The Foreigner Essay

ABSTRACT: The Foreigner is the first novel by Arun Joshi. It was published in the year 1968. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Indians studying or living abroad were in the process of coming back to their motherland. The coming back was triggered chiefly by the optimism surrounding India 's independence from the British. This was the time that the author of The Foreigner, Arun Joshi also returned to India. Even the protagonist in the novel, Sindi Oberoi also returns to India after completion of his studies in the United States of America (USA). The novel presents various levels of conflicts in the life of Sindi - conflicts ranging from within to outside. Conflicts within are mostly those dilemmas and contradictions that the protagonist, Sindi,

Each socio-cultural factor led to various conflicts like insecurity and lack belongingness. In turn these conflicts manifested themselves in to existential issues and alienation. In this backdrop, this chapter looks at The Foreigner through different analytical prism to that of alienation and existentialism. The basic determinants of conflict are generally socio-cultural factors. Hence, in this chapter conflict in The Foreigner is analysed through socio-cultural factors that actually gave birth to conflict in the novel.

Conflicts in The Foreigner

The title of the novel, The Foreigner, itself suggests some kind of prevailing tension in the novel. Human beings often perceive 'foreign ' as strange from their surroundings and circumstances. Foreign also is that phenomenon that humans fail to comprehend to suit their spatial surroundings. As a result, from times immemorial societies consider that is something strange to them and often in conflict with them as that of 'foreign. Arun Joshi presents variety of conflicts in his novel, The Foreigner, at various levels. To start with one can divide the conflicts in this novel into the following two:

1. Existential