Paper Example on Living in Between: Lahiri's Struggle to Balance Indian & American Identities

Achieving the identity of an Indian-American seems to be a challenging task for Lahiri. She has to put a lot of struggle in retaining her native Indian customs while still trying to fit in and adapt to the American lifestyle. According to Lahiri (104), “Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen.” Though living in the U.S, Lahiri's parents have decided that they would not be accustomed and would maintain their Indian traditions in their new American home. On the other hand, Lahiri wants to be involved and become part of Rhode Island. While growing, Lahiri now increasingly embraces her Indian background though not entirely as well as the American culture. This paper provides a detailed discussion of literary analysis elements as used by Lahiri in his narrative "My Two Lives."

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In the narrative, the author aims to address other immigrants who may relate to her experiences and the American citizens for them to understand what it takes the immigrants to live the U.S by describing her struggles. Lahiri attempt to put the audience in her situation by providing an argument about how every immigrant child is pressured either to be loyal to the native culture while trying to fit in the new one. The author is determined to fit in the American lifestyle while also striving to maintain her real Indian identity. Lahiri tries to reach out to individuals lost in searching for their indigenous identity by letting them know that they are not alone. Many people in foreign countries face the same issue.

One of the prominent themes in "My Two Lives" is the fight for identity. Lahiri discusses embracing true identity and accepting the label which identifies her. The author explains her parents' background in Calcutta and how they tried to uphold the Indian culture in America. Some of the practices included wearing traditional clothes, speaking in Bengali, listening to Indian music, and eating food with their fingers. The author’s parents also spoke English with an accent while she did not. All these cultural elements made Lahiri feel like a stranger in America, where people practiced something different. Lahiri views both cultures as siblings, who are intimately familiar and competing with one another. “The traditions on either side of the hyphen dwell in me like siblings, still occasionally sparring, one outshining the other depending on the day” (Lahiri 105). Therefore, Lahiri is very successful in helping people in the same situation balance their root culture and their adopted one.

The author describes the human lives in a diasporic cultural perspective where people are forced to make critical decisions concerning change and adaptation. She captures her personal experience as an American with Indian origin with her struggles, sacrifices, and the need to relate with Americans and Indians (Monaco 78). Being an immigrant, Lahiri felt she was not living to the full standards of being either American or Indian since she hid her home life from her American peers.

Even though Lahiri spoke fluent English, her look, name, and hesitation in engaging in social events like her peers made her feel less American. Additionally, her parents remained committed to their native Indian culture and never involved themselves in American cultural practices. Such factors make Lahiri lost, not knowing which side he should pick for self-identification. According to Lahiri (104), "In spite of the first lessons of arithmetic, one plus one did not equal two but zero, my conflicting selves always canceling each other out." By providing important details about her double life, Lahiri develops credibility to help her audience gain an understanding of both the American and Indian cultures.

Another prominent theme in narrative concerns resistance to change. Though they moved to a new home in the United States, Lahiri's parents remained tied to their cultural pasts and have neither interest in learning the new American culture nor implementing them in their lives. The parents were so proud of their traditions and country. Therefore, they expected their child Lahiri to uphold the Indian cultural values regardless of the environment they are living in. The theme is also evident in the manner they never bothered to learn or adopt new practices from the American culture (Monaco 82). Lahiri's parents would never consider their daughter to be American, regardless of her efforts. The parents were never open to new ideas, thus complicating Lahiri's life in American society. With such a mindset, it becomes difficult for individuals to explore their self-identity in a state of isolation. The parents seemed to mold Lahiri to adopt some values other than giving him the freedom to flourish to a flower.

In terms of characterization, Lahiri uses a single first-person narrative to create a double perspective of American and Indian lifestyles. The dual perspective characterization plays a crucial role in providing an in-depth view of her feelings pertaining to her struggles. Through this, it becomes easy for the audience to depict themselves in the same situation. As a result, this creates a clear image of how the author feels because of the double lives she has to live (Lahiri 104). Lahiri also employs imagery describing how hard she tried to please her parents, which included eating with fingers and their dress-code.

The author explores a great viewpoint of her inner feelings through the use of emotional words. She uses pathos to describe her struggles in realizing her sense of belonging. “When I was growing up in Rhode Island in the 1970s I felt neither Indian nor American. Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new” (Lahiri 103). The words demonstrate the painful feeling and emotional torture in trying to achieve a self-identity. In efforts to please her parents as well as live the desired life in her American home.

The author also employs logos by describing her feelings in being part caught in between two cultures. An example of this is when she states, "I can see a day coming when my American side, lacking the counterpoint India has until now maintained, begins to gain ascendancy and weight." The statement demonstrates how tough it can be and how self-realization can lead to success. Another important literary aspect of the narrative is the use of ethos. Lahiri applies ethos in describing her personal experiences while growing up. An example of ethos in the narrative is where Lahiri (105) states, "What a difference from my early life, when there was no such way to describe me, when the most I could do was to clumsily and ineffectually explain." The statement explains the half-life that the author lived before coming to self-realization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, though Lahiri was raised in the U.S, she ought to ignore the fact that she originated from India. The author demonstrates how tough it can be living a double life hence the need to embrace identity. Therefore, her capacity to establish credibility in self-identity makes her undisputable in addressing this topic.

Works Cited

Lahiri, Jhumpa. "My two lives." Newsweek-International Edition (2006): 103-106.

Monaco, Angelo. "Jhumpa Lahiri, the Interpreter of the New Indian Diaspora." Impossibilia. Revista Internacional de Estudios Literarios 9 (2015).