Invigorating The Dislodged Roots in An Unwonted Land: Immigrant Narratives in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth

Abstract

This study aims to explain the challenges faced by immigrants by analysing the short stories written by Jhumpa Lahiri. The organisation of this research study is intended to enable a thorough investigation of immigrant tales in Unaccustomed Earth. Through the framework of Homi K. Bhabha's theory of hybridity, this paper conducts a literary analysis of the stories, investigating themes, characters, and stylistic elements. This study employs the notion of hybridity and its diverse manifestations to investigate how immigrants establish their roots in new territory after relocating and relinquishing their own cultural identity in order to assimilate into a foreign culture. Occasionally, individuals integrate their cultural values with the cultural norms of people from different backgrounds, while maintaining their own ethnicity and cultural identity. At times, people transition from one culture to another and mimic the colonisers or those in positions of power. Consequently, immigrants face several obstacles in their lives. An individual who refuses to adopt or accept the lifestyle, language, religious values, ethnicity, norms, and culture of the host society will have a feeling of alienation from that society. These consequences lead to an individual feeling nostalgia since they are unable to maintain their own cultural identity. The research presented here asserts that individuals must achieve a harmonic balance between their own cultural values and the foreign culture in order to alleviate concerns and challenges such as identity crises, and to flourish in a new setting.