Baglady

People often judges other peoples identity, based on their material goods, like houses and cars. They even allow their own capital affect on their own identity.
To enter the Good Fortune Shopping mall, you need to have a good identity. The search for an identity is central in Baglady. In her short story, “Baglady” from 1999, A. S. Byatt writes about Daphne whose husband, Rollo, is to go on a business-trip to the Far East. Through 3'rd person narrator, she highlights identity as the theme, showing that how much, people think about their image and identity.

Daphne Gulver-Robinson is married to her husband, Rollo, whom she accompanies on a business trip in the Far East. The trip they are going on to, is no a couple trip. Rollo has invited Daphne on the trip, only because he wants to portray him as a normal family, like the others on the trip. He was afraid that his colleges would think that he was odd, if she didn’t come. Because it mean so much for him, that Daphne need to go with him, it gets you thinking that there is something wrong, because it seems like it only matters how everyone thinks he's a family guy, instead of actually being a normal family guy. Daphne thinks that she is a social misfit, because of her appearance, quote from the text “She has tried to make her attractive for this jaunt and has lost ten pounds and had her hands manicured; but now she sees the other ladies, she knows it is not enough".
The image and the materialistic things, as appearance and the weight loss, is a high factor for her. We don’t hear Daphne’s exact age, but I think that she is more mature and older than the other wives on the trip. Daphne wouldn’t actually want to travel, she rather wanted to stay at home. Quote from the text “That is, of course I want you, but I do know you're happier with the geese and the donkeys and pigs and things.” Daphne doesn’t like the social life, in the materialistic world where the others wives belong.

In the story, the story moves on to the main event, a shopping trip to the Good Fortune Mall. A. S. Byatt describes the mall as enormous and ugly, but the narrator says, quote from the text “but it is not for the outside they have come, and they hasten to trip inside”. Policemen where standing by the entrance, and was there to prevent unwelcome visitors. Inside the mall, there is a place called “no-man’s land” it is between the customers and the police. “No-man’s land” describes the difference between two countries, or the difference between two cultures. Nobody besides rich western people are allowed inside the mall. Daphne describes the center in a way, that she thinks it is cold and lifeless. When it is time to leave the mall, Daphne can’t she find a way out. She is unable to find a way out. She runs, and when she runs, more things are lost, and at when she stopped, she realizes to herself, that she does not have any identification left. Now the text breaks away from the realistic track it has followed. The Good Fortune Shopping Mall, now extends into the earth and sky, Daphne can’t leave, but now a policeman approaches Daphne, who cries for help. Daphne does not have any ID-papers or passport, therefor the policeman ask her to leave the mall. The story end with the policeman trying the get rid of Daphne, because he thinks she appears to be a baglady. One theme is the clash between two cultures. The difference between Daphne and the oriental culture are mentioned a lot of times. As quote from the text “isolated by bulletproof glass from the smells and sound of the Orient”. This quote gives a feeling like your in some difference between war and violence and rich people. The wives and the people from the Orient is totally contrast. The main theme in this short story is identity, how does western people define their moral and ethic standard. Daphne developed from upper class to the baglady, the experience she goes through can be read as a symbol of never changing life, the western people are so proud to have. When Daphne trying to get out of the mall, she loses her identity at the same time, she broke a shoe and the shoe was some of Daphne’s identity, also therefor the policeman thought that she was a baglady. A. S. Byatt criticize the Western way of identifying people by their personal things, and their image, and not by the personality.

The short story is a post-modernistic, the elements when Daphne loses all her thing, and loses her own identity, it is a post-modernistic element. A. S. Byatt does not actually tells us, what the connection is between losing your identity and losing your things are related. But A. S. Byatt still writes in such way, that we the readers are able to make sense out of the connection between and understand the story.