Identity Crisis In T. S. Eliot's Desirable Daughters

Introduction:

Multiculturalism has become the culture of the day particularly that of the diaspora world. It can simply be defined as co-existence of various cultures. The survey of the Indian diaspora writings of the last fifty years indicates that the definition of culture has undergone a sea change. Several definitions of culture have been propounded by men of letters over time. Edward Burnett Taylor opines “Culture ... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (1). T. S. Eliot says, “Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living” (27). Thus, it is evident that culture shapes one’s identity and who or what one is.

Identity crisis refers to the inability of the protagonist to be able to understand her self torn between the ethnicity of her native culture and the avant-garde culture of the country of immigration. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia “Identity crisis is an internal conflict of and search for identity.”

“The situation faced by migrants who leave their own country to settle in a new one is basically the problem of learning to adapt to an unfamiliar Culture. This problem

The book opens with five years old Tara Lata Gangooly, great-great grandmother of our divorcee narrator Taralata Bhatacharjee, headed deep into the forest to marry a tree to save her from a lifetime of sorrow and misery as her husband-to-be dies of a snake bite on the eve of their marriage.

“A Bengali girl’s happiest night is about to become her lifetime imprisonment. It seems all the sorrow of history, all that is unjust in society and cruel in religion has settled on her”