The Waiter's Wife Literary Analysis

The contemporary postcolonial literature by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Hanif Kureishi, M. Nourbese Philip and Zadie Smith combines the concepts of language and gender to show differences in cultural identity and, especially expose the difficulties these differences bring in the assimilation of the native culture and the colonialist culture. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kureishi, Philip and Smith all have different approaches and experiences when it comes to the intersections of these concepts and cultures, and their writing shows how language and gender creates a division between the colonists’ culture and the native cultures of the authors. Ngũgĩ’s essay “The Language of the African Literature”, shows how the introduction of the English language into his …show more content…
According to Greenblatt et al., the characters misconceive other cultures, revealing Smith’s purpose to expose the “fluid if often bumpy relationships across ethnic divisions (3057). Alsana Iqbal’s misunderstanding of other cultures and gender roles is expressed in the second paragraph of the story, as she describes Clara Jones as “tall, striking, a black girl with a winning smile, wearing red shorts of a shortness that Alsana had never imagined possible, even in this country”, insinuating that she is not used to women revealing parts of their body that, in her culture, are considered shameful (3058). Alsana herself is described by Samad Iqbal as “not as meek as he had assumed when they married”, insinuating that she herself does not adhere to her culture’s traditional gender roles. Samad confirms this when he claims that he “had simply assumed a woman so young would be… easy. But Alsana was not… no, she was not easy. It was, he supposed, the way with young women these days” (3062). Samad concludes that women in his native culture are expected to be meek, obedient and dutiful, but that this part of his cultural identity is changing. Nonetheless, Alsana tries to follow her native culture’s traditional gender roles, for example when sharing old family advices, such as when she says “when you are from families such as ours you should have learned that silence, what is not said, is the very best recipe for family life” (3066). It is clear that Alsana attempts to adhere to her native cultural identity while living in London. Her niece Neena, whom she calls Niece-of-Shame, criticises her for this, calling her “the little submissive Indian woman”, condemning Alsana for her attempts to hold on to traditional gender roles, and her