classical music, his romanticism, his welter of emotions, all come through very effectively. The Kolkata born, Vikram Seth deserves to be next on the list. The man of many languages and wise businessman penned outstanding works like "The Golden Gate", "A Suitable Boy", "An Equal Music", and "Two Lives". The first book written by him was in verse form and records the lives of young professionals in San Francisco. "A Suitable Boy", 1441 paged novel pushed him into the lime light. The book brimmed with lives of the Indian migration, was based on post-independent India, and it received diverse views from the critics. "An Equal Music" in 1999 was predestined on the lives of classical musicians in Europe; it was a solemn verse to the musicians and …show more content…
If Rushdie has enlightened Indian writing from shackles of colonial limitations, Arundhati Roy"s book "The God of Small Things" drastically changed insight concerning Indian authors with her viable victory. She touched glory with her first book itself, which to an extent is an autobiographical account of her own childhood experiences in Ayenemen. The book grabbed fourth position in the New York Bestseller list for quite a long time and rights for the book were sold to 21 countries. Arundhati kicked off the trend of large advances which was previously missing among Indian writers. Since then, she evidently lent her influence to convey hundreds of social issues in India to the forefront. Being a passionate antagonist of globalization and neo-imperialism, she embodied the importance of the masses in various socially noteworthy issues. This witnessed the rise of a second era where commercial success fundamentally altered opinions on Indian writers. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in …show more content…
In spite of having lived all her life in the U.K and the USA, she knows the subtle nuances of typical Bengali life and culture, like the back of her hand. While her Pulitzer- winning collection of stories Interpreter of Maladies is mainly based on her experiences in Kolkata, her novel Namesake powerfully depicts the angst, the disillusionment of the Bengali immigrants to the US, whose children grow up rootless ─ aliens to the culture of their country of origin, not completely comfortable in the society in which they actually live. The latest novice in the world of Indian writers is Jhumpa Lahiri. She embarks upon the much debated topic of cultural identity of Indians in far off lands. Her debut book "The Interpreter of Maladies" stormed the literary world as it won the esteemed Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Her first novel "The Namesake" a striving endeavor to graph the lives of a family of immigrants through the eyes of a young boy. Both her books have acknowledged criticism as well as great compliments but she merits a site for undertaking a subject long disregarded by other Indian writers. The U.S President Barack Obama appointed Jhumpa Lahari as a member of the President’s Committee for the Arts and
Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri, an Indian by descent, was born in London in August 1967, to a Bengali immigrant Indian parents. “Jhumpa” is the nickname easier for the teachers remember his name. The Lahiri family moved from England to Rhode Island when Jhumpa was two years old. Her father was a librarian at Rhode Island University and her mother was a school teacher. At age of seven, Lahiri started to embrace writing about what she saw and felt. While growing up, Lahiri lived two lives: An Indian at home and An American outside of the home. Despite of living most of their life in the western world, Lahiri’s parents called “Calcutta” their home unlike Lahiri who thought Rhode Island as her hometown. Lahiri always felt her family had a different li...
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Living in America, the Ganguli’s have the difficult choice of choosing between two dramatically different cultures. As a second generation Indian American, Gogol Ganguli is expected to preserve the ideals of his traditionally Indian parents while still successfully assimilating into mainstream American culture. In “The Namesake,” Jhumpa Lahiri reveals the stark contrasts between the perceptions of Ashima, Ashoke and Gogol in relation to their Indian and American views of relationships.
Jhumpa Lahiri composed the two short stories: “Interpreter of Maladies” and “Sexy” that conveyed the recurring theme of feeling like an outsider. During the first story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” there was a character named Mr. Kapasi, a “self-educated man,” who was a “devoted scholar of foreign languages,” who dreamed of becoming an interpreter for diplomats and dignitaries, where he could aid in “resolving conflicts between people and nations, settling disputes of which he alone could understand both sides” (Interpreter of Maladies). This dream became a fantasy after his parents settled his arranged marriage that turned for the worse. Mr. Kapasi’s wife “had little regard for his career as an interpreter,”and she despised the thought of him
“We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life” said former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Since its establishment, the United States has grown through immigration, lending to a multicultural society. However, immigration and its government policies have become of great public interest due to illegal immigration at the Mexican border and violent events in the Middle East. For this reason it seems sensible to investigate the lives of immigrants so that U.S. citizens may take a stance on this disputed topic. Regardless of their origins, whether they are from Latin America, Asia, or anywhere else, immigrants seem to encounter similar endeavors. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, the author depicts the immigration of Indian citizens to the United States. Noting various matters ranging from motives to the cultural identity crisis, Lahiri exposes the struggles and ramifications of American immigration. The collection elucidates the lives of first and second generation
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies traces the lives of Bengali people, mostly immigrants, living their lives with the hardships that they face. In the eighth story, “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar”, the wives of a village tell of Bibi Haldar, a young woman put into the most unfortunate of circumstances. The ailment she suffers from, the lack of a loving home, her disgraced ending, and, most of all, the ability to become victorious through these hardships makes Bibi the most sympathetic character in Lahiri’s short story collection.
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a novel about how people’s pursuit of their own interests, influenced by the cultural and social contexts in which they live, ultimately determines their behavior. Through utilizing subthemes of self-preservation, the maintenance of social status/the status quo, and power, she portrays Velutha as the only wholly moral character in the story, who, because of his goodness, becomes the target of frequent deception. Roy argues that human nature is such that human beings will do whatever they feel is necessary to serve their own self-interests.
This novel, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, takes readers on the journey of immigrants settling in a new country. The novel starts off with Ashima Ganguli getting ready to give birth and her discontent being in a new country without her family and Indian traditions. The story mainly follows the life of Gogol Ganguli, Ashima’s son, and how he struggles to accept Indian customs, his fight to accept his name and his ongoing struggle to find his identity. Gogol changes his name to his original good name, Nikhil, and moves to New York to work. The novel reveals new situations that include the ties between generations, difference in Indian and American cultures, and the immigrant experience in entirety.
Jhumpa Lahiri is widely recognized as a Bengali-American author whose stories are focused on the Bengali/Indian immigrant experience. With her literary debut, she wins the 1999 O. Henry Award and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1). “Interpreter of Maladies” is a short fiction story about the modern Indian Americans visiting India, which is considered a foreign country to them. Lahiri compellingly demonstrates that all types of relationships are unique and dependent on the efforts and communication of the individuals, which leads to misunderstanding between, couples and even failed relationships or marriages. The author has utilized the lack of communication
Different angles and difficulties of movement and osmosis are investigated in The Namesake. Throughout the novel, Ashima (the mother) and Ashoke (the father) attempt to make their kids Bengali while the brother and the sister, Gogol and Sonia, demand that they are Americans. The conflicts must do with everything from giving the youngsters their names, to regardless of whether they ought to make intermittent visits to India.
Religion and human nature combined tend to create a superiority complex among those who perceive themselves as having better, or more, faith. Religion is generally perceived as singular, but humans choose to dynamically express their faith, whether that be by love or war. Gandhi, depicted the movie Gandhi directed by Richard Attenborough, in the face of Muslims protesting Hindus, declared: “I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you,” and that perception of himself and others influenced a mass ethnic and religious revolution that enlightened India. Gandhi opened the world to revolutionary ideas -- the strength in tolerance, the pluralism in religion, and the unification of all mankind.
Symbolism is important. In The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy uses many items of symbolism in order to convey complicated ideas/images to the reader. These symbols are often recurring and important parts of the plot which enhances the story or the characters in some way.
America, the great melting pot, is where people from all over the world come to be accepted and have opportunities to be whoever they want to be. An author praised for her eye-opening works, Jhumpa Lahiri is a Bengali-American author who writes about life as an immigrant in America. Being both Indian and American created a complex identity for Lahiri. She struggled with the competing cultures of assimilation into American culture but keeping her heritage and Bengali roots. Although Jhumpa Lahiri is known for her collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, she was significantly influenced by her family’s heritage and struggle of growing up stuck between two cultures.
The system of caste in India is a bond of union, but splits up the
Historical fiction explains complex global issues by illustrating them through the lives of characters, who reveal the impacts of larger issues through their stories and conflicts. In political activist and author Arundhati Roy’s semi-autobiographical novel, The God of Small Things, seven year old twins Estha and Rahel grow up in Ayemenem, India in the wake of the abolition of the caste system, which still lurks behind many aspects of society. The twins are so close they often think of themselves as a single entity, and yet they are stark opposites in many ways, as Rahel is more spirited and unpredictable, while Estha is thoughtful and quiet. The arrival in India and subsequent death of their European cousin, Sophie Mol, throws the twins into
This total idea of challenging and creating a new identity may seem quite a utopian concept but it is not so impossible. The present paper will illustrate the writings of Mridula Garg and Arundhati Roy. The characters in their work are not extraordinary and utopian but common people like us whom we can come across in our day today life. Here for the purpose of analysis Garg’s three short stories have been chosen. They are: Hari Bindi, Sath Saal Ki Aurat and Wo Dusri.