Fractured Identity in Fault Lines

Fractured identity in Fault Lines

Fault Lines (1993), by Meena Alexander, is an autobiography that depicts the broken nature of Alexander’s third world culture incorporated in a western first world country. Alexander portrays her life as disjoint and without a sense of belonging through emphasizing the feeling of disconnection between herself and the different environments she lives in. Her life revolves around her insecure and naive self-identity. The utilization of rhetorical questions, negative diction and imagery represent Alexander’s fractured identity.

Throughout the excerpt, Alexander uses rhetorical questions to focus attention on her own insecure nature and disconnection from the decisions and environment around her. As she reflects on her life, “night after night”(9), she questions her “crookedness of flesh, thrown back at the eyes”(11) that catch sight of her. Alexander dehumanizes herself by referring to herself as “crookedness of flesh” which contributes to her thoughts of her own lack of belonging and insecurities. The negative and degrading connotation of the statement “crookedness of flesh” (11), depicts the pessimistic view of herself conveying her lack of self-confidence and self-assurance which indicates an aspect of her fractured identity. “But questions persist” (55), as she asks herself “what could i ever be but a mass of faults, a fault mass?” (58). Alexander utilizes chiasmus to emphasize her self-deprecation and the lack of worth and value she sees in herself. This portrays her fractured identity through the aspect of disbelief and a demeaning perception of herself. Through the use of rhetorical questions, it evidently depicts her lack of self-respect which connects to the overall depiction of a fractured lifestyle.

Alexander’s use of negative and demeaning diction and imagery signifies the unsatisfied view she has of herself and depicts the appalling ways she treats herself, which is an aspect of her fractured identity. On summer nights Alexander “tormented myself.. worrying myself sick” (82) because of the lack of connection she has towards the “multiple migrations”(80) she’s experienced.