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The Tiger's Daughter Bharati Mukherjee Analysis

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Abstract
Bharati Mukherjee represents in her novels the contemporary woman’s struggle to define herself and attain an autonomous selfhood, especially in cross-cultural crisis, a subject which has assumed a great significance in the present world of globalization. She endeavored to dive deep into the distorted psyche of those immigrants who have been surviving in the conflict of traditional Indian values. In her characters there is an inherent fascination for Western mode of living that they have chosen out of their professional compulsions or for their urge to achieve a greater freedom in liberal and dynamic society of America. The focus in Bharati Mukherjee fiction is on the predicament of migrants and the possibilities for their absorption and rejection in the new world. Her most remarkable works reflect not only her pride in her Indian heritage, but also her celebration of embracing America. In her writings she voices her own experiences to show the changing shape of American society.

Key words: immigrations, outmigration, autonomous selfhood, …show more content…

The Tiger’s Daughter had adopted the technique of documentation to bring out the contrast between two worlds and two attitudes. An immigrant away from home idealizes his home country and cherishes nostalgic memories of it. Tara was packed off by her father at early age of fifteen for America, because he was prompted by suspicion and pain about his army. Tara is homesick in Poughkeepsie. Little things pained her. She sensed discrimination if her roommate did not share her mango chutney. She defended her family and her country vehemently. She prayed to Kali for strength, so that she would not break down, before the Americans. New York was extraordinary and it had driven her to despair: “On days when she had thought she could not possibly survive, she had shaken out all her silk scarves, ironed them and hung them to make the apartment more

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