The Interpreter of Maladies consists of nine various stories depicting the lives of Indian immigrants. The book was published in 1999 by Jhumpa Lahiri who is also of Indian origin and moved to the United States when she was three growing up in Rhode Island. Lahiri’s ability to relate to Indian Americans allowed her to depict a multitude of Indian immigrant cultures and situations mainly focusing on relationships and marriage.
Over the years many immigrants like Lahiri transitioned to a new life in the United States and according to an article from the Columbia Business School, “3 million individuals of Indian origin who currently reside in the United States arrived in three distinct periods” (Columbia Business School 1). The first group of Indian immigrants came along with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which replaced a prior system of immigration that favored quotas to education and family relations. This led to a large increase in higher educated workers such as doctors and engineers. The second group of Indian immigrants arrived in the early 1980s and this group consisted of many families of those who have already lived in the United States for some time and have settled in. Finally, the third and final group which makes up most of the Indian population in the United States today came because of a large technological increase in America.
Lahiri and her family arrived with the first group of immigrants where there was a large focus on education since her father was a university librarian and her mother being a schoolteacher. Lahiri coming in the first wave of immigrants was significant since she was able to see all the other phases of immigrants’ transition to America as well. This allowed her to shape her stories around her experiences and what she observed from others which in culmination led to her expressing her ideas of Indian culture and religion in America and throughout the world in her series of stories, Interpreter of Maladies.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Jhumpa Lahiri”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Jul. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jhumpa-Lahiri. Accessed 20 March 2021.
School, Columbia Business. “A Singular Population: Indian Immigrants in America.” Ideas & Insights, Chazen Global Insights, 10 Dec. 2020, www8.gsb.columbia.edu/articles/chazen-global-insights/singular-population-indian-immigrants-america.
Tokarev, Sergey. “Jhumpa Lahiri.” Immigration to the United States, 2015, immigrationtounitedstates.org/1111-jhumpa-lahiri.html.
I think the way you explained the three different groups of Indian immigrants to America was really interesting and well organized. I think that by indicating that there were three different groups with different motives to immigrating proves the evolution of America over time. It also helps to better understand why Lahiri and her family wanted to move and also emphasizes different versions of the “American Dream” overtime. This was super helpful to better understanding Lahiri’s story.
I found this context presentation to be very informative and really important as you do a great job at informing us the readers of three different groups of immigrants who all immigrated to the United States for different reasons. This not only helps to see an evolution in the United States and their appeal to immigrants. Identifying what group of immigrants Lahiri and her family are a part helps us the reader understand their character far more and help us gain a greater insight to what their aspirations were. This context presentation as a whole does a magnificent job at identifying the aspirations of different groups of immigrant and helps us identify their story which in turn helps us better understand the story.
I thought you did a nice job on your context presentation. It was very interesting to read about the three distinct periods that the Indian individuals arrived in. I was uneducated about this topic so it was informative to learn about the periods. I thought it was also good to know that Lahiri and her family arrived with the first group of immigrants where they focused and valued education. This was very informative and will help me to understand more of the readings this week.
I found this context presentation to be very informative. I enjoyed reading about the three groups of Indian Immigrants you described. I was not aware of this and how most of them came in groups like this. It makes sense that Lahiri and her family were part of the first group of Indian immigrants to move to the U.S. You explained that is why she was able to write about the short stories, because she had the background knowledge of almost all groups of Indian immigrants. I really enjoyed reading your context presentation as it was very interesting and informative!
Hello! I really enjoyed reading your context presentation. It was interesting to see how you connected the novel with the real-life experiences of Indian immigrants. I thought that since the novel incorporated stories from nine different immigrant stories, you can get many different perspectives on why people had immigrated from India. Also, having different perspectives can help gain an understanding on what people were feeling arriving in a completely different country. I think that reading your context presentation will further enhance my viewing on the story.
This presentation is very interesting and provided me with completely new information regarding Indian immigration. I had no idea that there were multiple waves of immigrants, let along that they came for different purposes. I think its not only interesting, but important to understand when and why the author immigrated to the US herself. I feel that this background will allow me to better understand the author’s experiences, and I think it even further establishes her credibility as an author since she has witnessed so much Indian immigration into the US.
Hi woelk! Your context representation is impressive and I have learned a lot from it. At first I am not familiar with the history and culture of India. I thought the India immigration is just like other Asian immigration such as China and Japan. However, from your words and after reading the Lahiri’s product. I found a little bit difference. The emotional expressions between the characters in the novel are very restrained, so the article reads with a very calm and nuanced charm. When reading, it seems to be watching a drama, and it comes to the scene in the article completely. Listening to the protagonist’s dialogue, watching Scenes happened before me. On the other hand, the sudden eruption of feelings after repeated brewing in the introverted world is particularly intense and real.
Hello,
Thank you for your presentation! I found it to be very insightful into the background of the novel. I didn’t know about the distinct periods in which people of Indian origin immigrated to the United States. I find this incredibly helpful to place exactly the time period that Lahiri is writing about and get a better idea of her experiences.
I found this presentation very informative and it really helped me understand more about how Indian immigrants moved to the United States. I never knew that they immigrated here in three different ways. Its interesting to learn that the groups all moved occurred for pretty different reasons. This presentation will help me understand more about the Indian immigrants who are the focus in our stories this week.
My home town has a large population of Indian migrants who are first / second generation. It is interesting to learn more about the reasoning and the waves of people coming to America. I didn’t realize there were different motives for each major move. It is interesting because my classmates and their families are in the third wave and came here for the new technology. It is also interesting how India changes so much that there reasons to leave also adapt with their new thinking.
This context presentation was very interesting! I have not read much into the modules yet this week so this was a great introduction to what we are learning this week. I did not know of the three different waves of immigration and each differed from one another. I agree it is interesting that Lahiri could witness the new Indian immigrants come to America and see how they may have adjusted differently than her generation. I wonder how her experience was immigrating to a completely new country with a very different culture, I hope we get to learn more about that this week. I admire her intentions to educate others on Indian culture through story telling. I think it’s a great way to really engage others in the culture and open their mind to something new and interesting.
hello!
this was a great presentation! You did a good job providing the necessary background that is helpful to better understand the story. The way you pulled together Lahiris story and the background really helped me to better understand. I hadn’t know much about indian immigration to the US until reading your post. It’s fascinating the indians who came in wave one were all very similar occupation wise.
I think you did a really good job explaining the background of the story. By this, I mean the way you broke down the 3 major waves of immigration and the factors leading up to and causing these waves. I have a lot of family that came to America during the third wave, and most of them came for work. I didn’t know that the “waves” were an actual thing. It was pretty cool how u explained that the waves were based on jobs, then tied that back to our story. You also told us how Lahiri was a part of the first wave and therefore was able to write unique stories of each wave. All in all this was a great context presentation and gave a lot of much needed background info.
Hey,
I really enjoyed this context presentation. You did a very good job of going into detail about the different groups of people from India that immigrated into the United States, and their reasoning and the circumstances that caused them to immigrate. I also found it interesting how each group that immigrated had an impact on the next group that immigrated, and how all of these groups of people that immigrated had such a profound impact on how the United States is shaped today. Furthermore, I liked how you were able to connect all of this information with Lahiri and her family’s story.
This was a really cool read! I did not know about Indian Immigration and more specifically the three distinct groups and time periods. I also learned how much on an impact U.S. legislation had such as the act passed in 1965 that paved the way for more educated individuals to immigrate.
Great job on the contextual research presentation! I think that you provided really good information of the immigration of Indians. I found it very interesting how there was three waves of immigration. Since Lahiri came to the United States at such a young age, she was able to witness the experience of other Indian immigrants. I also think that since she came to the United States at age 3, she was probably able to adapt to the changes quicker making her able to view the experiences and struggles of other immigrants. This context research presentation helps to show that she was able to view the experience of immigrants in terms of culture and other changes.
Thank you for your context presentation. I think you provide a background of Indian Immigration. I find out that so many Indian immigrants moved to the United States in last century. In addition, the presentation gives me information about Lahiri’s family that they are really focusing children’s education. Also, Lahiri moved to the United States when she was 4, so she could quickly adapt American culture and learned English. The presentation lets me know the experience of Indian immigrants and how they integrate with new culture. Thank you!
Thank you for the great context presentation this week! I think you did a fantastic job providing background information about Indian immigration and how it relates to this week’s work. I think the inclusion of information about the general idea and real world facts about Indian immigration combined with the information about the story in general and how it relates made for a great and informative context presentation.
Hi, I think that your history on the immigration and the law was very helpfull. A lot of what you talked about in your post I did not know nor have I hear about them before. I think the way you worded it was well and you made it easy to understand and comprehend. It made it easier to understand what the character were going through and the process that many of them had to do.
I thought your context presentation was excellent. It was fascinating to hear about the three distinct times at which the Indians came. I had no previous knowledge about this subject, so learning about the times was helpful. It was also interesting to learn that Lahiri and her family were among the first group of immigrants to concentrate on and prioritize education. This was very helpful in helping me learn more of the readings this week.
I think your presentation was well organized and was easy for me to grasp, which I appreciate! I think you included very helpful examples, like which types of jobs would be in each of the 3 waves. I did not know of these different groups of Indian immigrants. I think you did a great job explaining the background of this story and helped us get a different perspective of the author, allowing us to connect with the story in a stronger way. Thanks for the presentation!