g “lathered […] with the color of the earth” (146) for his role as Mowgli. Disguising Karim's “cream skin” introduces the notion of hybridity. While exoticization is the lesser of two evils compared to being marginalized and forgotten like many postcolonial subalterns, it is equally threatening to the migrant's identity. They are confined by being labeled “exotic” and then euphemized as a “hybrid” product of the meeting of East and West. Haroon is perceived by his white followers as an Indian sage who has answers to the problems of the materialistic West. However, her white working-class in-laws are embarrassed by her heritage. Haroon's brother-in-law, for example, denies his Indian origins by calling him "Harry" because "it was bad enough being Indian in the first place, without also having an embarrassing name" (33). Hybridity traps them in perpetual otherness while emancipating them. As Andrew Smith posits, “With hybridity, anything is possible for the simple reason that hybridity is about the creation of meaning without the repression of a pre-existing normativeness or teleology” (252). In other words, the elastic nature of hybridity emancipates them because it gives them a fixed and stable identity, but at its basis there is the notion of “other”. As a result, it seems that the migrant Other cannot escape. Ishiguro is trapped in his Japanese roots, never mind that he emigrated at age six to England and has lived there ever since; Tania and Karim find themselves in a purgatory where they are worshiped for their differences. They are exiled and trapped in an imaginary homeland. However, the novels offer a slightly problematic solution. As Martin says of Tania early on, “the more fascinating the rest of the world found Tania's background, the more she rejected it” (107). The fact that the novels end with Tania returning to her parents and Karim embracing his ethnic roots is important as it represents a reconciliation of their ethnic and national identities. The conservative findings suggest that by maintaining ties to the past and recognizing their ethnic identity, they are able to find the strength to resist the identities imposed on them by dominant white culture. However, this conclusion is in line with the dominant White perspective that if you belong to a certain ethnic culture, you should identify with it. While it is questionable whether Tania and Karim's negotiation of their ethnic identity is successful, Jamila and Niki provide another model. Jamila is assertive and trained with feminist writers such as Angela Davis and Kate Millett. Although she was forced into a traditional arranged marriage, she negotiates her identity and models her resistance. As Suresht Renjen Bald exposes, "her radical politics seems to lose in the face of her father Anwar's hunger strike to force her to marry Changez [however] in her obedience there is also her resistance [since] her marriage is not consummated " (87 ). Niki is another strong character. She primarily functions as Etsuko's rationalizing voice, trying to ease her mother's guilt by comparing her to women who are passively stuck in unhappy marriages. She tells Etsuko that: “'So many women get stuck with kids and lousy husbands and are just miserable. But they can't find the courage to do anything about it. They'll go on like this for the rest of their lives'” (89-90). The resistance shown by these two women seems to suggest that the traditional idea of a woman blindly supporting her husband would be her downfall. Extrapolating this example, the best solution for negotiating the migrant's identity would be to appropriate dominant opinions and then act internally in contrast to Tania's outward rejection of all that is,. 1-17.

Topic > g “lathered […] with the color of the earth” (146) for his role as Mowgli. Disguising Karim's “cream skin” introduces the notion of hybridity. While exoticization is the lesser of two evils compared to being marginalized and forgotten like many postcolonial subalterns, it is equally threatening to the migrant's identity. They are confined by being labeled “exotic” and then euphemized as a “hybrid” product of the meeting of East and West. Haroon is perceived by his white followers as an Indian sage who has answers to the problems of the materialistic West. However, her white working-class in-laws are embarrassed by her heritage. Haroon's brother-in-law, for example, denies his Indian origins by calling him "Harry" because "it was bad enough being Indian in the first place, without also having an embarrassing name" (33). Hybridity traps them in perpetual otherness while emancipating them. As Andrew Smith posits, “With hybridity, anything is possible for the simple reason that hybridity is about the creation of meaning without the repression of a pre-existing normativeness or teleology” (252). In other words, the elastic nature of hybridity emancipates them because it gives them a fixed and stable identity, but at its basis there is the notion of “other”. As a result, it seems that the migrant Other cannot escape. Ishiguro is trapped in his Japanese roots, never mind that he emigrated at age six to England and has lived there ever since; Tania and Karim find themselves in a purgatory where they are worshiped for their differences. They are exiled and trapped in an imaginary homeland. However, the novels offer a slightly problematic solution. As Martin says of Tania early on, “the more fascinating the rest of the world found Tania's background, the more she rejected it” (107). The fact that the novels end with Tania returning to her parents and Karim embracing his ethnic roots is important as it represents a reconciliation of their ethnic and national identities. The conservative findings suggest that by maintaining ties to the past and recognizing their ethnic identity, they are able to find the strength to resist the identities imposed on them by dominant white culture. However, this conclusion is in line with the dominant White perspective that if you belong to a certain ethnic culture, you should identify with it. While it is questionable whether Tania and Karim's negotiation of their ethnic identity is successful, Jamila and Niki provide another model. Jamila is assertive and trained with feminist writers such as Angela Davis and Kate Millett. Although she was forced into a traditional arranged marriage, she negotiates her identity and models her resistance. As Suresht Renjen Bald exposes, "her radical politics seems to lose in the face of her father Anwar's hunger strike to force her to marry Changez [however] in her obedience there is also her resistance [since] her marriage is not consummated " (87 ). Niki is another strong character. She primarily functions as Etsuko's rationalizing voice, trying to ease her mother's guilt by comparing her to women who are passively stuck in unhappy marriages. She tells Etsuko that: “'So many women get stuck with kids and lousy husbands and are just miserable. But they can't find the courage to do anything about it. They'll go on like this for the rest of their lives'” (89-90). The resistance shown by these two women seems to suggest that the traditional idea of a woman blindly supporting her husband would be her downfall. Extrapolating this example, the best solution for negotiating the migrant's identity would be to appropriate dominant opinions and then act internally in contrast to Tania's outward rejection of all that is,. 1-17.