T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

INTRODUCTION: IMMIGRANT SENSIBILITYIt seems to me that the writer's mostlmportant task, no matter what the currenttheory of man or his prevailing mood, is torecapture hls image as human being as each ofus in hls secret heart knows it to be, and ashistory and literature have from thebeglnnrng revealed it.(From Malamud's Address on receiving FictionWlnner Natlonal Book Award, 1959).The Unlted States (of Amerlca) 1s a name that does noteven succeed ~ r l te ~l lng the world about who llve there.snybody can 11ve there and lust about everybody does-men andwomen from all the corners of the world. Apparently, lt 1s easyto become an Amerlcan. The ddlectlve provides no rellablelnformatlon about the origins, hlstorles, connections orcultures of those whom lt designates. At the surface it appearsa futlle exerclseto seek a palpable commonality among apopulation so large and ethnically drverse, spread across flftystates, seven tlme-zones and tens of thousands of localcommunities. One is led to bellevethe continual ln-gatherlng of the enormous diversityof races aTd peo2les; driven or drawn by religious,polltrca? and economlc forces-that have chosen to