Mukherjee did not considered Jasmine “a good person,” she was a “balck-mailer” and a “murderer” who has dumped a good crippled man. But she considered her a “love goddess” a “life-force”. She was not mortal in the conventional sense but her mortality was her own way of looking at life. She was a ‘path-finder’ and pierces her way through the dense jungle of problems. Every movement added to her self-confidence and her experience guides her future course of action. She was fluid and adjusting her each and every role. Mukherjee’s following observations border on confessional note: ‘The kind of women I write about, are those who are adaptable. We’ve all been raised to please, been trained to be adaptable as wives, and that adaptability is working …show more content…
His profession in the United States of America was not so respectable by Indian standards. He was not the only one who faces this identity crisis. Each immigrant encounters the same crisis and to protect themselves they build a new world, within the new world, which was a counterfeit of the old one. Jasmine smuggled herself in USA, encountered all kinds of humiliation, in order to fulfilled her husband’s dream. But unlike a dutiful wife, she was more resilient to her situation. Reality of America was hard and makes her cringe inside initially. The disparity between the rich and the poor was very wide in India but it exists in States too.
Through her Lutheran benefactress, she became “Caregiver” to Wylie and Taylor and their little girl Duff. Just as in the short story Jasmine in Middleman and Other Stories, the Trinidadian immigrant fell in love, so here, too, does Jasmine with Taylor. When Wylie fell out of love with her husband, there was an idyllic interlude for Jasmine. But she left in fear and terror when she spots Prakash’s assassin. Then there was Bud, and that was another story. Jasmine comments: “I have had a husband for each of the women I have been. Prakash for Jasmine, Taylor for Jase, Bud for Jane. Half –Face for Kali.”
She looked at her peers and saw how they will become exactly like their parents or worse before they even had a chance to realize or think about planning out their future. A clear example of this is Newt Hardbine. He was not able to continue in high school, but, instead had to work in the tobacco fields alongside his father. Newt then married a girl from the town, simply because the girl, Jolene had the opinion of “why the hell not” instilled in her by her father who shamed her for being a slut. Taylor knew from a young age, that this life was not for her.
Gullah Geechee is the culture of African descendants who incorporate the traditions, customs, and history from Africa while integrating Christianity and preserving the ancestral heritage. Gullah Geechee culture is still present in various forms of media including literature and historical content of southern regions. The culture is well preserve and very influential even in present-day literature. It is evident that the Gullah Geechee culture influence the literary works of Ntozake Shange in particular the novel Sassafras, Cypress,& Indigo. But to what extent does Gullah culture influence the development of the title characters ?
In the beginning of the book, Taylor (then known as Marietta or Missy) was a sassy little girl who wanted to be treated equally without truly understanding what that meant. This can be seen when Taylor demands to be called “Miss Marietta” the way she has to call all the kids of the parents her mother works for. Her mother has no problem with this, the way one might think she would. Had I asked my parents to call me “Miss Angie” when I was younger, I would have gotten a scolding for sure. Taylor’s mother was also very encouraging when it came to anything that Taylor had done.
Tanesha lives in Chattanooga, TN where she relocated 12 years ago for a managerial position of a retail store chain. She had moved from Gainesville, GA with her with Richard’s father, Roger, who was her husband at the time. Roger and Tanesha had been high school sweethearts and had married shortly after graduation. They had been happy in Gainesville where they both had friends and family. After moving to Chattanooga their relationship had become more stressed.
Taylor was now finding out about how the life of her friends was in danger she knew that this could harm them but she also realized that she couldn’t change much because she was all by herself, this motivated her to do as much as she could for those she
Taylor comes from a nontraditional family. She was raised by her mother, who worked long hours as a housekeeper to support Taylor and herself. Her father, Foster Greer, left her mother when he found out that her mother was pregnant. Her mother doesn 't mind that Foster left; in fact, she often tells Taylor that "trading Foster for [you] was the best deal this side of the Jackson Purchase." As Taylor matures and is exposed to horrible things that fathers can say and do to children, she feels quite lucky to have grown up without a father.
Taylor’s experiences relate to the thematic topic of community support. With the help of her new friends, Taylor slowly adjusts to her new home and faces the challenges that come when trying to adapt to a new environment. Taylor is having an internal conflict because she is struggling to fit into her environment. She is uncertain and scared, which creates tension within her throughout the novel. Kingsolver uses figurative language when Taylor says, “You would think you’d stepped right off the map into some other country where they use dirt for decoration and the national pastime is having babies” (Kingsolver 181).
She says “With a kind of misery I could not imagine.” Taylor is realizing the new horrors of the world and the new found empathy for this child. She acts in a noble manner by taking in Turtle and not putting her back on the street. This is a true act of courage, that now every human has in them but Taylor did; she had the courage to take in Turtle but she then developed compassion and love for the child that she did not birth.
At first, all Taylor wants in life is to drive away from home and avoid pregnancy. As soon as Taylor gets a car, she leaves everything
In Bharati Mukherjee essay “Two Ways to Belong in America.” the author explains the different lives of two sisters. The two sisters Mira and Bharati are both from India that moved to America. Both living separate lives in America for 35 years with Mira griping closely to her Indian citizenship as she marries an Indian student majoring in business administration. Bharati on the other hands does the opposite and marries a Canadian American.
She brought many problems forward with how Americans treat foreign names and she made an extremely valid point that all names no matter the ethnicity should be respected equally. This essay is about equality, in the essay she talks about how her and her family has had their names made fun of by Americans, and the only way that she was able to fit in she had to choose an American name. The setting takes place from her early childhood in America and it leads straight into her adult life and how it was difficult for her. The main focus is on the writer itself, she bases all her ideas and feelings
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.
In Reyna Grande’s compelling memoir, The Distance Between Us, she vividly recounts her life and journey from Mexico to the ‘El Otro Lado,’ the United States. Grande grew up in Iguala, Guerroro, a small town in the heart of Mexico. She and her family were brought up in extreme poverty and thus, her parents left for the United States in order to support them. Grande and her siblings were forced to live with their stern, disapproving grandmother and often faced difficulties because of their abusive and impoverished environment. Abandoned by both parent, the three siblings endure various hardships with the hope of a window of opportunity opening for their family.
First, she finishes high school. Acquiring a job at the county hospital on her own terms, she saves a few hundred dollars. Using the money she earned, she buys a ‘55 Volkswagen young age, Taylor plans to get out of Pittman County, Kentucky. She wants to be the one to “get away”. Taylor Does not want to be stuck in
In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.