by Dr. Anushna Biswas
Dr. Anushna Biswas in this account unfolds not only the Unaccustomed Earth or Jhumpa Lahiri but the supercultural association of women with the contemporary postglobalized world.
In the works of immigrant writers, the focus on women seems to be worked upon in the light of ‘globalization’. Women now are no longer confined within the four walls of a family. They deftly handle both looking after their family as well as their external jobs. They have set foot on the moon, they are computer wizards and they largely occupy the pasture of profession dealing with the media. The space of identification with the world has expanded for women. They are no longer culturally specified. They can be seen in crossover to an international diaspora. Their struggle is no longer confined to gender bias but also against alienation in a foreign land. Women are now found to be the confluencing point of the East and the West. Here, it is important to observe how they succeed or fail to walk the tightrope of the freedom of the West and the ethos of the East. In this context, I have tried to anatomize Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earthwith an impartial scalpel. It may be mentioned the title of the book is borrowed from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote and strongly so.
In society a woman plays the role of both a maker and a breaker of a family. She is the one who preserves the family ethos. But when she is brought to the verge of rebellion, she has the power to debunk all the blueprints of the society. Woman’s role defines the greater sociological matrix of the society. Through the image of a woman the writers construct and deconstruct her identity vis-à-vis the family and the society. Such portrayals, as Patricia Meyer Spacks says, in her Female Imagination: “to investigate how to use their creativity and to combat their characteristic difficulties”.
A woman seeks not just empowerment but also recognition of the self. In her comparative analysis, Meyer Spacks points out that there are two writers who believe that it is emotionally possible for a woman to achieve what they want. They are Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot. In marriage, motherhood and taking care of husband and children a woman discover her ‘self image’. It is important in social system to see how a woman struggles to discover her support system through her strength of survival in the society. A woman is supposed to balance her emotional and practical needs which often do not get recognized. About such mind-set, Meyer Spacks intones: “Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell define in fictional terms the delicate emotional balancing point on which women must poise between commitment to others and preservation of their selves”.
In the works of immigrant writers, the focus on women seems to be worked upon in the light of ‘globalization’. Women now are no longer confined within the four walls of a family. They deftly handle both looking after their family as well as their external jobs. They have set foot on the moon, they are computer wizards and they largely occupy the pasture of profession dealing with the media. The space of identification with the world has expanded for women. They are no longer culturally specified. They can be seen in crossover to an international diaspora. Their struggle is no longer confined to gender bias but also against alienation in a foreign land. Women are now found to be the confluencing point of the East and the West. Here, it is important to observe how they succeed or fail to walk the tightrope of the freedom of the West and the ethos of the East. In this context, I have tried to anatomize Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earthwith an impartial scalpel. It may be mentioned the title of the book is borrowed from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote and strongly so.
In society a woman plays the role of both a maker and a breaker of a family. She is the one who preserves the family ethos. But when she is brought to the verge of rebellion, she has the power to debunk all the blueprints of the society. Woman’s role defines the greater sociological matrix of the society. Through the image of a woman the writers construct and deconstruct her identity vis-à-vis the family and the society. Such portrayals, as Patricia Meyer Spacks says, in her Female Imagination: “to investigate how to use their creativity and to combat their characteristic difficulties”.
A woman seeks not just empowerment but also recognition of the self. In her comparative analysis, Meyer Spacks points out that there are two writers who believe that it is emotionally possible for a woman to achieve what they want. They are Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot. In marriage, motherhood and taking care of husband and children a woman discover her ‘self image’. It is important in social system to see how a woman struggles to discover her support system through her strength of survival in the society. A woman is supposed to balance her emotional and practical needs which often do not get recognized. About such mind-set, Meyer Spacks intones: “Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell define in fictional terms the delicate emotional balancing point on which women must poise between commitment to others and preservation of their selves”.
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