Manju Kapur’s fourth novel The Immigrant (2008) is a story of two immigrants, Nina and Ananda. Manju Kapur chose Canada as the background for her novel The Immigrant and discusses the Indian diaspora in Canada. The novel explores the issues of cultural conflict, alienation, dislocation of Indian culture, diaspora and quest for identity. It reflects the loneliness and the search of self being experienced by the immigrants. The beginning of the novel poses the identity issues of the immigrants by the narrator such as, ‘Should the immigrant attempt to integrate and be more like the people in his or her adopted country or keep at preserving his/her cultures and traditions in a threat of the surroundings that smothers it?’(1) It is related to the
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The amalgamation of East and West values make the people alienated when they suffer from the inner conflicts like Ananda and Nina faced in Canada. The clash between Indian culture and Western influence results in the psychological dilemma for the people. As a result, the acute psychological study of the quest for identity and alienation becomes significant in the context of the issues of the immigrants. Though the novel takes up the seventies as its background, the feelings of isolation and dislocation that Manju Kapur portrays would surely strike a chord with the present-day Indian immigrants. The novel also presents how the immigrants try to adjust to life in the West on the one hand and life of the West on the other hand. The couple plays out a simultaneous existence in two cultures and face varied problems at different stages on the road to their assimilation of a new …show more content…
This results in cultural isolation that leads to personal isolation as well. Life in Canada is complete contrast to Indian ways to Nina. It began with a sense of freedom, freedom from the probing eyes of the family members, neighbors “No servant, landlord, landlady, neighbor or mother was there to see (113). In the beginning, the privacy is pleasing but soon it turns to loneliness with no one to talk to, no one to share with the common everyday pleasures. It is difficult for an Indian wife more to adopt those situations. Homesickness sets in, and she feels lost without any one to share her feelings. A Mechanical life with western food could not attract her. She had no other activity other than reading books or watching television and later she realized that it is not her aide “books are powerless to distract, when house and its conveniences can no longer completely charm or compensate. Then she realizes she is an immigrant for life” (122). She was not used to non-vegetarian. Ananda doesn’t say it to his friends or uncle when they invited her to dinner. They say she needs to adjust to the new culture. But naturally it takes some time for her to taste a new food which she was not at all used to for many years. Ananda could become a Canadian soon as it was easy for him to adjust to the western ways. But for Nina it is very hard to accept and
The amalgamation of East and West values make the people alienated when they suffer from the inner conflicts like Ananda and Nina faced in Canada. The clash between Indian culture and Western influence results in the psychological dilemma for the people. As a result, the acute psychological study of the quest for identity and alienation becomes significant in the context of the issues of the immigrants. Though the novel takes up the seventies as its background, the feelings of isolation and dislocation that Manju Kapur portrays would surely strike a chord with the present-day Indian immigrants. The novel also presents how the immigrants try to adjust to life in the West on the one hand and life of the West on the other hand. The couple plays out a simultaneous existence in two cultures and face varied problems at different stages on the road to their assimilation of a new …show more content…
This results in cultural isolation that leads to personal isolation as well. Life in Canada is complete contrast to Indian ways to Nina. It began with a sense of freedom, freedom from the probing eyes of the family members, neighbors “No servant, landlord, landlady, neighbor or mother was there to see (113). In the beginning, the privacy is pleasing but soon it turns to loneliness with no one to talk to, no one to share with the common everyday pleasures. It is difficult for an Indian wife more to adopt those situations. Homesickness sets in, and she feels lost without any one to share her feelings. A Mechanical life with western food could not attract her. She had no other activity other than reading books or watching television and later she realized that it is not her aide “books are powerless to distract, when house and its conveniences can no longer completely charm or compensate. Then she realizes she is an immigrant for life” (122). She was not used to non-vegetarian. Ananda doesn’t say it to his friends or uncle when they invited her to dinner. They say she needs to adjust to the new culture. But naturally it takes some time for her to taste a new food which she was not at all used to for many years. Ananda could become a Canadian soon as it was easy for him to adjust to the western ways. But for Nina it is very hard to accept and