ABSTRACT
Ethnic women in America are clearly twice-marginalized: by virtues of their ethnicity and their gender. The identities that Mukherjee's women eventually emerge with exemplify the characteristics of a whole new breed in this country, the "ethnic" who is also "American". The process of finding their identities must be a matter of intense struggle: with the self, with tradition, with the wonders and horrors of a new culture, with growing aspirations, hopes, and desires. Where gender, race, and the American experience meet in Bharati Mukherjee, the intersection is fraught with the tension of combat, even when the combat itself needs to be identified in subtextual moments. Apparently, Mukherjee's growing concern is that these newborn identities should not suffer from the terror of marginalization, a concern that is probably legitimate to immigrants everywhere. There is a simultaneous fracturing and evolving of identity going on here, in terms of both ethnicity and gender, which is true of the experience of multiculturalism.
