Leaving
M. G. Vassanji uses immigration itself as the central image around which the whole narrative of the story unfurls itself. Aloo's craving to go out to the US begins as a 'demonstration effect' thanks to Mr. Datoo. The craving becomes a desperation, however, and a necessary step towards self-improvement. America is the new 'promised land', and Vassanji uses the old colonial image of London as New Jerusalem, merging it in the passage to America. 'Leaving' remains the only truth, as the 'birds' have 'flapped their wings' through ages. The promised land becomes a culture that can include the dreams of many Dar-es-Salaams, the ambitions of many Aloos and their desolate mothers.
Loose Ends
Bharati Mukherjee writes the 'other side' of the problems of migration. The story focuses on Jeb, an American who fought in the Vietnam war. While they were guarding the 'front door', emigrants came in through the 'back entrance', and now the Vet has to depend on Hispanics like Mr. Vee for his earning. Turbaned guys are in a position to throw American women out of their jobs-- Yankees become "coolie labor" in their "own country". South Asian and Latin American diasporic communities take over the culture of America, with their "alien deity with four arms or legs". Americans are made into freaks, by aliens! Miami becomes another Bombay, or Bangkok-- a city of middlemen,-- another Havana or Beirut. America loses its own identity amidst the "fecund rot", and the smell of "turds". The American society remains nothing but the great power-- the python-- drowning in its own excrement. The image brings into mind Orwell's 'Shooting an Elephant'. Colonialism drowns itself in its own wastage. In a land of waste, Goldilocks never arrives. Jeb can only have a personal victory over one Alice, but America has already gone through the rabbit hole.
Squatter
Rohinton Mistry uses humour in 'Squatter' as the narrative medium. The very title suggests the double-playing with the word, as Nariman unfolda the story of Sarosh in Toronto. Washroom and bathroom images play quite an important part in diasporic literature, and Mistry takes it to an altogether different, apparently almost absurd, level. The images generally play quite a serious part, in the works of Selvon or Ramanujan due to the very unabashed aspect of them-- reflecting the physical 'I' in the diasporic individual. Through orality, Nariman imparts his brilliance into the same images. Sarosh has not been able to leave behind his Indian physical existence. His existence ought to be one of 'third space'-- a physical 'third space' for that matter, which is ultimately proven to be impossible. Sarosh never becomes a part of Canada, or even India as he comes back. Maybe only in the aeroplane, the sky-- the 'third space', can he adapt himself enough for a peaceful sleep or an "acceptable catharsis". Adaptation becomes impossible for Sarosh, who remains a 'squatter' for the whole of his life-- whether in Toronto, or in Bombay.
-Dhritiman Ganguly,
PG-I
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
LEAVING
“Leaving” portrays Aloo desiring nothing more than traveling abroad and studying in an American university. Vassanji's work deals with Indians living in East Africa. Some members of this immigrant community later undergo a second migration to Europe, Canada, or the United Sates. Vassanji then is concerned with how these migrations affect the lives and identities of his characters. The short story shows the two perspective that people have about the west, while for Aloo its an “imagined paradise” where he can study hundreds of subjects, however for both Velji who has seen many young people leave Tanzania and go to America, and Aloo’s mother it is a land from where her son will never return and might marry a” temptress”. This throws light on the ‘constructed America’ of the immigrants or people of the third world country. Post the colonial period the world has entered a second phase, a period of neo-colonialism where America is the superpower. The story focuses on the hankering for the west, here Aloo does not want to go to Britain, the last of the past colonial masters though he is absolutely impressed by the carefully “tilled fields”, “the earth divided into neat green squares” of London but moves on to the land of the current masters. The story comes together as a generations of new and old, the former looking for a new identity and the latter fiercely holding on to the past. Aloo’s mother definitely consents for she too is impressed by the glossy picture of the American universities in the brochure but she warns him to hold on to his older self. The last image of the bird flying is significant as it represents the new found freedom of Aloo, however just the way Vassanji till the very end keeps the suspense, that is, that the readers are unable to determine whether he will go to America or not, similarly he very subtly warns Aloo’s mother that with his new found freedom Aloo will change, he will no longer just remain Aloo from Upanga.
SHAFIA PARVEEN PG1
“Leaving” portrays Aloo desiring nothing more than traveling abroad and studying in an American university. Vassanji's work deals with Indians living in East Africa. Some members of this immigrant community later undergo a second migration to Europe, Canada, or the United Sates. Vassanji then is concerned with how these migrations affect the lives and identities of his characters. The short story shows the two perspective that people have about the west, while for Aloo its an “imagined paradise” where he can study hundreds of subjects, however for both Velji who has seen many young people leave Tanzania and go to America, and Aloo’s mother it is a land from where her son will never return and might marry a” temptress”. This throws light on the ‘constructed America’ of the immigrants or people of the third world country. Post the colonial period the world has entered a second phase, a period of neo-colonialism where America is the superpower. The story focuses on the hankering for the west, here Aloo does not want to go to Britain, the last of the past colonial masters though he is absolutely impressed by the carefully “tilled fields”, “the earth divided into neat green squares” of London but moves on to the land of the current masters. The story comes together as a generations of new and old, the former looking for a new identity and the latter fiercely holding on to the past. Aloo’s mother definitely consents for she too is impressed by the glossy picture of the American universities in the brochure but she warns him to hold on to his older self. The last image of the bird flying is significant as it represents the new found freedom of Aloo, however just the way Vassanji till the very end keeps the suspense, that is, that the readers are unable to determine whether he will go to America or not, similarly he very subtly warns Aloo’s mother that with his new found freedom Aloo will change, he will no longer just remain Aloo from Upanga.
SHAFIA PARVEEN PG1
LOOSE ENDS
Loose Ends presents the responses of the white Americans to immigrants. If we read the story carefully we will see that Marshall who is also called Jeb is an American and he first spends his childhood in Florida, then he moves on to Vietnam, where he fights for America in the Vietnam war then travels to London and from there he moves back to America and now lives in Miami. Bharati Mukherjee in this short story shows a Punjabi man: “the little guy with turban”, Gujarati emigrants, an Indian sadhu and Hispanic Americans and shows Marshall’s disdain for them. He tries to act “cool” and pretends to be a suave killer, killing with ease, someone who has his rules, he does not like to kill children and old people. Through out the short story Marshall indirectly tries to show the “greatness of America” however readers can clearly see that Marshall is a hitman on his own soil. The “great America” with its multiculturalism has allowed immigrants from around the world who are actually leading successful lives. The man in the turban now has a shop in the mall, Chavez whom he disdainfully calls ‘geaser’ whom he killed was successful and so are the Gujarati immigrants he meets at the end of the story.
“Its life in the procurement belt between those lines of tropical latitude , where the world shops for its illicit goods and dumps its surplus parts where it fights its wars…diificult to live anywhere else” when Jeb mentions this the readers can clearly see that he is actually living in a state of limbo. Having gone to Vietnam at such a young age, he only returns to a changed America and creates a “Vietnam –home” in America. When he says why he likes Miami he says” you smell the fecund rot of the jungle in the headlines”. This is an odd case because it challenges the concept of “home”, here he makes home of a place where he had gone to fight and recreates this created home in his real home. Even when he describes the snake in the zoo he never forgets Vietnam. He knows that when he went to fight in the war he lived in a state of squalor and that squalid condition has not changed. He is rootless and drifting much like the Indian sadhu who levitates to the ceiling. He lives with no strings attached.
When he tells the story of Alice in the Wonderland, Alice here becomes a metaphor for America herself initially the twentieth century cry was “America for Americans” but once she went down the hole what happened? According to Jeb it was the moment of sorry transformation because more and more people immigrated to America. His racism is best understood when he addresses the readers quite directly, taking it for granted that they are white, and calls the native Americans “nice people” and calls the new immigrants sharks and pythons. His last act of raping “Alice” is an act of violence toward the immigrants. It is his act of punishing people who are trying to be Americans, who he knows will not give a job to his ex girlfriend Jonda, who unlike them live a better life for they are not just successful but also together unlike Jeb himself who in spite of all his pride for old great America is a drifter, a killer and a lonely character. Here I would like to just add that the repeated use of “Goldilocks” is quite significant: Goldilocks had originally entered the house of the three great bears, slept in all three bed and appropriated one of them much like the immigrants who seems to have spread in every part of America and leads a better life than Marshall.
SHAFIA PARVEEN PG1
Loose Ends presents the responses of the white Americans to immigrants. If we read the story carefully we will see that Marshall who is also called Jeb is an American and he first spends his childhood in Florida, then he moves on to Vietnam, where he fights for America in the Vietnam war then travels to London and from there he moves back to America and now lives in Miami. Bharati Mukherjee in this short story shows a Punjabi man: “the little guy with turban”, Gujarati emigrants, an Indian sadhu and Hispanic Americans and shows Marshall’s disdain for them. He tries to act “cool” and pretends to be a suave killer, killing with ease, someone who has his rules, he does not like to kill children and old people. Through out the short story Marshall indirectly tries to show the “greatness of America” however readers can clearly see that Marshall is a hitman on his own soil. The “great America” with its multiculturalism has allowed immigrants from around the world who are actually leading successful lives. The man in the turban now has a shop in the mall, Chavez whom he disdainfully calls ‘geaser’ whom he killed was successful and so are the Gujarati immigrants he meets at the end of the story.
“Its life in the procurement belt between those lines of tropical latitude , where the world shops for its illicit goods and dumps its surplus parts where it fights its wars…diificult to live anywhere else” when Jeb mentions this the readers can clearly see that he is actually living in a state of limbo. Having gone to Vietnam at such a young age, he only returns to a changed America and creates a “Vietnam –home” in America. When he says why he likes Miami he says” you smell the fecund rot of the jungle in the headlines”. This is an odd case because it challenges the concept of “home”, here he makes home of a place where he had gone to fight and recreates this created home in his real home. Even when he describes the snake in the zoo he never forgets Vietnam. He knows that when he went to fight in the war he lived in a state of squalor and that squalid condition has not changed. He is rootless and drifting much like the Indian sadhu who levitates to the ceiling. He lives with no strings attached.
When he tells the story of Alice in the Wonderland, Alice here becomes a metaphor for America herself initially the twentieth century cry was “America for Americans” but once she went down the hole what happened? According to Jeb it was the moment of sorry transformation because more and more people immigrated to America. His racism is best understood when he addresses the readers quite directly, taking it for granted that they are white, and calls the native Americans “nice people” and calls the new immigrants sharks and pythons. His last act of raping “Alice” is an act of violence toward the immigrants. It is his act of punishing people who are trying to be Americans, who he knows will not give a job to his ex girlfriend Jonda, who unlike them live a better life for they are not just successful but also together unlike Jeb himself who in spite of all his pride for old great America is a drifter, a killer and a lonely character. Here I would like to just add that the repeated use of “Goldilocks” is quite significant: Goldilocks had originally entered the house of the three great bears, slept in all three bed and appropriated one of them much like the immigrants who seems to have spread in every part of America and leads a better life than Marshall.
SHAFIA PARVEEN PG1
Thursday, October 13, 2011
SQUATTER
Rohinton Mistry in his apparently funny short story Squatter has presented some of the most known troupes found in Diasporic literature. The hankering for the superior west is something that requires no introduction. Even today a lot of people go for brands like Tommy Hilfiger in spite of his known racist attitude, they will prefer any international brand to their national brand, and Mistry exactly focuses on this idea. Nariman the storyteller owns a Mercedes which he is proud of and whistles the tune of “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and has a Clark Gable moustache, revealing the western influence on him, however the stories he tells imitates the old oral tradition found in India which resounds his Indian self.
The story about Savukshaw reveals him as an ace cricketer, hunter, and artist and so on. Now we all know that language is an important fact in the post colonial studies, language becomes the medium through which conceptions of ‘truth’,’ order’ and reality becomes established. Post colonial writers are known to experiment with language and here Mistry uses the cricketing language; cricket as we know is essentially associated with the English. Here Savukshaw seems to be an ace in the game of the colonial master. His hitting all the balls “past the boundary lines” is an act of defiance, a silent cry of “we will not lose, not anymore”.
The next short story that Nariman tells is of Sarosh who immigrates to Canada which is known for its so-called “cultural-mosaic”. The farewell party organized by Sarosh’s relatives reiterates the notion that the west is a land of ‘milk and honey’ and the hope that he will be successful. However the moment Sarosh migrates to Canada the first problem that he faces is that he is incapable of using western toilets. The sheer physicality that Mistry deploys comes to embody his diasporic experience. Unlike the other writers of diasporic literature Rohinton Mistry does not experiment either with form or language but he focuses on an ‘act’ which has not been used hitherto.
Mistry parodies all the common troupes of displacement, homelessness, identity crisis, hibridity and so on by not allowing Sarosh to feel any of it. He almost becomes like those flowers of “A Change of Skies” which does not bloom in its new environment. Unlike the general psychological picture that we get of the immigrants in the diasporic literature, here it’s a physical picture that Mistry develops. It is as if his entire body seems to rebel against his decision to migrate and forces him to cling to the ways of his homeland.
The portrayal of Dr. No-Illaz is marked with sarcasm. Bhaba writes that the colonial requires that the native adopts and internalizes the form and habits of the colonial master: the native should mimic the master. Here the doctor becomes a colonial agent who “treats” and “customizes” the native so that they can mimic the colonial masters and use the western toilets. As mentioned before the idea that anything western is superior is revealed in a sarcastic light when the doctor proposes to make his bowel movement mechanical.
Mistry also hits out at the “cultural mosaic” of Canada. He shows that it is indeed a mosaic unlike a ‘melting pot’ of America, Canada though welcomes immigrants they treat them as the “other”. “Sarosh too could detect something malodorous in the air: the presence of xenophobia and hostility”. The very fact that Sarosh’s boss does not want to know what is Sarosh’s problem and immediately asks him to consult the “Immigrant Aid Society” goes on to shows the Canadian indifference to its immigrants. Sarosh was indeed a ‘squatter’ that is he is living on the soil which does not belong to him and has high chances of being evicted. Therefore in spite of the travel agent who acts as the doctor’s doppelganger encourages him to stay on in the “superior west” Sarosh moves back to India. His decision to return is accepted by his body which again starts to work normally in the plane itself . The pull to return and belong and yet hold on to his authentic self is displayed by most diasporic writers and here Sarosh fails to do it. However Sarosh faces the predicaments of a failed immigrant. When he returns home after 10 years he realizes a lot a change, therefore from being a figure rejected by his new home he becomes one who rejects his old home, unable to negotiate with the changes around him he becomes a solitary figure.
Mistry through Narimans tells all the would-be-immigrants to exercise Savukshaw-like will in order to survive their new homelands, he also sounds a warning against hybridity and underscores the need to hold on to the authentic self in the face of xenophobia through ‘practice, lots of practice”.
SHAFIA PARVEEN PG1
Rohinton Mistry in his apparently funny short story Squatter has presented some of the most known troupes found in Diasporic literature. The hankering for the superior west is something that requires no introduction. Even today a lot of people go for brands like Tommy Hilfiger in spite of his known racist attitude, they will prefer any international brand to their national brand, and Mistry exactly focuses on this idea. Nariman the storyteller owns a Mercedes which he is proud of and whistles the tune of “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and has a Clark Gable moustache, revealing the western influence on him, however the stories he tells imitates the old oral tradition found in India which resounds his Indian self.
The story about Savukshaw reveals him as an ace cricketer, hunter, and artist and so on. Now we all know that language is an important fact in the post colonial studies, language becomes the medium through which conceptions of ‘truth’,’ order’ and reality becomes established. Post colonial writers are known to experiment with language and here Mistry uses the cricketing language; cricket as we know is essentially associated with the English. Here Savukshaw seems to be an ace in the game of the colonial master. His hitting all the balls “past the boundary lines” is an act of defiance, a silent cry of “we will not lose, not anymore”.
The next short story that Nariman tells is of Sarosh who immigrates to Canada which is known for its so-called “cultural-mosaic”. The farewell party organized by Sarosh’s relatives reiterates the notion that the west is a land of ‘milk and honey’ and the hope that he will be successful. However the moment Sarosh migrates to Canada the first problem that he faces is that he is incapable of using western toilets. The sheer physicality that Mistry deploys comes to embody his diasporic experience. Unlike the other writers of diasporic literature Rohinton Mistry does not experiment either with form or language but he focuses on an ‘act’ which has not been used hitherto.
Mistry parodies all the common troupes of displacement, homelessness, identity crisis, hibridity and so on by not allowing Sarosh to feel any of it. He almost becomes like those flowers of “A Change of Skies” which does not bloom in its new environment. Unlike the general psychological picture that we get of the immigrants in the diasporic literature, here it’s a physical picture that Mistry develops. It is as if his entire body seems to rebel against his decision to migrate and forces him to cling to the ways of his homeland.
The portrayal of Dr. No-Illaz is marked with sarcasm. Bhaba writes that the colonial requires that the native adopts and internalizes the form and habits of the colonial master: the native should mimic the master. Here the doctor becomes a colonial agent who “treats” and “customizes” the native so that they can mimic the colonial masters and use the western toilets. As mentioned before the idea that anything western is superior is revealed in a sarcastic light when the doctor proposes to make his bowel movement mechanical.
Mistry also hits out at the “cultural mosaic” of Canada. He shows that it is indeed a mosaic unlike a ‘melting pot’ of America, Canada though welcomes immigrants they treat them as the “other”. “Sarosh too could detect something malodorous in the air: the presence of xenophobia and hostility”. The very fact that Sarosh’s boss does not want to know what is Sarosh’s problem and immediately asks him to consult the “Immigrant Aid Society” goes on to shows the Canadian indifference to its immigrants. Sarosh was indeed a ‘squatter’ that is he is living on the soil which does not belong to him and has high chances of being evicted. Therefore in spite of the travel agent who acts as the doctor’s doppelganger encourages him to stay on in the “superior west” Sarosh moves back to India. His decision to return is accepted by his body which again starts to work normally in the plane itself . The pull to return and belong and yet hold on to his authentic self is displayed by most diasporic writers and here Sarosh fails to do it. However Sarosh faces the predicaments of a failed immigrant. When he returns home after 10 years he realizes a lot a change, therefore from being a figure rejected by his new home he becomes one who rejects his old home, unable to negotiate with the changes around him he becomes a solitary figure.
Mistry through Narimans tells all the would-be-immigrants to exercise Savukshaw-like will in order to survive their new homelands, he also sounds a warning against hybridity and underscores the need to hold on to the authentic self in the face of xenophobia through ‘practice, lots of practice”.
SHAFIA PARVEEN PG1
Canadian Experience
The story is the ultimate realisation of a 'black' migrant's futile expectations of a 'white ' country and its people. George is one such person who migrates to Canada from Barbados despite his father's relentless objections to such an initiative. He leaves behind the guaranteed prospective of his father's plantation in Barbados to seek for a Canadian experience. George is fascinated with all that Canada has to offer, in fact, everything that colonial powers offer. That he prefers British system of public education to North-American practice of having co-ed schools serves as a hint to the effects that colonial rule had on its former colonies. Proper dressing while going for an interview , reading english magazines and newspapers(even if it is for job advertisements), watching 'Sixty Minutes' or the American news are all for George, markers of advancement. It is advancement for sure as long as it is not development. Development is inculcated from within and not imposed from above. George is the case of the latter. It is for this reason that he is unable to actually get out of the lift and go to the destined office of the Bank. The very name 'Bank' stimulates a nauseating feeling in him. The writer leaves it obscure as to whether George finally ends his life or just leaps into another self-preoccupation of his.
Marigolds
Chetram in Subramani's Marigolds cannot obviously be seen as a celebration of the daisporic experience. He suffers from all the negativities that such an experience often leads to. His living in 'bad faith' throughout has caused him so much stress that he now finds himself solely left with morbid thoughts and intense psychological self brooding. He renders himself completely to an extremely passive living, silence posing for him as his secret weapon. There are two spaces where, his intense self musings,itself a result of his inability to live life the way his wife or Mr.Rangaswamy is living, find their absolute prominence:dreams and in acts of violence. Violence becomes the last way out through which he can at least foster some kind of identity for himself, an identity that he is searching for quite sometime. His wife on the other hand has quite adjusted herself to a place and environment that was not their familiar environment. It seems that she revives or evokes her homeland through a series of objects or some religious pracrices. She chants the sanskrit mantra regularly while puja so as to make such habits come to define her way of living. For Chetram, this is not the case. The image of marigolds come frequently to him, in his dreams, but they only serve to remind him the stark difference between the succulency of the marigolds on the one hand and his inescapable sterility on the other. In the bathroom when he smells himself, after having been called as 'an old man' by a australian kid, he immediately recognises his 'dried up hide' emitting the smell of death. Despite modern times, Chetram just cant be smart enough to match up to others. He carries on with the conviction of being unsupported forever. Chetram's story is that of many who simply cant adjust to anything new even after having encountered it for a long time, if not because of anything else but because of their exceptional mentality that is quite different from others. This story atleast provides the voice of such character as that of Chetram in a two-dimensional space.
Blossom
Dionne Brand's short story Blossom is a story about a Trinidadian woman living in Toronto and the way she embarks upon one enterprise after another to fetch a sustainable existence in a cultural space that is not immediately identifiable to her. The writer decides to write it in a way so as to draw the readers close to his work rather than himself drawing close to the readers through his writing. The story is written in English but the language is made to be shifted from its ''Queen english'' stature to something as close as possible that could mould itself in the skin of the protagonist. The way Blossom phrases her words is not very distinguishable from the way the narrator of the story poses his way of phrasing. Blossom struggles hard to break something in the five years that she is living in Canada, yet she cannot make it that fine as probably as she had thought before migrating to Toronto. She is nevertheless a strong soul. She even proves smart enough when she politicises racism, upholding placards that read that Dr. So and So was a 'white' rapist. The doctor finally escapes to Florida with his entire family. After having worked as a baby sitter, domestic, Blossom finally blossomes into an obeah woman and soon becomes the spiritual icon in that very alien 'white' world to which she had migrated. She now faces a double staged migration, one was when she migrated to Toronto from Trinidad and another is now when she migrates from an ordinary black woman's disturbed mental space to a spiritually enhanced as well as empowered space.These spaces become the fruitful zones where identities merge,mix and get reshaped to born anew. The question arises, can this phenomenon of multiple transformations be read as something that provides a positive value to the diasporic existence? It is nevertheless understood that in such transformations or the metamorphosis of the self, unwanted compromises, compulsions, adjustments are implied.
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