Jhumpa Lahiri

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, “Only Goodness” is a short story that delves further in the relationships of an American Bengali family dealing with an addiction of a family member, and is expressed through the protagonist Sudha, and her brother Rahul. The conflict of this story is Rahul’s drinking becoming a problem that not only affected him but his family as a whole, and that becomes the struggle between his family and himself. “Only Goodness” plot revolves around an American Bengali family that struggles with their son Rahul who is an alcoholic. Rahul and Sudha his sister were their parents’ biggest successes but Rahul ends up becoming more distant from his family throughout. Later on, the story focuses on his further downfall into alcoholism. He drops out of college, ends up moving back home to live with his parents and works in a Laundromat, and Sudha on the opposite is doing what is expected her of becoming the saving grace of the family. Even when Rahul and his sister Sudha were in different places in their lives, she tries to bring him back to his senses, but she ends up not being able to in turn making their relationship very strained up until the end. The climax in “Only Goodness” occurs when Rahul, who seemingly appeared to have changed, rekindles his relationship with his sister and while he visits her family, he ends babysitting his nephew Neel who ends up passing out leaving Neel unattended in the bathtub. A key setting that this story takes place in

Mr. Kapasi found a growing affection for Mrs. Das when she expressed that his job translating for patients, which he thought of as a sign of his failings, was actually romantic to her. Mrs. Das began as an inattentive passenger in his tour to the Sun Temple who paid little attention to her kids, husband, and sights around her. She and Mr. Kapasi warmed up to each other while discussing Mr. Kapasi’s other job and tourist attractions. Mr. Kapasi was flattered by this woman who he deemed attractive and in an ill-suited marriage. Because of the new-found intoxication with this women who showed genuine interest in him, he even began to doubt his own marriage with his thoughts, “He wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Das were a bad match, just as he and his wife were,” (Lahiri 53). Both Mr. Kapasi and Miranda began to enter into controversy with their new relationships with partners who made them feel cherished while staying oblivious to other concerning factors in the growing relationships.

The story comes to a full circle in chapter 12, as the characters’ perspectives on aspects in their life completely changes as they learn and adapt to life in America. The common theme that ran between the characters was dissatisfaction, in which Ashima could not comfortably consider America a home, Gogol could not find acceptance in his unique name, driving them between loyalties to the Bengali and American culture. However, in the end, Ashima finally accepts the idea of a divided identity and Gogol overcomes his instinctive rejection of his namesake that “he had so detested” (289) as it gave them identity. Therefore, Lahiri’s overall message that she is conveying through this full circle ending, is that the aspects of life that we are given

When both involved do not effectively communicate with each other, a distant marriage may lead to discontent for all. Sinclair Ross’s short story, “The Painted Door”, deals with the growing dissatisfaction and loneliness of a farmer’s wife, Ann, who feels alone as her husband deals with the harsh conditions of the environment. This story demonstrates how deeply communication can affect a marriage, be it bad or good. One of the most fundamental elements of a healthy relationship is communication. Lack of communication in a relationship can result to severe consequences. Irrespective of the kind of relationship, lack of communication magnifies issues in a relationship undermining the very foundation of the relationship. The success of any relationship relies on one's ability to communicate well. Communication is important in relationships as it allows us to share our interest, concerns, support each other. John is a simple farmer who thinks the only way he can please his wife, is by working all day to earn money for her. However, Ann would prefer he spend more time with her. Their relationship is stressed even further when Ann is left at home alone with nothing to think about but their relationship because John has to go to his father’s house. The terrible snow storm accentuates Ann’s feelings of loneliness and despair. These feelings lead Ann to seek comfort and companionship from Steven, the attractive friend of her husband, John, thus leading to John's suicide.

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”.

It was confessing their secrets during the blackouts that became their main form of communication, and eventually their safe place. Although this served temporarily to build intimacy between them, it was inadequate to keep them together. They shared their secrets they would have otherwise not have told, they embraced each other and upmost they communicated with each other. Communication is important in this relationship because following the death of their baby, the couple never shared the same means of dealing with the tragedy. This leads to ineffectively expressing their feelings between each other, which results in the

Relationships, one of the key factors of the advancement of humanity. We all are surrounded by relationships, some may be easier to identify than others. But one relationship which stands out greater than the rest is the one between a married couple. These people are usually from completely different families and unite together to decide to spend the rest of their lives together. But sometimes the relationship does not work out. We can witness this in Sinclair Ross’s short story The Painted Door, in which Ann a farmer’s wife who has cheated on her husband John, which has brought the end of Johns life and ultimately the end of their relationship. It is arguable that the reason behind Ann cheating and bringing the end to their relationship arguably is isolation, neglection and lack of understanding, but what is the root cause of all these problems in their relationship? The answer is simple lack of communication. Thus, it is the lack of communication which has caused isolation, neglection and the lack of understanding of each other in the relationship, resulting in the failure of the relationship.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, “A Temporary Matter,” presents the failing marriage of an Indian couple, Shoba and Shukumar. Lahiri illustrates how the grief of losing someone can lead to a broken relationship. Shukumar and Shoba have been ignoring each other since Shoba had a miscarriage. The tragedy changes the way they treat each other. Their grief makes both of them become two different people. A temporary matter has forced them to communicate with each other and since then, Shukumar and Shoba are comfortable talking to each other and even making love with each other. This temporary matter has somehow temporarily reconnected them together. Jhumpa Lahiri intentionally uses the symbols of darkness, light, house, the baby and neighbors to represent a broken relationship of a married couple.

Many of the stories in Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri include a fundamental composition of literary elements, such as conflict which readers see in both “Interpreter of Maladies” and “A Temporary Matter”. Lahiri shows the difficulty of communication which overtime turn into the destruction of the entire relationship. For instance, readers see difficulty in communication when Shukumar and Shoba become distant shortly after she has a stillborn child. The death of their baby has severe effects their entire relationship, and adds to their lack of communication. Similarly in “Interpreter of Maladies” when Mrs. Das hides information about Raj and

While Smith and Anzaldua may define identity through a culture or a voice, Jhumpa Lahiri, herself, had a different experience. Rather for Lahiri, she helps the reader

Like in “Hills like White Elephants,” the lack of communication in this story is causing a crisis in the characters’ relationship. The couple is going through this critical situation because they can’t find a mutual base for their marriage. The husband and his wife are in different levels of maturity. He is already a grown up man who doesn’t care for a cat that is getting wet in the rain, while the wife still presents a childish behavior.

Alina’s family has many strengths and weaknesses. An important portion of family dynamics is caring. Wits present with strong bond and the appreciation that every family member has for each other. Alina is the central person that provides a lot of affection to her children as well as her husband. She always wants everyone to be happy. Also, everyone in this family have each other back. For example, when Alina was diagnosed with the breast cancer, everyone was supportive and wanted to provide help. For Alina, it was a devastating situation; she was going through emotional rollercoaster. However her family did not give up on her. Together as a time they helped Alina to go through

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ Mr. Kapasi , the main character, seems to be a person with mixed feelings. He does not seem to have fixed stand neither in his job nor on his thoughts. His thoughts and experience are structured by the strict cultural society of India. His hidden wants and desires suppressed by the community rules are looking for way to come out. The consequence is his changing thoughts and desires which at different parts of the story appear differently and brings

The novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee is an incredible story about the transformation and life experiences of a Panjabi girl from India. The life of Jyoti is told from her point of view when she is twenty-four years old, and pregnant with the baby of Bud Ripplemeyer, a crippled banker who is more than twice Jyoti’s age. During the span of two months in Iowa, Jyoti narrates her biographical experiences in Punjab and in America as she strives to become independent. Jasmine illustrates that when one’s relationships go through changes, it will impact one’s identity.

The present study is based on the idea of displacement as the major theme of the selected short stories of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of maladies”. The book contains nine short stories and each one of them deals with the question of identity, alienation, and plight of those who are physically and psychologically displaced. But I would like to limit my studies to the three short stories from the collection viz. “When Mr. Pirzada came to dine”, Interpreter of Maladies”, and “Mrs. Sen’s”. The migration has become one of the most important issues of the contemporary world. Jhumpa Lahiri is also a diasporic writer like Salman Rushdie, V.S Naipaul and Bharati Mukherjee. The characters in the prescribed stories are citizens of more than one country