Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland: A study of alienation and identity

Abstract

Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the leading and successful second generation of Indian writers of English novellists. Lahiri’s The Lowland explores complex nature of human relationship and feelings of loneliness and the question of identity. The novel centres round the theme of political and personal violence, duty and desire, heritage and homeland, secrets and conspiracies and alienation and identity. The Lowland is a comprehensive, enthusiastic story that examines in detail the junction of the political and the personal scenario, enveloping nearly fifty years of Indian and American history through the lives of one family. Jhumpa Lahiri’s themes are far-fetched and widely focused on the issues of acculturation, assimilation, desolation, fragmented identity and individuality of the characters in an alien land. Being a contemporary novelist of immigrant experience, she incandescently substantiated the problems encountered by the second generation in the ‘imaginary homeland’. In this paper, an attempt has been made on the theme of alienation and identity.