It is those who leave their homeland who struggle the most in Interpreter of Maladies. Do you agree?
It is those who leave their homeland who struggle the most in Interpreter of Maladies. Do you agree?
Though Jhumpa Lahiri is a London born writer who grew up in Rhode Island in the United States of America and is now currently living in New York; she is able to craftily expose the fragility of immigrants while settling in a new environment in her debut novel – Interpreter of Maladies. Although Lahiri’s parents’ ultimately adjusted to living in America, they must have had frequent longings of their mother land, allowing Lahiri the opportunity to observe, first hand, the often painful adjustment of immigrants living in an adopted country. The psychological dislocation that immigrants often suffer can cause their children to feel a similar sense of alienation and loneliness, as depicted in several of Lahiri’s stories. Homesickness that is mostly felt by the majority of migrants in the early years of their new settlement is contrastingly portrayed between new migrants and migrants who have migrated for some time. Lahiri then compares the characters’ ability to assimilate in a foreign culture and proves to the reader the broad spectrum of integration that is achievable by migrants. However, the identity crisis suffered by new migrants is inescapable for second generation migrants as well.
The predominant factors for unhappiness for immigrants are due to isolation and loneliness. These isolation and loneliness is not just limited to isolation from their new society, but also the underlying lack of communication between individuals in a marriage. Mrs. Sen is the most obvious character that is traumatised not just by the foreignism of the new culture, but also not positively affected due to the lack of communication between her and her husband. Lahiri candidly demonstrates the severity of Mrs. Sen’s loneliness: “I cannot sometimes sleep in so much silence.”, and the desolate fact that she is not living within a community where “one whole neighbourhood and a half of
Though Jhumpa Lahiri is a London born writer who grew up in Rhode Island in the United States of America and is now currently living in New York; she is able to craftily expose the fragility of immigrants while settling in a new environment in her debut novel – Interpreter of Maladies. Although Lahiri’s parents’ ultimately adjusted to living in America, they must have had frequent longings of their mother land, allowing Lahiri the opportunity to observe, first hand, the often painful adjustment of immigrants living in an adopted country. The psychological dislocation that immigrants often suffer can cause their children to feel a similar sense of alienation and loneliness, as depicted in several of Lahiri’s stories. Homesickness that is mostly felt by the majority of migrants in the early years of their new settlement is contrastingly portrayed between new migrants and migrants who have migrated for some time. Lahiri then compares the characters’ ability to assimilate in a foreign culture and proves to the reader the broad spectrum of integration that is achievable by migrants. However, the identity crisis suffered by new migrants is inescapable for second generation migrants as well.
The predominant factors for unhappiness for immigrants are due to isolation and loneliness. These isolation and loneliness is not just limited to isolation from their new society, but also the underlying lack of communication between individuals in a marriage. Mrs. Sen is the most obvious character that is traumatised not just by the foreignism of the new culture, but also not positively affected due to the lack of communication between her and her husband. Lahiri candidly demonstrates the severity of Mrs. Sen’s loneliness: “I cannot sometimes sleep in so much silence.”, and the desolate fact that she is not living within a community where “one whole neighbourhood and a half of