Identity in Exile

Paper Summary:

The paper examines John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", Bharati Mukherjee's "Jasmine" and Maxine Kingston's "China Men", which each focus on the molding of individual identity in the flux of history. The paper shows how the three books use a narrative of migration and exploration of new territories to represent the way in which individual identity is shaped by history.

From the Paper:

"Over the course of history, migration and colonization have brought different cultures and ethnicities in close contact with each other. This contact has influenced the shaping and definition of individual and collective identity at the same time. Many modern and postmodern narratives thus discuss the relationship between individual identity and collective identity and between the personal or autobiographical facts and the historical facts. These narratives often challenge the claims made by official and objective histories, pointing to the great number of stories that can actually be derived from what is usually called 'the objective reality'. John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine and Maxine Kingston's China Men are three major, representative novels that focus on the molding of individual identity in the flux of history."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kingston, Maxine. China Men. New York: Vintage, 2002.
• Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. New York: Grove Press, 1989
• Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992

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• Comparison Essay # 117562 : "The Mimic Men" vs. "The Lonely Londoners"

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