Generational Gap In Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed

Generational gap is one of the important aspects reflected in Lahiri’s work as she experiences it as she points out;

Some of the cultures goes by the wayside, or the link is never made. I was aware of that myself when I had my kids. I really felt a sense that I was the end of a line, and that it was a very short line. I knew my parents had parents and so on, but to me, the universe was my parents, and they were the far end and I was the near end. These were certain intensities to the experience of that first generation and their offspring that don’t carry over. I’m very aware of my parents’ experience, how I grew up, and now how my children are growing up. There is such a stark difference in those two generations.(Lahiri, 2008)

The generational gap is surfaced on the few occasions in the novel. But it indicates shocking and pathetic incidents that have distorted the fortune of the family both at home and diaspora. The reader witness how the father did not like Udayan’s participation in Naxalite movement. He disapproves the movement saying his generation has built a nation, and there is no need for further upheavals as the text says; ‘We’re independent. The country is ours’. (Lahiri, 2013: 23) Through the stories of Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri is continued to spotlight on the conflicts between the first and the second-generation immigrants, the communication problems they confront every day, and the discord between Indian parents and

Several couples in the stories are shown to perform inter-community marriages or possess secret ties with American or British nationalists of the opposite sex. Untoward happenings failed love affairs, unsuccessful marriages, alcoholism and unlawful relationships make the lives of second and third generation immigrants miserable. (Mukherjee,