Problem of Social Adjustment in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

Abstract

This research aims to trace the diaspora psychology and problem of social adjustment among migrated Indians to Europe and America in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. As the diaspora writer migrated from her homeland to new land Lahiri writes about the similar migrated characters with their memory of past cultural heritages as well as about the experiences of cultural hybridity, diaspora psychology and the problems faced by migrated Indians in America. As the diaspora people, the identity of her characters gives them a sense of dislocation and adjustment problem in new social and cultural periphery. The text is a story collection from Bengal to Europe and America that includes nine different stories with the diasporic experiences of various characters. The stories tell the lives of Indians in exile that are navigated between the strict traditions they have inherited and the new western world they must encounter every day. They face the problems of social adjustment. With examining the psychology of characters the research aims suggests the psychological problem of social adjustment among migrated Indians to Europe and America as the adjustment problem is one of the most characteristics of migrated people to first world from the Indian cultural background.