Jhumpa Lahiri’s two lives Ms Isabella Marinaro

Background on the Author Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London in 1967 from Bengali parents her father was a librarian and her mother a school teacher Ms Isabella Marinaro

Background on the Author she grew up in Rhode Island, but often went back to Bengal with her parents, who wanted her to learn about her family’s history and culture her family moved to the US when she was three Ms Isabella Marinaro

Background on the Author in Kindergarten, Lahiri’s teacher decided to call her by her nickname “Jhumpa” because her full name (Nilanjana Sudeshna) was so difficult to pronounce her problem with her name gave her the idea for her novel The Namesake Ms Isabella Marinaro

she studied a lot and she is Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Comparative Literature she also got a PhD in Renaissance Studies from Boston University Background on the Author Ms Isabella Marinaro

Background on the Author lots of awards, among the most prestigious: the 1999 PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Fiction Debut for her short story The Interpreter of Maladies the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Ms Isabella Marinaro

Background on the Author she married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a Latin and German American he is a journalist and editor of one of the most famous Spanish-American newspapers, Time Ms Isabella Marinaro

Background on the Author they lived in New York with their two children before Jhumpa decided to come and live in Rome in 2012 Ms Isabella Marinaro

An Indian - American growing as an Indian- American was a big challenge for her she struggled with keeping her native customs and being able to adapt to the American lifestyle her parents decided they were not going to become accustomed, but to live their traditions in the US she, on the other hand, wanted to become involved and comfortable in Rhode Island Ms Isabella Marinaro

An Indian - American becoming older she increasingly accepted her Indian background, although not fully. Also, she accepted American culture after her parents’ death it seems as though she does fully appreciate her background. in the end, she lives happily as an Indian-American with her husband Ms Isabella Marinaro

An Indian - American “I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of either side of the hyphen” “No country is my motherland. I always find myself in exile in whichever country I travel to, that’s why I was tempted to write something about those living their lives in exile.” [I grew up with] “conflicting expectations… to be Indian by Indians and American by Americans” Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake: the very meaning of the word (a) someone who has the name of somebody else; e.g. I’m my grandfather’s / grandmother’s NAMESAKE Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake: the very meaning of the word (b) somebody who is named after somebody else e.g.: I’m named after my grandfather / grandmother Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake: the very meaning of the word so: I have his/her name for his/her sake I have his / her name because of him / her Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake The NamesakeThe Namesake is Lahiri’s first novel (2003). It is about the struggles of a Bengal Indian couple united in an arranged marriage, the Gangulis, who migrate to the United States. They have to start a new life which is very different from the one back home. Unlike her husband, Mrs. Ganguli refuses assimilation. The couple has a baby boy whom they name Gogol, after the long-dead Russian writer. Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake When Gogol becomes a teenager, he hates his name and has problems because of it. He doesn’t understand why his parents have chosen it for him. When he goes to college he changes his name to “Nikhil Gogol Ganguli”. Gogol falls in love with an American girl, but his parents don’t accept her. Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake Then he falls in love with a Bengali girl and they get married. They later get a divorce. Then Gogol is alone. At the end of the story Gogol finally understands that his father gave him this name because it had saved his father’s life before he was born. Ms Isabella Marinaro

The Namesake Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, was later made into a movie directed by Mira Nair in Ms Isabella Marinaro

Quotations “In addition to my distinguishing name and looks, I did not attend Sunday school, did not know how to ice skate, and disappeared to India for months at a time”. “As a child I sought perfection and so denied myself the claim to any identity”. “While I am American because I was raised in this country, I am Indian thanks to the efforts of two individuals”. “I always felt so embarrassed by my name… You feel like you are causing someone pain just by being who you are” Ms Isabella Marinaro

“When I was growing up in Rhode Island in the 1970s I felt neither Indian nor American”. “According to my parents I was not American, nor would I ever be, no matter how hard I tried”. “I avoided talking about in my childhood, fearful of what people might say. Around non-Indian friends, I no longer feel compelled to hide the fact that I speak another language”. “As an adult I accept that a bicultural upbringing is a rich but imperfect thing”. Quotations Ms Isabella Marinaro

Quotations “I feel Indian not because of the time I’ve spent in India or because of my genetic composition, but rather because of my parents’ steadfast presence in my life.” “My first book was published in 1999, and around then, on the cusp of a new century, the term ‘Indian American’ became part of this country’s vocabulary.” “At home I followed the customs of my parents, speaking Bengal and eating rice and dal with my fingers.” What drew me to my craft was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page as I was not brave enough, or mature enough, to allow in life.” Ms Isabella Marinaro