Alienation to acculturation in jhumpa lahiri’s the namesake

<h3 data-fontsize="17" data-lineheight="23">Abstract</h3> <p>This paper attempts to observe the twin issues of estrangement and acculturation in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake. The first generation expatriates from Bengal find the problem of alien culture, trauma, alienation, isolation and nostalgia while the second generation migrant’s attempts to assimilate by embracing this alien culture and they invariably try to distance themselves from their parents? native culture.Aashima Ganguly finds herself in a perpetual state of in-betweeness, caught up between her Bengali culture and the American culture. She feels the trishanku experience as she is in fact accepted neither by the Americans nor by the Indians. She seems to be losing grips with her roots while her children accept their host culture and they also struggle for their belongingness and identity. It lays bare the inconsistency of the displacement and acculturation where they find a culture difference.</p&gt