AEssay
Name: Rushabhkumar Shah
English 101
Essay: 01
Date : 05/18/2015
Colour of Clothes
“It is my present that is foreign and that the past is home”
“Clothing and its colour has been an important and unique part of different
cultures which gives every person an unique identity.” Most of the time, a
person’s Culture/Nationality/Religion can be identified from their clothes.
Clothes and their colours have a great influence in Indian culture, however, it is
completely different in American culture to some extent. In analysis to a short
story “Clothes” written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni expresses the significance
of clothing and the meanings which Sumita gives to the different colours of her
clothes.
Being from an Indian culture, Sari has always been an important clothing in
Sumita’s life. Sari has been with her since childhood to adulthood. Sari in Indian
society has been thought as woman’s jwelery which signifies her pride, her
purity, her families teaching and her respect towards their culture. Sumita who
is always seen to give meaning to the colour of the clothes which she wears. This
self-motivating character helped her many times in her life. As Sumita in the
beginning describes her sari as “wet and yellow, like… sunflower after rain”(1)
while taking a bath on brides viewing day. This yellow colour shows her “hope”
and “confidence” of being ready for the beginning of new life.
On the bride viewing day, her father gifts her a pale pink coloured sari,
“embroidered with tiny stars of real gold zari thread” (2) which she compares
with “the dawn sky over women’s lake”. She thinks of it as a colour of transition
in her life as she might be moving from India all the way to California. After
getting married with Somesh, while moving to California she wanted to wear a
sari of blue colour which she thought of a colour of “possibility” for a better life
ahead. But being a typical Indian cultured mother, she kept forcing
English 101
Essay: 01
Date : 05/18/2015
Colour of Clothes
“It is my present that is foreign and that the past is home”
“Clothing and its colour has been an important and unique part of different
cultures which gives every person an unique identity.” Most of the time, a
person’s Culture/Nationality/Religion can be identified from their clothes.
Clothes and their colours have a great influence in Indian culture, however, it is
completely different in American culture to some extent. In analysis to a short
story “Clothes” written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni expresses the significance
of clothing and the meanings which Sumita gives to the different colours of her
clothes.
Being from an Indian culture, Sari has always been an important clothing in
Sumita’s life. Sari has been with her since childhood to adulthood. Sari in Indian
society has been thought as woman’s jwelery which signifies her pride, her
purity, her families teaching and her respect towards their culture. Sumita who
is always seen to give meaning to the colour of the clothes which she wears. This
self-motivating character helped her many times in her life. As Sumita in the
beginning describes her sari as “wet and yellow, like… sunflower after rain”(1)
while taking a bath on brides viewing day. This yellow colour shows her “hope”
and “confidence” of being ready for the beginning of new life.
On the bride viewing day, her father gifts her a pale pink coloured sari,
“embroidered with tiny stars of real gold zari thread” (2) which she compares
with “the dawn sky over women’s lake”. She thinks of it as a colour of transition
in her life as she might be moving from India all the way to California. After
getting married with Somesh, while moving to California she wanted to wear a
sari of blue colour which she thought of a colour of “possibility” for a better life
ahead. But being a typical Indian cultured mother, she kept forcing