Homi K. Bhabha’s Concept ‘Hybridity’ in Elizabeth Eslami’s Novel “Bone Worship”

Diah Ayuningtyas

04.31 PM

December 12, 2016

Tangerang Selatan, Banten.

Homi K. Bhabha’s Concept ‘Hybridity’ in Elizabeth Eslami’s Novel “Bone Worship”

The phenomenon of culture cannot be omitted from literary work’s discussion. The culture can be seen from the background of the author, the settings or the character of the story. Occasionally, culture is being the one of the issues in literary work’s research. In post-colonial theory, Homi K. Bhabha is the one who announcing about culture’s issue through his concept which called hybridity. In this occasion, I will explain the concept of hybridity in Elizabeth Eslami’s novel entitled Bone Worship, about how the hybridity described by each of characters in the story.

The background culture of the character in Bone Worship novel is Iranian-American. Jasmine’s father, named Yusef Fahroodi is an Iranian and his wife is an American. Those two of culture being together by arranged marriage which is in Iranian traditiom called hastegar. Because Jasmine’s father obeys to the tradition of Iranian, Yusef required his daughter, Jasmine to follow the tradition, to married by his arrangement. It is stated in the novel that:

Having failed out of school, I’m due back home. To find a job, and, my father says, to find a husband. “Is the way it happens,” he says. “Your hastegar,” your marriage. A husband will find for me in a year’s time. An arrangement, neat and clean as pressed silk. (Eslami 9)“Because that’s how they do in your father’s country. It’s called an arranged marriage.” My mother lost control of the corners of the sheet, and the whole thing fell to the floor. Immediately she retrieved it and began shaking it out vigorously. (Eslami 10)

The statement in the novel above told us and proven that the family, for especially the parents of Jasmine want to do a camouflage to the Yusef’s culture as Iranian. If we could see, the story was taking place in Chicago, America which has no tradition or culture to be followed by. Therefore, the tradition of Iranian can be leaved behind according to the setting of place of the story and remembering the mother of Jasmine was American. However, the parents are still trying to force their daughter to do an arranged marriage.

In another occasion, the process of hybridity was also seen in the story. According to M.A.R Habib in his book entitled “History of Literary Criticism” (2005), hybridity expresses a state of “in betweenness”, as in person who stands between two cultures. Thus, the character in the story reveals the concept of hybridity, it can be proven from the mother of Jasmine whom also advise Jasmine to follow the tradition of Iranian, to be married in an arrangement. Moreover, the mother do anything to make it happen, for instance, when she put the profile of Jasmine in the mass media to promote her daughter. It can be seen in the novel:

“Oh my God, are you serious? You’re putting an ad for me in the paper?!” She shushes me. “Well, it’s nothing to freak out over honey.” We’re not using names or anything. It’s perfectly safe—your father and I will screen them before they even see you.” (Eslami 37)

For an American, Jasmine’s mother actually does not need to follow the tradition of Iranian, but she has do it because she were belong to those two of cultures, between American and Iranian. Her position between two cultures make her to follow another culture actually make her own identity as an American can be disappeared.

            Besides, Jasmine’s father, Yusef also do a process of hybridity. In one side, he preserve his own culture and tradition by required his daughter to married with Iranian tradition. However, he cannot fade away from American culture and he has to do an adaptation with it, because he is not leave in Iran. This process can be found when he recently move to America, he tries to do as same as the American to be accepted by his neighbor and to proof that he is a person that can be trusted by American. It can be seen in the novel:

During the first year of their marriage, my mother attended these parties with my father. He was a young Iranian doctor, new in town, whit an American wife in tow. He felt he had to prove himself to the townspeople, as a doctor, as someone to be trusted. He felt that such proof involve a wife standing at his side, holding a drink or a napkin in her small white hand. (Eslami 13)

The statement below told us how hard Jasmine Father’s try to be accepted by the American and try no longer seemed as a stranger and an exotic person to American. Fortunately, he is a doctor that can be the supporting aspect that make him accepted for townspeople’s health.

            In his adaptation, Jasmine’s father have to deal with the food that American ordinarily eat. Iranian people eat soup, meat and protein, but he have to eat like American people, such as bread and cheese and drink an alcohol. It claimed in the story:

He tried alcohol once—Cold Duck—and found that it played with his cellular composition, with the ratio of gastric juices in his gut. He found himself on a beach somewhere, making snow angels, in the sand, with dinner running down the front of shirt.

The act of Jasmine’s father above is the other example of the hybridity because he lives between two cultures, so he do a camouflage as if he is an American. He act like American, drinking and eating their food to reassure American people in accepting him as the part of them.

Jasmine’s father brought the habitual of Iranian to the place that he stand for now, America. In chapter six, he tries to cook a traditional food from Iran, he cooks a soup. The way he prepares the ingredients and material for cooking is influenced by Iranian. It stated in the story:

He touches and shifts his rice he way people bathe babies, careful not to let soap get in their eyes. “If you don’t get the starch off, the rice will be so sticky,” he warns. Clumpy. “My mother always washed the rice like his,” he says. And I try to imagine her baptizing his fat baby head in a tub. (Eslami 81)

The statement above claimed that Jasmine’s father is not forgetting the tradition or the habitual of Iranian even though he is living in America. This is the result that he is not leaving his background culture.

            Moreover, Jasmine also show a process of cultural hybridity through her curiosity about the Iranian Culture. Even though she is not accepting to married by the Iranian tradition or  by married in arrangement, she tries to learn about the tradition of Iranian, in the novel there are some statement giving a proven that she curious about the culture of Iranian and want to know more about Iran :

Some of time I spend studying up on Iran. Reading books about arranged marriages and Persian carpets. Looking for evidence of my father’s life under the “Tehran, Iran” entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica. (Eslami 15)

In some part of the story in the novel, Jasmine is also being encouraged by some people to learn more about Iran. For instance, when she meets with Professor Rhodes and the Professor:

When I first visited him in the office a week after we talked outside, he said: “Don’t be lazy, Jasmine. You could learn Farsi. You could research Tehran. You don’t need your father to educate yourself.” He put a copy of Rumy in my hands. He was always putting things in my hand. He encouraged me to make lists and to be open. (Eslami 32)

Besides that, Jasmine’s mother also tries to make her look like an Iranian woman by deciding which clothes that Jasmine have to wear. The clothes that her mother chooses for Jasmine are in a big size, alike the most of clothes in Iranian. We could see from this statement:

How could I have forgotten this? My entire life, every time I’ve gone shopping with my mother, she’s always disappeared while I’m in the dressing room trying on outfits, only to reappear with clothes several sizes too big for me. And somehow, all those years before college, I ended up trusting her choices, drowning myself in a sea of thick fabric, making myself look twenty pounds heavier than I was. (Eslami 41)

Some of encouragement above try to influence Jasmine’s identity, Jasmine tries to recognize two kind of different culture through how to speak and how to wear. In Iran the most of people are speaking in Farsi, in home, her father also speaks in Farsi. Jasmine lives between two mixing cultures. For the clothes, American have a different style with Iranian, American are not considering the value of norms, but Iranian is still up to it, this is the reason why Jasmine’s mother chooses the big size for Jasmine.  

The way Jasmine disapproving the marriage arrangement is also told us that actually Jasmine is not following the culture of Iranian, we can see through the story:

I am not a child of Iran, merely a child of a transplanted Iranian and an America. Even he was serious, I could play possum. I could postpone the wedding. Even if there was already a man singled out, having his teeth professionally cleaned, being fitted to a tuxedo. I thought myself: I can get out of it. Perhaps I will turn out to be unmarriageable. (Eslami 12)

Even though Jasmine ignores the tradition, in another occasion in the story, Jasmine is learning about Iranian language called Farsi. In the story, Jasmine says: ”Once I tried; I bought a “How to Speak Farsi” tape so that I could learn to speak his first language.” (Eslami 102). The statement that given by Jasmine is the proof that she is still want to learn about his father’s culture.

Furthermore, Jasmine does no mind to follow the tradition that American celebrate, for example when she want to have a dinner with her family and Dr. Ahmadi, it was when they are celebrating thanksgiving. In contrast, her father does not follow the celebration, does not eat a turkey and eat his own food which is rice with some peas instead.

As a result, the concept of hybridity that reveals in this novel is not successful, because the character not affected by another culture and stay in the third space. The cultural hybridity that appears in the novel does not affect the background culture of each characters in the story, the characters stand still with their own identity and culture. Even though each of character try to follow another culture besides their own culture, they are still not leaving the original culture of them. Especially for Jasmine, the position of Jasmine is truly in the third space between East (Iranian) and West (American), but she is not getting influenced and empowered by those two culture, she becomes herself and occasionally mix the culture by learning the tradition of each cultures.

Works Cited List

Eslami, Elizabeth. Bone Worship. New York: Pegasus Books, 2010.

Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present. Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.