NEGOTIATING TRADITION AND MODERNITY: FEROZA'S IDENTITY IN A POSTCOLONIAL WORLD IN BAPSI SIDHWA'S AN AMERICAN BRAT

ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 16 NEGOTIATING TRADITION AND MODERNITY: FEROZA’S IDENTITY IN A POSTCOLONIAL WORLD IN BAPSI SIDHWA’S AN AMERICAN BRAT Dr. J. Sharmila Devi Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17283283 Abstract Bapsi Sidhwa is a prominent writer who discusses various issues in her novels. In Sidhwa's works, the multiple aspects of Parsee-Pakistani-American culture are reflected. Especially, it's reflected more in An American Brat. Sidhwa depicts the Parsee culture and its values through the character of Feroza. The novel An American Brat deals not only with the transformation of Feroza but also with the cultural issues, identity, and assimilation that several immigrants face. Feroza’s conflict as a young girl between the fundamentalist way of living in Pakistan and the liberal way in America becomes the heart of the novel. The transformation exposes her to new ideas, cultures, customs, and ways of life that are different from what she has been taught. Her cultural transformation does not occur easily and takes place after several instances of alienation and crisis. Through Feroza, her parents also undergo cultural shifts, illustrating the issues faced by immigrants differently. In Pakistan, she learns the familial roles of wife and mother. But in America, women get more opportunities in education, career, and societal roles. This shows that the space for women is broader but also overwrought. This leads Feroza to ultimately accept both cultures, a sign of her cultural transformation. The exposure confuses Feroza, but she understands the values and beliefs through education. The paper focuses on the Tradition and Modernity of Feroza as an immigrant. Keywords: Identity crisis, Immigration, Cultural hybridity, Modernity, Alienation, Individualism. Bapsi Sidhwa's works allow readers to explore versatility. All her works deal with different perspectives. An American Brat is one of them. The situation and surroundings undergo several changes in every aspect. The characters and their survival reflect the reality of the people's lives at that time. Feroza’s journey was depicted as fundamental to independence, clearly in the novel. She becomes more fundamentalist in the beginning. She has a nature of realism and anxiety. She faces cultural problems in her daily life. She becomes worried that her family and society are the big things in her mind. Feroza's character is depicted as traditional and conservative. She was brought up in the Parsee community in Lahore. Her parents are Cyrus and Zareen Ginwalla. In the Parsee community, the people follow their traditions in every aspect. Feroza’s fundamentalist attitude becomes more severe day by day. Her mother, Zareen, had thought that Feroza had become more fundamentalist. She was more backwards in her attitude. Feroza went to the Sacred Heart girls’ school in Lahore. Feroza’s mother, who wears a sari with a sleeveless blouse, visits her school. But Feroza worried about her mother’s dress because the Parsee people never wear modern dresses. Zarin Says: I went to bring Feroza from school today. I was chatting with Mother Superior on the veranda…… Feroza pretended she didn’t know me……. Mummy, please don’t come to school dressed like that.’ Look, we’re Parsee, everybody knows we dress differently.’ “When I was in her age, I wore frocks and cycled to Kinnaird College. And that was in …..fifteen years after Partition! Can she wear frocks? No. Women mustn’t show their legs, women shouldn’t dress ……If everything corrupts their pious little minds so easily, then the mullahs should wear burqas and stay within the four walls of their houses! (p.10) Feroza felt her mother was too modern. Zarin’s fear about her daughter and her attitude alarms her. They decided Feroza needed to know the world. She wants to know the people from ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 17 different places, then she will understand the reality. Feroza cannot accept her mother’s dress. This narrow-minded attitude infected her, too. The same thoughts were spread among the Women of Pakistan, especially among Zoroastrians. So Sidhwa depicts the nature of women in Pakistan through her character. Feroza’s family sends her to America because of her fundamentalism. In the journey to America, Feroza goes through the experience of self-discovery and social evaluation. Her analysis of the society and its culture expresses “Although the sense of dislocation of not belonging, was more acute in America, she felt it would be more tolerable because it was shared by thousands of new comers like herself” (312). She didn’t like to go to America. Her entries in America made her anxious, and she underwent depression in the form of the new culture, society and its experience. Feroza tries to change her lifestyle in America. Manek, her uncle, taught her to control her temper. Manke, who took her to visit many places in America, like the places of the Empire State Building, Wall Street and so on. That was a new experience. Through this, he wants to teach Feroza how to survive the alien land. He says for her to pursue her studies in America. Feroza also accepts and continues her studies there. She also undergoes the happiness and tribulations in the new land. Her friend Jo helped her to survive the land, and Feroza also adopted the culture. She changed her attitude and lifestyle as an American. The transformation of a girl from a postcolonial country to an alien land means she transformed from a shy, reserved girl into a confident and self-assertive girl. She learns everything, including their slang. When she was in Lahore, she never saw men, but after she went to America, she now boldly talks to unknown persons too. Cultural difference is an important thing in the novels of Sidhwa. Especially in the novel, An American Brat, depicts the cultural changes and their consequences. Sidhwa gave a fruitful reply to the question asked by Naila Hussain in an interview about the theme of An American Brat: Naturally, the book (An American Brat) deals with the subject of the culture shock-young people from the Sub-Continent have to contend with when they choose to study abroad. It also delineates the clashes, the divergent cultures generate between the families ‘back home’ and their transformed and transgressing progeny bravely groping their way in the new world. Feroza's character transformation was somewhat gradual in the dreamy land. In every culture, there is a positive and negative side, so the protagonist came to know the reality of the place after undergoing several incidents. The protagonist experiences both the right and the dark side. In the novel, Feroza decides to marry David Press, a Jew. So, after she came to America, her traditional thoughts changed into modern ones. In Pakistan, they won’t accept a different culture person to the marriage. But Feroza wants to express her decision about her marriage to her parents. Feroza told Manek of her desire, and she sent a letter with the photo of David Press to her parents. So, they decide to return Feroza to Pakistan, and she has to marry a Parsee boy. Finally, Manek says to Feroza to think about her decision. “I think you have to be sure first. Give it time... There’s no big hurry. He’s probably the first man in your life… It all seems wonderful now, but marriage is something else: our cultures are very different (70). Manek finally expressed his caring note to Feroza. She felt more relief and gratitude to him. Feroza's identity crisis is deeply rooted in the postcolonial condition. Feroza is doubly marginalised because she is from Parsee Pakistani culture and also by her gender. After the postcolonial the entire thing has been changed, in that they struggle to express their identity. Here, she migrated to the United States with the words of her mother because she is too fundamentalist; instead that she must get liberated from her thoughts. But she became more liberal person, which made her into a deeper crisis of identity. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 18 Feroza’s Parents came to know about her desire, then Zaren, her mother, went to America to compromise her. Zareen, who explained that the risk of marrying a person from outside is a sin in her native land. But finally, Zareen was changed by the words of Feroza. “I should have listened. I should never have let you go so far away. Look what it’s done to you—you’ve become an American brat!” (p.279) Zareen was very much impressed by the way of David, but she won't accept their condition because in their native land, they won't accept. She never gave any assurance to her, even though she personally accepted. Sidhwa expresses the East-West binary of both cultures with contradiction in the novel. Feroza's character has portrayed Pakistani culture as patriarchal and restrictive, with American individualism. Feroza's characters express the reality of the person who immigrates to another place. Because they had a tension of whether to follow the traditional or the modern freedom. Feroza's character is a symbol of feminist awakening. Initially, the character follows the condition of her culture as a girl who stood up naturally, as shy, obedient, and socially attached. She slowly adopts Western culture with confidence. The transformation made her from alienated to her family and community. Feroza’s characters express the nature of women and how they carry their cultural purity and family honour. Feroza's revolt against both cultures. She is in a hybrid space where the cultural meaning has been negotiated and reshaped. She is under familial pressure, which leads to a new identity. Her decision in the final is that she is never ready to follow any form of culture. This also made her anxious and hopeless. Her alienation from her society and family leads to her choice. Later, it is discovered as a person in migration, memory and resistance. Feroza accepted the reality, and she moved to Denver. The affair with David ended because of Zareen. Feroza finally obeyed the words mother as an American Brat. Novy Kapadia says: The novel ends with uncertainty. Feroza expressed the natural feeling that was not allowed by their circumstance. So, she prefers to live her life in America. As a Parsee writer, Bapsi Sidhwa does not rebel against her community's dominating ideology. Sidhwa does not endorse the traditional Parsee code on inter-community or inter-faith marriage. Whereas the changes occur in the new culture, when she returns to her land, she used to realise the cultural values again. After her migration towards America, she never adapted the whole thing based on the American culture. She learns to live a free life in America without spoiling her culture. This expresses how she is deep-rooted in her culture and its values. Now she can’t live in her country, because she led a free life in America, but at the same time, she can’t break her cultural customs. This shows the transformation of Feroza in a clear way. Feroza's family and her society were the main reasons for her fear. This makes to a fearful person in every aspect of her life. Though she faces many difficulties, she learns how to deal with them. Through her journey as a young Parsee girl, she faces many problems, both physical and psychological. In the beginning, as a Parsee, she was passive, and later she turned into an active person through the cultural changes as an American. Finally, she lives with maturity as a Pakistani American. Feroza transforms a traditional person into a modernised one. She carries her identity through three culturesPakistani, Parsee, and American. Through this expatriation, she undergoes repression, displacement, identification, rationalisation, sublimation, rationalization, and projection. Sidhwa is a diasporic author, and it’s portrayed through the immigrants’ characters with realistic images. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 19 References Sidhwa Bapsi, An American Brat, New Delhi, Penguin Books,1994. Kapadia, Novy. “Expatriate Experience and Theme of Marriage in An American Brat.” The Novels of Bapsi Sidhwa. Eds. R.K. Dhawan and Novy Kapadia. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1996. Print. Hussain, Naila. ‘On the Writers’ World, interview with Bapsi Sidhwa, The Nation, 26 May, 1993:19.