Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter is structured in five parts, namely Background of the Study, Aim of the Study, Problem Formulation, Benefits of the Study and Definition of Terms. Background of the Study represents the description of the topic of the study and explains the personal reasons in selecting the topic of this study. Aim of the Study presents the aims of conducting this study. Problem Formulation states the problems to limit the scope of study. Benefits of the Study elaborates the advantages that the reader may gain from reading this study. Last, the Definition of Terms presents definitions of key terms used in this study.

A. Background of the Study

Enjoying literature is sometimes not enough if we only catch the surface meaning without trying to find the deeper meaning of the work. When probing for this deeper meaning, literature can provide a tool for analyzing culture and society or even learning about the meaning of life itself. Literature has varied genres. One of them is called postcolonial literature. According to Ashcroft, postcolonial literature is literature which covers all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. Therefore, the literatures of African countries, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 2 Singapore, South Pacific Island countries and Sri Lanka are all postcolonial literatures 2. He also said, More than three-quarters of the people living in the world today have had their lives shaped by the experience of colonialism…Literature offers one of the most important ways in which these new perceptions are expressed and it is in their writing, and through other arts such as painting, sculpture, music, and dance that the day-to-day realities experienced by colonized peoples have been most powerfully encoded and so profoundly influential 1; emphasis added. One of the books categorized as postcolonial literature is Interpreter of Maladies written by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is compilation of nine short stories published in 1999 and was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2000. Jhumpa Lahiri, born on July 11, 1967, is an Indian American author. She was born in London, the daughter of Bengali Indian immigrants. She then moved to US when she was three. Being Indian, born and raised in two different continents and away from her motherland, has inspired her to write stories about the first-generation Indian American immigrants and their struggle to raise a family in a country very different from their own. She also wrote a novel, The Namesake 2003 and a short story collection titled Unaccustomed Earth 2008. This study particularly focuses mainly on three short stories, namely Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent. The writer has chosen those three short stories because they portray the life of Indian American immigrants living in New Land with all their emotional confusion of the outsider and attempts to survive in the new continent. Yet, these immigrants living in exile usually face problems in finding their own cultural identity as they live between the cultural values of their origin and their adopted home. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 3 Mrs. Sen’s tells about an Indian woman who takes a job as a babysitter for eleven-year old boy named Eliot since her husband is too busy working. She defines herself as a ‘professor’s wife, responsible and kind, I will care for your child in my home 111’. She has a warm apartment and kindly serves Eliot when he is at her place. Only one problem she has, she cannot drive. Mr. Sen, her husband who teaches mathematics at the university, urges her to sit for her driving license soon. In fact, Mrs. Sen hates driving. The ‘driving-matter’ then triggers new problems. As an Indian living in America, Mrs. Sen feels she lives in exile. Only two things make her happy, when she receives a letter from India and finds fresh fish. However, she is a bit depressed with his new life in the new land. “’Send pictures,’ they write. ‘Send pictures of your new life.’ What picture can I send?” She sat, exhausted, on the edge of the bed, where there was now barely room for her. “They think I live the life of queen, Eliot.” She looked around the blank walls of the room. “They think I press buttons and the house is clean. They think I live in a palace.” 125 The matter of being a stranger in a new continent and failure to adapt to the new surroundings is seen clearly through Eliot’s eyes. This Blessed House depicts a story about the Indian couple named Twinkle and Sanjeev who have just bought a new house in Connecticut, US. When they begin arranging their house surprisingly they find ‘treasures’ hidden in every corner of their house in a form of Christian effigies and its paraphernalia, such as a white porcelain effigy of Christ, a 3-D postcard of Saint Francis done in four colors, a wooden cross key chain, a plaster Virgin Mary and others. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 4 The ‘treasures’ findings somehow surprise them since they are good Hindus and still hold the Indian tradition even though they live and work in US. The problem arises when the two big religion meets in one house belong to Indian immigrants. Behind an overgrown forsythia bush was a plaster of Virgin Mary as tall as their waists, with a blue painted hood draped over her head in the manner of an Indian bride… “No, silly Sanj. This is meant for outside. For the lawn.” “Oh God, no. Twinkle, no.” “But we must. It would be bad luck not to.” “All the neighbors will see. They’ll think we’re insane.” “Why, for having a statue of the Virgin Mary on our lawn?”… “We’re not Christian.” 146 The suspicious feeling of being the part of religion-converting effort and mix feeling of excitement, denial and rejection-and-acceptance the belief color this young couple’s life. The Third and Final Continent tells about an Indian man who leaves his homeland and seeks for better life in Europe, then in America. He begins his life in the New Land and tries to adapt with his new surroundings, even when he decides to rent a room in a house belong to an old woman named Mrs. Croft. The old woman always demands him, even in their first encounter, to commend about the America’s greatest leap: the first moon landing by Apollo 11. The women bellowed, “A flag on the moon, boy I heard it on the radio Isn’t that splendid?” “Yes, madame.” But she was not satisfied with my reply. Instead she commanded, “Say, ‘splendid’”…I said nothing. “Say splendid” the woman bellowed once again. “Splendid,” I murmured. I had to repeat the word a second time at the top of my lungs, so she could hear 179-180. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 5 The attempt to survive in three continents, while not forgetting the roots of one’s cultural identity, becomes the central issue in this short story. Regarding the fact that those three short stories have shared the same problems faced by Indian immigrants in America, the writer intends to conduct a study to identify their experience in exile using postcolonial approach. The personal reason for selecting this topic is because the writer has experienced living in India, precisely in Tamil Nadu, South India for about a month. The passion in experiencing new cultures has blended with the feeling of being a completely stranger in a new land. The precious experiences such as how to adapt in the new surroundings, how to communicate with the natives without knowing the language and how to learn new habits and customs have triggered the writer to conduct a library study in literatures written by Indian authors.

B. Aim of the Study