The rite of passage is often marked as a turning point in your journey to becoming an adult. It can be confirmation or bar mitzvah. The turning point can also be marriage or death, because when marrying someone you grow with the other person; you can no longer fool around, act childish, you have to settle down and grow old with your soul mate. When death occurs you are forced to grow up and maybe even take some responsibility, which could possibly be arranging the funeral or comforting the ones that are left behind. You could possibly be one of people that are left behind which means, by losing your soul mate, you are now forced to grow into your own person. Though death and marriage are quite unique events, they can actually be seen as the turning points in the short story Clothes.
Clothes is written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and was published in 1996 as a part of her collection of short stories Arranged Marriages. The short story is about Sumita, who lives in India with her family. Her father finds a husband, and arranges a marriage. Sumita marries Somesh Sen, an American/Indian man, and moves to America with him. He gets shot and dies. Sumita’s parents-in-law, Somesh’s parents, want to move back to India, but Sumita wants to stay in America. The short story ends with a mature and grown Sumita looking at herself in the mirror.
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