana did not want to go back home. (180)
Razia, by criticizing her own community accept the new society’s identity. She changes her dressing and hair style in order to fit into the settled community. The doctor’s wife, Mrs. Azad assimilates with the new community. She complains about her society: “‘They go around covered from head to toe, in their little walking prisons, and when someone calls to them in the street they are upset. The society is racist. The society is all wrong. Everything should change for them. They don’t have to change one thing.’” (114). She does not feel herself as separate from the new community and she confirms it by saying, “I work with white girls and I’m just one of them” (114). In this novel Shahana, Razia and Mrs. Azad are portrayed with the settled land identity. Nazneen represents the hyphenated identity, Chanu and Dr.Azad sybolises the homeland identity.
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, GaoLing and LuLing live separately in the settled community. Before entering into the US itself, GaoLing and LuLing consider it as a heaven and wish to escape from China. They do not have any emotional attachment with their homeland. LuLing considers the US as a place where she can escape from her curse and for GaoLing it is a place to live independently away from her husband’s torture. Both of them wish to forget China which is a horrible memory for them and desire to lead a comfortable life in the US. Even though the hate the homeland they follow the home land culture strictly. They consider the American culture as an evil one and prefer to follow the homeland culture strictly. LuLing force Ruth to follow the Chinese culture. LuLing, who comes from the Chinese tradition, wants her daughter Ruth to share everything with her. She could not understand when her daughter keeps some secrets and it affects their relationship, “They could not trust each other. That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets” (139). When Ruth was in school LuLing forbids her daughter to mingle with the White students. She does not want Ruth to grow up in the Western culture and restricts Western food. Throughout her life she prefers to stay separate.
Ruth, who is born and brought up in the US, easily assimilated with the White community. She always works hard to hide her Chinese background from her friends. In school, when her friends find that her mother is Chinese, she does not wish to accept the truth, as she is ashamed of the outlook of her friends’ towards her mother. She reminiscences, “Some of the other first-graders were laughing down below. “Is that your mother?” they shouted. “What’s that gobbledy-gook-gook she’s saying?”/ “She’s not my mother!” Ruth shouted back. “I don’t know who she is!”” (69). When she grows up several conflicts arise between Ruth and her mother LuLing due to the cultural clash – “[Ruth] knew what it meant to feel like an outsider, because she had often been one as a child” (59). Ruth goes with her friends for outing, smokes at her room and expects privacy in everything. When her mother interferes in these things she could not tolerate, and shouts at her mother in anger, “‘I’m an American,’ Ruth shouted. ‘I have a right to privacy, to pursue my own happiness’” (140). This creates a big gap between them. Due to these cultural clashes and her mother’s unhappiness, Ruth always underestimates her. Once in her school, her professor asks her to grade them. She gives ‘B’ grade for herself whereas others have given themselves ‘A’. She feels uncomfortable with everyone at some point. When she understands her mother and her grandmother’s life and struggle she accepts her hyphenated identity. It is symbolically presented by the writer through the curing of Ruth’s throat problem. In this novel less number of Chinese diasporic characters is mentioned and the author gives importance only to these three characters. Among them LuLing and GaoLing prefer homeland identity and Ruth prefers hyphenated identity.
In The Namesake, Ashima and Ashoke live away from the White community areas. They prefer to mingle with the Bengalis more than with the Whites. At the same time for the sake of their children, they celebrate Bengali as well as Western festivals. But they are not able to reduce the gaps of culture. They feel comfortable with the homeland identity. In the novel, Gogol oscillates between the American and the Indian culture. Most of the problems he faces do not arise from the society but from his own mentality and behavior. From his childhood, he has problems regarding his name and different cultural practices, which is practiced at his home and in the society. He is portrayed as one who feels dissatisfied with something or the other. Initially, he feels annoyed when his parents insist a name-change but he wishes to be known as Gogol. Later, he feels that the name Gogol, isolates him from his peers and he then decides to change his name to Nikhil. This change enables a personality and character transformation. This allows him to live an independent life and slowly he reduces his visits to his family. “He didn’t want to go to home on the weekends, to go with them to pujas and Bengali parties, to remain unquestionably in their world” (126). The cultural contrast between the American and the Indian is glaringly evident when Gogol lives in his girlfriend, Maxine’s home. He prefers the American culture and desires to stay with Maxine disconnecting all communication with his family: “…he remembers that his parents can’t possibly reach him: he has not given them the number, and the Ratliff’s are unlisted. That here at Maxine’s side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is free” (158). Another illustration of the change between the two cultures is witnessed by Gogol when he goes for a summer vacation with Maxine’s parents to New Hampshire:
[H]e cannot picture his family occupying a house like this, playing board games on rainy afternoons, watching shooting stars at night, all their relatives gathered neatly on a small strip of sand. It is an impulse his parents have never felt, this need to be so far from things. They would have felt lonely in this setting, remarking that they were the only Indians. (155)
After his father’s death, he feels guilty for not contacting his parents often. The loss of his father makes him to shower affection towards his mother and sister, and slowly he comes away from Maxine. He begins to spend his weekends, with his family and agrees to marry an Indian girl whom his mother selects. When his marriage breaks up, it upsets him mentally. He realizes that his yearning is more than that of his parents. When the novel ends he revives his earlier name of Gogol. Through Gogol’s eye the cultural difference between his parents and the settled community is presented. Sonia, Ashima’s daughter, tries to assimilate into the Western culture and practices. Being born and brought up in the US, assimilation is not difficult for her. Even though at home, her parents follow Indian culture, Sonia easily manages to assimilate with the Western culture and accepts her settled country’s identity. In the case of Gogol, assimilation is not easy for him. He often feels that he is different from the White. When he stays with his parents as Gogol, by following Indian culture at home, he finds something obstructs him from assimilating with the settled community. When he changes his name as Nikhil and lives separately in a room, he finds himself (Nikhil) to be an entirely different personality. Throughout his adolescence age he finds that he is in between two cultures and this result in his rational and judicious integration with the society.
The above discussed novels represent three different identities which this paper concentrates. For the diaspora community, identity is always a controversial issue. Most of the first generation diaspora people prefer to accept their homeland identity. In the case of the second generation, they face identity problem, as they follow the culture of the land in which they are born, and in home most of the cases they are expected to follow the homeland culture. In other cases when the second generation diaspora people are looked with suspicion by the native people, the problem of identity/question of identity arises. The various factors faced by the diasporic community such as ambiguous condition of their living, their heterogeneous nature in accepting/rejecting/assimilating settled land’s culture, changes by the progression of time. Even though they prefer to accept the homeland culture or the settled land’s culture, in some way or the other they will be affected by their interaction with the new culture. The culture, which the diasporic community prefers to follow, cannot be addressed as a pure culture because it cannot escape from the influence of the other. In the case of the diasporic community, they cannot be fully part of the homeland’s cultural practices nor the settled land’s cultural practices. Somewhere or the other it leads to the construction of the diasporic community’s multiple identities. In the course of time they decide their identities which are “never singular but multiple” (Hall: 4).
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