Diaspora world and Emblematic Motif in Peggy Mohan’s Jahajin Migration to other countries is not a modern phenomenon. It is place since time from the time of British Raj or even before till now date Indians are migration to other countries for several reasons. In recent years migration in a broader and comprehensive sense has started getting replaced by the word Diaspora. According to online oxford dictionary the word Diaspora came into notably usage in the Jewish case. It is new in a way that new approaches, studies, theories, perspectives have added new dimension to Diaspora studies. As multidisciplinary term Diaspora constitutes an important field of study academics; social science, literature, history, political science, …show more content…
Her father was from India who married woman from Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Mohan first career was that of linguist. Jahajin is a debut work of Peggy Mohan. She is from Trinidad who has Indians Descendants. In her very first novel she weaves different stories together, stories from indenture past; hundred and ten years Deeda who sailed on the same boat as narrator’s great grandmother, Saga of Saranga, narrator’s own experience as a descendant of Jahajin tradition. Etymologically the word Jahajin owens it origin to Hindi language. It comes down from Hindi word ‘Jahaj’ meaning ship, boat. Jahajin/Jahaji refers to the indentured laborer who made long sea journey by crossing the Kala Pani to reach their promised land, work on sugar plantations. They were taken to Caribbean island by sea routes. The very title of Mohan’s debut novel is suggestive that there is a woman at the centre Deeda; an old woman from Basti region of Bihar. As a Jahajin she sailed across the Jahaj, ship. Title of the novel has a symbolic significance. Deeda a jahajin at heart is an epitome of strength and …show more content…
Deeda narrates different stories from her memories in Trinidad Bhojpuri, which take us back to era of colonial rule. Along with this mohan uses folklore of Saranga. Here method of storytelling is get an insight into a culture. Use of folklore serves a purpose. Three stories that a run together creates a magnificent picture of women centered Jahajin.
The novel has four women protagonists, namely, the narrator Deeda, Sunnariya, and Saranga, whose life stories are intricately connected yet run parallel to each other. (2, The Trinidadian Deewani) At certain extent Saranga’s story is a heart of the narrative. It has multiple layers of meaning and can be analyzed, interpreted in different ways. Story of Saranga binds all the stories together. Mohan use of Saranga story works as watermark to the beautiful picture she wants to create with her words. All the stories combined together shape the narrative. In her blog ‘About Jahajin’ she writes
My first book, Jahajin, is the result of a story brewing in my head for 30 years, evolving and growing as I lived in
The term “diaspora” refers to an individual’s exit from his or her own home. In the story “The Money”, by Junot Diaz, the author describes how his mother sends money back to her parents in the Dominican Republic, where Junot’s lived before their immigration to the United States. His mother sends the money out of guilt for leaving her parents and home country behind, and because Junot’s grandparents need the money in order to survive. Though I lived in the United States for my whole life, my departure from my small suburban town in Ohio and my journey towards established myself in the Bronx, New York City could be considered my own diaspora.
Have you ever lost someone you loved or was important in your life? Well Junior has, he has lost many people in his life. He has gone to a total of 42 funerals in his lifetime and he is only 14. You will find out more about Junior in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Most of the people Junior has lost were due to alcohol.
Born to Bengali parents in July 1967,in London and with her family’s move to Rhode Island, Jhumpa Lahiri began life in the U.S.A. She grew up in the background of traditional Bengali culture. From childhood, she often accompanied her back to India-particularly to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata).. She observes that her parents retain a sense of emotional exile and she herself grew up with conflicting expectations. In her work, Lahiri, is a second-generation immigrant, reflects on the Indian diaspora and creates a narrative that reveals the inconsistency of the concept of identity and cultural difference in the space of diapora.
ANELISWA NALA 2015317601 ENGL1624 DUE: 28 OCTOBER 2016 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has one mutual theme that associates all the other themes in the novel together. In the chapter titled; “Valentine Heart,” we encompass the most prominent and most cognisant theme of them all- grief. This chapter conveys the most detectable attributes of grief that functions as both an individual and collective process of dealing with loss. Argumentatively one could say that grieving has its fair share of adversities.
When a story is written, the content lasts longer and can be revisited, however each reader perceives the meaning of the story and the details through their own experience. Stories began through oral tradition. Indigenous people have told stories throughout their histories, and those stories reveal their past, as well as their current realities and identities. An example of a storyteller who integrates multiple genres of storytelling in every aspect of her being, is Joy Harjo. Harjo is a multi-genre artist, musician, writer, poet, and overall inspirational storyteller.
In her short story “Marigolds”, Eugenia Collier, tells the story of a young woman named Lizabeth growing up in rural Maryland during the Depression. Lizabeth is on the verge of becoming an adult, but one moment suddenly makes her feel more woman than child and has an impact on the rest of her life. Through her use of diction, point of view, and symbolism, Eugenia Collier develops the theme that people can create beauty in their lives even in the poorest of situations. Through her use of the stylistic device diction, Eugenia Collier is able to describe to the reader the beauty of the marigolds compared to the drab and dusty town the story is set in.
‘’The Stolen Party” written by Liliana Heker is a short story about a nine year old girl named Rosaura. Rosaura is invited to a birthday party with rich people and she is treated more like a servant than a guest at the party. For example, Senora Ines reached into her pink purse and took out two dollar bills and give it to Rosaura, instead of giving her a goody bag as she did to the other children at Luciana’s birthday party. “Thank you for all your help, my pet” Senora Ines said to Rosaura. Senora Ines action showed that Rosaura was being treated more like a help than a guest at her daughter’s party. Senora Ines was Rosaura mom’s boss.
Hosseini illustrates the struggle of women and their endurance of being treated as second hand citizens through his female lead characters. An important theme he displays is the importance of education in woman and the effects it has on a
In the novel Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, the relationship between Annie and her mother can be very confusing and complicated at times. In the passage, symbols such as the thimble and the “black thing” play an important role in depicting the relationship between Annie John and her mother. Annie and her mother each have a black thing resting inside of them and when they begin to fight, the black things join together. The thimble rests inside of Annie and represents her sadness and her unwillingness to grow up and become distant from her mother. These symbols together help portray the relationship between Annie and her mother by showing that they have a mutual dislike for one another and how they are tired and depressed because of their quarrelling.
Take a second and imagine, imagine yourself being starved, tortured, and enslaved. What would you do to save your children and yourself? In Cynthia Ozick's story “The Shawl” we meet Rosa and her two daughters Stella, who is fourteen, and Magda an infant who is being concealed, on their grueling march to a concentration camp. The Nazi’s are unaware of Magda’s existence due to Rosa hiding her under the shawl as they are marching. Rosa is faced with the difficulty of keeping her daughters alive, while trying to survive herself.
They represent the plight which the Afghan women have been facing since ages. These characters give hope to the countless women who still suffer the dominance and hardships of the Afghan society. The actions of these characters symbolize their strength to endure things as they join together and retaliate against the man, and in turn the society, who has taken away their rights to live their lives according to their own choices. The ‘thousand splendid suns’ represent the thousands of Afghan women with immense potentialities who are still under the clutches of patriarchal domination and are forced to hide behind the walls. Khaled Hosseini has beautifully portrayed the cruel realities of the lives of Afghan women through Mariam and Laila and this is what separates A Thousand Splendid Suns from literary works that deal with Afghan women.
“Cathleen Ni Houlihan”, a play that William Butler Yeats co-wrote with Lady Gregory, in 1902, is about Ireland’s fight for their independence. According to Nicholas Grene: “What is at issue [in Kathleen Ni Houlihan] is the political meaning which the play generated and the potential for such meaning which the text offered.” (Grene, 1999) The play is set in a cottage kitchen and centres in the 1798 Rebellion. The play: “stages two conflicting narratives of Irish peasant womanhood. Mrs. Gillane and, potentially, Delia, her son’s pretty, well-dowered bride-to-be, represent a realist, maternal order, the values of hearth and home; the Poor Old Woman, Cathleen, also dressed as a peasant, represents a contrary order of being – symbolic, nomadic, virginal, sacrificial rather than procreative (…)
Woman at Point Zero Through Symbolism The main point of clarification and interpretation in the story Woman at Point Zero is symbolism. More specifically, symbolism in the story represents a reference, emotion or an object that provides a meaning that goes up and beyond the written meaning. From the contemporary feminist perspective, the author Nawal El Saadawis uses the narrative speech and symbolism to express and demonstrate the fight and the struggle of women under marginalization and alienation. Furthermore, the reflection in the defiance and the complexities that override the behavior of the protagonists has found its way in the modern world.
At the heart of a person‘s life lies the struggle to define his self, to make sense of who he is? Diaspora represents the settling as well as unsettling process. While redesigning the geopolitical boundaries, cultural patterns, it has also reshaped the identities of the immigrants with new challenges confronting the immigrant in negotiating his identity. Diaspora becomes a site where past is given a new meaning and is preserved out of intense nostalgia and longing. The novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is significant in its treatment of the issues faced by immigrants in the diaspora.
The problem arises when the concepts found in the European experiences are used to evaluate and describe the non-western communities (Hiebert 2002). In summary, cosmopolitan turn in social sciences is multi-disciplinary. It encompasses the geography, anthropology, ethnology, international relations, political theory, sociology and social theory. The turn calls for a re-conceptualization of the social sciences. The task has however been made impossible by methodological nationalism, which has subsumed the society under the nation-state.