Alienation, Loneliness and the Immigrant Experience

Abstract

Lahiri’s most famous works The Interpreter of Maladies (1999) deal with the emotional and psychological challenges faced by individuals and families faced with the contrasting pressures of the new world and the one left behind, themes. The contrasting worlds that Lahiri’s characters encounter result very often in a sense of alienation. Sidney Finkelstein’s definition of alienation is “a psychological phenomenon, an internal conflict, a hostilityfelt towards something seemingly outside oneself, a barrier erected which is actually no defense but animpoverishment of oneself”.