Cultural Identity, The Waiter's Wife, Angels in America, Zadie Smith, Tony Kushner, compared study, characterization, narration, literature, characters' identities, multicultural representation, modern stories, global narrative process
As Margaret J. Wheatley, who studies organizational behaviour, once noted that "There (was) no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about", we may question, especially since the most prevalent ghettoization suspicions in many places around the world, with all the implications of communities, enforcing people to deal with «multiculturalism». While Wheatley defined herself a «global citizen», we can only face the true face of the world, resulting in an association of different and more or less powerful community organizations. However, our modern society seems to have developed specific stereotypes which have helped to identify the real conditions and beliefs of each given community. Here is how contemporary sensitive subjects such as ethnicity and race, but also its permanency and its moves have recently reached a high scale into our social and cultural conducts and analysis starting with literature itself. Through the compared study of two nineties' stories: the short story of Zadie Smith, The Waiter's Wife published in 1999 and the play of Tony Kushner, Angels in America, published in 1991, which both explore the notion of cultural identity, we will discuss the way community values interfere with identities and destinies through the characterization's and the narration's examination.
[...] The Notion of Cultural Identity in The Waiter's Wife and Angels in America As Margaret J. Wheatley, who studies organizational behaviour, once noted that "There (was) no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about", we may question, especially since the most prevalent ghettoization suspicions in many places around the world, with all the implications of communities, enforcing people to deal with «multiculturalism». While Wheatley defined herself a «global citizen», we can only face the true face of the world, resulting in an association of different and more or less powerful community organizations. [...]
[...] These real-presence characters who progress on hard work, however, develop in contrast with the unreal imposing, terrifying and divine presence of the Angel of America, descending from Heaven to bestow prophecy. Progression is the key to the whole play in the Perestroika part, standing for the personal viewpoint of the narrator. Within these two modern stories in which identities are being made the essential matter through a complex mix of characteristics, the question of multiculturalism appears to be fundamental. If Zadie Smith focuses on the prevalence of racial and religious origins, Kushner explores fully the changing possibilities. [...]
[...] On the contrary, Alsana's portray appears to perfectly match the traditional Muslim woman's identity as she is «small and rotund, moon-faced and with thick fingers she hid in the folds of her cardigan». These archetypes are to feed the mutual representations, highlighting most especially the perceptions of the Indian immigrated community in a modern western country. English people are perceived as «rude» people while black people are considered as unfriendly. This way, Salman claims for himself, «I'm not a waiter. That is, I am a waiter, but not just a waiter». In the meantime, Alsana frequently meets her niece, Neeman who has settled in London years ago. [...]
[...] This way, each of them deals with a peculiar aspect of the American and the English multiculturalism. Zadie Smith's short story controls a more descriptive narrative creat [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]ing a sense of setting time and place and enforc [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]ing [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/] [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]the [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]characters' archetypes, [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]through the [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]us [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]e of [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/] physical details such as Alsan [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]a [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]'s "cream handkerchief" [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/]. [HYPERLINK: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-is-story-setting/] On the contrary, the play goes through a more linear narrative enabling characters to grow into their intimate developments and action-takings as if it was under a mysterious proceeding by the use of simple, common, straight and sharpened-style replicas : «Harper: Where were you? [...]
[...] Thanks to her regular interactions with the «Niece-Of-Shame», Neera, Alsana, who is now fully pregnant, progressively changes her conceptions reaching a turning point conversation in which she faces her niece's personal ideas about «repression» and men realizing that her strongly-built beliefs, from which she was « satisfied », could be wrong, « You may be right about Samad ( . ) you might see the truth better than I . ». By contrast, Angels in America's narrative is more complex and elaborated, offering the characters to overpass and change their initial conceptions. These two narratives are similar not only by the topic but also by the writing process. [...]
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