Hybrid Identities and Cultural Dissonance in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Abstract

The well known phrase ‘diaspora’ refers to the people of dispersion from their native soil to overseas. Diasporic folks often endure emotional and mental challenges such as alienation, defencelessness, cultural dislocation and a fragmented sense of identity both in personally and as a group. They often find themselves trapped between the customs of their native culture and the expectations of the adopted one. While striving to maintain their own cultural values in an unfamiliar land, they also have to  trust that their children will maintain their home traditions. Conversely, the second generation immigrants face the twin burden of satisfying their parents’ cultural expectations while concurrently adapting to the norms of their exotic peers, resulting in a conflicted and separated identity. The same issue was dealt in the novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri who is a second generation immigrant, explored the exertion of migrated Bengali family in Boston. This study aims to analyse the diasporic sensitivity and cultural conflicts that are confronted by both first and second generation immigrants of America.