Masculinity Of Indian American Men In Jhumpa Lahiri's Fictions

Because of racial discrimination in history,Indian men are emasculated in the stereotyped image in early English documents.However,the Indian American woman writer Jhumpa Lahiri has a unique style of writing about Indian American masculinity.Her two short story collections Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth and two novels The Namesake and The Lowland have made a multidimensional construction of Indian American men's masculinity.With the masculinity as the main line,these works demonstrate the characteristics of the ideal male in Lahiri's eyes from the three dimensions of class,cultural identity and character.First,there is two-way interactive relation between image building and alienated masculinity.Because of the fact that India was colonized by Britain and the history of American labor migration,low social status and white racism made Indian American men castrated and lose their right to say in English literature.But the alienated masculinity was changed by Indian skilled immigrants after the Immigration Act of1965.Lahiri remolds Indian American masculinity organized around technical knowledge owing to the supporting and inheriting roles of the educational system.This new masculinity helps Indian American men gain the right to speak in economic and academic fields,and subverts their silent state and disintegrates the stereotyped image of emasculation to some extent.Secondly,the construction of American Indian masculinity and cultural identity complement each other.The hybrid cultural identity of Indian American men can be embodied and constructed from three aspects: naming,love and marriage,and customs and habits.First,Lahiri reveals the identity dilemma and the inevitable hybrid identity of Indian American men through the chaotic naming rule.Second,the love and marriage is another effective way for Indian American men to construct a hybrid identity and enhance masculinity.Finally,the construction of a hybrid identity is clearly reflected in their language,festivals and rituals,diet and values.The establishment of hybridcultural identity enables Indian American men to alleviate the sense of being split by different cultures and gain the comprehensive development of the subject ability.In the end,by the parallel advance between androgynous masculinity and gender advance,Lahiri abandons the stereotyped writing of the early immigrant women writers about Indian American men.She describes them as gentle men,brave to reverse the traditional gender roles in the household.At the same time their sentimentality reflects delicate and rich spiritual world.Androgyny masculinity not only liberates men from gender stereotypes but also provides a new direction for the construction of equal gender relations,reflecting Lahiri's humanistic care and good expectation for gender equality.In brief,the contribution that Lahiri has made to the construction of Indian American masculinity is undoubtedly remarkable.Not only does she stand for Indian American men,breaking the marginalized state that they have been remained for a long time,but also her creations are of profound significance to the universal problems such as immigrant identity,patriarchal culture and the construction of harmonious gender ethics.