T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

the United states of movlng naway from the aloofness ofexpatriation, to the exuberance of immigration", (Darknee&,,)she immersed herself with relief and gladness in theconvenience of the great melting pot. This sense of a will tosink into an alien Culture distinct from remaining a member ofa self-conscious minority in a more pluralist society likeCanada inspired many of the stories that are collected inparkness. "Tamurlane" tells of her fatal encounter between~slan-illegals and Canadian polrce and Immrgrantion officers.It is one of the best stories rn the collection, because itarouses genuine passion and is bitter-sweet, lronlc in tone.The basic problems of maklng contacts, and of learning therlght compassionate behavloural signs that wlll transform oneare focused in the central Indianlsouth-Aslan characters.Violence in America is ubiquitous and terrible, but it isdemocratic. It offers her and others some klnd of freedom.Nobody is slngled out. The characters Mukherjee portraysrnclude Maharajas, rllegal allen bus boys and bayonet-scarredrefugees. In the oprnron of a scholar, "the newcomer's feelingsabout the West span a spectrum from marooned expatriation toexuberant identifiaction to momentary nostalgia for old homes".(Cooke 1989,267)The characters of Mukherjeefs stories often exist in thesame plane, juxtaposed, flattened-out in a way that 1s both