THE POSTCOLONIAL IMMIGRANT IDENTITES IN JHUMPA LAHIRI'S NOVEL, THE NAMESAKE

Abstract

The post-colonial period is a time when colonial states secretly continued their colonial policies in different ways after World War II. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a novel about the challenges and difficulties of a Bengali couple who travel to the United States to build a life. The novel deals with the concepts of cultural identity, rootlessness, tradition, and family expectations in a straightforward style. Memory, nostalgia, loss, and longing are some of the themes addressed in this novel. Ashoke and Ashima, first generation immigrants, come to the U.S. hoping for a better life, but the past haunts them like a shadow, reminding them of their origins. On the other hand, unlike them, the children of this family cannot form ties with India, but they are not accepted as citizens of America, to which they want to belong. In other words, the identity crisis in the novel manifests itself in different ways in the first and second generation immigrants. The purpose of this article is to examine the complicated cultural interactions and identity crises as presented in modern cultural discourse. This essay is an attempt to examine the attractions of the American way of life as well as the tug of war between two separate cultures through a comparative lens. In addition, this essay attempts to address the problems of identity and cultural conflict faced by first and second generation immigrants.