Representation of Migrants’ Journey from Homeland to Hostland in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland

Abstract

The act of migration is not a smooth journey, rather, it brings along a number of predicaments among which the identity related challenges are the most hindering ones. Challenges to identity constitute a crucial factor for migrants. At the same time, migration brings great chances and opportunities for migrants in terms of economic improvements, standard of life and innovative experiences. The present study discusses Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland regarding the representation of migrants’ identities and their transformation during the journey between home and host-land. This study aims at analyzing notions such as push-pull factors of migration, construction of migrants’ identities and the portrayal of cosmopolitan concerns in the selected novel. The study has used Kenneth Burke’s Pentad Dramatism as theoretical framework for the selected content of the novel. Lahiri's The Lowland offers to readers a new dimension in redefining Asian-American literary studies, responding more sensitively to heterogeneity and connectivity in the United States and abroad.