Interpreter Of Maladies By Jhumpa Lahiri Analysis

Furthermore, the author uses elaborate details in this short story to make the segments about tradition more descriptive. According to Pfeiffer, “the author infuses her works with vivid and distinctive features of Indian culture . . . .” An example of the culture is when Lilia’s mother brought out a plate of “. . . mincemeat kebabs with coriander chutney” (Lahiri 458). Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Indian identity is certainly not marginal in her work . . .”

The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian has two main settings, the Pacific Northwest towns of Wellpinit and Reardan. The contrast of the two different settings, a poor Indian reservation on the one hand and a wealthy white community on the other, has a lot to say for the main character in the book, Arnold Spirit Jr. There can be a lot behind to main settings in a book, and that is what I am going to analyze in this essay.

Expectations often impose an inescapable reality. In the short story “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie, Victor often struggles with Indian and American expectations during school. Alexie utilizes parallelism in the construction of each vignette, introducing a memoir of tension and concluding with a statement about Victor’s difficulties, to explore the conflict between cultures’ expectations and realities.

In Philip J. Deloria’s book, Indians In Unexpected Places readers are provoked with questions. Why is there an Indian on an automobile? Why is she getting a manicure? Why is the young man in football apparel? Indians have been secluded into a stereotype of untamable and wild animals. However, Indians break the barriers of their traditional lives by being in more modern and “white” activities. They partake in “normal” activities to not only change their future, but to make their ancestors proud of their accomplishments. Through a variety of events in the early 1900’s, Deloria expands on what it means to be Native American by retelling their lives of, men grew from their reservation life, into competitive sports, the auto industry transformed how Native Americans traveled, and they also gained relevance in the fight to make themselves known in film, not always as a savage warrior, but also capable of love moving pictures.

In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not. Bharati argues the two ways to belong in America are to transform yourself as an immigrant, or to be an exile.

Appreciation is one of the important thought that goes through the story. Louise Erdrich is plainly appreciative for what her mom has given her: Saving her own life to permit her later to manage another youngster; life itself through birth; and life once more, through her salvage from the flame. It is her appreciation that pulls Louise Erdrich home to peruse books to her mom, "to peruse so everyone can hear, to peruse long into the dull in the event that I should, to peruse throughout the night." Although it is inferred that her arrival comes at a pivotal crossroads in her own life (suggested by her reference to her fizzled life), it is an uncommon youngster to demonstrate a guardian such generous appreciation. She comes back to satisfy the capacity that her dad started in the clinic, that of perusing so anyone might hear.

In his book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie portrays a teenage boy, Arnold Spirit (junior) living in white man’s world, and he must struggle to overcome racism and stereotypes if he must achieve his dreams. In the book, Junior faces a myriad of misfortunes at his former school in ‘the rez’ (reservation), which occurs as he struggles to escape from racial and stereotypical expectations about Indians. For Junior he must weigh between accepting what is expected of him as an Indian or fight against those forces and proof his peers and teachers wrong. Therefore, from the time Junior is in school at reservation up to the time he decides to attend a neighboring school in Rearden, we see a teenager who is facing tough consequences for attempting to go against the racial stereotypes. The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden.

For those who have parent’s that were once immigrants or have strong culture beliefs causes background difficulty to adapt and fit into society. In the story of Frank Norris “McTeague” he provides examples of how the characters in one’s ethic background surpasses ethnic tendencies. In “McTeague” the reader is able to see the stereotypes of the 19th Century in America. The characters of McTeague, Trina and Zerkow are used to show the reader how their stereotypes have affected them through the novel and to some lead them to their death.

Facing struggles of life defines one’s character in life. The ability to confront one’s problems speaks volumes about their strength in character, hopefulness, and flexibility as a person. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes radical changes to his life, adapts to unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates this ability to overcome wicked adversity and struggles.

Bharati comes to America with her arms open wide, willing to adjust her customs and conducts in order to assimilate to her new country. She celebrates change and views it as a positive aspect in her life. The author says, “America spoke to me - I married it - I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody,” meaning that to Bharati, America is not just a country. It symbolizes opportunity and freedom, which she desires most. (Mukherjee 282). Bharati’s marriage outside her own ethnic group and willingness to move to “every part of North America” represents her amenable attitude towards change itself. Mira comes to America in search of good education and economic opportunities, however, she refuses to acclimate American pop-culture into her thoughts, actions, and perceptions. Mira’s closed mindset requires her to live a stagnant lifestyle in which she has “stayed rooted in one job, one city, one house, one ancestral culture, one cuisine…” (Mukherjee 282) and never provokes a change in whom she could become. The authors notion towards Mira symbolizes the fact that Mira ignores anything that calls her away from her ethnic identity. Mira intentionally does not connect to her new country as Bharati does, instead she feels “some kind of irrational attachment to India that [she does not] to America,” (Mukherjee 282). Despite an immigrant’s upbringing, each individual must choose to whether to participate in American culture and customs or to continue to abide to their previous country’s norms. Founded upon a multitude of cultures and countries, America has always embraced and even encouraged diversity in individuals. Established on the principles of freedom, diversity, and democracy, the United States of America provides the opportunity for each of the sisters to live the life they

Writer Sherman Alexie has a knack of intertwining his own problematic biographical experience with his unique stories and no more than “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” demonstrates that. Alexie laced a story about an Indian man living in Spokane who reflects back on his struggles in life from a previous relationship, alcoholism, racism and even the isolation he’s dealt with by living off the reservation. Alexie has the ability to use symbolism throughout his tale by associating the title’s infamy of two different ethnic characters and interlinking it with the narrator experience between trying to fit into a more society apart from his own cultural background. However, within the words themselves, Alexie has created themes that surround despair around his character however he illuminates on resilience and alcoholism throughout this tale.

His feet pounded down onto the blood-stained floor, his stomps ricocheting around the desolate hallway. All around him lights flared and sirens shrieked endlessly, a visual symphony to accompany his impending doom. Shadows encapsulated every part of the room, yet his eyes still darted around, attempting to find any sign of the incoming danger. He sprinted into the confined box of the elevator, the walls around him hugging him close, as if to say he would be safe here. He slammed his hands against the flickering buttons, drops of blood sliding down the metal as he punched it again and again. Seconds passed, each one ticking by ever so slowly, battling his increasingly fast heartbeat. The once welcoming walls began to close in on him, tightening

Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11). He knows that if his parents were not born into poverty, his mother would have gone to college, and his father would have become a musician. Additionally, on page eleven Junior says that his parents “dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” Junior believes that he is trapped in this “circle” of poverty, and his dreams will be ignored just as his parents’ dreams had been. However, after Junior launches an old geometry book across a classroom, and it hits his teacher, Mr. P, in the face, Mr. P realizes something substantial about Junior: He has fought since his birth, beginning with the

Everyone marries the wrong person. During marriage, everyone second guesses who they marry, and when the going gets tough, it truly exposes how strong, and meaningful the relationship is. The narrator in the “The Third and Final Continent” is able to communicate, understand, and adapt to his wife, while Mina Das in “The Interpreter of the Maladies” seems to express these vital traits, but under the surface it doesn't seem to be the case.

Sripathi Rao was a stranger when he goes to Vancouver to take his orphan granddaughter Nandana. Food, clothing, people, rituals and culture were alien to her. Nandana could not adjust herself with Indian food. Nandana brings the postcolonial moment of what Homi Bhabha has famously termed the “unhomely (9) into the privacy of the Big House, Sripathi’s family home. Sripathi’s family has to contain this troubled little girl and Nandana must come home to terms with the death of her parents and her new life in India. The responsibility of the grandparents was to treat Nandana felt unfamiliar with the roots, customs, people neighbour, environment, education system of India society, climate of Toturpuram, celebration of festivals, issues of women, political condition, casteism, issue of education, beliefs in astrology, religious and social rituals in Indian culture and tradition and the issue of settlement of Nandana a foreigner in Indian