Identity suggests our thoughts and feelings, our psychic presence, our place of habitation and even our longings, dreams and desires .It is not only the spirit of the times, but also the biological trait within the character, the inner and motivation which equally contribute to one’s identity. Our desire for separate cultural identity is the offspring of our being alienated from the concept of unity in diversity. Crisis of identity occurs in the state in which the individual acts not in accordance with the dictates of his “core-self” or “inner conscience” but as per the promptings of the “other self” and “outer conscience”. In this state there is a total disgust and discord with the inner life and hence the alienation of the self. The dream of globalization has become a threat to the identity of the ethnic community. All characters in the novel struggle with their cultural identity. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss strands straddle across continents mapping the contours of the ethno-racial and historical relationship between people from different cultures. It is primarily about love, longing, loss and identity crisis . It is also a story of variations which leads to the cultural identities and cultural conflict present across the globe. Kiran Desai exhibits the social construction of human experience, abilities to reveal a social meaning out of it as inter-subjective process. The novel depicts the pair of exile of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a “better life”. In New York the racial discrimination makes Jemubhai retreat into solitude making him stronger to his own identity in quest of a ‘better life’. Sai, the protagonist appears at the outset of the novel. She interprets love as the “gap between desire and fulfilment”. This sets the very theme of the novel, a tryst with loss at all levels. In a parallel narrative we are shown the life of Biju who belongs to the class of ‘shadow-immigrants’, moving from one ill-paid job to another in search of a green card . The present paper intends to focus on exploring the theme of identity crisis in The Inheritance of Loss.
Research Scholar, Dept. of English Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya
