Emerging Identities: An Application of ISA to Breaking it Up by Bapsi Sidhwa

Abstract

The research delves into Bapsi Sidhwa’s Breaking It Up which explores how the parental authority, driven by traditions of cultural ideologies, operates as Ideological state Apparatus throughout the narrative. The primary Aim of the research is to uncover the impacts of Zareen acting like a state in her daughter Feroze’s life under the influence of family and culture. The second objective is to investigate the existing Pakistani and American cultural differences through the character of Zareen and Feroze in Breaking It Up. It critiques the Family and cultural ISAs present in the Breaking It Up, which is a part of louis Althusser’s Conceptual framework of ideological state Apparatus. The research is qualitative, and it purely relies on a descriptive approach. The key findings reveal that emotional connection between the mother and daughter weakens throughout the story, which shows a negative effect of the forceful imposition of ISAs over the mind and life of the daughter. The coercion of ISAs on Feroza depicts the falsely constructed social ideologies that leads to her suffrage followed by her emerging identity throughout the short story.