Sense of Belonging in Jhumpa Lahiri’The Namesake

Abstract

With increasing economic development and faster modes of communication, the individual in society faces a number of problems, about his place in the scheme of things. Increasing urbanization leads to a loss of self-identity because the old traditions have lost their values and an individual starts feeling alienated from the past which frequently results in a loss of sense of belonging or crisis of identity for many people. The concept of alienation has played an important part in the history of philosophical and sociological thought of the past. Alienation is the feeling that life is meaningless and we do not belong in this world. There are three types of alienation, alienation from oneself, alienation from other people and alienation from the world in which one lives and these three forms of alienation are interrelated. It is the process whereby people become foreigner to the world they are living in. Modern man does not feel sense of belonging to any person or society or country because he wants to live in isolation and influence of money power. He thinks that he can live alone in the world without being attached to any person. Sometimes he decides to search about his self-identity. He wants to remain detached but comes to realize at the end that there is no escape from life and its sufferings. If a person wants to live happily he will have to involve himself with other human beings. He will have to perform his actions without any desires. When he realizes this fact then he feels sense of belonging and true meaning of life. When a man leaves his country and goes to another country for better opportunities then he feels himself a stranger there. He wants to connect himself to that place but his past relations and customs always overpowers him there. But after spending many years in another country when he comes back to his own country then he feels belonging to the people and country.