Who Am I?
Migration, the movement of people from one area to another, results in the introduction of new ideas and styles of living. Often times, these new ideas conflict with a person’s previous ideas causing dilemma; the person’s dilemma leads to the hybridization of two ideas or cultures. “Bharat Changes His Image”, by Yasmine Gooneratne, should remain in the Migrations unit because the characters struggle to find a balance between Sri Lankan and Australian cultures while establishing themselves in their new home. Their actions and struggles parallel the unit’s essential questions and enduring understandings.
The characters face a cultural disparity, one challenge of migration, which resulted in their change of lifestyle in order to fit
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in with those around them. One cultural disparity in the story occurs when Navaranjini doesn’t realize that when Australians say ‘Asians’, they imply everyone from the continent of Asia. After Bharat tells her that Professor Blackstone implies people like them as well, she becomes extremely self-conscious. This prompts them to change their last names, “We’ll be calling ourselves ‘Mundy’ from now on. ‘Mangala-Day’, Mun-Dy, get it? I’m told it’s a highly respected Australian name (111).” Navaranjini explains that Bharat’s family has passed down the name since the fourteenth century, giving it great significance and family pride. Although his name has importance to continue his family legacy, Bharat anglicized his name solely to fit in with the others around him. He doesn’t want to stand out in front of the others with his cultural name. The concept of racism leads to another clash of ideas. In Sri Lanka, they call the Chinese ‘Ching-Chongs’ and believe that “race and caste and colour just have their appointed places there in a divine scheme of things, in which everything moves in a beautifully regulated order. (109)” In Sri Lanka, people call others a name due to their race, caste, or color; in Australia, it’s considered racist to do the same. Australians and Sri Lankans have different ideas about what they can acceptably say. Navaranjini changes her lifestyle in order to meet the expectations of Australian culture and, with her husband’s request, stops using the phrase ‘ching-chong’. I believe that by anglicizing their names, Bharat and Navaranjini demonstrate how migration can put a person in a difficult situation when they juggle the expectations of two cultures. The plight of the characters answers the essential question, “In what ways do people who migrate experience hybridity?” Juggling the expectations of two cultures commonly occurs among migrants and by highlighting this issue, the story makes an important point about migration, thus proving that this story belongs in the Migrations unit of the course reader. Due to their migration to Australia, the characters of the story adopted a new way of talking and changed their image, causing them to become hybrids of Sri Lankan and Australian cultures.
Navaranjini tries to learn ‘Australian’ by listening to the radio and writing down words and phrases that she does not know, “My notebook, which was filling up with new phrases on a range of different topics, gave me confidence. Whenever I got my husband alone, I tried out my new vocabulary on him. I felt this would give him confidence too. (110)” Both characters try to learn Australian slang and adopt the style of talking that surrounds them. The characters took the style of talking they learned in Sri Lanka and added Australian vocabulary to it, creating a hybrid of both languages. Bharat and Navaranjini even changed their names, “Next we traded in our first names. This was a really hard thing to do… So now we’re Jean and Barry Mundy! True blue, fair dinkum Aussies. (111)” The characters believe that they became true Aussies after completely changing their names. Jean and Barry struggle to find a balance between their Sri Lankan culture and the Australian way of living. By changing their style of talking and even their names, they tried to become completely Aussie. They must stay proud of their Sri Lankan culture, even as they adopt some Australian ideas. I believe that Jean and Barry’s struggle to maintain some of their cultural characteristics and ideas while living in Australia with the Aussies shows one of the most prevalent issues of migration. People who migrate to a different place often times lose their cultural identity and ideas that previously had importance to them. The characters in the story want to fit in with the Australians but at the same time want to preserve their Sri Lankan culture; they struggle to find the right balance. The characters’ actions mirror one of the unit’s essential questions; people who migrate experience hybridity in many aspects of their
life, including their style of talking, their image, and their cultural beliefs. While attempting to convince themselves that they felt happy with their new lives, the characters of the story began to develop negative thoughts about their previous lives. After changing their names and style of living, Jean and Barry still do not feel satisfied with their images but try to convince themselves that they feel satisfied by thinking negatively about their lives before. Navaranjini feels upset that she anglicized her name to Jean so she tries to convince herself that she feels content with her decision, “...you can make yourself believe anything if you work at it really hard. I recalled, in fact, not having liked my old name much, and having always wanted to change it… (111)” She tells herself that she never really liked her name though she talked about why her name has importance in the previous page. Jean dismisses her Sri Lankan culture once again, “Ah, well, never mind. What’s it matter? Following Professor Blackstone’s radio talk, those Oriental names and their meanings were among the first things we dumped, as if they’d been run-down cars. (111)” Jean compares her Sri Lankan name to a ‘run-down car’ which not only disrespects her culture and family legacy, but proves the point that migration caused her to formulate negative thoughts about her old life and reject her native culture. I believe that Jean and Barry’s actions illustrate one of the enduring understandings of the Migrations unit, dispersed people may begin to reject their homeland and native culture. Jean and Barry struggle to find an equal balance between both cultures as they negotiate both viewpoints. The characters’ migration to Australia puts them in a difficult situation; they must choose to live their life as aliens or change their image in order to fit in with those around them. They struggle to find the right balance of Sri Lankan and Australian culture. Jean alters her image so much that she no longer feels happy with herself; I believe that instances like this demonstrate one of the most challenging parts of migration, staying true to yourself and not changing for the others around you. “Bharat Changes His Image” should remain in the Migrations unit of the course reader because the actions and struggles of the characters mirror the unit’s essential questions and enduring understandings. Throughout the story, Bharat and Navaranjini struggle due to the expectations of society. They want to fit in with the people around them, but at the same time want to maintain their Sri Lankan culture. Both characters change the way they talk, their style of living, and even their names! All of these changes cause them to become hybrids of both Sri Lankan and Australian culture, demonstrating one of the most important parts of migration; migration leads to the hybridization of two cultures and ideas. As they adapt to their new lives, Jean and Barry begin to think negatively about their previous lives. Jean feels distraught that she anglicized her name and tries to convince herself that she never liked her original name. She struggles to come to terms with her new life. Her struggles highlight another big challenge of migration; dispersed people may begin to reject their native culture. Overall, this short story demonstrated many key ideas of the migrations unit and showed us the effects that migration can have on someone’s life.
In this analysis includes a summary of the characters and the issues they are dealing with, as well as concepts that are seen that we have discussed in class. Such as stereotyping and the lack of discrimination and prejudice, then finally I suggest a few actions that can be taken to help solve the issues at hand, allowing the involved parties to explain their positions and give them a few immersion opportunities to experience their individual cultures.
... of language and education is the most important in this story and society. The make use of two different languages in a narrative, provides a reader a perplexing yet fascinating image of characterization and customs. Multilingual story telling pushes the reader to decelerate and acquire supplemental focus on the expressions which are in the small fragments, however as soon as the reader has figured out the foreign words, he or she acquires a priceless picture of the theme of this story. The panorama of native words and phrases, cultural perceptions, and class dispute taken from the incorporation of two different languages are helpful for the reader to obtain significance that he or she couldn't gain if exclusively one language was employed in the story. Just as the power of language is applied to unveil a society, a better comprehension is provided to the reader.
Perhaps one of the biggest issues foreigners will come upon is to maintain a strong identity within the temptations and traditions from other cultures. Novelist Frank Delaney’s image of the search for identity is one of the best, quoting that one must “understand and reconnect with our stories, the stories of the ancestors . . . to build our identities”. For one, to maintain a firm identity, elderly characters often implement Chinese traditions to avoid younger generations veering toward different traditions, such as the Western culture. As well, the Chinese-Canadians of the novel sustain a superior identity because of their own cultural village in Vancouver, known as Chinatown, to implement firm beliefs, heritage, and pride. Thus in Wayson Choy’s, The Jade Peony, the novel discusses the challenge for different characters to maintain a firm and sole identity in the midst of a new environment with different temptations and influences. Ultimately, the characters of this novel rely upon different influences to form an identity, one of which being a strong and wide elderly personal
characters felt the need to settle down in life and both saw the image of
First of all, Indigenous people and Asian have different values and means to Australia. The Australian Indigenous people have lived Australia for long time and they have developed their own culture. However, when the British people started to colonise Australia, the British culture was brought into Australia. They have struggled under the pressure of White Australian. Therefore, whatever their identity can be a part of Australian. On the other hand, most of Asian people came to Australia as immigrants to seek better life. Ommundsen states that Asian Australian literatures made by the writer’s identity and life, for example (512). However, he also argues that “Asia”, “Australia” and “Asian Australia” are uncertain categories (512). In “Love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice”, there are no strong elements of Australia, and even the protagonist, Nam, lives in Iowa (Le 3), the United States. In “The boat”, Australia is just destination of the main character, a girl named Mai (Le 278). Thus, The Boat seems more Asian literature that Asian Australian literature. It is really difficult to find how Indigenous identity narratives affect to such Asian Australian literatures, because they seems really different from each other. If something must be said, Asian Australian literatures have to refer to Indigenous people. Most Asian immigrants regard Australia as a western country, white culture, and well-developed country. They do not think about Indigenous people so much, so but if Indigenous identity narratives’ increase of importance, Asian Australian literature must include them as
In the novel excerpt “Two kinds,” Amy Tan uses the central conflict to develop the theme through the clash of cultural identities. Tan shows the reader how culture is dynamic in each individual person. Culture can be mixed and change over time.
In “My Two Lives”, Jhumpa Lahiri tells of her complicated upbringing in Rhode Island with her Calcutta born-and-raised parents, in which she continually sought a balance between both her Indian and American sides. She explains how she differs from her parents due to immigration, the existent connections to India, and her development as a writer of Indian-American stories. “The Freedom of the Inbetween” written by Sally Dalton-Brown explores the state of limbo, or “being between cultures”, which can make second-generation immigrants feel liberated, or vice versa, trapped within the two (333). This work also discusses how Lahiri writes about her life experiences through her own characters in her books. Charles Hirschman’s “Immigration and the American Century” states that immigrants are shaped by the combination of an adaptation to American...
...de effects of ‘nontraditional’ immigration, the government officially turned against its immigrant communities…” In this line, Mukherjee is showing that she had also been a victim of the new immigration laws, and that was the reason she had conformed to the country, in order to feel a sense of belonging. In this instance, exemplification is used to develop her argument in an effective manner that causes the audience to feel a sense of guilt and even listen to her argument.
The narrator continues with describing his resentment towards his home life, 'Coming home was not easy anymore. It was never a cinch, but it had become a torture (2).'; This excerpt provides the reader with an understanding of the sorrow that the protagonist feels at the beginning of the novel and throughout the first half. Further narration includes the protagonists feelings of distance from the land and blame that he places upon himself, 'But the distance I felt came not from country or people; it came from within me (2).'; Thus, as the reader, we understand that the narrator has removed himself from the land and his culture.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
One tradition that has made every country different is its culture. A culture represents and creates the country’s history and traditions. From the hard working environment in China to the laid-back lifestyle in America, these are some examples of unique cultures. Even with different cultures, travelers can experience the hardships that occur when traveling. One article “ Adventure of a lifetime” demonstrated these difficulties when a family moved from America to Peru and their struggles during their transition. During their stay, Lawrence and her children experienced new ideas that were different from America. Some complex situation that arises while making a step in their new culture is the adjustment to the new environment and the language
This novel portrayed adaption and change by having the families move to a different location and home that they soon had to adapt to. For the people moving from job to job was very stressful especially when you have a family to take care of. For example Pa Joad does not adapt to the new e...
Many authors have captured the experiences that immigrants face when migrating to a new country. In her works The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri highlights the struggles of assimilation that immigrants from South Asian countries, particularly India, face when migrating to America. Lahiri focuses on the differing experiences between immigrant parents and their American-born children. Lahiri's works serve to educate Americans and provide immigrants with literature that they can relate to.
In the Third and Final Continent, Jhumpa Lahiri uses her own experiences of being from an immigrant family to illustrate to her readers how heritage, cultural influences and adaptation play a major role in finding your true identity. The Third and Final Continent is the ninth narration in a collection of stories called the Interpreter of Maladies. In this story, it discusses themes such as marriage, family, society, language and identity. In this story, we focus on an East Asian man of Bengali descent who wants to have a better future for himself so he leaves India and travels to London, England to pursue a higher education. His pursuit for higher education takes place on three different continents. In India, he feels safe in his home country and welcomed, but when he travels abroad he starts to have fear and anxiety. Through his narrations, we learn how he adapts to the European and American and through these experiences he learns to assimilate and to adapt to the new culture he travels to.
Culture is presented as a source of conflict or pride for the characters and the effect of culture is to depict how non Western lifestyle is often neglected. The disregard for non Western culture is portrayed as negative, detrimental, and a source of identity crises for those whose culture is being neglected. Adichie manipulates culture throughout the novel in order to emphasize the importance of culture to personal identity and one’s authenticity, highlight the dangers of cultural intolerance and ignorance, and expose the misconception of the superiority of Western