The feeling of cultural Alienation and Loss of identity in Jhumpa Lahiri 's The Namesake

Abstract

Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the most eminent Indo-American writers and winner of Pulitzer price in the year 2000.Her novel, The Namesake deals with the tribulations of the immigrants in an alien land ,the yearning of exile and the emotional bafflement of cross cultural dilemmas.The novel continues to develop future the themes of cultural alienation and loss of identity. She tries to incarcerate the experiences and cultural dilemmas of 30 year struggle for the Gangili family, for their integration and assimilation into alien.Lahiri's protagonists are the continental immigrants but they endure cultural introspection. They have their conflict of consciousness between two selves-the native and the foreign. They have their journey towards home and identity, being recognized as unsettling race through alienation, cultural conflict and hybrid culture. By carefully delineating the selves of her tormented characters, she has imparted universality to their themes. Thus her narratives are the real social documents on tormented souls not with the usual sound and fury but rather through imaginative reconstructions