Analysis Of Clothes From Arranged Marriage, By Chira Banerjee Divakaruni

In times of turmoil for the church, intellectuals and scholars who defended Christians against accusations from outsiders were dubbed the Christian Apologists. They included people like Justin Martyr in the 100s A.D., Augustine of Hippo in 300s - 400s A.D, and Tertullian in 100s - 200s A.D. Tertullian wrote pieces on philosophy in the church, prayer, and baptism. He was one of several apologists to write about God being three separate ‘things’, but Tertullian was the first to name the Son, Spirit, and Father as the Trinity. He was one of many to write against women in the church, but he was the most vulgar and profane. Tertullian’s publication, On the Apparel of Women, is characterized by his mimicking of Paul’s writings in the New Testament, paradoxes and hypocrisies throughout, obvious misogyny by a modern standard, and men’s harmful view in a time where I, as a woman, would not be allowed to learn to read and write if my husband or father deemed it so. Not only did he insult a women’s place in the church as others did, he attacked a women’s place in anything. In the centuries after he lived, his teachings aren’t as influential in the church, but his base ideals are still part of our society as out dated standards.

The Dressmaker (2015), directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, explores Myrtle ‘Tilly’ Dunnage’s dramatic return to her small hometown of Dungatar, a ‘dump’ located in the middle of nowhere in the Australian outback. Sent away from the town as a child after being held responsible for a murder, Tilly has returned to seek resolution of her murky memories and to take revenge on those who mistreated her. Now a talented dressmaker, Tilly uses her skills to manipulate the townspeople into revealing the intricate secrets that led to her exile. Throughout the film, powerful symbolism present in fire, mirrors and clothing signifies Tilly’s resolution from past issues.

To pay for college, Divakaruni worked as a store clerk. Sumita pictures herself teaching a “classroom of girls in blond pigtails and blue uniforms”, the author is currently a professor in Texas, teaching creative writing. Arranged Marriage is Divakaruni’s debut book. She wrote poems before, but this was her first collection of short stories. That being said, pulling bits and pieces from her personal life and incorporating them into “Clothes” may have been the easiest way to capture emotion and make the readers feel for the

After Somesh is killed in a robbery, Sumita is dressed in a borrowed “White (sari). Widow’s color, color of endings” (271) and attending the bangle-breaking ceremony. Whereas, white is the color used in the west for brides and weddings signifying purity, white is the color of mourning and death in the east. The green or red bangle, which in the Hindu religion symbolizes safety and a happy, prosperous and long married life, is required to be worn by married women. As part of the mourning ceremony, the glass bangles are smashed, “so that the glass bangles I was wearing shattered and multicolored shards flew out in every direction (271).

Child labor during the industrial revolution was wrong. It shouldn’t have been done to that extent. You may look at it as ‘they’re getting paid what’s the problem?’ Nevertheless, they are getting paid extremely small amounts. Children back in those times struggled to earn money for their family. It’s not fair children are put in these positions were they have to work so hard to help support for their family. They shouldn’t have to worry every night about when their next meal will be, or how they are going to come up with the money for their house so they don’t have to live on the streets. It would help they got paid a more reasonable price for their work. "She sews on 36 buttons to earn 4 cents." (The Story of My Cotton Dress, paragraph 18.) This quote just goes to show how

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni highlights the differences between Indian and American culture in her collection of short stories, Arranged Marriage. Each tale utilizes a different narrator, whether it is first or third person narration, to highlight the struggles women face in all arranged marriages. Many of these women live in America, yet India’s strict moral code still burdens them. In “Doors”, Preeti struggles to balance her American beliefs with the Indian beliefs of her husband, similarly to Anju, who wonders if her life and pregnancy would be different if she lived in India throughout “The Ultrasound”. In “The Word Love”, a woman must confront her situation and push her boundaries. Divakaruni shows the highs and lows of arranged marriages, proving that I would not thrive in a commitment made without my input.

On the day of the wedding the bride wore Hmong clothing to walk out of her parent’s house to the groom’s home. The wedding took place at the bride’s parents’ house where the ceremony began. During the ceremony, the bride wore a long blouse decorated with batik flowers over short trousers with long

Jane Austen exhibited her real interest in fabrics and fashion through her writing, but muslin in particular played an important role in her novel’s characters’ lives. In her novel “Northanger Abbey”, heroine Catherine Morland asks Henry Tilney on the first time she met him in the Lower Rooms in Bath: “Do you understand muslin, sir?” and he answers “Particularly well, I always buy my own cravats and am allowed to be an excellent judge and my sister has often trusted me in the choice of a gown. I bought one for her the other day and it was pronounced to be a prodigious bargain by every lady who saw it. I gave but five shillings a yard for it and a true Indian muslin”.

Tita enters a state of despair when she discovers her true love, Pedro, will be marrying her sister Rosaura. During the preparation of their wedding, Tita begins to feel ill due to the strong sense of heartache filling the course of her veins. As she looks at Rosaura’s luxurious fabric, Tita stares “at the whiteness of the sheet, only for a few seconds, but long enough to cause a sort of blindness” (33). The white bed sheet represents the hopeless and wretched state of Tita’s romance. She is grief-stricken; Tita can no longer withstand the anguish caused by her sister’s marriage depicted by the white of the bed sheet. In addition, this symbol causes a jarring sensation of defeat. Tita is inundated with “blindness” because the thought of not being able to be with Pedro is beyond bearable. Esquivel is able to demonstrate all of these scattering emotions through one simple color. Tita continues in this anxious state as “The whiteness of the granulated sugar frightened her. She felt powerless against it, feeling at that any moment the white color might seize her mind…”(34). Tita’s fear of losing her true love is now displayed through all items containing a white pigment. White symbolizes the virginity Tita will unfortunately never escape. Ergo, the color terrorizes the protagonist in preparation for the wedding—a wedding she is forbidden to

A beautiful Condici Mother of the Bride dress with jacket delicately ruching from the waist to the hem to create a perfect body shape. It features a beautiful lace detail from the waist to the rounded neckline. It has a high back and ¾ cap sleeves, and the sleeves ensure it remains stylish and comfortable.

Symbols are better interpreted when multiple opinions and experiences are brought together to create and discover the meanings behind the symbols. Foster emphasizes that allegories “stand for other things on a one-for-one basis.” while “Symbols...generally don’t work so neatly. The thing referred to is...not reducible to a single statement but...a range of possible meanings” (Foster 105). Sumita’s clothe changing at different stages of her life symbolizes her transition and adjustment to her characteristics. The different colors of her saris represent different meaning to her, such as her blue sari with a red border stands for possibilities and luck. Her feelings and her thoughts are reflected by her saris and are not just pieces of cloth to her. She finds comfort with her sari on the flight to America, it calms her nerves as the sari resembles support and her past. Her western clothes mark change that is about to come in her life and the colors of her clothes symbolize the transition to a new land. Her clothes can be viewed as describing her feelings of the two different worlds she is stuck in between. The Sari symbolizes her adherence to her family and friends while the t-shirt are a large contrast when she feels constrained. When her husband is shot and killed the sari marks another change in her life. She is to wear a white saru after her husband’s death as a sign of mourning. She remembers her husband’s dream of her going to college she decides to stay in America and work as her husband and herself have dreamt. The changing clothes in her life symbolize her changing identity and resemble her embracing the western culture with her freedom of

Lemmon, G. T. (2011). The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five sisters one remarkable family and

Mira is a legal immigrant, who still holds her Indian citizenship. When Mira came to America besides marrying a groom from her father’s choosing, she married an Indian student, who attends Wayne State University working towards his business administration degree. Thirty-five years living in America, Mira continues to still wear saris. To her, she feels like it is more respectful to her culture. She wants to still continue her cultural traditions. She lives in Detroit and works at a Southfield, Michigan school system and works in preschool education. She later hopes that after she retires she can return back to India.

The short store “Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is about a young Indian woman, Sumita, and her cultural transition to America that is symbolized by her clothes and the color of her clothes. The traditional Indian attire for a woman is a sari and each one has its own purpose. Her clothes also indicate her progression from daughter, to wife, to woman.

In the 19th century play, FASHION, Anna Mowatt develops the character plot as a contrast and comparison between being “natural” and “artificial in a world becoming preoccupied with fashion, and being fashionable. In the head notes, it was stated that Daniel Havens said FASHION is “the ugly image of the American Dream gone sour.” (Watt and Richardson) Fashion has a complex definition. The word ‘fashion’ can mean anything from the type of clothes you wear, how you communicate with others, the place you live, how you present yourself, or who you associate yourself with. In FASHION, Mowatt took a comical yet sober look at the definitions of “fashion,” applied it to real life in 1845, and through her characters, provides a mirror with which an