Traditions Versus Personal Values in Hell-Heaven, by Jhumpa Lahiri

863 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Culture and interpersonal relationships

The average person wants one thing more than anything else, and that thing is to belong. Usha, a young girl from Calcutta, is no different. Already trying the find her place in the world, Usha must now assimilate into cultural society within the United States. Usha’s uncle, Pranab Kaku, came from Calcutta as well having first come to America, his experiences start off worse than Usha’s, which causes him to join the family in an act of social grouping. With the Old World trying to pull them back and the New World just out of reach, both must overcome tradition and develop their own personal values. Traditions control how one talks and interacts with others in one’s environment. In Bengali society, a strict code of conduct is upheld, with dishonor and isolation as a penalty for straying. Family honor is a central part to Bengali culture, and can determine both the financial and social standing of a family. Usha’s family poses no different, each member wearing the traditional dress of their home country, and Usha’s parents diligently imposing those values on their daughter. Those traditions, the very thing her [Usha] life revolved around, were holding her back from her new life as an American. Her mother in particular held those traditions above her. For example, when Aparna makes Usha wear the traditional attire called “shalwar kameez” to Pranab Kaku and Deborah’s Thanksgiving event. Usha feels isolated from Deborah’s family [Americans] due to this saying, “I was furious with my mother for making a scene before we left the house and forcing me to wear a shalwar kameez. I knew they [Deborah’s siblings] assumed, from my clothing, that I had more in common with the other Bengalis than with them” (Lahiri ... ... middle of paper ... ...is ultimately backfired on Deborah, because she also disclosed that one of the Bengali women she invited to the dinner party was the mistress Pranab Kaku had abandoned her and their two children for. A sense of belonging is a primal desire, which both Pranab Kaku and Usha desired. Each one achieved their own personal values in their own way, defying what society expected of them. At some points in their journey, they helped each other through the obstacles ahead them. However, after receiving this new freedom Pranab Kaku decided to return to his old traditions, in the form of leaving Deborah for a Bengali woman, while Usha embraced her new freedom and explored the new world ahead of her. Works Cited Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Hell-Heaven.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 638-651. Print.

Show More
Related

  • The Comparison of American and Bengali Culture in Hell-Heaven by Jhumpa Lahiri

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    It’s ironic on how Usha's parents that have lived in America for many years and Pranab only some live their lives so differently even though they originated from the same place. Pranab is more open-minded of the American culture and their way of life, and while attending school he easily accepts the modern way of living of an American rather than that of a Bengali. He gradually breaks away from the Indian culture by cutting contact with his roots as well as cutting contact with his own parents. The fact that he marries outside his culture, having a customary American wedding and having children without educating them on the Bengali culture allows one to perceive that this is the work of the devil. That America is a location where one abandons their customs, values and beliefs without any heartache or grief. Pranab was more eager to let proceed of all his upbringings to be wealthy ...

    Read More

  • Jhumpa Lahiran Culture

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of the story, “The Third and Final Continent,” grew up being aware of conflicting expectations from two different countries. As Jhumpa mentioned, “I was expected to be Indian by Indians and Americans by Americans (Lahiri, pg 50).” The Third and Final Continent leaves the reader with a positive notion of the immigrant experience in America. The narrator recalls his school days in London, rooming with other foreign Bengalis, and trying to settle in this new world. He talks about how when he was 36 years old when his own marriage was arranged and he first flew to Calcutta, to attend his wedding. This statement is unique because it depicts the differences between an American culture and an Indian culture. At the time of marriage he is 36 years old and he didn’t pick who he wanted to get married to. Marriage in India is something that most parents set compared to other countries where they can marry someone of choice. Indians settle down by an arranged marriage ma...

    Read More

  • The Namesake Analysis

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    In spite of the fact that the parents wish that their youngsters would hold their Bengali legacy by keeping alive their dialect and wedding other Bengalis, Gogol and Sonia are hesitant to do as such. They are American, they demand. While living at home, the youngsters are faithful; however, just hardly emulate their parents'

    Read More

  • Identity and Belonging in Shanghai Girls and Silver like Dust

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    “As we journey through life, identity and belonging must be consistently renegotiated.” Each person’s identity goes through a process of stages in order to be fully developed and be a whole identity. Some people needs more time than others to attain a full, whole identity. There are many factors which play a role in sharpens people’s identity such as the environment that the people love in and the experiences that they went through. Undoubtedly, immigrants, especially those form two different cultures, need more time to achieve a stable and whole identity as they become trapped between two cultures, unable to categorize themselves with a particular one. For instance, it is very hard for Asian Americans, especially the first and second generations, to assimilate and adjust in America as they have different culture, traditions and features. This paper will depict how Obaachan in Silver like dust and Pearl in Shanghai Girls defines their identity and belonging during their lives’ journeys.

    Read More

  • The Elaborate Role Of Religion In British Literature

    1915 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...t, Stephen, gen. ed. “Paradise Lost.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2012. Print. 36-39.

    Read More

  • Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Chang

    1947 Words  | 4 Pages

    A need for both socialization and a sense of identity forge tight community bonds that many maintain throughout their life. Their life may center on religion, race, or even the socioeconomic class to which they belong. Communities reflect these aspects by grouping together individuals in similar situations and beliefs. Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s Bound Feet & Western Dress expresses the importance of tradition and culture in community identification by detailing the life of the conventional Chang Yu-i and her relationship with a westernized Hsü Chih-mo. Susanna Kaysen depicts her personal struggles with finding the community that she belongs to in Girl, Interrupted. Both Yu-i and Kaysen learn that community is not assigned, rather it is chosen by a self motivated individual wanting inclusion. Community is formed from a group of people with similar goals and beliefs who obtain identity and strength in numbers. The member is forever bound to his or her community thus preserving the ideals in association which makes finding a new identity is impossible. The effect a community has on its constituents is profound in that it governs the way one looks at the world.

    Read More

  • The Third And Final Continent By Jhumpa Lahiri

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Third and Final Continent, Jhumpa Lahiri uses her own experiences of being from an immigrant family to illustrate to her readers how heritage, cultural influences and adaptation play a major role in finding your true identity. The Third and Final Continent is the ninth narration in a collection of stories called the Interpreter of Maladies. In this story, it discusses themes such as marriage, family, society, language and identity. In this story, we focus on an East Asian man of Bengali descent who wants to have a better future for himself so he leaves India and travels to London, England to pursue a higher education. His pursuit for higher education takes place on three different continents. In India, he feels safe in his home country and welcomed, but when he travels abroad he starts to have fear and anxiety. Through his narrations, we learn how he adapts to the European and American and through these experiences he learns to assimilate and to adapt to the new culture he travels to.

    Read More

  • Identity And Culture In The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    It's not the right one. I want to go back." Ashima feels lonely and terribly alone. She feels lost in a crowd, without an identity in between two opposite cultures. She teaches her children the culture of her own country, about the relations with the relatives, about how they eat with their hands in India, but in the long run she knows deep inside that she cannot force them to do it or practice it.

    Read More

  • My Two Lives by Jhumpa Lahiri

    1620 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “My Two Lives” Jhumpa Lahiri talks about her hardship growing up in America coming from two different cultures. At home she spoke Bengali with her parents, ate with her hands. According to Jhumpa’s parents she was not American and would never be. This led her to become ashamed of her background. She felt like she did not have to hide her culture anymore. When Jhumpa got married in Calcutta she invited her American friends that never visited India. Jhumpa thought her friends would judge from being part of the Indian culture and isolate her.However her friends were intrigued by her culture and fascinated. She felt like her culture should not be hidden from her friends anymore, and that coming from an Indian-American culture is unique. Jhumpa believes that her upbringing is the reason why she is still involved with her Bengali culture. Jhumpa says“While I am American by virtue of the fact that I was raised in this country, I am Indian thanks to the efforts of two individuals.” Jhumpa means that she is Indian, because she lived most of her life and was raised here. In the story Lahiri explains that her parents shaped her into the person she is. Growing up coming from two different cultures can be difficult, but it can also be beneficial.

    Read More

  • What I Learned About Moving Away

    230 Words  | 1 Pages

    It was October 1998 when an infant was born in New Delhi, India to a relatively unwealthy family. Two years later, this family made a migration from India to the opposite side of the planet, in the United States. The young infant alongside this family was no other than myself, which meant that I was going to grow up in a society much unlike that of which my parents and ancestors grew up in, a culture that I did not easily fit in socially, mentally, and even physically. Even though my foreign background has caused much of a struggle throughout my life, it did allow me to learn a few but critical lessons that I simply cannot thrive without.

    Read More

  • Naming Jhumpa Lahiri Essay Themes

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this book writer has also used the perspective of psychoanalysis to examine lahiri’s fiction and it has also used different ideas of Sigmund fraud, Andre Greene and Julia kristeva. The book comprises of four chapters and the first chapter of the book Diaspora Hereafters pertains the gap between first generation and second generation. First generation In Unaccustomed Earth is Indian American Immigrants with their American born children living in a community of diaspora, maintaining their American identity and also resisting their parent’s love for past life, migration experience and their memories of their mother country (1). Jhumpa lahiri’s interviews always gives an indication that after her parent’s death she felt she had lost her identity (2). The second chapter is Revenant Melancholy which deals with Kaushik crime and exile. The third chapter is Dead Mothers and Haunting which describes intentions of Hema. The fourth chapter is Future of Diaspora which explains the loss of immigrants’ identity and loss of mother land. Still this books lacks in describing immigrants predicaments due to shift in their identities. Though researcher has defined the problems of immigrants but lahiri’s play of continuous shifting identities is not even touched by

    Read More

  • Satan: The True Hero of Paradise Lost by Milton

    1622 Words  | 4 Pages

    MacCaffrey, Isabel. "Satan’s Voyage". Modern Critical Views: John Milton . Bloom, Harold, ed. Chelsea House Publishers: New York, 1986.

    Read More

  • John Miltons's Paradise Lost: Is Satan a Villain or Hero?

    2016 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Paradise Lost.”* The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. *(page). Print.

    Read More

  • Biblical Allegories in Modern Literature

    1375 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Milton, in his epic poem “Paradise Lost,” expresses that “the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven” (Milton). This idea not only counteracts the basic ideals of Christianity but simultaneously disrupts the widely accepted idea of a separated heaven and hell and the expectations needed to be met to achieve entry. Religion and the bible, two of the most widely disputed topics in history, serve as a muse for authors to explain humanity’s fatal flaws. Throughout East of Eden and The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck uses biblical stories and their basic principles to display the hypocrisy of modern Christianity.

    Read More

  • The Fallen Angels in John Milton's Paradise Lost

    2066 Words  | 5 Pages

    Criticism. The. New York: Norton, 1975. Fox, Robert C. "The Allegory of Sin and Death in Paradise Lost." Modern Language Quarterly 24 (1963): 354-64. ---.

    Read More

More about Traditions Versus Personal Values in Hell-Heaven, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Open Document