T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

(~~rkness II).....demonstrative family ..... A"We have deep feelings, but we aren't aparent's grlevrng would be aspectacle in Bangaladesh" (16). Even In viewing herselfthere 1s a matter-of-fact juxtaposition of the past and thepresent - "Agirl with braids who used to race through wetleechy paddy fields now skates on frozen water; that surely 1sa marvel".(17) Though her body is war-scarred, she carrlesno scars of transgression on her psyche and 1s able to adjustwell ln Amerlca.Immigrant in the story.She emerges as a successfuly assimilatedMr. Bhowmlck in "A Father" is predominantly an expatriatethough hls wife and daughter are well-adjusted immigrants.1s nostalgic about the feminine and tender women of his youth.He 1s dlsappolnted that hls daughter Babll, an electricalenglneer. 1s not feminlne enough for hlm.HeShe wasn't womanlyor tender the way that unmarried glrls had been in the wistfuldays of hls adolescence" (Darkness 63).He is stillsuperstltlous enough to go back home and start again to undothe evll effect of an ill-omened sneeze. "A dozen times a dayhe made these small trade-offs between new world reasonablenessand old world beliefs"(64) When he discovers hls daughter'sPregnancy, though conventional thoughts of family honour fleetthrough her mlnd, he 1s happy that some one has found herfeminlne and lovable.H ~ S shock turns to violence when he