Sydney White Mrs. Lawrence 4th Period 1302 21 April 2024 B Essay Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s “Clothes” follows Sumita as she meets her new husband and travels to America. Sumita is obligated to an arranged marriage resulting in her moving to America with her new husband Somesh. Sumita moves in with her inlaws and her husband, who runs a store, as she is left to reflect on her old life. As she stays longer she becomes more accustomed to her new life and has a growing urge to be independent and help out in the shop. Somesh starts to have to work late nights and one night a robber ends up killing him. Sumita is then left alone to discover how she wants to move forward with her life. Divakaruni’s focus on the struggle to adapt and the process of overcoming change is amplified by …show more content…
Both stories convey fright and uncertainty as they struggle to adapt to this new landscape they are suddenly a part of. “Besides, wasn’t it every woman’s destiny, as Mother was always telling me, to leave known for the unknown?” Sumita questions as she gets ready for her bride-viewing (Divakaruni 1). Sumita’s story focuses on change and the challenges that it presents with moving from your home to another country. Divakaruni knows the struggle of having to “leave the known for the unknown” and the struggles of having to adapt to a new life, which creates this personal connection between her and Sumita. Divakaruni’s experience of leaving India for America provides her with a substantial background in understanding the struggles and challenges Sumita would have to face and overcome. Sumita is forced to adapt, at first it being her move to America, then having to follow what her inlaws expect of her, followed by the death of her husband. By the end of the story she decides to stay “here in this new dangerous land.” and now faces in the mirror to see a woman in a blouse and skirt set (Divakaruni
Both stories, Response to Executive Order 9066 and "Mericans", establish a common American Identity theme. The main idea of these two stories is how people may or may not relate to their cultures. Both are narrated by teenage girls, and both establish a common theme that your appearance does not define you.
When comparing their works, they both depict that wives have been oppressed and devalued by their husbands. Women significantly suffer from the lack of companionship, as well as depression. As a result, they are not satisfied with their homes and searched for a way to escape the madness. The strange thing about this woman is that she appears to be married.
For both women, their motivations all lead back in some way to social expectations, although one woman is trying to conform to them and the other is trying to defy them. Works Cited Meyer, Michael, ed., pp. 113-117. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. New York: Bedfort/St. Martin, J.D., 1999.
The story of how temptations, lifestyles, and influences upon women cause their true personalities and devotions to arise and corrupt their normal existence is clearly shown in both novels. They represent how little influence women have over their own lives, although certain aspects of their lives can completely rule or take control of their surroundings and therefore change them as individual women as well.
Both stories show the characters inequality with their lives as women bound to a society that discriminates women. The two stories were composed in different time frames of the women’s rights movement; it reveals to the readers, that society was not quite there in the fair treatment towards the mothers, daughters, and wives of United States in either era. Inequality is the antagonist that both authors created for the characters. Those experiences might have helped that change in mankind to carve a path for true equality among men and women.
Nonetheless, the way feminism is portrayed is not the “traditional” way people perceive it, but it incorporates all of Chimamanda’s perceptions of this term. The story discusses the affair between a wealthy man and an unnamed female character, which in the middle of a traffic jam in Lagos, Nigeria imagines that the woman in the car next to her can be the wife of the man she’s seeing. The story is considered feminist because the narrator is a strong female. The main character has two choices: she can take her friend’s Chikwado path and find a husband or she can take her own choices and be happy in a non-conventional kind of relationship. The narrator has pressures from her lover who says to her “You’ll want to settle down soon,” he said.
She brilliantly conveys this message by incorporating the theme of self-liberation in both stories, while contrasting the means by which each character achieves freedom. By creating two stories that both compare and contrast, the author presents the choice between two roads to freedom. How will women redefine the behaviors that are expected of them and liberate themselves from oppression? The challenge comes in breaking the cycle of revenge, choosing the freedom of forgiveness over the captivity of resentment, and crossing the border into true
While both poems are to inform the reader about the awkwardness of being of mixed race, the authors go about it in different ways. Moniza Ali shows the contrast in cultures by making the description of her presents from her aunts in Pakistan as vivid and exciting as possible: "glistening like an orange split open" and "embossed slippers". This creates an image in the reader's mind of Pakistan being a vibrant, exciting place. Moniza Ali compares this with the clothing she herself would prefer: "jeans and corduroy" just so that she can fit in with her friends. This makes the reader emphasize with her struggle to belong.
The short story “Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is about a young Indian woman, Sumita, and her cultural transition to America that is symbolized by her clothes and the color of her clothes. The traditional Indian attire for a woman is a sari and each one has its own purpose. Her clothes also indicate her progression from daughter, to wife, to woman.
Both works are similar in the theme of love and marriage, conflicts, and surprising endings. However, they differ in the way the husbands are portrayed throughout the story. Both protagonist in the stories are strong woman who were battling feminine problems of the 19th century. Wiether it was class status or the expected role of women, each woman was unique in the way they handle their conflict in society. These pieces were used to speak out and bring light to issues that common women faced during the time period. The lasting effects of the stories encouraged women to work hard to be who they want in
Chitra Banerjee’s The Mistress of Spices is a diasporic tale built amidst a stream of voices, both male & female, sharing their joys and sorrows as immigrants to the United States. The author interweaves her text with strands of Magical Realism, Postcolonial Criticism and Feminine discourse to produce a patchwork of messages that overlap but never contradict.
Ramamoorthy, P. “My Life is My Own: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Women” Feminism and Recent Fiction in English Ed. Sushila Singh. New Delhi: Prestige, 1991.
The excerpt, "The Mayor of Casterbirdge" by Thomas Hardy, he expresses a complex relationship between, Michael and Elizabeth. Implying that both characters have been separated from each other and azination of both constructing a relationship. Even though the father makes it complicated to the point that he reddens her daughter in shame and sadness. At the begging where the father reunites with his daughter, the relationship undergoes ardour and agitation.
Clothing has always been an important part of society, with evidence from the earliest human civilizations. In history, climate, religion and political factors played a role in the fabrication, styling and even color of the garments that people wore. Today, the fashion industry is multi-faceted, and while climate and religion are still some factors in how we dress, there are many more influences in what we choose to wear. Time and time again, designers reference historical styles and push them into modern trends. Subcultures illustrate how a particular way of dressing can transform into a lifestyle. Ethnic fashion ties in with a specific culture’s values and beliefs. By looking at clothing in other societies around the world, as well as the many global subcultures, we can learn a lot about the depth and complexity of the members that make this world colorful and diverse.
According to her, the warp and woof of her works attract attention when “ the themes are analysed, the social and political elements are subtly camouflaged and subdued by dwelling on emotions and responses which are far more engrossing than the hard facts of reality.(Jain 1987:1). As her discussion progresses from thematic concerns to philosophical and psychological issues.The primary task of this paper is to dwell upon the female strength without losing the inner self of the character in all critical situations. The focus will remain on the politicization of land and landscape through the study of women’s search for identity in this complex social world where alienation, disintegration and submissiveness are inherently attached to female psychology. For example, Where Shall We Go This Summer is based on relating Sita’s desperate search for direction of India’s anxiety to find her identity.