Mira By Bharati Mukherjee Sparknotes

“Immigration is a crisis for our county. It is an open door for drugs, criminals, and potential terrorists to enter our country. It is straining our economy, adding costs to our judicial, healthcare, and education systems,”as proclaimed by American politician Timothy Murphy. As Congress continues to debate ways to address immigration, a common Immigrant’s perspective conveys focus on the realistic statistics of who actually contributes so much to the nation’s economy and culture. It’s regularly known that Immigrants leave their motherland in search for a better life elsewhere, yet an immigrant’s ability to be happy and successful in America largely depends on the opportunity to remain connected to the culture of their native country or embrace

For example, Mukherjee’s use of “maintain” and “self-invention” are contradictory to each other, but in the context, “maintain” refers to her sister Mira, and “self-invention” is directed to Mukherjee herself. In Mira’s case, she is very attached to her Indian culture and stresses about not letting the American culture take that away from her. The author’s purpose was to highlight the tenacious mentality Mira has on her culture. In contrast, Mukherjee's use of “self-invention” regards to her loosening hold of her Indian culture; the exact opposite of Mira’s position. Another example of her contrasting diction is “clings” and “fluidity.” Mukherjee purposely chose “clings” in relation to Mira because it's implied that people don't cling onto something unless they feel they are losing it. Its evident through Mira’s constant denial of the American culture that she is still terrified of losing not only her Indian culture but in her eyes “herself” or her self identity. The author suggests that through these specific dictions, Mira gets the indication that with the new policy change she is forced to either give up her own self identity or create a new one to get citizen benefits. This implication of Mira believing she will lose her Indian culture also directly correlates to the “fluidity” Mukerjee feels about her new

She starts the essay with a detailed description of her life that led up to her and Mira’s immigration, “ When we left India, we were almost identical in appearance and attitude. We dressed alike, in saris; we expressed identical views on politics, social issues, love, and marriage in the same calcutta convent-school accent.” This detail compares how similar the siblings were and prepares the audience to the split of paths and consequences that lead to two contrasting lives.This pattern of a personal story continues though more details such as their education to even their marriages, “ Instead, Mira married an Indian student in 1962” which sets up dispersity as Mukherjee states, “I married a fellow student, an American of Canadian parentage.” Her decision to narrate the events in both of their lives from their childhood to marriages is an example of how she gained a citizenship through her husband who just happened to be an American. In contrast, Mukherjee presents that Mira married an Indian student, which points to the idea that because Mira decided to marry into her culture, she gets backlash from Congress which causes only her to get her benefits taken away, but Mukherjee doesn't get affected. Mukherjee builds this reputation of how similar they both are only to imbalance it