Road to a New Self: Urban Environment in the Reimagination of a Migrant’s Identity in Gimme the Money by Iva Pekarkova

Abstract

There is no other place in the world where the impact of migration is more vivid than in the streets of New York City, which is often considered to be one of the greatest cultural centers, that has been welcoming immigrants from all over the world. It is precisely them, labourers, business owners, taxi drivers, who by being the essential part of New York City’s diversity are constantly redefining its identity and whose own identities are being transformed and reimagined through the interaction with the city. In Gimme the Money Iva Pekarkova turns to New York City in order to show the immigrant identity as an identity in movement by making a leading character cruising around the city as a cab lady and by referring to the city both as to the exterior setting and the interior landscape of the leading character’s mind. The paper will offer the analysis of the personal transformation of the heroine, who because of the persistent sense of dislocation and constant observation of the city reimagines herself by relating to New York City’s streets and by becoming the part of the community of urban residents finds herself a new home.