A Double Vision in Jhumpa Lahiri's the Interpreter of Maladies and The

Volume III, Issue V, July 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065 A Double Vision in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake 1. Mavidi Papinaidu Asst. Prof. of English, Bs & H-Dept, Aditya Institute of Technology And Management, Tekkali, Srikakulam, A.P 2. Kasina Narsimhamurty Asst. Prof. of English, Bs & H-Dept, Aditya Institute of Technology And Management, Tekkali, Srikakulam, A.P India ABSTRACT: Double vision is another important theme in Lahiri‟s novels. It depicts cultural conflicts and cultural dilemmas of first and second generation immigrants in the alien land. Lahiri describes the themes with the characters very beautifully in all the novels. She expresses the deep sense of fascination towards the attached culture such as strong family relationships, gratitude to the arranged marriage system, life style, eating habits, passion for mother tongue. At the same time she explicates the alien land language, livelihood, food habits, individual life style, mismatched marriages and fragmented family system in her literary works makes the Indian origin immigrants feel great confusion between two diverse cultures, sometimes conflicts among multi cultures. Key words: Cultural conflicts- cultural dilemma-fascination-immigrants-fragmented family-multicultural- acculturation. Refereed (Peer Reviewed) Journal www.ijellh.com 538 Volume III, Issue V, July 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065 Jhumpa Lahiri‟s Pulitzer Prize winning short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies is also the first master piece of cultural conflicts, cultural dilemmas, struggles in the multicultural world and their troubles in the process of acculturation. With these Diaspora themes, Lahiri has become world popular writer and she has got into the place of renowned writers of English in the world. As a coin has two sides, she has got applaud from the western part of the world and at the same time lot of criticism from the other part of the world. All her literary master pieces seem to be over emphasis, beyond the realities, exaggeration of the lives of Indian immigrants make her to be criticized by the eastern part of our world. However she must be appreciated for her novelty in her writing and the close observation of the lives of Indian immigrants in the alien land. She has sentimentally sketched the various characters in her works. It is understandable for even an ordinary reader that Lahiri has strong affection towards the Indian culture and customs. She takes the hidden conflicts of the immigrants to limelight with her wonderful art of writing. She not only depicts the autobiographical elements in her literary works but also interpretations of her keen observation from the world outside in the alien land. In her Diaspora identity, Lahiri has expressed her personal background and Indian lineage of her eastern origin. The nine stories in her collection offer a wonderful variety of experiences gathered from the cultural clashes rippling in many directions. Lahiri has attempted to present the trauma of the Indians and successfully balances their native and acquired cultures in their home and foreign land. Lahiri wears different hats of cultures, the Indian, the British and the American. Sometimes her descriptions are with the Indian way of thinking and at the other she presents a wonderful multi-cultured world with the forces of universalism, presenting the native traditions and languages, she has internationalized her own culture. Of course in the diverse forces of the world, she has hard time in selling multiculturalism. In the words of Bhagabat Nayak, “by deconstructing the self of her tormented souls she has become a cultural broker and a cultural breaker. (p-184)” 1.1 Cultural Conflicts Especially in her debut short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri shows her thoughts. There are nine stories in The Interpreter of Maladies. Of which except the last two of all the characters in all the stories are the symbols of cultural conflicts and multiculturalism. Take for instance, the first story temporary matter is an appropriate one to explain the themes of cultural conflicts and the lives of immigrants in the alien land, how Refereed (Peer Reviewed) Journal www.ijellh.com 539 Volume III, Issue V, July 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065 they acculturate the host culture and their problems during the process of contra acculturation. Shoba and Shukumar are newly married couple live in New England conflicts in the bicultural society. They are unable to accustom the new culture. Even though they are living in the alien land, they remind the mother culture. When Shoba is pregnant, she along with her husband dreams of their baby, what name to be given, first feed by her brothers for her kid which is a tradition of Indian culture. Unfortunately, the baby has been dead in the hospital and all the dreams of these parents have been unfulfilled besides it brings miserable situation in their lives. They are dreaming to do in the alien culture which cannot be possible to do all the rituals related to our Hindu culture in the alien multicultural society. But, as they are habituated the Indian culture, Indian immigrants are not able to avoid the attachment with the culture of our mother land. At the same time, innocently they are thinking about the traditions. It is not possible to retain the mother culture in the multicultural society. That is why one hand Shoba and Shukumar conflict between bi-cultures on the other hand unwillingly adopt the alien culture. They want independent living so that even though they live in the same house, they never share anything whole heartedly. They are sharing their physical pleasures only at night which is the culture of alien land. As they are the immigrants of the alien land, they are unknowingly accept the host culture by retaining the home land culture. As an immigrant, one has to acculturate either to the alien culture so that they can enjoy the fruits of multicultural society, or else they must be ready to conflict between the dual cultural system in the lives of some characters, the same thing happened. In some other characters, acculturation, contra acculturation are happened. What Jhumpa Lahiri wants to suggest here is that it is always not so easy to reconcile the conflicting claims of two different mindsets suffering from the strange disease of modern life; especially, when the only point of reconciliation in the form of a baby is lost. It is not only the conflict between two cultures but also the psychological conflicts in the characters. Language is another symbolic expression of any culture. There is so much of pleasure in the conversing in the mother tongue. Sometimes language which is spoken by the people shows which country they are from and their traditions and attitudes. So, in the alien land, when an immigrant meets another immigrant from the same country, really happy to converse the language from which they get lot of contentment. In the second story from The Interpreter of Maladies, Mr. Pirzada, who is professor in Dacca, has shifted to New England and often Refereed (Peer Reviewed) Journal www.ijellh.com 540 Volume III, Issue V, July 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065 visits the Bengali family from India. Even though he is from Bangladesh, his origin is India. He is a Muslim but he loves to speak in Bengali with the Bengali couple. 1.2 Nostalgia 1.3 Another example in the same story shows how Indian immigrants have nostalgia towards Indian culture. When Lilia asks to see the American history by her teacher, she shows lot of interest in Asian history is another example how Indian immigrants are contra acculturated in the multicultural society. In this story either Lilia or Mr. Pirzada expects identity for their culture in the land of alien culture. In fact, it is rather difficult for her to make any sense out of it:” It made no sense to me. Mr. Pirzada and my parents spoke same language, laughed at the jokes, looks more or less the same. They ate pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands. Like my parents, Mrs. Pirzada took off his shoes before entering a room, chewed fennel seeds after meals as a digestive, drank no alcohol, for dessert dipped austere biscuits into successive cups of tea.(p-25). According to Rashmi Guar, “The portrayal of Mr. and Mrs. Das is a testimony to Lahiri‟s maturity in handling the craft of fiction. Their alienation from their cultural roots and bondages to the conventions of a different society is presented with a strong under- current of irony. Their external glamour is contrasted with their inner claustrophobia and emptiness. This contrast, at times, becomes comic and the pathos of that comedy arises from their inability to grasp, in broader or profounder terms, what nit is which significantly constitutes freedom and happiness in life. This contrast also conveys the gravity of the static, haunted loneliness which Mrs. Das had endured half consciously” (p.14). It is not at all the culture of having extra marital relationship. Especially Indian woman is not expected to do so and it is great sin on the part of Indian women who imbibed the culture right from their birth. Due to the influence of western culture, Indian immigrant women also do the same which causes breaking of the marital relation as well as lead to become the family system and bond between the members weak. This is what Lahiri clearly showed in the title story of The Interpreter of Maladies. Mrs. Das lives in New Jersey with her husband, Mr. Das is working as professor in the university. Mrs. Das is the perfect example of acculturation. She has extra marital relationship with a Punjabi friend of her husband.

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