TRF: Identity/Roots Flashcards
‘My ____________ was invisible, _______ by my ____’
‘My Pakistaniness was invisible, cloaked by my suit’
- Roots being disguised by American culture
- Representative of Americanisation + their influence on other cultures
- Role at Underwood Samson dominating his identity
‘I began to ___ and _____, as much as my ______ would permit, more like an ______’
‘I began to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American’
- Compromising cultural identity in order to win acceptance
- Disassociated sense of identity
‘A form of ______ on my part, a ______ of ______’
‘A form of protest on my part, a symbol of identity’
- Changez’s growing need to assert his own identity
- Does not care about unease his beard will provoke
- Accepting his true identity, presenting himself as a Pakistani
‘I made it my _______ on campus to advocate a ___________ from your country’
‘I made it my mission on campus to advocate a disengagement from your country’
- ‘Mission’ implies Changez has become sort of a double agent
- Changez attempts to tackle American imperialism
- ‘Your’ = possessive determiner, Changez distancing himself from America as a whole
‘And then I ______’
‘And then I smiled’
- Changez rouses from his American dream
- Forced to confront his identity and deep rooted resentments
- 9/11 catalyst for his hatred against America
- Witnesses attack from tv screen = reflects distance from home country/roots + distance he will feel when he returns
- Lacks emotional loyalty
‘Someone had so ________ brought America to her _______’
‘Someone had so visibly brought America to her knees’
- Personification of America
- ‘To her knees’ = defeat, buildings/skyscrapers destroyed, lowered/diminished Americas self-importance
- Retribution/comeuppance
‘I was a modern-day __________’
‘an ___-___________ gaze’
‘I was a modern-day janissary’
‘an ex-janissary’s gaze’
- Changez has completely adopted the American/indoctrinated colonial mindset
- Allowed his idolisation of America to brainwash him
- Rejected his own cultural identity/roots
- ‘ex-janissary’ = beginning to strengthen his cultural ties/affiliation to Pakistan, no longer blinded/bound to American beliefs/ideologies
What is the context behind Changez’s position as a ‘modern-day janissary’?
- Late 14th century
- Christian boys taken by the Turks to fight for the Ottoman empire, indoctrinated with Ottoman ideology and forced to convert to Islam
‘Her body had ________ me’
‘Her body had rejected me’
- Allegorical relationship between America and Erica intensified after their attempt to make love
- Changez rejected by both Ericas body and America itself
- In order to be compatible with Erica Changez suppresses/surrenders own Identity ‘Pretend I am him’
‘I made it my _______ on campus to advocate a ___________ from your country’
‘I made it my mission on campus to advocate a disengagement from your country’
- ‘Mission’ implies Changez has become sort of a double agent
- Changez attempts to tackle American imperialism
- ‘Your’ = possessive determiner, Changez distancing himself from America as a whole
‘I grew up on the _______ ______!’
‘I grew up on the other side!’
- Separation between Pakistan and America
- Highlighting the opposition/conflicting existence of his home and host country
- Divided identity (cannot belong to both East and West simultaneously)
‘Do not be __________ by my _______: I am a lover of ___________’
‘Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America’
- Prolepsis (when a speaker raises an objection and then immediately answers it)
- His beard provokes steroetypes
‘But it did not, could not, make me _________ such things as how much I enjoy the _____ in this, the city of my ______’
‘But it did not, could not, make me forget such things as how much I enjoy the tea in this, the city of my birth’
- Repetition ‘did not, could not’ = emphasises his pull/root of Pakistan, despite the opportunity of Princeton
‘Something we __________ take great _____ in’
‘Something we Lahoris take great pride in’
- Changez is prideful of his cultural cuisine, strengthening his connectedneess to his Pakistani roots
‘Pakistanis tend to take an _____________ pride in our _______’
‘Pakistanis tend to take an inordinate pride in our food’
- ‘our’ = ties/his connection to Pakistan
‘I recall the _______________ of my own gaze when I _________ to Lahore’
‘I recall the Americanness of my own gaze when I returned to Lahore’
- Powerful nature of American culture/propaganda
- Contaminated/transformed Changez’s identity
‘I was looking about me with the ______ of a ____________’
‘I was looking about me with the eyes of a foreigner’
- Changez’s return to Lahore
- Negation (denial) of his cultural and personal identity
- Brainwashed by American beliefs/views
‘I did not __________ of myself as a __________, but as an Underwood Samson ________’
‘I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as an Underwood Samson trainee’
