Published Online:June 2026
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES060626
DOI:10.71329/IUPJES/2026.21.2.65-71
Author Name:Yasir Ahmed and Shahila Zafar
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:65-71
Although the notion of identity has sociopolitical and historical aspects of life embedded in it, it is not fixed; it fluctuates in response to variables like location and culture, as the identity of an individual or a group is closely associated with different sociopolitical aspects. This paper explores the process of formation and transformation of the identity of diasporic characters in H M Naqvi’s novel Home Boy, which recounts the lives of Muslim migrants in the US in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The formation and transformation of identity takes place both at the physical and psychological levels. The consequences of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, while exposing these characters’ hybrid identities, also transform them from New Yorkers to their indigenous identity, implying remigration.
H M Naqvi’s novel Home Boy recounts the lives of Pakistani immigrants whose diasporic identities change with the changing social and political context around them. Cohen (2008) argues that a diaspora is an emotional and physical intertraverse between two different cultures, i.e., the culture of the homeland and that of the adopted land.