The Obstacles Encountered by Immigrants and their Cultural Assimilation in Bharathi Mukherjee’s Short Story “A Wife’s Story”

Abstract

While replacing to a new country can be a wonderful experience, there are many challenges and adjustments required. Language barriers, cultural adjustment, job opportunities, education access, financial instability, and lack of family support are a few of these. Migration often causes conflict when cultures clash. However, migration has many positive cultural effects on both the migrants and the local population in the areas where they settle. Migration is a double-edged sword for migrants. Whether or not they choose to migrate, they are unlikely to wish to lose their culture. When immigrants to the US move out of ethnic communities and into more broadly defined “American” spaces, they could try to put their memories of their home countries behind them in favour of “becoming American.” In the past, they discovered that assimilation aided in their access to homes, employment, education, and other resources.“A Wife’s Story” was included in Bharati Mukherjee’s 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning The Middleman and Other Stories. Since then, it has been included in several feminist and international literary anthologies featuring short fiction. Like many of Mukherjee’s writings, the story explores the nuanced and frequently contradictory experiences of South Asian immigrants adjusting to life in the United States. It also covers how other immigrant groups and Americans, some of whom have only been in the country for a generation or two, have reacted to these South Asians, who Mukherjee refers to as “the new pioneers.”The short story “A Wife’s Story” centres on the experiences of an immigrant Indian woman to the United States. The story is told from Panna’s point of view, which is the protagonist and faces difficulties promoting into a new culture and evolving as a person. Examining the intricacies of identity, marriage, and adaptation, this is a gripping account of the cultural and personal changes that an Indian woman in the US went through.