A Four Hundred Year Old Woman

Allusion - creative figure of speech that a writer uses to engage the reader by referring to a place, person, or event that is familiar Bharati Mukherjee realizes the road ahead will be difficult, but she also sees the difficulty in her current situation. Can you figure out why she uses the italicized allusion in this excerpt? (o video) “The nuns at school, on the other hand, insinuated that India had long outlived its glories, and that if we wanted to be educated, modern women, and make something of our lives, we'd better hit the trail westward.”

Allusions engages the reader and helps them better understand the author's point. conveys the author's vision without the use of too many words. allows the author to imply meaning based on similar experiences.

born in India educated in England the author uses allusions to express her desire to be an American and a writer. Can you identify any allusions she uses to make her point? “I have found my way in the United States after many transit stops. The unglimpsed phantom Faridpur and the all too real Manhattan have merged as "desh." I am an American. I am an American writer, in the American mainstream, trying to extend it.”

“I have found my way in the United States after many transit stops “I have found my way in the United States after many transit stops. The unglimpsed phantom Faridpur and the all too real Manhattan have merged as "desh." I am an American. I am an American writer, in the American mainstream, trying to extend it.” "transit stops” are the many countries the author has experienced in her life, beginning with her ancestors in Bangladesh, then to India, England, Canada, and finally to the United States. "The unglimpsed phantom Faridpur, is referring to the town Faridpur, Bangladesh, where her ancestors lived. This town is now part of who she is through stories and pictures shared in her family, but she has never seen or experienced it first hand. "All too real" Manhattan refers to the lively, bustling, and alive feeling of downtown Manhattan, New York. (o video)

Considering intended audience think about how this example from "The Four Hundred Year Old Woman" might be less effective if written to an audience without access to hard cover books: “My material, reduced to jacket-flap copy, is the rapid and dramatic transformation of the United States since the 1970's.”

Considering intended audience “My material, reduced to jacket-flap copy, is the rapid and dramatic transformation of the United States since the 1970's.” referring to the flap on the inside of a hard cover book, which introduces a short summary of the book her writing has grown shorter as she has evolved as a writer this allusion would not be appropriate for an audience that didn't have access to hard cover books. In this case, the allusion might cause the reader to misunderstand the meaning. As Bharati Mukherjee continues to grow as an immigrant writer in America, her perspective as an author comes directly from her past experiences.

... there are parts of me that remain Indian, parts that slide against the masks of newer selves. The form that my stories and novels take, inevitably the resources of Indian mythology—shape changing, miracles, godly perspectives. The people I write about are culturally and politically several hundred years old: consider the history they have witnessed (colonialism, technology, education, liberation, civil war, uprooting). They have shed old identities, taken new ones, and learned to hide scars. They may sell newspapers and clean your offices at night.

I am aware of myself as a four-hundred-year-old woman, born in the captivity of a colonial, pre-industrial oral culture and living now as a contemporary New Yorker. Bharati Mukherjee sees it as her "... duty to give voice to the continents, but also to redefine the nature of American and what makes an “American".