A Life on the Hyphen-Bicultural Identity in Virgil Suarez’s Going Under

Abstract

This thesis is intended to delve into the one-and-a-half generation of Cuban-American’s bicultural identity in Virgil Suarez’s novel Going Under. Through an interpretation from the perspective of diaspora consciousness, this paper will identify how the main character constructs his individual identity through a network of usually competitive and incompatible elements like language, culture, religion, political ideologies and so on. Xavier Cuevas, the protagonist in this novel, maintains an unstable relationship with the American culture which he believes he has been wholly assimilated. The tension and anxiety lead him to “go under” and search for roots to return to the moment before exile.