Identity and Heredity

Identity is an important element of a person's self esteem. This identity comes from the way a person looks at his own behavior and feeling about who he is as a person. Heredity in this context is the identity that a person has from who his parents are and what their traditions might be. In this novel, these two definitions of identity are at war with each other when it comes to specific main characters within the novel. Samad is an immigrant from Bangladesh whose family was highly religious and steeped in great tradition. Now that Samad lives in England, he has found a world that is less strict and more open to behaviors that had been banned by Samad's religious upbringing. This causes Samad to have an identity crisis, especially when faced with the temptations of sex and alcohol, both things that were highly regulated...