Acculturation in Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup

This paper aims to explore the process of acculturation in the Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer’s novel The Pickup (2001). The Pickup deals with universal problems of identity, race and class, bureaucratic impediments, and cultural differences. The setting takes place in post-apartheid Johannesburg and in an unnamed Arab country that dominates the largest part of the novel. Julie, the South African protagonist, willingly embarks on straddling another culture, very different from her own, and accustoms herself to adopting new habits, traditions, social practices and even religious beliefs. Julie’s motivations are examined and her dialogue and actions are analyzed throughout her acculturation process. The context in which she acquires and embraces the new culture and chooses to place herself in is also examined. During the course of naturalizing herself to the new culture, Julie preserves some practices from her old culture and becomes open to a new set of norms. At the end, Julie’s new identity is formed at the culmination of her acculturation process and becomes an amalgamation of the old and the newly-acquired culture; thus, resulting in the emergence of a stronger hybrid identity to the effect that she refuses to leave the Arab country to America with her husband