Clothes By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Analysis

Change is inevitable. At some point in everyone’s life, they will experience change which will be a turning point in their life. A common change is moving homes and transitioning into a new society. Living somewhere for your whole life in which you call ‘home’ is comforting and safe. Having to leave that safety blanket and beginning a new life can be intimidating and frightening. A person’s former ways and morals could change into the polar opposite. However, keeping something from before can be a friendly reminder and help hold on to the past. In the short story, Clothes by author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the main character Mita thoroughly experiences this situation as she moves from her homeland India, to modern America to marry a complete stranger and commence a life with him. She holds on to and cherishes her Indian style clothing until she becomes influenced with American fashion. Throughout the

Throughout the story, Mita’s Indian attire resembles her challenging cultural transformation in a plethora of ways. To begin, she was given a sari from her father at the beginning of the story that she described as “‘the most expensive sari I had ever seen, and surely the most beautiful. It’s body was a pale pink, like the dawn sky over the women’s lake. The color

Kercher 2 of transition’” (Divakaruni 3). This evidence plainly describes how delicate of a clothing piece it was showing that Mita’s father definitely put time and money into this sari so that Mita could value this item forever. Also, the color of the sari plays a substantial role in the symbol of the sari. Pale pink represents transition, which directly corresponds to Mita’s undertaking. This evidence shows great importance relating to her difficult transition because she will always take this with her so that she has