On the one hand, he combines and imaginatively interprets and interweaves the textual traces from the pages of Sir Gierson’s diary. It seems that Ghosh’s manner of constructing Deeti’s identity in his narrative is a two dimensional process. Deeti can also be seen to transform herself into a new identity allowing for meta-fictional reflection and an acceptance of destinies as indicated in her decision to marry Kalua who rescued her from sati.Įven then she did not feel herself to be living in the same sense as before: a curious feeling, of joy mixed with resignation, crept into her heart, for it was as if she really had died and been delivered betimes in rebirth, to her next life: she had shed the body of the old Deeti, with the burden of its karma she had paid the price her stars had demanded of her, and was free now to create a new destiny as she willed, with whom she chose… (SOP 178).

The episodes which follow the main character, Deeti stress at one level, the struggle between capitalism and socialism at another level, the narrative appears to be a clash for the hierarchical power.

But the creation has a deeper level that Ghosh has effortlessly gone to sea depths by carefully peeling its social, economic and political layers and at a still deeper level, the metaphysical. A superficial reading of the novel might give the impression that it is a historical novel set in the colonial period as it records the dramatic turn of events and destinies befalling the main protagonist and her interaction with a hodgepodge of other characters with whom she moves from land to river and climactically travel through sea. Colonial upheaval interrupts the contours of the roles assumed by the persons in the social context. Identity construction is a prominent element in this novel but appears to be influenced by the ethico-political and socio-economic dynamics that constantly change characters’ roles and trajectories to reconstruct new identities in new milieu. Identity, oppression, colonialism, rootlessness, self- invention The present study examines not only the individuals’ quest for representing themselves in various means but also how the characters in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies attempt to reconstruct their identity by hiding their names, bodies, caste and racial origins and ultimately restart their lives to fill new essence. Research Scholar, The American College, Madurai

Ghosh sea of poppies