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Chameleon

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Chameleon is a short story written by Ranbir Sahot. It´s a forbidden love story, where an Indian girl and an English boy are in a relationship. The main charcrecter is the Indian girl called Rita, she has lived her whole life in Britain and got British values. None of the parents thinks that Rita and Mark the boy can be together because of their cultures. Mark comes from a white catholic home and his parents thinks that he needs to find a girl “that´s not” Indian girl. Rita´s parents lives after the old tradition in Indian were the parents choose the husband for their girl, but Rita has grown up in Britain and don’t understand the old Indian traditions, she wants to pick her own husband and if she have to choose it will be with mark.
Rita as a person is living a double life. She is with her English boyfriend Mark, who she cannot be seen with in public, while she is with her family who is trying strenuously to find an Indian husband to her who knows the traditional Indian values and will treat Rita with Indian manners “You need an Indian boy from a good family who will respect and look after you, not like those white boys” where this quote explains the point of view her parents have on her.

In the start of the short story Rita sort of obey her parents, even though she would never marry one of the guys. In an argument with her mother, Rita is showing a rebellious behavior by saying “So it’s okay for him to expect me to be beautiful, fair and virginal or demand that I live with him and his parents, but I can’t hope that he has some cash so that once in a while I can get away from the shit-hole that would be my life” because of the expectations her parents have on her. In some sort of way, they expect her to be “lady-like” and for her to have loads of respect towards her upcoming man. Rita is trying her hardest to break the social norms and break the gender roles that exists in the traditional Indian way of life.

Rita has always seen herself as being a part of the English culture since she was born and raised in England. Even though she and Mark love each other much, it happens that Mark’s family isn’t as easy to go on with as Rita thought. Mark is from a catholic family where his mother finds it difficult to go along with Rita, which is unexpected for her as she thought it was only her parents who had racial problems “Your parents are liberal, middle-class people – they’re not supposed to be racist. They haven’t even met me, and they don’t even want to know me” where this quote indicates that the couple seems to be in the same position.

Throughout the story Rita seems to go through a personal development, but it sure is hard for her to come out to her parents. The complete transformation happens in the very end as Mark is ready to announce their relationship to his mother and go out in public to confirm their unconditional love towards each other, where Mark says “Rita, this is ridiculous. Let’s get it out in the open. Let me meet them. What will they do, kill me?” (p. 105). This makes Rita extremely anxious and completely ambivalent about the whole situation. To actually face her problems is something she has never prepared herself for, and in this moment Rita is not ready to come clear. As though, another thought comes to her mind as she thinks about losing Mark forever “I lay back down on the bed and just shook my head at Mark. I would explain later. It was just so peaceful there as the breeze from the window cooled me down. I turned to him and smiled. Downstairs, I opened the door. Mum, Dad, I’d like you to meet someone”

Rita´s parents wants Rita to wed an indian man, and follow the indian tradition. Rita is against her parent’s decision. She can't comprehend their reasoning. Mark and Rita met at college. He made her laugh like no one else. For her he was unique compared with the Indian men she knew. Rita feels that everything is right with Mark. Rita's parents were exceptionally disappointed with Rita´s decision. She wouldn´t be a “right” Indian girl and she wouldn't wed an Indian man.

She was the opposite the parent´s wanted her to be. Her mom started to push her more until Rita consented to meet an Indian man. Rita was worn out on her mom attempting to control her life.
Rita had chosen to meet an Indian man, her mom welcomed three men for supper. Rita needed to converse with them and discover in which one she was intrigued by the most. One of them was gay, yet his parent´s didn't have a clue. It is only the way it is; Indians aren't gay. One of the men that came into chat with her was Raju. He was good looking and he had attention. The most astounding was that he knew Mark and he realized that Rita and Mark are seeing one another. He plays football with Mark and Mark had told him about Rita. After Raju went home, she discovered that there wasn't anything wrong with Indian men. Her concern is that; they are not Mark. He was decent, and it had been a giggle conversing with him, however he wasn't Mark.

What is a Chameleon?

A Chameleon is known as an animal, which change colour to suit its surroundings. A Chameleon can also be a person who adapts its opinions and its behavior after its environment. On the inside Rita sounds like an English girl and she also feels like a English girl. But because she is born as a Indian girl and has a dark skin colour, that’s all people can see. “I was white in every way, apart from my skin colour –I listened to white music, whore white clothes and ate white food; and I was white enough to marry Mark. I conveniently forgot that I knew how to eat curry with my fingers or clean myself using only my hands and water after a shit; that I spoke fluent Hindi.” This quote explains that Rita still remember the Indian traditions as eating curry with her fingers, but she doesn’t do it because she wants to live like a English girl together with Mark.
Rita is also using a face crème, which gives her a lighter skin tone. “My pale face stared back from the bedroom mirror that day. Instead of moisturiser, I applied Fair and Beautiful bleaching cream.” This is also a specific example of that Rita is acting like a Chameleon, because she will look like a white girl and fit into the English environment.
When her father introduced her to the Mrs Methi’s nephews Rita knows that she is in a environment with her family and a certain group of people, where she had to behave properly. “I took a deep breath and walked into the lounge. Everyone stared at me.”
And when she has to talk with one of the nephews alone, then she loosen up. “…We both started to laugh, for no real reason.”

Themes

One of the essential themes in this short story is forbidden love, and we see the forbidden love because none of the parents thinks that Rita and Mark needs to be together, Rita´s parents want´s to choose the right husband for Rita. Rita doesn´t agree with her parents say so and stays with Mark. The forbidden love I also shown in the short story by the culture difference between the two lovers. Another essential theme in this short story is also the clash of cultures, we see this in Rita´s parents descion where they want to choose her husband but if we look on the women in the west where the women can choose who she want´s to be with and when she want´s to marry. We can see that Rita´s parents are still living after the old tradition from a male dominated country India.

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