A Father from Darkness

Migrating to the United States, for most adjusting to the American way of life is what always seems to be most challenging. One must choose their way of life whether that being adapting into a new environment or sustaining the cultural identity instilled in them. In the story, "A Father from Darkness" by Bharati Mukherjee, illustrates themes of multiculturalism, and pregnancy out of wedlock. The story brings up ideas related to the differences between one culture and another. It also questions what should be morally correct and who should decide. It brings into the light the challenges that a person who is tightly interwoven with two cultures might have. This is the story depicting a family who migrates from Ranchi, India to Detroit, Michigan. The Bhowmick family go through the disturbances of adapting to the American way of life. Mr. Bhowmick holds on to a metallic image of the Indian Hindu goddess “Kali”, the patron goddess of his family, as well as the goddess of wrath and vengeance. He noticed once that the tongue of the goddess hanging out suddenly seemed as red and saucy. Mr. Bowmick is a character of thinking as bad luck for his neighbour’s sneeze at the start of his work one morning, he feels that the goddess’s tongue is wagging at him, arousing fear in his mind. First, he is overcome with guilt at his failure to love his 26-year old daughter Babli. Babli was born in India and migrated over as a child. Over the years, Babli rejects her Hindu culture as foolish myths and fully assimilates into American culture. The change in the appearance of the goddess determines the change in the fate of Mr. Bhowmicks family. Upon learning that Babli is unmarried and pregnant, deals with a tricky situation in which the cultural and ethnic encounter is not between individuals, but attitudes acquired as well as preserved between reason and superstition. Mr. Bhowmick  is nostalgic about the feminine and tender women of his youth. He is disappointed that his daughter Babli, an electrical engineer is not feminine enough for him. He is shocked when he hears that she is pregnant through artificial insemination and not having the tendency to marry a man. Mr. Bhowmick who is a religious and spiritual man is discouraged by his wife and puts the blame on his wife saying that it was her idea of coming to America. The relationship between the members of this house also weren't very good. He had a wife that he did not love. Babli “was not the child he would have chosen as his only heir", "he regretted again that she was not the child of his dreams."