Identity Part Two: Americanized

In part one of my identity series, I talked about the power of a name in the formation of an identity. I will now talk about the power of a place in the formation of an identity. When Jyoti moves to America, she dons two new names, Jasmine and Jane. These are stereotypically American/Western names, while her true name, Jyoti, reveals her Indian upbringing. Why, however, does Jyoti feel that in order to immerse herself in American culture, it is necessary to take on a new name?


I feel that in order to take on this question we must first look at the message Mukherjee is trying to send. I believe with the name change, Mukherjee is highlighting the fact that when immigrants come to North America they must change and adapt in order to fit in with the people and culture. The author depicts this transformation by giving Jyoti a literal identity transformation. The name change signifies the change within Jyoti that takes place as a result of her move across the globe. Her situation is no different from most life-altering moves, in the sense that the environment she is exposed to naturally changes the way she thinks, acts, and expresses herself. Jyoti felt as though she needed to take on the personalities assigned to her by others in order to fit in, in order to become an 'American'. However, is it necessary to become an American just because one resides in the United States? The US used to be regarded as a melting pot of cultures, where immigrants could come and add their own unique ingredients to the concoction that was the American identity. With time, the American identity became more prescribed and recognized as many immigrants saw their old nationalities fade as they became increasingly Americanized. The term Americanized refers to the influence that the US has over its citizens, and these influences range from social media to political ideology to sport culture. However, there are places in the US that keep international identities alive, such as Little Italy or China Town.

I cannot relate to Jyoti's story. However, I recently had my own experience with embracing change and adapting to a new culture. When I moved from Aspen to London in my sophomore year, my world changed from watching people walk their golden retrievers down Main Street to watching double decker buses and black cabs crowding Edgeware Road. For the first fifteen years of my life, I was raised in a small town in Colorado, and then, like a shockwave, I was injected with British culture and the English way of life. I have picked up many phrases and adopted many British customs; I feel as though in the three years I have lived in England, I have changed noticeably from my small town Aspen self. The experiences I have had have contributed to this change. From hosting two students from Cairo who experienced the Arab Spring, to visiting a concentration camp on the outskirts of Munich during a soccer tournament, I have been exposed to cultural, social, and political ideas that are a unique part of living abroad. With my change in location came a change in perspective, and while I underwent many changes of my own, I still feel like the same person with a slight hint of Britization.


Britization [brit-uh-zay-shun]
adjective


The process by which one becomes influenced by British culture to the extent that he or she may show signs of behavioral assimilation as well as the overuse of the phrase "cheers".

Identity Part One: The Power of Letters

In this piece I will refer to the main character as Jyoti. This is the first name the narrator was given, it is her Indian birth name. I believe Jyoti is her true, pure identity, and so I will refer to her by that name throughout this blog post.

A name is just a grouping of letters. It means nothing. However, in Jasmine, a name is everything. It functions as an identity, a sense of self. A name is what we make it, it is the tool that helps others form judgments about us and through which we are able to present ourselves. A name is also a form of identification, as we take this random grouping of characters and make it mean something to ourselves and the world around us. Jyoti uses the power of letters to change her identity and become someone else, signified by a name change. With the first change from Jyoti to Jasmine, the main character begins to adapt to American life, Jyoti is Indian, while Jasmine is an American girl. Bud also wants Jane to transform herself, assigning her the identity of Jane. Jyoti adopts this identity and remarks, "Plain Jane is all I want to be. Plain Jane is a role, like any other." (26). In this excerpt, it is obvious that Jane just wants to fit in; she yearns for acceptance. She is willing to take on the name given to her by Bud, and she is willing to play the role of plain Jane. The notion that Jane is a role is very interesting, and it seems as though Jyoti is simply playing Jane at first.

Jyoti finds comfort in her name changes. She feels secure in her new identity, and with the permanent change, she can fully and truly adopt her new persona. It is amazing how a person can change with the mere alteration of the letters that define them. Is Jyoti actually different from the Indian girl of her past, or is the power of letters allowing her to leave behind her past identity and transform herself.


Watch the first 36 seconds, but then after that he starts talking about the many detestable qualities of human nature (he is a pessimist)...

The Core of Women's Lit

Women's literature is a broad term. There are many themes and motifs under the surface of female writing, and I believe the nature of women's lit is unique and very telling of the plight of women over the past centuries.

One major theme I have noticed in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Jasmine by Mukherjee is the search for an identity. In The Handmaid's Tale, the main character, Offred is stripped of her identity and given a number. She is viewed as a handmaid, not as a woman. In the Republic of Gilead, Offred does not have an identity, she is simply another handmaid who is used and abused by the Commanders in the town. The Commanders are the men, the alpha males. In Jasmine, the main character struggles to find herself; she is forced to adapt to different cultures, as she moves from India to the US. She soon marries, but feels herself stuck between two worlds. When Jasmine marries Prakash, he wants to make her a "new kind of city woman" (77), and she reflects, "Jyoti, Jasmine: I shuttled between identities" ( 77). This loss of identity and self is further heightened as Prakash wishes to recreate Jasmine, and she feels lost. When she is stripped of her identity both literally and figuratively; she feels exposed, confused, and must embark on a search for her true identity.

Another theme I see in these two books and in women's literature as a whole is a sense of rebellion. Perhaps this resistant side of female authors stems from oppression in the days when women were not given equal rights, not given the freedom of their male counterparts. In my opinion, women today are still not treated equally, but it is undeniable that the situation has improved over time. In The Handmaid's Tale, Offred refuses to accept her fate in the new and revolting Republic of Gilead. She does everything she can to try and hold on to the past. She constantly has memories of Luke, she can mentally escape Gilead, but she one day hopes to physically leave the Republic behind. However, towards the end, the book takes an unexpected when Offred gives herself up and stops fighting the way of life she despises so much. In Jasmine, the main character fights the pain in her life by refusing to think about her hardships. She minimizes the damage and fights on. She is strong. This refusal to be dragged down by her past is evident through Mukherjee's short, blunt, and impersonal style of writing. I believe there are many hidden messages in women's literature. This may be due to the fact that female authors have always had a lot to say but were never given the chance. The struggles of females are evident in their literature, as the hardships they endured and the issues they faced are at the core of women's literature.

Bharati Mukherjee vs. Jasmine

Bharati Mukherjee's life story has many parallels to the life her fictional character, Jasmine. Bharati, like Jasmine, grew up in rural India with a large family. Jasmine has eight siblings, while Bharati lived with her extended family (over thirty people). At a very young age, Bharati's family moved away to England, but  returned to India a few years later. She then went to America pursuing an education, and instead she found a completely new life, a new identity, and a new sense of self. Bharati and her father had no idea what was in store for her in the states, exemplified by this quote from Bharati on a BBC page on her life story, "he had no idea, nor did I when I got on that plane to the states that my life would change and that within a week in Iowa in a woman's dorm I would find myself..." (BBC World Service). Bharati talks about finding herself, finding her identity, an issue Jasmine struggles with constantly throughout the first portion of the novel.

Jasmine, like Bharati, must adapt to many different environments. I will be interested to find out whether or not Jasmine ends up as a successful individual, mirroring the life of Bharati. I believe that Bharati reflected her own life problems and obstacles in the creation of Jasmine. Jasmine is the recreation of Bharati Mukherjee. Also the book opens with the line, "Lifetimes ago..." (1), signifying the recreation of one's self and the multiple lives Jasmine has lived, the multiple identities she has held, and the time that has passed during her transformation into the role of 'plain Jane'. Bharati may be reflecting on her own journey, reminiscing of a life long ago in India. Change is constant throughout Jasmine, and change is equally evident in Bharati's life story.

Three Names

Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine is the story of a young Indian girl living, and adapting to life, in America. She is given many names in the first few chapters of the book, specifically Jane, Jasmine, and Jyoti. Who is Jane? She seems to be one girl in India, but a completely different person whilst adapting to life in America. Jane's lack of identity is highlighted when she is talking about how Bud (her husband) calls her Jane. During the course of this passage, Jane remarks, "In Baden, I am Jane. Almost" (26). This excerpt signifies that Jane does not quite accept her identity. A name is the most basic form of identity a person can have, and with the title of the book as Jasmine, further questions regarding Jane's true identity are raised.

In the first chapters of Jasmine, I also paid particular attention to the writing style of Mukherjee. Most of her sentences are short, succinct, and very blunt. Take, for example, this passage when Jane is reflecting upon her age, "The truth is, I am young enough to bear children into the next century. But. I feel old, very old, millenia old..." (34). These sentences are choppy and each part of the line is accentuated, especially the 'but' as it is its own complete thought. I think this sentence structure mirrors the way Jasmine goes through life. I believe she deals with the turmoil in her life and all her obstacles by making them into palatable issues, breaking them apart, as she makes it easier for herself to move on. Jasmine, when informing the reader of the death of Pitaji, simply says, "Pitaji died the next May. He died horribly. He got off a bus in a village two hours west of us and was gored by a bull" (58). This description is impersonal. She is simply informing the reader of the death, nothing more. There is no emotion; there is no personality, as it is simply a recounting of past events. I think this brief section on the death of Pitaji illustrates Jane's tendency to minimize tragic events functions as a coping mechanism. It is difficult to get a sense of time, due to the jumping chronology of the piece, but I will be interested to see if the writing style  and sentence structure change slightly as we begin to delve deeper into the life story of the girl with three names.

Important Quotes from The Handmaid's Tale II

"Bodily functions at least remain democratic" (263).

I think that this quotation is important in that it signifies how many aspects of Gilead are forced and regulated. To be democratic is to have the freedom of choice, and this is a right that the Republic of Gilead denies its citizens. The fact that Offred has to search all the way to bodily functions in order to find an aspect of Gilead that has a democratic nature says a lot about the environment she is living in, as well as the regimented life she is subjected to.

"I lie there like a dead bird. He is not a monster, I think" (267).

This quote casts doubt on whether or not the Commander is a monster. When Offred is describing her sexual encounter with him, she "lies there like a dead bird" and I see this as her accepting her role and giving in to the Commander, and thereby into authority. Offred, at this point, decides to 'fake it' and this attitude reflects her routine and fabricated approach to intercourse. One interesting point comes after the passage when Offred notes, the "Commander looks smaller without his uniform, "older, like something being dried" (267). In this moment, the Commander seems to be stripped of all his power, all his intimidation, and Offred takes over, faking her way through pleasing him.

"I would like to be without shame, I would like to be ignorant" (275).

This excerpt brings into question whether or not Offred would be better off if she did not know about the formation of Gilead. She wishes she was ignorant of how life used to be before modern day Gilead. This quotation relates to the saying, 'what you don't know can't hurt you' in the sense that if Offred did not know a better life, she would not be as opposed to Gilead because it would be normal for her. This is a scary aspect for Offred, especially when she meets the new Ofglen who seems to be brainwashed and has shut out the former Gilead, only accepting the new republic. Ignorance, for Offred is an easy solution, because if she never knew a previous life, how could she feel shame in living her current one?

Important Quotes from The Handmaid's Tale

These quotes are from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (chapters 37-40). I read this segment of the book for homework, and when I came into class the following quotes were written on pieces of paper and posted on the whiteboard. I was paired up with a partner and given a quote to analyze, but I enjoyed these pages so much that I wished I could give my opinions on each of the quotes. So, I decided to do so...

"Is there joy in this? There could be, but have they chosen it?" (247).

This quote comes at a point in the story where the women and men are attending an event in the courtyard. The women are all 'dolled up' in extravagant clothing while the men remain in formal suits. The women, I believe, are made to look like objects, and this clear contrast of gender clothing and color signifies an imbalance between the men and the women. I liked this quote because of the last part, 'but have they chosen it'. I feel this segment puts into question not only this courtyard get-together, but also the nature of Gilead. Is it forced? Is the society in which Offred lives truly free? Gilead, like the women in the courtyard, may look pleasant from the outside, but all of this could be a facade, hiding the true inner turmoil of the community. Furthermore, this quote takes into consideration the idea of dressing up and improving one's image for the pleasure of others. Are the women at the party dressing up for themselves, or are they putting on a show for the men? This type of situation makes me think of high school prom, where the girls go through every form of self-improvement imaginable to prepare themselves for the night. Men, for the most part, don a tuxedo, some nice shoes, and spend a few minutes fixing their hair, and it is out the door. Are girls dressing up because they like to see themselves look good, or are they providing the entertainment for men? I believe most women dress this way for prom because it is the social norm, however, I would be interested to know whether this self-makeover originally was for the confidence of women or for the pleasure of men.

"But everyone's human, after all" (248).

I liked this quote because as I have been reading this book, I sometimes have forgotten that the characters are just as human as you and me. The characters all seem to fit into these prescribed roles and abide by the regulations of society; it is nice to get a simple reminder that the characters are in fact human and as such are capable of making mistakes even in their own perfect world.

"Nobody says anything" (252).

This quote is interesting for its simplicity. It says a lot in a few amount of words. This quote comes after   Offred suffers a nasty fall in the company of many of the men and the Commander himself. The silence of the men around her is deafening, and they are unwilling to help her as she must pull herself up. Also, this quote plays into the theme of gender imbalance as a woman is not even capable of performing the simple task of walking without the help of a man. She struggles to walk and needs the steady arm of the Commander to aid her in her journey; she is completely dependent on him.