A Comparative Analysis Of Fasting, Feasting By Anita Desai

In The Namesake, author Jhumpa Lahiri makes it is easy to see how absurdly different American culture is from that in India along with the gradual adaptation to American culture within this Bangladesh family. Every contrasting part of their culture is purposefully made apparent by the author to truly help bring understanding to the reader. It is my goal not only to list many of these differences, but to also sum up the events of this book.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth is comprised of eight short stories about different Indian families’ struggles in America, many of them going through the immigrant experience. The conflicts are with friends and family, and also with themselves, as each of them attempt to find their own identity along with fitting in with the rest of society. One of the causes of these struggles that because the families in the stories are mixed in terms of generation. Many of the adults in the stories were first generation immigrants from India, while many of the children were raised in the United States, which is the second generation. This led to blending of culture and at the same time, clashes between the immigrant mentality of living and the American mentality of living. In Unaccustomed Earth, Lahiri demonstrates to the reader the important influence of environment, specifically culture and how it impacts parental teachings, on the personality and development of an individuals’ identity, and how the actions and development of characters can affect one’s family and friends; the impact of environment and culture is shown especially by the characters and stories “Hell-Heaven” and “Hema and Kaushik”.

The passage in Fasting, Feasting, by Anita Desai, Arun is out of his comfort zone going to the beach. Arun from the very start, starts making excuses to not go to the beach. He also, does not want to be anywhere close to Melanie While they walk to the beach. He complains about the noises of the wilderness and how horrible they are. He does these things because he does not feel comfortable in these places he has never been before. He talks about how his hands are sweaty and his hair on his neck raises. He also, wonders why people live in such close area to the wilderness. The story says “The town may be small and have little to offer, but how passionately he prefers its post office, its shops, its dry-cleaning stores and picture framers to this creeping curtain of insidious green…(Desai). This complaining about the wilderness is most likely due to the fact that he has most likely stayed in town most of his stay in America. He has adapted to the town he has probably only really seen.

The dominant idiom of Indian writing today is firmly entrenched in pain, anxiety of displacement, nostalgia, yearning to belong to roots, and so on. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss are two such novels that explore the tragedy of man on several levels using different perspectives. Both the novels are about averted culture-clash tragedies, homogeneity vs. heterogeneity, and about Indian sensibilities.

An analogy has been drawn about how she was in the past and how is she now. She was a carefree person, demanding love in her life, wanting to take care of her children and become a house wife and now she works as a schoolteacher, has become a responsible person concerned about her husband and child, struggling for her son’s life, bearing tantrums of her sister-in-law and living in a small house in a small city. On the other hand, Komal, sister-in-law of Anjali is a character shown who seems to be frustrated from her life from the time she has lost her husband. The book has depicted another face of an Indian woman, who lives her entire life following the customs that the society has decided for a widow. Anjali tried to make her first marriage successful by taking care of small things like making her husband, his favorite cardamom chai and best of meals while Prakash’s second wife Indu was never concerned about any of his likings and gave priority to her own personal

The book points out many different attacks on Indian culture. John’s adoption, legal or not, by his kind but misguided parents demonstrates the tragedy that can come from cross-cultural adoption. The experiences of Marie’s cousin Reggie, who has the tapes of his family’s stories stolen and co-opted by Dr. Mather (who has convinced himself that he is doing the right thing because the find is anthropologically valuable) demonstrates the wrongs done by intellectuals who only view other cultures in terms of what they can learn from them. Truck Schultz and the three enraged college students demonstrate how quickly the underlying distrust of

In the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part time Indian”, author Sherman Alexie shares a compelling story representing racial issues among communities and families in cultural areas today, and a boy’s journey to find who he truly is, while being torn between two cultures. In this novel the main character, young Junior finds himself truly understanding that he is more than just an indian. In order to know more about the plot behind the novel, author Alexie takes the reader into Junior’s perspective to bring the story to life and let the reader understand how racial issues along with family problems make a play into today’s society. The novel shows a countless number of situations Junior encounters that impact his life throughout the novel.

First, this novel showcases acts of caring for family and friends, during a rough time for all the Indians bringing them closer into one community. The protagonist Sabine displays acts of caring among her friends and family. For instance, near the end of the novel, Sabine helps her mother’s friend, Lalita, despite having a sour relationship with her. Sabine saves Lalita from being arrested by lying to a military officer, thus making Sabine a more confident and brave person. Sabine faces her fear of the military and gains the power she

The heat wave of the summer of 1952, Djinda wiped her hands against her dress. Her mother would kill her, it was dirty and the pink had faded. Her feet were bare and she hurried across the burning sand toward the small house her father had built. They’d both compromised each of their cultures; her father could do whatever he wanted that involved his culture but as long as he built her mother a house. This had been before she was born; her mother had also wanted to go to the hospital for her birth but had compromised to let the women of her husband’s tribe in there with her – much to the doctor’s protests.

Finally, Jayanti’s first exposure to the world outside her Aunt’s house and the events that lead after, changes who she really is,

In Saving Sourdi, by May-Lee Chai, a major character Sourdi, the sister of the protagonist Nea, undergoes a number of changes, while certain other aspects of her character do not change. The relationship between Sourdi and Nea unquestionably also changes. Sourdi is a foil from which a reader can draw a contrast with Nea. In summary, Sourdi continues to have certain qualities perceived by Nea on the one hand, but on the other hand Sourdi does develop into an adult thinking about issues and life milestones which do not necessarily involve Nea, leaving behind Nea; all of these dynamics accentuate themes of cultural levers for immigrants, relationships and

     Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife is the story of a relationship between a mother and daughter that is much more than it seems. This touchingly beautiful narrative not only tells a story, but deals with many of the issues that we have discussed in Women Writers this semester. Tan addresses the issues of the inequality given women in other cultures, different cultures' expectations of women, abortion, friendship, generation gaps between mothers and daughters, mother-daughter relationships, and the strength of women in the face of adversity. Tan even sets the feminist mood with the title of the book, which refers to a woman in Chinese Mythology who cared for a selfish man who became a

Through her tasteful selection of contemporary Indian influenced prose pieces, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the unique journey of Indian families established in America. Focusing on the intergenerational aspect of traditional households, Lahiri conveys the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a person who is branded as a foreigner. In America, there exists a common misconception that immigrants who arrive in this country fully assimilate or seek to assimilate as time progresses. The category I chose was "The Dot of true Happiness." The dot which signifies the bindi, a traditional red mark worn by Indian people, is the source of true happiness among these immigrants.

Anita Desai’s literary novel Fasting, Feasting shares a family’s struggle as they navigate the cultural norms of their Indian society. Desai focuses on the lives of the eldest daughter, Uma, and the only son, Arun. Both find themselves bound by tradition. Unfortunately for Uma, and most women in her community social pressure dictates their lives. For example, the author writes this passage after Uma’s mother unexpectedly delivers Arun later in her life, “More than ever now, she was Papa’s helpmeet, his consort. He had not only made her his wife, he had made her the mother of his son. What honor, what status” (31). This offers a clear sign to the reader; a mother of two daughters has no honor until she

This passage from “Fasting, Feasting” by Anita Desai contrasts American and Indian cultures. Desai does this by showing the effects of culture shock on Arun, an Indian foreign exchange student living in America. Indian culture raises young boys to learn and think; whereas America, Arun’s new home, emphasizes action over thought. Arun has a hard time adjusting to his new environment, and his rigidity affects his quality of life. Desai makes use of literary devices to reveal a lonesome boy in unfamiliar surroundings. This boy, because of his foreign values and culture, is uninclined to leave the comforts of certainty.