Bharati Mukherjee's "Wife" is an exploration of the cultural identity of the ideal Indian woman and her inability to find a sane corner when she has changed passports but cannot let go of the inherent Calcutta morals that were deeply rooted in her soul. The protagonist, Dimple Basu always complained that her husband didn't love her enough because she was not 'fat and fair'. Like most immigrant wives who supported their husband's American dream, Dimple found herself growing listless everyday. Americanness was something she was not able to grasp, as to her it was about women wearing pants, eating pizzas and murder. The glamorous future in America that was in her head was shattered by the immigrant experience that made her into a woman who found very little things to like in life. She was suffocated with her husband and the cultural shock that she received after growing up in a middle class bengali home. She fails to overcome what America doesn't have to offer and chooses her version of the American identity that was gruesome and vile.

"Women on television got
away with murder" is the closing statement of the novel, hinting at a final quest for hope for Dimple. Does she escape like the women do on television? Or will the little Ballygunge circle in America continue talking about how the Basus failed to be Americans for a really long time? To an onlooker, Dimple might just appear to be a failure. But she is another woman that the Indian culture brainwashed into believing that she was nothing if not the ideal Indian wife.