Define American Identity

Literature and film are very important historical documents since they reflect what the values of society are in a period of time. After World War II, Britain had been declining. People living in Britain lost their national pride and had difficulties for defining who they were. Jeanette Winterson and Hanif Kureishi both argue that in the post-imperial era, sexuality, race, and class are the most important components to define a British identity. In Oranges Are Not the only Fruit and My Beautiful Launderette, the protagonists had difficulties to identify themselves and were marginalized from the society because of their race, class, and sexuality. In Oranges Are Not the only Fruit and My Beautiful Launderette, sexuality, race, and class are …show more content…
In this period, people tried to have different definitions to consult a British identity. However, some of the identities were not accepted due to race, sexuality, and class. Jeanette Winterson and Hanif Kureishi both recorded that. Jeanette, Johnny, and Omar, the protagonists in their works, demonstrated how the society marginalized them because of their race, sexuality, and class. In Oranges Are not the only Fruit, the society marginalized Jeanette because she was a lesbian, so sexuality was an important component to construct her British identity. Winterson writes that Jeanette was born in a very typical conservative Christian family. Jeanette’s mother “called herself a missionary on the home front” (Winterson, 55). She wanted to train Jeanette to become “a missionary child” and “a servant of God” (Winterson, 10). In order to achieve these goals, she did not only bring Jeanette to the church every single Sunday, but also taught her a lot of bible knowledge such as the devil would attack the Christians in many different ways and believing that God is the only way to heaven(Winterson, 3). She had to read the Bible and listened to her mother. On every Sunday, she should go to the church and won all the “Bible