Two Ways to Belong in America
--- Bharati Mukherjee
This is a tale of two sisters from Calcutta, Mira and Bharati,
who have lived in the US for some thirty-five years, but who find themselves on
different sides in the current debate over the status of immigrants.
"Two
Ways to Belong in America" tells the story of an Indian woman and her
sister immigrating to the United States. Their plan was to stay in America for
two years, earn their degrees, then return home to India to marry grooms chosen
by their father. However, things did not go as planned. The sister, Mira, who
studied to become a teacher, married an Indian man earning his business degree
and has remained in the states for years, though she wishes to return to India
to retire. The author, Bharati Mukherjee, married an American-Canadian man and
has lived in every part of North America. She celebrates the word
"mongrelization", a term used to describe the subjects of the books
she writes. Though Mukherjee and her sister are still close, they both have
diverging opinions on the topic of Americanization and what it means to be an
American. Mukherjee's sister feels that she is still attached to India in an indescribable
way that she does not feel for America. Mukherjee, however, embraces jeans and
the variety of music American has to offer.
This story shows the parallelism between what different
immigrants think of moving to the United States from their home country. Some
embrace the change and are excited to adopt new cultures, while others are
scared and wish to hang on to their culture. However, there are also a few who
do not know where they belong; they have embraced enough American culture, but
still have some connection to their home culture as well. To Mukherjee, she
needs to "put roots down, to vote and make the difference that [she] can.
The price that the immigrant willingly pays, and that the exile avoids, is the
trauma of self-transformation." She believes that she needs to,
metaphorically, plant her feet on the ground, and find her true home.