Dilemma of Cultural Differences and Identity Crisis: A Selected Study of Bapsi Sidhwa

Abstract

Culture is the soul institution for certainty in society which has inspired individuals in all the centuries. The narrative clears that culture has been influential in the growth of natives, lands and societies. Each country-specific or neighbourhood has varied customs and values; thus, inside it there are different ethos and customs. However, cultural pluralism enhances unique cultural identities which help influence their own ethnic, religious and cultural norms. Acclaimed South Asian writer Bapsi Sidhwa, in all her fictions has focused on the subject of cultural diversity and hence, it leads to identity crisis. She brings Parsi community to light through her writing. The author adeptly binds brotherhood to society, ethnic group to religious belief which displays these features of cultural differences and societal structure not just influence and involve each other, but also interacts leading into the predicament of cultural diversity and social identity crisis. Therefore, the Postcolonial study reviews the facets to find and restore their lost national identity, history, literature and to describe the writer’s relationship with the land and language. This paper makes an attempt to study cultural differences and identity crisis as a line of reasoning in all the opted fictions of Bapsi Sidhwa. The fictions for the research are- The Crow Eaters (1978), The Pakistani Bride (1981), Ice-Candy Man (1988) and An American Brat (1993).