Quest of Feminine Identity in the Relocated Protagonist of Manju Kapur’s The Immigrant

Abstract

When it comes to Diasporic consciousness, the question of roots and routes will always be an integral part of it. To go away from one’s roots in order to traverse different swashbuckling routes, one needs to have strong incentive behind it. But what happens to the emotional health of the people who tug along with such career wannabees, like wives or parents, for that matter? The novel vividly deals with the predicament of identity of the individuals. The question becomes more pertinent when the immigrants have a substantial identity at their native nation. Like, for Sue’s grandmother it was perfectly all right with an altogether new name of her husband, though she was used to Greek names. The basic reason cited by Sue is that they were very poor and they immediately got married to each other the moment they landed and they had no hesitation in adopting Canadian identity. “They made effort to mingle as fast as possible. Even though their English was limited, they didn’t insist their children leant Greek. Then my mother married a Scottish Canadian, and I married someone of Polish origin. End of Greece.”So, what was summed up (and finished off ) so nicely by Sue was a matter of grave concern for Nina. She cannot bring home the point that new beginnings had to take the route of new names. She comes to wonder at the precariousness of the identity crises or for that matter what it meant to belong to somewhere.