The Buried Suffering, Identity Crisis and In-betweenness in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories
Author : Dr. Leema Dhar
Abstract :
This paper aims to highlight the sense of belongingness in very individual. Displacing oneself from one country or continent to the other subconsciously impacts our minds to the extent that we start questioning our identity. Pulitzer prize-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri, refers to how a person’s sense of self is aligned with the core values of originality and authenticity. Roman Stories is a collection of tales of suffering, misery and alienation that connects the human emotions in a single thread. Lahiri emphasizes the fact that we are all living in variables and bits and pieces of us are scattered all around the planet. The characters look for home but the feeling of uncertainty coagulates their blood. A sense of having a defined identity in a place “is understandable” but the writer thinks it “is a potentially very dangerous way of thinking of ourselves and our world, because identity is not fixed, and rootedness should not be tied to things like language and place.” This paper throws light on the dark cabins of oblivion and dealing with the aftermath of being called a foreigner.
Keywords :
Diaspora, identity crisis, orientalism, cultural identity, homeland
