Symbolism Plays a Major Role in Chitra

Symbolism plays a major role in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "Clothes," Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal," and in Colette's "The Hand." In "Clothes," the narrator is a woman in India from a traditional Bengali family. Her parents go through a lot of trouble to arrange a good marriage for her, to an Indian man who now lives in the United States. The husband-to-be flies all the way to India to meet the narrator, who dresses for her bride viewing. What she wears and how she dresses become powerful symbols of cultural and personal identity, also representing specific stages of life. In "The Hand," the narrator is a woman who was recently married to someone she barely knows, as if it were an arranged marriage. While she is in bed as her husband sleeps, the narrator contemplates her life. Her thoughts shift to issues related to gender roles through the symbolism of her husband's hand. In "Battle Royal," the narrator is an African-American man who contends with racism. The titular battle symbolizes the battle for social justice and the struggle to find a strong personal identity within a hostile society. Each of these three narratives uses symbolism to expose issues and themes related to power, culture, and identity.

In "Clothes," which is a chapter in a novel called Arranged Marriage, the imagery of clothing is related to gender, personal identity, and culture. The narrator describes her saris, and later her western style clothing, in terms of what is going in her life. At first, her parents make her marketable for marriage by giving her "the most expensive sari I had ever seen, and surely the most beautiful," (Banerjee Divakaruni 1). Wearing this sari, the narrator knew that she would be chosen to be the man's wife. It was, as she puts it, "a sari that could change one's life," (Banerjee Divakaruni 2). Clothes are also used internally in the story as a metaphor. For example, the narrator states, "the syllables rustle uneasily in my mouth like a stiff satin that's never been worn," (Divakaruni 3). Then, the narrator realizes the importance of clothes to personal identity and culture. She envisions the saris in the suitcases because they remind her of home. Later, she wears jeans and t-shirts in secret with her new husband because they are the markings of her new identity as an American woman. At the end of the story, as she wears a white sari to symbolize death, the narrator also knows that she has made the transition from a traditional life as subservient wife to a new life as a self-empowered individual. Clothes symbolize that transition.

In "The Hand," as in "Clothes," symbolism is related to gender and the social status of women. However, the narrator of "The Hand" contemplates the way she feels conscripted to living a life as a subservient housewife, symbolized by her husband's hand. Throughout the short story, the hand is a phallic symbol. The narrator observes the hand under the sheets as she lays in bed after they make love. She notices "every contour of the skin…exaggerating the powerful knuckles and the veins engorged by the pressure," (Colette). The hand symbolizes male hegemony, which is why it is described in phallic terms. Male hegemony is an ugly thing, which is why the narrator becomes obsessed with staring at the hand, at its hideousness and its hairs. Because she barely knows her husband, the narrator suddenly realizes that the hand also symbolizes her oppression and the oppression of all women. She states, "her conjugal adventure had been little more than a kidnapping," (Colette). His hand will be the one that rules over her in "her life of duplicity, of resignation, and of a lowly, delicate diplomacy," (Colette). Yet ultimately, she submits: "she leaned over and humbly kissed the monstrous hand," (Colette).

In "Battle Royal," which is a chapter in Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses symbolism to describe the brutal nature of racism in America. The titular battle refers to a fight club in which whites blindfold blacks and make them fight each other in a manner not unlike a cockfight. Treating the men like animals in this way creates a supremely degrading condition, and the narrator resents the situation. "Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man," (Ellison). He struggles internally, as he endeavors to preserve his dignity while being degraded. Sadly, the narrator has to sacrifice his dignity by participating in the Battle Royal, in order to work the system and get what he wants, which is social justice. He wants to be able to attend college, and these are the dues that the white dominant society is making him pay. "There was nothing to do but what we were told." In the end, the narrator achieves his goal of being able to go to college. However, he had to fight a racist battle to get there. The battle symbolizes the struggle within himself, and the struggle of all African-Americans.