Compare and constrast the immigrant experiences of Changez 'TRF' and Jemu.

Changez

Jemu

·         1st person narrative – engages the reader  (effective as it creates a conversation) ·         Both immigrants moved from their birth place looking for education. ‘…attended college in New Jersey.’ ·         Mentions background story – Starts to reveal past. ·         Different time period of setting. After the 9/11 attacks, around 2006. ·         9/11 changes characters perceptions of Changez. ·         Proud character ‘top exam results in Pakistan.’ ·         Unreliable narrative.

·         3rd person narrative – Flashbacks which don’t affect the reader as much. ·         Looking for an education which is why Jemu assimilates. ‘He has first left home…he had gone to Cambridge.’ ·         Parents have a key part in the extract as they’re the only characters who have dialogue. ·         Set in 1939 ·         Jemu has a split identity – ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ ‘Decorated Coconut’ ·         Faces racism and discrimination ·         Desperate for superior status.

Immigration - Construction of identitiy

Construction of Identity:

1. VOICE-

• Language - Which one you, the difference to the Language which you assimilate with. The language you speak, creates an I.D which highlights you come from a certain place.
• Accent - I.D which highlights where you come from and social class.
• Dialect - Lexis/Tone

    2. PHYSICAL APPEARANCE- 

• Clothes
• Hair styles
• Skin colour
• Demeanour

Your physical appearance highlights your culture and the way you live. Many immigrants will be torn in physical appearance when they assimilate into a new culture or community. In 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' Changez wears a kurta an jeans. '...and wore a starched white kurta of delicately worked cotton over a pair of jeans.' (Page 55) This highlights his split self of America and Pakistan. The kurta represents his traditional and personal self which makes him feel comfortable. The jeans represent his 'American self' which is based around 'the American dream' many educated men follow. The kurta, is also an exotic piece of clothing which may have been worn to impress Erica as she's interested in his background and life in Pakistan.
    
     3. DOCUMENTS-

• Passports
• Age
• Generation of birth

Words are simply identities we choose to adopt and order in the way we wish to represent reality as we'd like it to be. Immigrant literature is an attempt to understand self and identity through language.