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Hope & Disillusionment - Coggle Diagram
Hope & Disillusionment
Arrival
Bruce Woodcock on SI: The book is set between 1924 and 1928, a period which captures the shift from British imperial certainty, through the second world war and up to the arrival of Windrush.
Professor Morton, “The trajectory of Changez’s migrant narrative can certainly be read as a narrative of upward social mobility.”
Symbolism of gold "streets paved in gold", "fairytale castle", glorification, "honey coloured skin" -- colourism -- Pakistan
Cultural Struggle
“There is an enclosed America that only those of a certain status can belong to.” Changez says, "I was -- in four and a half years -- never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker"
Fatema Ahmed on SI, English racism was all the more heartbreaking for its colonial victims because it involved the crushing of their ideals.
Marxist interpretation suggests that “outsiders may acquire education – and even language – but won't ever possess ‘cultural capital’ or ‘institutional capital’
Symbolism of beards and Gilbert's use of Patois, open to scrutiny, vulnerable to judgement, but assertively maintaining their relationship with their home countries
Changez experiences extreme racism from his colleagues. American workers portray the significant rejection and islation Changez faced at Underwood Samson. During his trip to Manila, he encounters a taxi driver and they both share a kind of "Third World sensibility", making him realise his co-workers are foreign to him as he was never able to fit into their "ruling class" world
Changez struggled to make friends in the same society as him bevause he was always looked down at by those at his workplace. Resultingly, Changez grew to admire his own culture and religion, valuing this instead of valuing companies. Thus, to an extent, he fulfills Duboin's claim that characters ought to "stop going after the 'routes' but look at their roots"
SI -- Teashop scene GIs “flex their fists” and “whispered an urgent word” to each other. It indicates a unity between the three men, a team, against Gilbert. Also, it marks the start of a conflict, and although there is no contact between the GIs and Gilbert, tension is arising between them.
Airport incident "leads to a ‘peculiar feeling of disconnectedness’. His humiliation, “coupled with the embarrassment and suspicion…it heightens his sense of guilt and self-consciousness” (Roshan Doug)
Endings
Ghosh on TRF, Changez's inability to "penetrate" a culture that is not his
Illot on TRF, an example of a contemporary dramatic monologue that encourages a more active way of reading and resists comfortable closure
Andermahr on SI “giving symbolic and narrative shape to previously marginalized Black, working-class, migrant and diaspora experiences.”
Stef Craps on Trauma Therapy, “continues to adhere to the traditional event-based model of trauma, according to which trauma results from a single, extraordinary, catastrophic event”. This hegemonic model does not necessarily work for non-western or minority group trauma."
Economic Struggle
Jennifer Minter on TRF, Hamid reclaims the term “fundamentalism” and applies it to economic institutions such as Underwood Samson, because of their focus on economic core principles
The fact that he sees himself as “a modern-day janissary” and a “servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with a kinship to mine” rocks his emotional foundations. Such institutions, he realises, have no regard for people or the consequences of debt reduction. They adhere to principles of greed, materialism and ruthless asset management. By spreading its economic power, American companies such as Underwood Samson are undermining local cultures such as his own. He realises this is dangerous because he will eventually lose his roots and his place in the world.
Gilbert is rejected from his multiple jobs, one employer reasoning that "we have white women working here", calling back to segregation and upholding the idea of white supremacy. At the Post Office where he works, Gilbert is told to "Speak English", harrassed with racial slurs and asked "when are you going back to the jungle?" in a totally dehumanising act of prejudice. Gilbert is likely seen as part of the "coloured colonial labourers" and so was given a low-status job.
During WW2, Britain invited Jamaican immigrants over to support them in rebuilding a war-torn economy, due to its mass labour shortages. Ironically, when the "mother" called, Jamaicans left their home for a country they had no personal connection to. England deserted, unaided and isolated Jamaicans instead of showing gratitude. This emphasises the dichotomy between the reality and pretense of working in the Western world
The allusion to clothing and attire further emphasise the ‘peculiar feeling of disconnectedness’ (Doug). It’s an experience of humiliation which Changez registers” similar to the incident at the airport.