Culture Clashes Within A Culture

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the "Interpreter of Maladies and Other Stories" by Jhumpa Lahiri and highlights how a culture clash can occur between people of the same culture and background. The paper focuses on the title story of "The Interpreter of Maladies", the story "The Third and Final Continent" and the story "Mrs. Sen's". The paper emphasizes these stories' lesson that one cannot assume a common culture simply because one's ancestors share a common point of origin.

From the Paper:

"The term 'culture clash' seems to imply a conflict or a misunderstanding between two polarized cultures, quite often Eastern versus Western culture. For example, in the short story, "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine," from Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies the young narrator is told by her teacher that history begins with the American Revolution, as if her own Indian heritage does not exist. This sense of insignificance is even internalized by Indian natives. A Bengali calls his nation "nothing [you'll] ever need to worry about" in the story "Sexy," when showing an American his nation is on a map (Lahir 84)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Choubey, Asha. "Food as Metaphor in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies." The Literature and Culture of the Indian Subcontinent on the Postcolonial Web. Last modified 2001. [8 Dec 2007.]http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/post/india/literature/lahiri/choubey1.html
• Lahiri, Jhumpa Interpreter of Maladies and other stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

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