"A Wife's Story" and "American Dreamers" by Bharati Mukherjee

For Monday's class, we were assigned to read two pieces of literature written by Bharti Mukherjee, "A Wife's Story and "American Dreamer." "A Wife's Story" is the story of American stereotypes toward foreigners. The story begins in a theater, during a scene in which the are talking about the "Patel" family, which is preconceived to be an Indian family. As she arrives home from the theater, after walking with her friend, Imre, she has a talk with her roommate about her husband, who then interrupts when he calls from India. We learn that he lives in India, as he speaks of visiting her for a "honeymoon," because he misses her very much. I thought that it was very strange that the husband and wife live apart, but non-traditional marriages are being seen more frequently in today's society. Ultimately, he comes to visit and they do many things together such as shopping and take tours of the city. She speaks with him about the differences between America and India, and that they have much more privacy and ability to do the things that they like in America. She becomes blatantly honest with him as she says that she does not love him because their marriage was an arranged marriage, which is one huge cultural difference between America and India. During their time in the city, the husband says to his wife, "Quick, take a picture of me! Before the Twin Towers Disappear." I though that this was particularly strange, because this was written before the Twin Towers fell in 2001. Upon his departure from America, her husband asks her to return with him to India because he is concerned about all of the freedoms she has in America, and what it is doing to their marriage. She refuses, and stays in America.

The next piece of literature, "American Dreamers," is about written about Bharati Mukherjee, the author of the story, who moved from Indiana to Iowa to study writing for two years. Upon her supposed moving back to India to return to her husband of an arranged marriage, she instead marries a man who she meets in her classes. She speaks of her social status and life growing up in India, which is very defined by the family's last name, heritage, and location that they live in, very unlike America. Throughout the story, she compares and contrasts the three countries that she has lived in - India, Canada, and America. She uses the struggle for individualism in India for her reasoning as why she wants to become an American citizen. She speaks of Canada as a hard place to live because of their inability to accept people from other cultures. She speaks of her love for "America," and values her citizenship greatly. She says that although America is better than India, she still thinks of improvements that can be made by immigrants and natural born citizens alike.

Both of these stories of an Indian-American lifestyle are very true, from what I have heard and experienced. Many of my professors have been of Indian descent, and speak of the cultural differences between America and India. One very distinct difference is the Indian's hard work ethic in everything, but especially in school. They are very hard workers, unlike many Americans who think that they can get by with doing the bare minimum, and their hard work pays off with them excelling in many areas. Going back to the idea of "stereotypes," many Americans think of Indian-Americans for being "nerds," for studying hard and excelling in school. However, they will have the last laugh when their hard work pays off.