By naming the story “Clothes” Divakaruni takes the titles and turns it into a symbol for something in the story.
In this instance Sumita’s clothes symbolize her journey from her old naitve country traditions in India to her new independence in her and her husband’s new apartment in America. Divakaruni writes this story to show the readers that most Indian country tradition is for the daughter to have an arranged marriage, with someone she may not know and love at the same time but will soon grow to love in the end. The author uses symbolism to take the title to a further meaning than just clothes.In the beginning of the story Sumita’s clothes are the traditional saris of her country of which she is accustomed to wearing. For the bride viewing her father goes and buys her a new special sari just for the bride viewing.
By doing this the new sari symbolizes the new life she is about to begin. Sumita then goes on to say “The sari was unexpectedly heavy in my hands, silk slippery, a sari to walk carefully in. A sari that could change one’s life. ” In the quote the sari represents the new life that Sumita is about to step into even though she is not ready and scared.By saying the sari is unexpectedly heavy ; this symbolizes the heavy burden she is about to take on.
When Sumita puts on the new sari she know that Somesh and his parents will choose her to be his bride. Once Sumita arrives in America in her and Somesh’s new apartment, Somesh tells her about their store. To her the store’s name 7-Eleven symbolizes something exotic and risky. Somesh then presents her with the new clothes he has bought and smuggled past his parents because they would not accept anything different than the sari represented by the native tradition.The clothes are jeans and a close fitting t-shirt representing the new life he wants for her in America. They are not like her saris that she has worn all her life, they are different, they are free spirited.
The t-shirt is the color of sunrise- orange which to her symbolizes a new joy for life. The new clothes Sumita gets from Somesh symbolize the new life he wants to give her when they move out of the two room apartment with his parents. Sumita starts to feel crowded and smothered by the space in the apartment with his parents as she says “it seems to me if we all breathed in at once, there would be no air left.Though Sumita is in America, she still lives the life of the Indian tradition by having to cover her head with her nylon Japan sari and serve tea to the old women that come to visit Mother Somesh. Then unexpectedly at the store Somesh is murdered and Sumita starts to see that she will have to go back to India with his parents and be their servant which is their tradition.
But Somesh wanted Sumita to go to college and choose a career to become into her own. The author uses Sumita’s new clothes to symbolize Sumita’s new life in America as from her old saris which symbolize her past in India.
