A Study On "Displacement" In The Namesake

The Namesake(2003)is the first novel by Jhumpa Lahiri(1967-),an Indian Bengali American female writer and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner.The novel centers on the Gangulis,an Indian immigrant family in America,describing this family’s living details and emotional struggle after settling down on this foreign land.Along with the removal from their original root,the Gangulis transgress the geographical border and undergo a series of conflicts in cultural and psychological aspects,displaying a state of being displaced.Indian Americans’ experience of displacement brings them better material life as well as pain and confusion,urging them to find solutions to get rid of the negative effects of displacement.This thesis,through the interpretation of this novel,explores Indian immigrants’ effort in searching a better living condition and tries to arouse people’s revaluation of displacement,an increasingly striking phenomenon in current society.The body of this paper includes three parts.The first part analyzes the displacement undergone by family members of the Gangulis and the causes.Ashoke as the patriarch of the family,his relocation in another country to pursue education and career reveals a voluntary geographical displacement.Apart from the traumatic experience of train accident,his migration is motivated by the domestic situation in turmoil,the expectation for Western countries generated in colonial history and the benefited American immigrant policy in the 1960s.Ashima is a representative of numerous Indian wives who leave motherland to follow their husbands’steps.Ashima’s strong awareness of cultural differences between America and India demonstrates her distance from American culture,and also reminds her of the fact that she has been separated from the natal culture,speaking her situation in cultural displacement.Indian female immigrants’ inadaptation to American culture is the result of the long-term control imposed on women by the rules of the patriarchal society.Gogol as a child of immigrants,who is also called a second-generation immigrant,his sense of splitting self reflects his confusing identity caused by double cultures.He displaces his identity issue to his name and tries to find solace through sexual relationships and change of name,achieving a psychological displacement.Through geographical,cultural and psychological aspects,the multi-dimensionality in the form of displacement and the diversity of its causes are revealed.The second part probes from three aspects into the effect of displacement on social relationships within and without the Indian ethnic group:Indian immigrants and mainstream society,Indian immigrants and their children,and male and female immigrants.Indian immigrants are both accepted and rejected by the mainstream society.Meanwhile,they desire to integrate and deliberately keep distance,shaping a contradictory relationship with American society.Indian immigrants and their children often have frictions in daily life because of their distinction in cultural identity,but the problem gradually eases as their children grow up.Women are provided opportunities for development in the new environment,breaking the inequal gender relationship in Indian society and further leading to the transformation and disintegration of traditional marriages.The third part discusses the efforts Indian immigrants have made to counteract adverse effects of displacement so as to seek belonging for hearts.Different approaches taken by Ashima,Moushumi,and Gogol reflect their specific identity construction strategies.Ashima,in her early phase of life abroad,adheres to Indian culture,while Moushumi tries to completely abandon Indian culture.Moushumi and Ashima’s opposite attitudes towards Indian culture both reflect their concept of fixed identities,which does no help in overcoming their sense of being out of place.Ashima later gives up her single cultural identity,and Gogol,after failing to construct a full American or Indian identity,learns to find a balance between the two cultures,showing that identity is fluid with unlimited possibilities.At the same time,the idea about cosmopolitan,an idealized state of citizenship in a globalized society,is also expressed through the characters’ frequent traveling experience and shifting narrative perspectives.This thesis argues that displacement is closely related to human beings,especially those who have crossed national borders,in current society.The effect of displacement is binary,bringing about both chance and challenge.To counter with the negative effect,a fluid and multicultural identity is necessary.By endowing the characters certain features of cosmopolitans,Lahiri expresses her attitude of cosmopolitanism and expectation for a world with more tolerance for ethnic and cultural differences.