After continuous description if the clothes sent to Alvi in her poem, the second stanza relates how Alvi tried on these clothes but felt ‘alien’ in her sitting room. Here the audience is given the impression that there was definitely culture confliction. In ‘search...’ Sanjita expresses how difficult it is to be bilingual with certain phrases. ‘if you live in a place you had to speak a foreign tongue’. Here there is a suggestion that some people were restricted from speaking their original language.
Sanjita carries on the theme of cultural identity and the problems it brings. ‘Lost the first one...and could not really know the other’. The second language seems to be alien to the original language and the writer demonstrates that she can’t fully understand a completely different culture. Alvi states in her poem that she would rather dressed in western fashions, feeling that the Pakistani clothes are too beautiful for her to wear. 'I could never be as lovely / as those clothes'. She wanted the 'denim and corduroy' that were typical of England.
In search for my tongue, the poet argues that you cannot use both ‘tongues together’, and that ‘your mother tongue would rot and die in your mouth’’ and ‘you had to spit it out’. This suggests that the second language has made the first seem as being disgusting. The shorter third stanza of ‘presents...’ focuses on a camel-skin lamp owned by her parents in which she admired the colours which she describes with the simile 'like stained glass'. In stanza 4 she switches to her English mother who ‘cherished her jewelry’. The Indian jewelry was later stolen symbolizing the fact that England stole her Asian culture.
In Sanijta’s poem, the 1st person, ‘you ask...i ask’ is used to create a personal close relation with the reader. the poem also uses harsh diction such as ‘rot’, ‘die’ and ‘spit’; again to emphasize the difficulties of speaking two languages. The repetition of these words also emphasizes the frustration and anger she feels. The poems from is well suited to its subject. The Guajarati stands out in the poem, conveying that it is important in her life. It is almost given equal status to the English language as it is not translated. The poem speaks differently to different people.
Alvi’s poem is written as a 1st person narrative to enable readers to emphasize with the mixed emotions of the poet. Imagery is used throughout the poem to help us visualize scenes and items for instance the lamp is described as having colours like ‘stained glass’. Positive and negative diction is juxtaposed throughout to contrast the two cultures and show the potential problems that could rise.
Both poems use metaphorical language to show their ideas on their identity and language. Alvi uses metaphors like ‘there was a conflict, a fractured land’, to show her own feelings of not fitting in. However in Bhatt’s poem, she uses metaphorical language to describe her mother tongue growing back like a flower, ‘every time I think I’ve forgotten...it blossoms out of my mouth. This defines her real self and also portrays an image of a bursting flower in the readers mind. The word gives positive significance.
In conclusion both poems are very similar in expressing the difficulties with being stuck with two cultures. The theme of the value of life, without its conflicts is eventually conveyed towards the end of Bhatt’s poem. However the teenage girl in ‘presents from my aunts’ feels she does not know her ‘real’ identity and is still left feeling ‘alien in the sitting room’ frustrated with her internal conflict.
