Abstract

The author of this novel Jhumpa Lahiri is a famous American Indian writer. The Namesake is her first novel, which is also a quite popular book. The novel spans two generations and two continents. The author used the Indian American hero's growth as the point, narrating the first generation and second generation’s confusion and anxiety due to lacking of identity. This thesis mainly analyzes the identity anxiety of the second male generation and the first female generation. Due to the different identity, the reasons for anxiety are also different. The first female generation’s identity anxiety is more from the family, while the second male generation’s identity anxiety comes from society, besides family. Through the analysis of this article, people could further comprehend the culture and psychology of immigrants.

Key Words: Jhumpa Lahiri  The Namesake  anxiety  cultural identity  immigrant

摘 要

 这部小说的作者裘帕•拉希莉是著名的美国印裔作家。《同名人》是她的第一部长篇小说，同时也是十分畅销的一本书。该小说跨越了两个大陆，也跨越了两代人。作者以主人公的成长为线索，将第一代和第二代移民因身份缺失而产生的困惑和焦虑娓娓道来。本文立足于身份的差异，分析第二代男性移民与第一代女性移民的身份焦虑。因为各自身份的不同，焦虑的来源也不尽相同。第一代女性移民的身份焦虑更多地是来自家庭，而第二代男性移民除了来自家庭的焦虑，还有来自社会的焦虑。通过本文的分析, 人们可以进一步理解移民文化以及移民者的心理。

关键词：裘帕•拉希莉 《同名人》 焦虑 文化身份 移民

1 Introduction

1.1 The Author and Her Major Works
The author of the novel, Jhumpa Lahiri is a celebrated contemporary Indian American writer who was born in London, England in 1967 and raised in Rhode Island, where her father worked as a librarian and her mother a teacher. Lahiri received a B.A in English Literature at Barnard College, and later received her M.A in English, Creative writing, and Comparative Studies in Literature and the Arts, as well as a Ph.D in Renaissance Studies from Boston University. Lahiri’s stories are known as the wonderful voice in American novel. Her newly work is Unaccustomed Earth.