Compare the ways in which the poet presents confusion about identity in 'Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan" with the ways confusion about identity is presented in one other poem.

lovely as these clothes". This quote suggests that she finds her Pakistani culture "lovely" but does not consider herself in that way, so therefore not as a Pakistani young woman despite the constant reminders from the presents from her Aunts. She does not consider herself as of an English identity either as she describes how she "found myself alone" when she arrived in English, therefore the reader can identify she feels isolated in both the Pakistani and English culture, triggering her confusion as to which she belongs to. In SFMT Bhatt says how she "lost the first one, the mother tongue and could not really know the other". This suggests that Bhatt has forgotten her Gujarati background, due to living in a foreign country, but cannot know the other language as she does not feel comfortable using other peoples language as her own and as it is not her mother tongue, she will never quite be able to know it as well. This is similar to Alvi's situation, she is in a new environment, which she has got considerably used to but does not feel comfortable as identifying herself as British, as she still has strong feelings about her original identity. This therefore leads to confusion for both the women as to what is their national identity.In Presents... the metaphor "snapped, drew blood" is used. In one sense, it represents the "Candy-striped glass bangles" maybe breaking due to the mistreatment of them , perhaps Alvi, having lost most of her Pakistani identity, did not know how to care for them properly. It could also represent that the Pakistani culture does not belong in England, it causes her pain to be reminded of her split identity in terms of culture, as would "bleeding". Search for My Tongue also uses a metaphor, an extended one of a blossoming flower, "it grows back, a stump of a shoot" to represent the mother tongue blossoming out of her mouth. Flowers are natural and this therefore signifies Bhatt not being able to control her first nature, her mother tongue. In this way the poems are also similar, as the confusion about identity is brought by being reminded of their original culture, however, for Alvi it is unnaturally, her Aunts remind her through their actions but for Bhatt it is as if nature intended it, it happens with no thought. Both poems use enjambement, the meaning of the lines run onto the next ones. Enjambement represents how the readers are so confused about their identity, they cannot manage to even structure sentences properly. It also represents how their original identity is constantly flowing through them, for Bhatt it is no matter how much she thinks it will "rot and die" and for Alvi it could be considered as comforting as she describes items from her Pakistani culture in positive ways such as "peacock-blue", which is associated with peacocks who are considered as beautiful.SFMT is laid out as one stanza, which represents how closely knitted together her two separate identities are, therefore showing her confusion about which language to use, leading her to not use one at all. In the first third, she discusses how she has "lost my tongue", no matter how hard it is for people to believe. Central to the poem is a section of Gujarati, her mother tongue. This could mean that Gujarati is still central to her as her "mother tongue", and because of this she cannot "spit it out" and get rid of it. She says she is reminded of the Gujarati "while I dream", which confirms that she cannot control it, it is part of her nature and even her sub-conscious mind triggers it despite her trying to speak English. Presents... is laid out in separate stanzas, perhaps representing her split cultures. However, the stanzas seem to be presented quite hap-hazardly, with various sentence lengths, and this could be representing her confusion about her identity, she cannot write properly, she may feel uncomfortable about writing in English, it is betraying her Pakistani side. There is no rhyme in Presents..., which also represents her confusion and betrayal, SFMT has no rhyme either, perhaps for the same reason. Overall, I would say that SFMT represents confusion about identity in the best way, as she manages to strongly represent the two sides of her culture, and manages to make them stand out from each other in the way that English surrounds the foreign and obscure looking Gujarati language, emphasising just why she feels confused as the reader can feel empathy. Presents From my aunts in Pakistan does not quite display the differences that well and does not have many things that the reader can quite identify with if they do not know the Asian culture very well.