The Agony of Displacement in "Mrs. Sen's"
The Agony of Displacement in "Mrs. Sen's"
The word diaspora (originally the dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the sixth century b.c., when they were exiled to Babylonia, until the present time) refers to the movement of the population from its original homeland. For James Clifford, it involves dwelling, maintaining communities, having collective homes away from home. In order to provide a “defining" model, Clifford turns to William Safran’s definition of Diaspora: "expatriate minority communities that maintain a ‘memory, vision, or myth about their original homeland’. The present paper attempts to explore the myth of homeland—as part of the diaspora discourse--in Jhumpa Lahiri's short story "Mrs. Sen's".
"Mrs. Sen's" depicts a displaced immigrant protagonist, Mrs. Sen. She is an Indian who lives in America, and is caught between the culture she inherited and the world in which she now finds herself. She feels isolated from her large extended family which is in India and searches for a place in America. She struggles to assimilate into American culture: for example, she undertakes the job of babysitting a young American boy, Eliot, and takes driving lessons from her husband; although the driving behavior appears strange to her: she says to Eliot, " In India, the driver sat on the right side, not the left"(221). But this effort is pointless because she was mentally unprepared for such a shocking move:" she said, her forehead resting against the top of the steering wheel: "I hate it. I hate driving. I won't go on." She stopped driving after that"(242).
She is missing her neighborhood and above all the community spirit that is totally lacking in the American culture. She asks: "Eliot, if I began to scream right now at the top of my lungs, would someone come?" Eliot says: "Mrs. Sen, what's wrong?" and she says:"Nothing. I am only asking if someone would come." Eliot shrugged. "Maybe." She continues: "At home[India] that is all you have to do. Not everybody
The word diaspora (originally the dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the sixth century b.c., when they were exiled to Babylonia, until the present time) refers to the movement of the population from its original homeland. For James Clifford, it involves dwelling, maintaining communities, having collective homes away from home. In order to provide a “defining" model, Clifford turns to William Safran’s definition of Diaspora: "expatriate minority communities that maintain a ‘memory, vision, or myth about their original homeland’. The present paper attempts to explore the myth of homeland—as part of the diaspora discourse--in Jhumpa Lahiri's short story "Mrs. Sen's".
"Mrs. Sen's" depicts a displaced immigrant protagonist, Mrs. Sen. She is an Indian who lives in America, and is caught between the culture she inherited and the world in which she now finds herself. She feels isolated from her large extended family which is in India and searches for a place in America. She struggles to assimilate into American culture: for example, she undertakes the job of babysitting a young American boy, Eliot, and takes driving lessons from her husband; although the driving behavior appears strange to her: she says to Eliot, " In India, the driver sat on the right side, not the left"(221). But this effort is pointless because she was mentally unprepared for such a shocking move:" she said, her forehead resting against the top of the steering wheel: "I hate it. I hate driving. I won't go on." She stopped driving after that"(242).
She is missing her neighborhood and above all the community spirit that is totally lacking in the American culture. She asks: "Eliot, if I began to scream right now at the top of my lungs, would someone come?" Eliot says: "Mrs. Sen, what's wrong?" and she says:"Nothing. I am only asking if someone would come." Eliot shrugged. "Maybe." She continues: "At home[India] that is all you have to do. Not everybody