Sayali Phadke 11F43

To be or not to be..

Thesis statement: This paper will try to understand how characters in immigrant narratives deal with the conflict between integrating into newly encountered society and retaining the identity shaped by the land of origin. On studying the cause and consequences in the three texts; Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club, Toni Morrisons Beloved and Shauna Singh Baldwins What The Body Remembers, I intend to prove that a body once defined, can be taken away. By body I mean; identity alongwith belief system, respect, socio-economic status and existence in general.

Introduction
Migrant studies interest me; to see the interplay between the two cultures and how in the due course of time it produces a third one. Each of us has an appearance, a thought process, value system which can be attributed to our homeland. This builds and shapes our identity as we grow. But what if one has to suddenly start living a new lifestyle, functioning in an entirely different social structure? Immigrant narratives talk about the dilemma caused on this account. In all the stories we are looking at, immigration is taking place due to violence and trauma. Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club is a story of four traditional Chinese mothers who want their daughters to have American instances and a Chinese character; as put by Amy Tan. In the process, they are also trying to determine the degree to which they wish to conform to the new culture themselves. In Toni Morrisons Beloved, Sethe is in a fix because even after escaping from the farm, her mind conditioned to behave like a slave. Shauna Singh Baldwins What the body remembers talks about the bodily experiences of its characters during political unrest and the partition of India. There are many factors in the new land which begin to redefine the characters in our stories; physical, social, economic, political, spiritual and cultural. And that is why we must study the process and understand whether migration can actually reconfigure a persons identity. The conflict is between the two extremes, whether to be the person the new land is asking you to be or not but we must understand that the equilibrium is always somewhere in the middle.

Analysis
The new land exposes the migrant to itself in the most intricate ways. The plays even more interesting because the influences flow in both directions. Even if the effect might not be significant, the migrant community as a collective does bring about a change in the characteristics of the native community that they are trying to become a part of on migration. The force of circumstances, that affect the migrants functions on multiple levels. It can affect an individual on physical, social, economic, political, cultural and spiritual planes. But does it change the way I am? Can it take away my being? My intuitive response would be that what is innate to you can never be affected. But it is interesting to investigate it using the narratives. Let us try and understand the story of The Joy Luck Club. How is it that the characters being Chinese could be ever changed? We know that their bodies were made in China. And the bodies would always remain to be the same, whatever be the factors trying to affect it. It is a physical entity and cannot be affected by societal influences. But we can quickly look at some of the facts only to realise how the argument can be turned upside-down. Why not? The body that was once defined in China can be taken away by more than one factor. The first and foremost is the war, the violence that was at the root of migration, at the root of the trauma. If there were to be any physical marks the war had left, they would change the body. At the second level is the direct influence of American society on physical appearance. If the mothers had adapted to the American manner of dressing for example, the original body would be taken away. The third is the indirect influence of the new land. The weather, the food habits, the lifestyle can very well affect someones external appearance. And hence, a body once defined can be taken away.

Here it is important to remember the example of Auntie Lindo from The Joy Luck Club. In the story, when she visits China; she gets spotted as a tourist. This is important to note from the point of view of our current discussion. But we must also note that it has implications on another plane where this experience adds to her anxiety over her cultural identity. In keeping with the same argument we can see how sometimes body becomes a sight of conflicting ideologies. The chokecherry tree on Sethes back which symbolizes slavery as well as hope is a very good example we can find. In such a case, the victim (Sethe here) goes will find it difficult to accept any one of the ideologies. Similarly, in What the Body Remembers the earrings that Satya sees in Roops ears mean very differently to Satya and Sardarji himself. To Satya, it is loss of something that is hers; rightfully hers. To Sardarji, it simply is a representation of his relation with Roop. On a different line though, we must look at the story of Kusum, Jeevans wife; the one who Papaji killed with his own hands. We cannot argue that not killing her would have resolved the issue. For; being killed or raped by the goondas, her body was going to be taken away. One would be physically and other in the form of her izzat.

The second is the socio-political-economic level on which the effect of migration can be seen. In this case, there can be no debate for it is indispensible that these factors affect the migrants. The political environment of the new land is bound to be different than that of their homelands. In Sardarji and Papajis story, socio-political surroundings play an active part for they are a part of the system. Even If Sardarji might be playing the same role in the functioning, we must understand that his thought process must have altered after partition and it is impossible to expect him to work with the same dedication and mind set anymore.

Sethe has been with the coloured community all her life but the trauma she goes through at the farm changes her behaviour even towards her own people. Even if the societal structure in Cincinnati is much different, this only makes her more averse to the people of her own community and we see that here; encounter with new surrounding causes a negative effect on the characters in the story. The economics of the new place can have more severe effects on the migrants because unlike the political surrounding, migrants cannot be ignorant of this aspect of their new environment. The economic system must integrate them and vice-versa. In The Joy Luck Club, all the mothers except Ying-ying St. Clair, who married an American, married a Chinese man and migrated to America. We need not mention how their must have been a change in the relative standard of living. We can understand the same in case of Sardarji.

Over and above the socio-economic-political factors, what is important to our analysis is to consider the cultural factor. The main reason for this is that the narratives we are studying are from womens perspective. It is rarely that she is actively involved in the causal factors of migration, even though she must share equal burden of its effects. The cultural transitions (and the spiritual too; if the migration is from the east to the west), are majorly shaped and directed by the women of the house. And in this case, we must argue whether the body can be taken away or not. Culture, I believe is in your blood. It is natural instinct to hold tighter to your roots specially when there is a sign of danger. We can understand when the Chinese mothers want their offspring to have the same belief systems as they do and hold the same value system that has been imbibed into them. But whether they will change completely on encountering a new culture or only be more conscious of their surrounding; is a question we must look at.

The Chinese mothers faced conflict when they had to determine the degree to which they would mend their belief systems, to provide their daughters a healthy environment to grow up in. Another question that plays a part in this debate is how to solve a conflict that results representation. In case of Chinese mothers, the trouble is as much the difficulty in determining the degree to which they want to conform to the new culture as it is the communication gap. If in The Joy Luck Club, Jing-mei had told June the story of the two babies before, the rift between the mother and the daughter might not have existed. In the same book, had Rose Hsu Jordan told her husband earlier that she does not like ice cream, her marriage could have been in a better shape. Beloved symbolized both slavery and guilt. Only if Sethe has accepted the guilt of her past, the horrors of Beloved would not have existed. Satyas case was opposite. Her options were either to not exercise her agency and be happy with the way Sardarji treated her or rebel and lose whatever she had. But even in her case, had she worked towards resolving her inner conflicts; one never knows. She might not have had to be born as a girl child again. While it is not essential that there be a solution to the conflict, it is important for the victim to exercise his/her agency of expression. Clinging to the conflict will never resolve it and even if there is no solution to it, talking about it or acting upon it can always lead towards a more peaceful situation and a sound mental health of the victim. Hence we must conclude that theoretically it is possible for a body to be taken away due to changes in cultural surrounding, even if it is once defined before; differently. With culture and values also come superstitions. And it is very interesting to study how migrants or victims of trauma persistently stick to their superstitions, how the surrounding factors affect it and how in turn the subjects react to it. In What the Body Remembers, the story of Revati Bhuas Ganesh and Lakshmi and the Tulasi which she still waters without worshipping it, is an example of the conflict between ones own superstitions as against the need to conform.

Ying-ying telling Lena about how a mirror should not be put at the bottom of the bed is one of the classic examples of Chinese mothers and their superstitious behaviour. What I find more interesting is how these mothers could draw from their Chinese superstitions and be able to explain their daughters lives with that help.

Conclusion
Through this analysis I have tried to understand how, in literature; tales of migration are told. How much ever literary freedom fiction as a form might give to the author, these stories are about people; people around us, things that happen in reality. Therefore it is important for us to study the factors that have an impact on a migrants life. It is like the theories in Economics that I have hypothesized the options to be on two extremes. To be your own self or not to be! I understand that human behaviour will eventually settle somewhere in the middle. Migrant narratives will keep being written. It is our responsibility to connect the dots. As for an audience, I can only be more aware as this refers to social issues around each one of us. I must understand that any book is not meant to be only read and kept aside. Visualizing the story so that I enjoy it more and relating it to people around me so that I understand human behaviour is the best I can do. After all all characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, is just a disclaimer. Every story written; be it fiction or not, is about one of us!