Jhumpa Lahiri And Local Colors - Essay Example

Your Jhumpa Lahiri And Local Colors Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the most prominent American-Bengali s. Born on July 11, 1967, she has already published three books and has already won a Pulitzer Prize. Her pieces usually talk about the dilemmas faced by Indian immigrants on subjects like: marriage, family, disconnection from the motherland and the disconnection of the second-generation children who were not born in their motherland. Her collection of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It drew criticism especially from the Indians because they said that India was not painted in a more positive light. However, it still managed to become a bestseller. Lahiri writes nonfiction, sometimes published in The New Yorker, like Cooking Lessons, which talks about the importance of food in her relationship with her mother. Her writing style is actually simple. She uses simple words and plain language. Her characters are usually Indian-American, or Indians, by default. The setting is mostly America in which her characters have to navigate their native values into their new adopted home. Sometimes, one might think that her work is autobiographical, which is true because she says, she draws from her experiences. Of course, she also draws from the experiences of her friends and family, and this makes her literature more accessible and familiar to her readers. Her work is a good reference to find the nuances of immigrant life, especially the Indian-American life. Her literature is also heavy on the use of local color. Of course, since her work is largely regionalistic, it can’t be helped if she uses local color to demonstrate the customs or other cultural artifacts native to her own land. It is both romantic and realistic; Romantic in a sense that it invokes nostalgia and sentimentality but also romantic since it involves realism, as in the realistic struggles of some folks in the stories. Local color stories tend to focus more on the details of the character and setting rather than the individual character itself. They can sometimes be stereotyped rather than be identified as a special character in the story. The characters are important because they are the ones who demonstrate the culture and the other cultural artifacts that the author is writing about. They also give away the values and the customs, as well as their adherence to tradition and that is directly related to the regional context of the author. The setting is also important. Unlike the character, details of the setting can be heavily detailed as to provide the necessary mood in the story. Sometimes, the setting is not the motherland, especially if they are talking about disconnect. Although Lahiri’s stories are fiction, she uses the first person point of view. This lends the story a personal touch. The narrator in her stories acts as a tour guide in the world that she paints. This first person point of view is quite refreshing because the readers feel extra special because they think that they are entering a secret world with the author. This makes Lahiri’s works exceptional. Another thing that makes Lahiri’s works exceptional is the fact that she uses food, language and religion as tools that mark her ethnic identity. These “little” details provide the necessary atmosphere in order for the story to be successful in portraying the local colors. In the story When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine, Lahiri’s persona takes as a character of the narrator, who happens to be a little girl named Lilia. At one point of her life, a certain Mr. Pirzada from Dacca came to their house regularly for dinners. This was the time when Pakistan and India were fighting around 1965 (Indian-Pakistani War). Mr. Pirzada came to their house for the food, because he was not at all well-off as an immigrant, and of course, as someone from their own race/culture, even if they are Indians and Mr. Pirzada is a Pakistani, they welcomed him because they understood his plight as an immigrant. Mr. Pirzada on the other hand, always brought gifts to the little girl to make her feel special. The little girl, of course, appreciated it all, but she was more interested in Mr. Pirzada himself. Mr. Pirzada was a rich man back in Dacca. He owns a three-storey house with his wife and four daughters. However, he has had a scholarship in the States and when he left his wife and kids, the war struck. She knew that he was anxious for his family left in Dacca due to the war. He was worried because he was not receiving news from them at all! She, along with her family, worried for him. She looked out for several cultural differences, reasons as to why the two countries fight, but could not find any. For her, they look the same, the sound the same, they even acted the same. Plus they even eat the same food! There was no difference for her, and the war for her was pointless. The manner Lahiri used the child’s innocence and cultural artifacts in order to communicate to the audience. Since the narrator is a child, she cannot understand any differences, she takes on the observable differences and similarities between them: Indians and Pakistanis. First thing she notices is the food. She observes that they eat the same things; they even eat in the same manner. For Mr. Pirzada, having dinners with them reminded him of his home. One can easily conclude that they have the same dinners in their home. Their manner of eating was the same and they ate the same food; however, Lilia’s father told her that she should understand their difference: the place where they come from and he is a Muslim. That’s basically it. They have the eaten the same mango chutney with rice. They both love their family. He is basically a family man like her father. Lahiri used these elements to convey local color in her story: religion and food. For her, they are the things that make a character human. It’s not the politics or the territories they have been in but rather it’s how they live and how they behave. For her as a little girl, Mr. Pirzada is kin no matter where he came from, no matter who it stands for because he is him and they actually move and behave alike. Therefore, as an innocent child, the story of Mr. Pirzada uses food and religion as artifacts to further the stories but also uses them to instill the values of being an immigrant in America; specifically being an Indian-American who relates to other people using also food to connect to each other. The other story is My Two Lives. My Two Lives, which talks about Lahiri’s own experiences. The essay talks about her personal upbringing and the confusion that goes along with being an Indian-American. In the essay that was written in 2006, Lahiri talks about “being an alien” because, well, they are different than most people. She never fit in, actually. She never felt Indian nor American and that gave her a voice. Although she was sort of confused, like she had to follow Bengali customs and traditions like eating rice with hands and hiding that behavior in front of her American friends, she came out a strong woman. She relates her experiences as a woman who is a first generation immigrant; how it is difficult to establish a new race like being an “Indian-American” since she was part of a new breed of immigrants. Biculturalism is embraced, although she knows that she does not belong to any of her “single culture” race. In this essay, language plays a part on her life. Language is the local color. She knows how to speak Bengali, Lahiri, and speaks to her children in Bengali. The problem is that she does not know how to read and write in Bengali! This incompetence in language brings the weakness of biculturalism. She knows but she can’t, much like her parents longing for their home: they know they want to go back but they can’t. It’s actually sad. Lahiri is a quite prominent writer for Indian-Americans. If you look closely, though, you can say that she writes for the marginalized sector, and she writes so well. References: Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Interpreter of Maladies. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Print Lahiri, Jhumpa. My Two Lives. Desilit.org. February 2006. Web. Retrieved on November 20, 2011. "Pakistan: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965". Library of Congress Country Studies, United States of America. April 1994. Web. Retrieved 20 November 2011. Williams, Laura Anh. "Foodways and subjectivity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies." Melus, Dec. 2007. Web copy. Retrieved 20 November 2011. Read More