Rachel - Mukherjee, 4/13

Perhaps the theme I’ve chosen to write about it too easy.  Nonetheless, I think it’s germane to the course.

South Asian writers respond to India’s struggle to adapt in a “modern” – or perhaps simply “Westernized” – world.  Where does cultural tradition fit in, when wants to attend an American university and become a doctor?  Who wants to wear traditional saris when everyone around you is in Levi’s jeans and American Eagle tee-shirts?

On page 101, we see this theme directly commented on.  Mukherjee seems to be directly addressing:

“The zamindar’s daughter kept stubborn faith in Vedic rituals; my parents rebelled.  I am trapped between two modes of knowledge.  At thirty-six, I am too old to start over and too young to give up.  Like my husband’s spirit, I flutter between two words.”

Since her husband died in India Air Flight 182, over the Atlantic Ocean, he was literally between the Eastern and Western worlds when he died.  Where did his true identity lie?  And where is his final resting place to be?

Note how the first sentence is broken into two halves via semicolon.  The next sentence is declarative, unbroken.  The next two are broken into two halves by commas.  Personally, I think this is no coincidence.  Mukherjee did this as an intentional, rhetorical choice, and it works.  It makes the rhythm of the prose match the feelings the Mrs. Bhave expresses.

This same sense of being caught in-between is also explored in “This Blessed House.”  The protagonist struggles with his wife’s Westernized eccentricities and freedoms.  He wonders if it might have been better to marry a girl who was actually born and raised in India.  The traditional Indian view of gender is also incorporated into "Bahadur" on page 102:

"Already the widowers among us are being shown new bride candidates.  They cannot resist the call of custom, the authority of their parents and older brothers.  They must marry; it is the duty of a man to look after a wife.  The new wives will be young widows with children, destitute but of good family.  They will make loving wives, but the men will shun them."

So where does his new life in the bourgeois suburbs of North America fit in?  Especially one in which women are expected to be college-educated and financially independent?

I’m not sure…but I think I may try to answer that very question in my final paper.