Social Alienation in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake

Diaspora writers have their roots in the sense of excretion and isolation, which emerged because of alienation and expatriation. Usually Diaspora writers deal with detachment, displacement, separation, existential rootlessness, loneliness, nostalgia, a quest for identity and isolation. Edmund Fuller remarks that “in our age man suffers not only from war, persecution, famine and ruin, but from inner problems; a conviction of isolation, randomness meaninglessness in his way of existence”. For the purpose, the present study of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake published in 2003. Analyses how the social alienation in Diaspora literature in general and Indo-English literature from different angles. Social alienation is a major concept of human condition in the contemporary society. Major protagonist Ashoke Ganguli and his wife Ashima feel that have separated from their family completely, especially Ashima feels that she has segregated herself completely from family in Calcutta. Her father’s death and quick in her marriage to Ashoke, ruins her. Meanwhile she suffers a lot outside and within the society. The study examines the concept of social alienation and it is manifested itself in Jhumpa Lahiri’s debute novel The Namesake