Much of Karim’s identity crisis is due to his split heritage. Despite being half English, it is difficult for Karim to fully assimilate into British society since the definition of ‘Englishness’ did not extend to those with multiple ethnic backgrounds. The differences between first and second-generation immigrants in the novel illustrate the tensions and anxieties of being caught between belonging and not. For Haroon, a first generation Indian immigrant, the shock of displacement came from being seen as something he was not. Before coming to England, Haroon would have identified himself as a well off upper-middle class Indian. However, in England he was viewed as a black immigrant and second-hand citizen due to the arbitrary bigotry pervasive
…show more content…
His unshakable sense of incompleteness is ultimately cause by his own two-dimensionality. Applying Homi Bhabha’s reasoning in Remembering Fanon, Karim’s hybrid identity causes him to occupy two places at once. As a result, such degraded post-colonial subjects can become immeasurable objects, quite literally difficult to place. Stuart Hall, in Cultural Identity and Diaspora, addresses this problem of hybrid identity as he concludes that the complexity of identity exceeds the conventional binary structure of representation. Consequently, dualistic identities becomes mutually excluding categories. Eventually, the adult Karim seems to come to the conclusion that there is a space for both of his identities to exist. By accommodating his identity, stressing either his Englishness or Indianness when it serves to benefit him in some way, Karim is constantly developing his identity on his own terms. Stuart Hall would justify the reality of Karim’s appropriated identity based upon his reasoning that diaspora identities are continuously producing and reproducing themselves. To Hall, identity is a production that is never complete. The constant renegotiation of the term Métissage in Monsters and Revolutionaries also exhibits how hybrid identities are fundamentally ambivalent since they challenge the very binaries that determine their meaning and
His unshakable sense of incompleteness is ultimately cause by his own two-dimensionality. Applying Homi Bhabha’s reasoning in Remembering Fanon, Karim’s hybrid identity causes him to occupy two places at once. As a result, such degraded post-colonial subjects can become immeasurable objects, quite literally difficult to place. Stuart Hall, in Cultural Identity and Diaspora, addresses this problem of hybrid identity as he concludes that the complexity of identity exceeds the conventional binary structure of representation. Consequently, dualistic identities becomes mutually excluding categories. Eventually, the adult Karim seems to come to the conclusion that there is a space for both of his identities to exist. By accommodating his identity, stressing either his Englishness or Indianness when it serves to benefit him in some way, Karim is constantly developing his identity on his own terms. Stuart Hall would justify the reality of Karim’s appropriated identity based upon his reasoning that diaspora identities are continuously producing and reproducing themselves. To Hall, identity is a production that is never complete. The constant renegotiation of the term Métissage in Monsters and Revolutionaries also exhibits how hybrid identities are fundamentally ambivalent since they challenge the very binaries that determine their meaning and