The East has always been a preoccupation of colonial literature as the people, the culture and, the imagined promiscuity of Oriental nations enables a powerful, although fabricated, dichotomy between the morally abiding occident, and the anarchy of the Orient. However, this literary convention of representing all Eastern nations as one homogenous culture that is fundamentally exterior to England, creates serious issues for identity construction post-colonisation, as many Englishmen maintain strong links to their Eastern heritages, despite living in London.
The affects of this contemporary diaspora are explored within the short story 'My Son the Fanatic ' as the colloquially labelled 'Pakish ' men, Parvez and Ali, struggle to make peace with their hybrid identities following their internalisation of the East/West binary. However, their conscious othering of Pakistan, also creates an intergenerational conflict between the pair as Parvez - born in Pakistan and living in London- unsuccessfully attempts to mediate between the two cultures by living hedonistic Western lifestyle, while his English-born son Ali, rejects the Western identity altogether, in search of an 'authentic ' Eastern ethnicity. The disjunction in their lifestyle choices emphasises the complexities of hybridity and diaspora for twenty-first century Englishmen living in London.
Parvez, however, does not view his internalisation of British culture as a means of abating his Pakistani heritage, but rather
In her essay “My Two Lives,” Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian American, explains the balance between the identities of the two countries inside her heart, as well as her psychological struggle between her bicultural identities. She describes herself as an Indian-American because she moved with her family from India to the United States when she was very young. However, confused with her identity through her growth, she feels that she doesn’t belong to either of the two countries because of its completely different cultures. When she is at home, she deals with her parents in an Indian way, which is strange compared to the American way that she come across outside. She says that she has a distinctive identity in spite of her Indian appearance
In his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini depicts his homeland Afghanistan as a host to many different cultures and classes, such as Pashtun and Hazara, Sunni and Shiite, with this dichotomy of beliefs and attributes being powerful enough to shape diverse, sometimes negative relationships amongst the characters of the novel and their behavior to each other, as well as establish that individual’s identity. Each person interprets the impact of the role of belief and social status differently, while all living in the same setting, adding to their complexity and depth as a character in the novel with many different figures tied together by the same geographical and cultural conditions.
The reader gets a rare and exotic understanding of a totally foreign and ancient culture experiencing the growing pains of colonial expansion during the British domination
The experiences that you face not only shape you for the time being but for the rest of your life. In chapter 8 “April 1996, Memphis, Tennessee” in the book The Terrorist’s Son by Zak Ebrahim with Jeff Giles, published in 2014 by TED books, Ebrahim talks a lot about his choice of not following the path that was expected of him. He chose to be a better person than what his father was. He uses his experiences, location, and details to show the audience an inside view of his world.
Hamid shows Changes perception of individuality. People like Changes suffered a lot in America and got interest to know native identity. Native culture and identity is awesome for every individual. Changes worries that even after all the sacrifices and services of Pakistanis has never treated Pakistan as ally or friend. There is probability that Americans might have encouraged Indians to envy with Pakistanis. Hamid painfully conveys that Americans never treat non- European Counties as their friends and they treat like tissue papers.
For this essay I have chosen to use the identity lens for the postcolonial theory review. There are three literary works I will be analyzing: The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tempest, and The Heart of Darkness. Each of these literary works introduces us to characters dealing with struggles impacting identities. The identity lens will show the connection between the colonizers and colonized and better define the struggles of the colonizer.
Bharathi Mukherjee’s later novels Jasmine(1989), The Holder of the World(1993) and Leave It to Me(1997) comprised her last creative phase conveniently termed here as the phase of immigration. By now she has travelled a long distance in terms of thematic perception and character portrayal. Beginning with an expatriate’s uprooted identity in the early 70’s, her creative faculty explored the transitional dilemma of characters in early 80’s, whose acculturation bids were occasionally thwarted by the complexity of cultural plurality in the adopted land. However, after the publication of The Middleman(1998), the process of cultural acclimatization appears to be complete and the characters betray the confidence of an immigrant, almost a naturalized citizen, in facing the challenges of human life.
The purpose of my paper is to construct a picture in your mind of the cult of Isis during the fourth century. In an attempt, I will describe Isis, the cult ceremonies, and the society around them dealing with the cult
When most people think of a terrorist, there is usually an uneasy feeling that follows it. Something that most of the population fears is a terrorist attack on their soil. Zak Ebrahim presents that being the child of a terrorist is a whole different feeling, considering the hatred not only that is trying to be taught to the child, but also the feeling that everyone hates (…). Ebrahim places emotion throughout the book connecting the reader to what he is feeling in different ways; this is seen especially in chapter two as well as chapter ten of The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice as Ebrahim describes the hatred that people not only inflicted upon him but also the journey that he takes from hatred to peace. (link thesis to other two paragraphs)
In one of George Orwell’s famous works The Road to Wigan Pier the man famously quoted “In order to hate imperialism, you have to be a part of it. (goodreads.com)” This quote symbolizes George Orwell’s attitude toward imperialism that is clearly expressed in two of his most famous essays, Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging. The quote also makes one think about what being a part of imperialism really means; For example, in both stories George Orwell’s character is portrayed as an English figure of authority in the occupied area of Burma. In both of George Orwell’s writings the groups of people that are split from each other are the British and native Indians. Orwell used many Symbols throughout his two famous writings to describe
It was once a word unfamiliar to American ears. But in recent years it has become all too familiar. The actions of Muslim militants and terrorists have seared the word into American consciousness.
In his Introduction to Orientalism, Edward Said asserts that the “Orient has helped to define Europe as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience,” (71). Therefore, in Season of Migration to the
“...Orientalism is not so innocent a form of knowledge as this. Instead, he redefines Orientalism as the ubiquity of a sense of the division of the world into two spheres in aesthetic production, popular culture, and scholarly, sociological, and historical texts. In other words, he is suggesting that the concept of difference between east and west is a geopolitical difference which is written up throughout the texts of western culture whether through travel writing, political texts, paintings, or in academic discussions” (Sharp 2009, 31).
The movie “East is East” written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell in 1999 will be used to illustrate this point with a focus on the figure George Kahn. George Khan is portrayed as the pigheaded conservative and at times highly temperamental father figure who is seemingly desperately attempting to raise his family as what he believes are good Pakistanis. On that account George Khan could be perceived as the diaspora father who is forcing his unwilling family to abide by the cultural rules of his origins thus preventing them from fully joining the western lifestyle that they crave. And as a consequence thereof letting the movie viewers leave with a reinforced stereotypical image of the “Other”. By applying postcolonial and linguistic
The postcolonial era presents various issues for the decolonized nations, like the reconstruction of a government and the maintenance of an economy. In addition to that, the individual identity of the colonized people is a complex issue that they must cope with as well, and it is an issue that is still present today. Compared to the other issues of postcolonialism, the construction of one’s identity might appear trivial; however, there are many problems of postcolonial identity, including the obligation of one to perceive themselves as people do from the outside through stereotypes, and the difficulty of unifying two conflicting identities: one that is created by outside sources, and one that is created through personal experiences.