Being Indian in America: How characters maintain their sense of identity in Interpreter of Maladies

In the article titled "As American as Mom and Chicken Curry: Home as a Metaphor in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies," Peerboom states that "the home is a place of social definition." (49) In many of the short stories in Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, the characters use their home as a way to keep in touch with their Indian heritage. Some characters were born in India and moved to America, and some were Indian, born in America but knew very little about life in India. Most of these characters maintain their sense of identity through their home life, actions, and storytelling.

In the story Mrs. Sens, the main character is very homesick. She has items in her home, like her blade, which reminds her of being in India. "She had brought the blade from India, where apparently there was at least one in every household." (129)

This knife symbolizes a tradition in India in which she frequently partook, and it gave her a sense of belonging to a group. This tradition was something the women did together when there was a celebration. The blade symbolizes how deeply she needs to hold on to her roots. It is one of the things she can still use while in America and hold on to a shred of who she was.

Mrs. Sens has tapes of her family's voices from the day she left India, and she receives letters from home, although very rarely. She also wears the traditional garb of India; a sari. These things make her happy, and help her hold on to her life in India. On the other hand, Mrs. Sens refuses to drive, something that is completely American. She rejects Americanness in that sense.

The short story, A Real Durwan, has in it another good example of a character that holds onto her heritage through storytelling and the physical object of a set of keys. Boori Ma tells the tenants of the apartment building she cleans of her past lavish lifestyle, frequently adding on the same phrase: "Believe me, don't believe, such comforts you cannot even dream them." (81) By saying this, and reaching for her skeleton keys, Boori Ma is keeping alive her heritage, the home she grew up in, her rich life that she no longer has.

Peerboom's article says, "Those who accept American dominance find acceptance while those who reject it find themselves without a place." (55) This is true for the characters I've looked at in this essay. They seem to be the outcasts that never conformed to American society. They frequently brought up and remembered their heritage in an effort to maintain their identity. They held on to an aspect of India that was important to them, and by doing that, made themselves, in a way, outcasts in America with no place in society.

Works Cited

Peerboom, H. "As American as Mom and Chicken Curry." JASAT, 49-55

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. eBook.