HOME AND ABROAD: THE EMOTIONAL SAGAS OF JHUMPA LAHIRI’S 'INTERPRETER OF MALADIES' (Pages 76-81) by in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

In her first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, which won her the Pulitzer prize for fiction 2000, Jhumpa Lahiri has portrayed the various experiences of the diasporas in Boston and Calcutta. In seven out of the nine stories in this collection, Lahiri presents the three generations of mainly Indian Bengali Expatriates to America, who came to America to escape political or economic difficulties of their native land, or to study or as professionals “as part of the brain drain”, Indian born Americans and their children. It reveals the conflict between distinct cultural and regular encounters between different worldviews shape the emotional life of the diaspora even in multi-ethnic, multicultural societies like India and the USA. It is a complex portrayal of family life of Indian immigrants trying to saddle two cultures – their Indian heritage and the American dream. Interpreter of Maladies, despite the clear insignia of Indianness is universally relevant. With a remarkable insight, she gets deep into the psychological depths of her characters and reveals their inner world by a fascinating yet deceptively simple style. We come across more reality than fancy in her fiction. Keywords: Interpreter, Indian Bengali Expatriates, economic difficulties, Cultural, multi-ethnic, multicultural, psychological depths.