Clothes is about a young Indian woman, Sumita, and her cultural transition to America which is symbolized through the clothes that she chooses to wear. The author, Divakaruni, allows Sumita to be one of the few that actually escape cultural bounds to become an individual. By choosing certain types of clothing, Sumita is actually making decisions on how to live about her life. The use of symbolism in this text plays a major role to developing a chronological portrayal of Sumita's choices and how they affect the overall theme of this short story. .
By naming the story Clothes, Divakaruni takes the titles and changes it into a symbol that furthers the meanings of the clothes. In this instance, Sumita's clothes symbolize her journey from her old native country traditions in India to her new independence in her and her husband's new apartment in America.
In the beginning of the story, Sumita's clothes are traditional saris, and she is accustomed to wearing them. For the bride viewing, her father goes and buys her a special sari just for that occasion. By doing this, the new sari symbolizes the new step she is about to . Sumita then goes on to say "The sari was unexpectedly heavy in my hands, silk slippery, a sari to walk carefully in. A sari that could change one's life." In the quote, the sari represents the new life that Sumita is about to step into, even though she is not ready and scared. By saying the sari is unexpectedly heavy, this symbolizes the heavy burden she is going to take on.
Once Sumita arrives in America and moves in to Somesh's new apartment, Somesh tells her about their store. To her the store's name, 7-Eleven, symbolizes something exotic and risky, maybe even foreshadowing the gift that Somesh has for Sumita. Somesh then presents his gift to Sumita, which is the new clothes he has bought and smuggled past his parents because they would not accept anything different than the sari represented by the native tradition.