Analysis Of Mrs. Se's By Lahiri

In her essay “My Two Lives,” Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian American, explains the balance between the identities of the two countries inside her heart, as well as her psychological struggle between her bicultural identities. She describes herself as an Indian-American because she moved with her family from India to the United States when she was very young. However, confused with her identity through her growth, she feels that she doesn’t belong to either of the two countries because of its completely different cultures. When she is at home, she deals with her parents in an Indian way, which is strange compared to the American way that she come across outside. She says that she has a distinctive identity in spite of her Indian appearance

Mrs. Sen does not know to drive but which is very important in the United States. She spends her whole time to doing her household work and care taking for an American boy Eliot. She always bought fresh fish form cooking which a part of their breakfast. She depends on her husband for shopping and marketing. But, at one time she drives a car out of her husband’s compulsion while and she finally she met with an accident. During that incident Eliot’s mother do not allowed to Mrs. Sen into the house.

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 different aspects of life in a different world she experienced had created more than a life times of suffering, and she had managed with the help of Ashoke and many new friends she had made in her new life. Friends that came together to celebrate the birthdays of her children, with eatings and old practices such as deciding the future through plates of dirt, money, and writing utensils. How she passed time with writing christmas cards to her family in Calcutta, and how she sent more parts of her life to them through letters about how different life was. Lahiri pictures the dramatic life adventures of immigrants how they feel all around the world. These immigrants are distraught because they recognize that they do not gain anything even through their sufferings that have plagued them for so many

Whether it’s living or interacting in a new environment surrounded by unfamiliar and distinct people, one may feel culturally out of place. That is exactly the theme Jhumpa Lahiri describes in each of her stories, “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent.” In “Interpreter of Maladies”, we get a clear picture that the Das family, who are Indian-American, are the ones displaced here. We can see this throughout the behaviors that the Das family expresses in their trip around India, while Mr. Kapasi, an old Indian man, guides them through their journey, taking them to see India’s historical landmarks. In “Mrs. Sen’s,” the one culturally displaced is Mrs. Sen after being forced to leave India to go to America because of her husband’s job. Mrs. Sen has not gotten used to the American culture and misses her native land very much. Lastly, In “The Third and Final Continent,” the narrator, a young Indian man, handles his displacement very well. Starting with an arranged marriage in which he barely even knows the woman that he is getting married to, he leaves shortly after to establish a living in the U.S. where he finds the culture to be very distinct. Overall, Lahiri expresses the theme of how the characters in each story cope with their cultural displacement facing many obstacles and challenges.

While Mukherjee decided to embrace the new American culture, her sister decided to stick to her Indian roots. Mukherjee struggles to try and find where she belongs because she is always changing for others rather than for herself. Encountering differences is something she dealt with on her journey of creating her identity, she states, “Nearly 20 years ago, when I was living in my husband’s ancestral homeland of Canada, I was always well-employed but never allowed to feel part of the local Quebec or larger Canadian society” (Mukherjee 293). While changing herself to conform for others, we can all take a lesson from Mukherjee. In life, we go through many changes because we are growing up, becoming more mature, and finding things we like or dislike. We tend to change because of the people we surround ourselves with, like friends or coworkers in order to be accepted. However, she did not seem happy to be forced into a position where she had to conform to the way people would talk to her all for the sake of her husband. This takes away from building and developing one’s own identity because it does not represent who you really are. In society, we are sort of growing away from that in a sense people are taking pride in their identities. For instance, immigrants, women, and races are all

Moving to America, for many, has been a reason for opportunity and prosperity. Through persistence, hard work and struggles, they pursue to find success in achieving the ‘American Dream’. One of the major struggles is maintaining one’s traditional values and their individuality while assimilating and not forgetting who he or she really is. The narrator, Jayanti, in “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs”, by Chitra Divakaruni, illustrates a good example of how a person loses their individuality and self-identity to do whatever it takes to assimilate and fit into the society.

“After 36 years as a legal immigrant in this country, she clings passionately to her Indian citizenship and hopes to go home to India when she retires.” This shows the diversity they have in their hearts for two conflicting cultures, and how she accepts both into her life. They were also given bigger opportunities. So they decided to blend those two varying cultures together. All this shows how another culture (American) affects their life how they choose to live.

The author of this piece is positing the difference between herself, and her sister. The author is an American citizen by her marriage to an American. The author’s sister who came to American a year before the author, married an Indian man from her own culture who also resides in America. The author’s sister is not a naturalized citizen and lives and works in America on her Green Card status. The author discusses how she felt the need to assimilate with her new American culture, while her sister was just residing and working in the country and still hoping to return to India when she retires. The focus of the piece is the contrast between the two sisters and their individual points of view regarding American citizenship.

Bharati is welcoming of her new environment in America and as a result, is consumed in the environment and society, accepting that her cultural identity will change and that her former culture’s influences will remain static. “I am an American citizen and she is not. I am moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship. She is not” (Mukherjee 70). This reveals Bharti’s acceptance of American culture, whereas her sister, Mira refuses to accept American culture into her life.

In the story “Mrs. Sen’s”, Lahiri presents the struggles of assimilating into a new country and portrays how lonely and restricted immigrants can feel. She is able to do this through her use of the character, Mrs. Sen, a woman who is originally from India. Throughout the story we see how difficult it is for Mrs. Sen to assimilate to the lifestyle in America. Her days, usually consist of staying in an apartment while her husband teaches at a nearby university. Mrs. Sen’s Indian lifestyle still seems very prominent, all her furniture is still wrapped in plastic, the shoes are all lined in a bookcase by the front door, she refuses to purchase fish from the supermarket and she uses an abnormal blade to do her cooking. All of this illustrating how perhaps she is not ready to let go of her Indian lifestyle and assimilate. Mrs. Sen is representative of the struggles of assimilation, which often include feeling lonely and restriceted. She always relies on Mr. Sen, she barely knows anybody, she often misses her family and she cannot seem to make America feel like home.

One way Lahiri shows difficulties that immigrants and refugees experience, is with the theme of displacement. To illustrate the idea of displacement, Lahiri uses Mrs. Sens to show the what immigrants have trouble adjusting to in a new environment. Mrs. Sens is a middle-aged, Indian woman, who is having difficulty adjusting to the differences between India and America. Lahiri emphasizes the awkward attitude that Mrs. Sens has towards driving. When asked about her driver’s licence, Mrs. Sens points out “Yes, I am learning, but I am a slow student. At home, you know we have a driver” (113). To put it differently, Mrs. Sens finds it odd and difficult that she has to learn driving because back in India, she had a chauffeur. Furthermore, when she says she is a slow

By crafting Bengali food, Ashima can control its ingredients and recreate familiar scents and tastes that remind her of her native country. Both the familiarity and control that cooking instills in Ashima make the practice an essential part of her immigrant experience and encourage her to utilize it as a link between her Bengali roots and her family in America. However, through her continuous nonfulfillment of her goals to perfectly emulate dishes like Jhal Muri and lamb curry, Jhumpa Lahiri is suggesting that moving to America causes a dilution of immigrants’ native culture that extends beyond the healing powers of mere food. Even though her outlook might seem somewhat negative at first glance, Lahiri is not making a pessimistic point about the overall process of immigration. Instead, she is arguing that the blending of cultural lines is both essential and unavoidable for a smooth, healthy transition from life in one country to life in

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.

In “Mrs. Sen’s”, Mrs. Sen faces difficulty adjusting to her new life in America and leaving behind her Indian values. She continues to adhere to Indian customs such as her shading her part with “crushed vermilion” and preparing Indian food with a traditional curved blade (Lahiri 117). Learning how to drive distresses Mrs. Sen the most about her new life in America. She is easily distracted by something on the road and is unable to focus. Mrs. Sen fears driving is because she refuses to assimilate to the American culture. Mrs. Sen believes that once she learns how to drive, she will lose her Indian identity. In Mrs. Sen’s, Jhumpa Lahiri uses the the car as a symbol to demonstrate her new American independence and the difficult process of assimilation