Themes

- multiple identities

- living in a situation of living in a situation of an in-betweens

- cultural shock

- cultural differences

 

Analysis

The original version brings to surface the protagonist’s reflection when he comes to face the situation of his own country after his American experience. He seems aware that when someone has lived according to the standards of the states, he is partly deceived in the judgments of other countries that generally appear poor or even declining. This is underlined by the use of the auxiliary model “must” that conveys an obligation, a need coming from the subject itself. Changez says that the American stay influences a human being that since then needs a different “way of observing”. All that employs  that living different cultural experiences necessarily changes the individual whose perspectives envision of the surrounding reality becomes wider.

 

Changez’s reflection is the result of a past experience that has transformed his perception of the world and, last but not least, of himself, together with his way of looking at and reacting in front of an own reality.

It is as if you look at it with new eyes. In the case of Changez it is the “Americanisms” of his way of looking that makes him suffer in front of his declining original place.

The protagonist’s shock on his return to Lahore is conveyed through the language of sense impression: in particular sight and onomatopoeias are used as function linguistic choices to convey a vivid picture of the decline of his own country.

The detail description of the home becomes a vivid and living entity on the point of crumbling conveyed by the alliterative and repeated use of the sound “r” (“struck”, “appeared”, “crepes”, “running”, “through”, “dry” and so on). In reporting a memory when the electricity had gone, the narrator/protagonist, relays sight (“gloomy air”) and sound (“hissing gas”).

The appeal to senses makes the description tragically alive and the reader receives the impression of a scene displayed in front of his/her eyes.

Immediately after the description, narration focus again on the speaker’s mood: if earlier he was “struck” by the shabby house, now he feels sad (“I was sadden”) and his feeling is conveyed by a passive form as if the protagonist couldn’t escape such destiny. Soon after confessing how he felt, Changez feels the need to correct himself: indeed the phrase is “no, more than sadden, I was shamed”.

The negative climax created by the narrator ends in the expression “I was shamed” that has an epigrammatic effect.

 

The idea of multiple identities comes clearly to life when the narrator confesses he felt almost guilty for the situations he has to face after his coming back. It sounds as if Changez couldn’t accept the reality that connotes his hometown. Here the condition of in-betweens that is Changez’s Pakistanis origins and the Americanisms of his gaze express the double face nature of his enlarged identity and the instinctive transition.

 

Conclusion

The strength of the origin version is the result of the alternation of 1^st person narrator and reflection with a description that allows the reader to see Lahore and the protagonist’s home with Changez’s eyes.

The language used by the novelist appeals to senses and memories that gives way to reflection and feelings.

 

The conclusion of such reflection is expressed by the use of “this” in italics which conveys the image of something he feels emotionally distant from despite the demonstrative which should employ something very close to the speaker.

The anaphoric repetition of “this” symbolically and epigrammatically underlines Changez’s feelings of distance and shame.

The reader is strongly involved in the narration thanks to the language used that creates an intimate relationship of closeness.

 

Comparative Analysis

A comparative analysis between the original text and the Italian translation immediately makes the reader feel the English text as something more involving and direct probably because of the different impact of sound in the two versions.

There is an overall effect in the description of Changez’s home because the use of language is less strong in its appeal to sounds as a vehicle to create a vivid image of the protagonist’s home. You perceived a larger distance from the Italian translation probably because the English idiom seems to draw the meaning it wants to convey.

Even the conclusion in the translation reinforces the sense of distance of the protagonist in the choice of “lì” that conveys the idea given by “this” in the original version. There is no anaphoric structure in the Italian version that, as a result, sounds weaker than the English one.

 

Right from the start the Italian translation conveys the idea of something irrevocable with the use of phrases like “bisogna adattarsi” that seems to mark a destiny one cannot escape, while the use of “if one comes here from America” seems to communicate some advice.

The nominal styles adds a sense of liveliness to communication.

 

A sense of potential is what the original text expresses when it says “a different way of observing is required” while “è necessario” seems to refer to something that cannot be avoided or changed.