Clothes by Chitra Divakaruni

¶ … Clothes" by Chitra Divakaruni

The initiation story: "Clothes"

"Clothes" by Chitra Divakaruni is a coming-of-age story filled with irony about the immigrant experience of East Asian women. It is an initiation story that follows a progression of three stages: the innocence, experience, and maturity that the protagonist experiences as a result of her unique experiences in an arranged marriage. After the premature death of her husband Somesh, Sumita must decide whether she wants to remain in the United States or return to her home country to serve her in-laws.

"Clothes" is a story filled with irony because on one hand, by marrying, Sumita is following a traditional pattern of life. But to follow this traditional pattern, she must go to America and leave her old ways. Being in California opens Sumita's eyes. She sees new ways for women to live. Because her arranged marriage requires her to be displaced from her traditional homeland, she is filled with a sense of independence she would never have gained had she remained in India and not married her husband. Her innocence ends with an initiation into American ways as a single woman after her husband's death and her maturity is achieved through her assertion as an independent individual, apart from her status as a wife.

A young woman with her whole life before her, she believes that she has a choice -- either to return to India to live with her in-laws the rest of her life, or to stay alone in America with the $3,605.33 that she and her husband saved together (Albert 99). Her husband, a proprietor of a 7-11 in a dangerous neighborhood, has worked hard for the family to establish a foothold in American society, and to leave his dream behind her seems like a defeat and a betrayal of his memory, as well as betrayal of her new identity.