English Studies in India: A Refereed Journal of English Literature and Languages | Vol.

24, 2016

American Dream: A Myth of Success or Mirage?: An Investigation into

Lahiri’s The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth
Khandakar Ashraful Islam1

Abstract:

This paper aims at re-reading American Dream in terms of the myriad diasporic experiences of Indian-
American immigrants. Jhumpa Lahiri, in her fictions, portrays those Indian immigrants who believing in the
American myth of success transgressed all spatial and cultural boundaries to achieve social mobility, happy
living and a ready-made fortune for their children. Being merged with the spirit of American Dream, although
the first generation immigrants could attain economic success, their offspring encountered quite opposite
experience. In terms of achievements, though the second generation was supposed to be more successful than
their predecessors, in reality, they are found entangled in the quest of their cultural identity. Instead of
pursuing any dream of success, assimilation to either American (host) or Indian (imposed) culture becomes so
crucial for the second generation that in their identity formation, it not only creates a psychological crisis but
also impedes their professional success. Focusing on the economic aspect of American Dream, this paper is an
attempt to explore whether, for the second generation Indian immigrants; American Dream is a myth of
success or a mirage.

Keywords:
American Dream, Indian immigrants, identity crises, problems of assimilation, success: a
myth or mirage?

Jhumpa Lahiri (1967- ), the Pulitzer Prize winning Indian-American writer, in her
fictions, visualizes the dreams of some educated Indians who unlike Indian indentured
labors[2] being ‘economic migrants’[3] transgressed all spatial and cultural boundaries to
find their niche in the American myth of success. The promise of the American Dream
stands on the premise that, in America, “life should be better and richer and fuller for
every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement” (Adams
404). Therefore, immigrants from distinct parts of the world came to the land of
opportunity with the belief that by working hard they can “rise from lower to higher
status” (Waner 106) and their family can rise with them. Hence, after the passing of The
Luce–Celler Act [4] in 1946, with the hope of “greater freedom and happiness for himself
and his children” (Adams 31) millions of educated Indians, breaking the strong familial
tie and leaving the inherited legacy behind migrated to America for “the attainment of a
high income, a prestigious job, economic security” (Hochschild 15) those are typically
understood as success. Migrating to America, while the American Dream of the first
generation Indian immigrants is to avail “the chance to make money, to buy house, and
to ensure an education for the next generation,” (Clark 5) avoiding the influence of the
Indian culture, to be American becomes the central concern of the second generation.
But the hyphenated identity of the second generation and their parents’ attempt to
nurture them in the Indian culture, simultaneously hinder their acculturation to the
American culture. Therefore, being exposed to the edge of the two cultures, the Indian

1 PhD Fellow, Dept. of English, Osmania Universiy, Hyderabad, India

2 The Indian indenture system was an ongoing system of indenture, by which perhaps two million Indians were
transported to various colonies of European powers to provide labor for the (mainly sugar) plantations. It started
from the end of slavery in 1833 and continued until 1920.
3 A term fitting for all the first generation immigrants.
4 The act allowed Indian Americans to naturalize and become United States citizens. Upon becoming citizens, these

new Americans could own homes and farmland, and petition for family from their nation of birth.
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and the American, “they encompass both [cultures] but belong wholly to neither” (Getz
217).

Lahiri, in her fictions, The Namesake (2006) and Unaccustomed Earth (2008), portrays a
second generation who in the land of opportunity, instead of pursuing any dream of
success, developing a sense of dual identity, becomes nostalgic (Ruma) alcoholic (Rahul)
and dreamless (Gogol). Apart from shedding light on the economic success of the first
generation immigrants, Lahiri, in her fictions, exhibits the failure of the second
generation to secure a prestigious place in the American myth of success. Whereas, in
America, the second generation was supposed to surpass the expectations and the
achievements of their predecessors, pursuing no successful career they not only invalidate
the dreams, struggles and achievements of their parents but also create a strong ground
to re-assess American Dream from a different vantage point. Keeping American dream in
focus, this paper seeks to exhibit that for Lahiri’s second generation American Dream has
failed “to generate tenacity and commitment” (Clark 2) and thus it has transformed into a
mirage.

William A.V Clark in Immigrants and the American Dream defines immigrants in a different
way. According to Clark, immigrants are the individuals for whom “the economic
opportunities are paramount” and who desire “immediate gains…or long-term benefits
for [their] family’s young children” (3). Lahiri, in her fictions, depicts the Indian
immigrants who “always focused on material well being and…a better future” (Clark 2)
for their children, but in America, the diasporic experiences of the two generations of
immigrants are not the same. Because, the lives of the immigrants are woven with the
thread of success and failure. In America, while Lahiri’s first generation works in
prestigious institutions as “teachers, researchers, doctors, engineers,” (NS 38) their
children, expected to be more successful than their fathers, are merely managing their
survival.

In The Namesake, whereas Ashok, a first generation immigrant, migrated to America as “a

doctoral candidate in electrical engineering at MIT” (NS 2) and later worked at the same
institution as a professor, his son Gogol, an American child, expected to be “if not an
engineer, then a doctor, a lawyer an economist at the very list” (NS 105), frustrates his
parents by earning so little that occasionally his father has to send him checks to help him
with his rent and to pay the bills of his credit cards. The very disappointment
reverberates in the titular story of Unaccustomed Earth, where Ruma’s father, another first
generation immigrant, retiring from a pharmaceutical company, however, apparently
successful, in fact, is extremely disappointed for the failure of his children. He always
remained dejected because neither of his children, Ruma or Romi, could pursue the
American Dream “typically understood in terms of economic and/ or social
advancement” (Culler 8). In spite of having a lucrative job, where working for sixty hours
a week Ruma “earned six figures” (UE 36) her eccentric decision to withdraw herself
from such a prosperous career, solely to be like her mother, frustrates her father, because
migrating to America along with their success, the first generation dreamt of a better
future for their children. Ruma, although could be a successful careerist, instead of
continuing her profession as a lawyer chooses to remain despondent in the memories of
her deceased mother. In the same way, Romi (Ruma’s younger brother) despite
graduating from Prinston and getting a Fulbright scholarship disappoints his parents by
doing nothing significant. Though Romi had infinite opportunity to surpass the
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achievements of his father, “working on the crew of German documentary filmmaker”

(UE 6), he merely manages his survival. Sang’s dropping out of Harvard is another
example of failure in “Nobody’s Business.” In reaction to her failure at Harvard, “her
mother locked herself up in her bedroom for a week and her father refused to speak to
her” (NB 181). They reacted so adversely because the failure of their children actually
typified all their effort and achievements meaningless.

In another story “Only Goodness,” Rahul’s successful graduation from high school and
chance of higher study at the University of Cornell make his parents celebrate the events
with the optimism that they have “successfully raised…[their] children in America” (OG
129). Rahul’s extreme addiction to alcohol, gradual degradation in university grades and
his dismissal from the University not only disappointed his parents but also brought
family shame. So it can be said that, the happiness of the immigrant parents is very
transient, it is “as an ailment that ebbed and flowed like a cancer” (OG 138). In the land
of opportunity where a brilliant boy, Rahul is expected to achieve the peak of success,
being alcoholic he spoils his future simply working as a Laundromat. In American
Dream, though “the economic motive was unquestionably powerful, often dominant,”
(Adams 31), in the fictions of Lahiri, the second generation is a total failure in this
respect. Because, we see, in the end Gogol fails to be a successful architect, Ruma quits
her lucrative job, Romi works as a crew of a director, Sang is a bookstore keeper and
Rahul, a Laundromat. So, it can exactly be said that there is a clear dichotomy between
the expectations and the achievements of the two generations. By choosing America
while the parents believe that they have handed over a good fortune to their offspring,
paradoxically, the children fail to find a niche in the American myth of success. In this
respect, a deep investigation into the causes of their failure is a must.

In a diasporic community, the identity formation of the immigrants’ children is not

simple but very crucial. Stuart Hall in “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” mentions
“Cultural identity…is a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as of ‘being’ (435). In the sense of
‘being,’ by birth the second generation is American but in the process of ‘becoming’,
because of the implicit as well as explicit pressure of the Indian culture, they find
themselves entrapped in the enclave of the imposed culture (Indian). In this way, for the
second generation to retain a singular cultural identity is very troublesome. Because of
their birth in and exposure to the American culture, although the second generation tries
to form their cultural identity by embracing American culture, in reality, their “sense of
identity borne from living in a diaspora community is influenced by the past migrant
history of their parents” (McLeod 207). For the immigrants of the first generation, even
in the midst of the migrated land, home is a piece of India where Indian cultural values,
norms, traditions are practiced. On the other hand, for the second generation, the
influence of the Indian culture is not only limited at home but also explicit in the diaspora
community where most of the Indian immigrants “live within walking distances of one
another” (NS 38) and on every Sunday afternoon sitting in circles reminiscence their past
life in India by singing the songs of Nazrul and Tagore, arguing over the films of Ritwik
Ghatak and Satyajit Ray. In this way, the children of the immigrants are brought up in the
milieu of Indian culture. As the first generation does not find their Indian identity
impeding their success, they do not allow their children to indulge in Americanness. In
this regard, Lahiri from her personal experience as a diaspora, in an Interview by Vibhuti
Patel says, “It’s hard to have parents who consider another place “home”…India is home
for them.” It is hard to have such parents because they (parents) believe their children
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also have their roots in India, so to tie their children to the root and to attach them to
Indian culture parents do everything at their reach. In The Namesake, we see Gogol’s
parents:

make a point of driving into Cambridge with the children when Apu’s
trilogy Plays at Orson Welles, or when there is a Kathakali dance
performance or a sitar recital at Memorial Hall. When Gogol is in the
third grade, they send him to Bengali language and cultural lessons.
(NS 65)

Hence, in America, the upbringing of the children within the frame of Indian culture
inevitably creates a permanent dichotomy in the minds of the second generation that
swings their psyche back and forth between the host and the imposed culture. In spite of
the fact that they feel little interest to visit India, parents drag their children to India. Such
a picture is prevalent in The Namesake, where Gogol before his tenth birthday “has been
to Calcutta three more times, twice in summer and once during Durga pujo” (NS 67) and
in his tenth grade he is taken to India in an eight-month vacation. In this way, their
frequent visit to India not only impedes the assimilation of their children to American
cultura but also put their children to ‘dichotomous ambivalence’ where knowing neither
of the cultures properly the children wander in the labyrinth of the two cultures.

Although the children of the immigrants are burdened with the imposed Indian culture,
the impact of and attraction to the host culture (American culture) are unavoidable and
automatic. Because, individuals can’t avoid the direct influences of the “Ideological State
Apparatuses,” (ISAs), which include the family, the media, religious organizations, and
most importantly… the education system, as well as the received ideas” (Althusser 239).
So, in every sense of the word, ISAs significantly play the vital roles in forming cultural
identity of the children, because they find all the elements of the ISAs of the host culture
spread around like ‘the air’ that they breathe:

When we think of the air we breathe, it is recognizably something

outside ourselves. If you ask me to talk about my own dual being, I
would perhaps talk about my hands or my legs or my hair or the
different parts that contribute to my wholeness as a single and
individual human being. But, surely, the air I breathe is even more me
than any of my limbs. If you cut off my finger, I can continue to live,
but if you cut off the air I breathe, I will not last a minute. (Said 392)

Apart from that, by birth the children of the immigrants are American, they bear U.S
passport, in school show allegiance to American flag, at high school study U.S history and
in the case of language they feel comfortable in English rather than in the imposed one
(Bengali). In this way, the impact of the host culture is so explicit that, consciously and
subconsciously, the second generation wants to embrace the host culture and avoid all
the practices that impede their assimilation to American culture. Thus, the choice of
culture becomes the ground of contradiction between parents and children. In the story
“Hell-Heaven,” we see Aparna is a typical Bengali mother who wants to raise her
daughter Usha in Indian way; on the other hand, Usha epitomizes the refusal and
resistance of the second generation who, like other immigrant children, desires to be
nurtured in American way and to be an American. So, by instilling Indian cultural values
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in her psyche, compelling her to speak in Bengali, forcing her to wear Indian dress
(salwar kameez), forbidding her to attend “the dances that were held…in the school
cafeteria,” (HH 75) and not allowing her to date, how strongly Aparna tries to resist
Usha’s acculturation to American way of living, nothing stops her psychic development
as an American. Although, Aparna solely desires to nurture her daughter in Indian
culture, in return, Usha expresses her detestation towards the caring attitudes of her
mother. She feels that her mother’s carefulness and attention are impeding her
upbringing like an American. She believes that Deborah, an American woman,
understands her “better than anybody in this world” (HH 70). Like Usha, this is the very
urge of the second generation to develop an affinity with the natives and to embrace the
American culture. Because, considering the American culture their “own” and the Indian
culture “foreign”, they believe, they can excel in the American culture than the imposed
Indian one. The following words of Ngugi wa Thiong’o are very true for the second
generation, because they believe the first generation, in the act of imposing the Indian
culture on the second generation, “instead of clarifying real connections…ended by
making us [them] captives of the foreign [Indian] culture and alienating us [them] from
our [their] own [American]” (392).

In “Cultural Action for Freedom” Paulo Freire says, in order to form a concrete cultural
identity “dialectical relationship between the subject [immigrant] and his concrete
historical and cultural reality” is obvious. But the children of the immigrants do not find
any historical and cultural connectivity with Indian culture. So, they fail to form any
dialectical relation and cannot connect their root to India. Therefore, we see, since their
childhood Gogol, Ruma, Romi try to evade the influence of the foreign culture-the
culture of their parents. While for Ashok and Ashima India is their home (desh), their
son “Gogol never thinks of India as ‘desh’. He thinks of it as the Americans do, as India”
(NS 118). For the first generation immigrants, Indian culture and heritage constitute their
historical identity and American culture is the one, where they are relocated; as they have
exact idea of their ethnic identity and historical past so, in their identity, their exposure to
American culture does not create any ambivalence. As a result they can easily acculturate
to American culture and successfully pursue the professions like Engineers, Doctors,
University teachers, Economists, Biochemists, Pharmacists that “brought them to
America…earned them security and respect” (NS 105) and made their dream a success.
Being migrated to America, as the first generation could pursue such lucrative careers so
it becomes their firm belief that their children are destined to surpass their success as
“their children were immune from the hardships and injustices they had left behind in
India” (OG 144). Therefore, they remain optimistic of their children’s success. But the
second generation fails to achieve the expectations of their parents, because being
entangled in the dichotomy of two the cultures, Indian and American, they are “capable
only of fractured perceptions” (Rushdie 430) so they “do not perceive things whole”
(Rushdie 430). While “most people are principally aware of one culture, one setting one
home” the second generation immigrants are compelled to be “aware of at least two, and
this plurality of vision gives rise to an awareness of simultaneous dimensions”
( Said 442). As a result, the ‘double belonging’, ‘double dispossession’ and the ‘awareness
of simultaneous dimensions’ being permeated in their life put them in such an
ambivalence that in their personal and professional life they can neither be happy as
American nor can pursue any successful career like their predecessors.

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Moreover, parents remain oblivious to the facts that their choice of being a foreigner has
put their children in the world of ‘depression’ (OG 143). They believe, in America there
is nothing to hinder the success of their children, so they always remain blind to the
external complications that trouble their children’s assimilation to the diasporic land. As
we see in “Only Goodness,” Rahul’s parents “had no patience for failure” (OG 140), but
they are ignorant of the “things that plagued their children: being teased at school for the
color of skin or for the funny things their mother occasionally put into their lunch
boxes” (OG 143). The difference between the two cultures cannot so easily be
negotiated. Although Rahul was expected to accomplish his study from the prestigious
university of Cornell, being alcoholic he stopped attending classes and eventually he was
formally dismissed from the university. Even though, his parents believed “their children
were destined to succeed,” (OG 171) eventually their children become aimless and for
the failure of their children, the first generation is frustrated and depressed.

In “Unaccustomed Earth,” Ruma epitomizes the consequences of the duality. Evading all
obstructions put forward by her mother, Ruma developed an American spirit in her. She
had the zeal to be ‘self reliant’, to create a place in American myth of success. We come
to know that in her teenage: “she worked for as long as he [her father] could remember.
Even in high school, in spite of his [father’s] and his wife’s [her mother’s] protests, she’d
insisted in the summers, on working as a busgirl at a local restaurant” (UE 40). In the
earlier stage of her life, Ruma could successfully achieve her dream to be an American
and in its continuum, after completing her education she started her career as a lawyer.
Unlike the first generation woman, she made her own choices and married an American.
But her spirit thwarted after her mother’s death. In her teenage, avoiding her mother’s
prohibition she lived like an agent of free will, but in her adulthood Ruma is unable to
push away the influences of the plurality of her diasporic existence. All the things her
mother did to restrict her from being an American and to hold her back in Indian culture
became the valuable asset for Ruma to reminisce. She was so much driven to her
mother’s memory that her Americanness failed to stop Ruma “growing up, her mother’s
example…caring exclusively for children and a household…a path to avoid. Yet this was
Ruma’s life now” (UE 11). Disregarding her American Dream, she quitted her
prosperous job to take care of Akash and the child yet to come. Neither any lucrative job
nor any material success, but to follow the footsteps of her mother became her only
dream where she could be a successful lawyer and what not. All the persuasion and
motivation of her father, not to develop any dependency on Adam rather to become
‘self-reliant’ and start her career again, had no effect on her. Ruma’s American Dream: to
be an American and her spirit to be a successful lawyer are lost in diasporic ambivalence.
Instead of pursuing any dream, Ruma is now “alone…overwhelmed, without friends,
caring for a young child” (UE 40).

American Dream that promises “Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” (Parrington 350),
is not always true for the immigrants Lahiri portrays. In her ‘Life’, Ruma is entangled in
the grief of the death of her mother and is living as a nostalgic. Although she could be
‘self-reliant’ and a successful careerist, forsaking her ‘Liberty,’ like her mother, she chose
a life of dependency. While the first generation, considered economic success as the
pursuit of happiness, Ruma breaking that convention confined herself to household and
taking care of her children even though knowing the inevitable fact that one day, like her,
Akash would “turn his back to his parents” (UE 51).

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In spite of the efforts of his parents to raise Gogol with proper sense of Indianness, since
his childhood, like Ruma, he tried to be an American. He even changed his parental
nickname that he felt impeding his assimilation to his native friends. The more he grew
up the less attachment he maintained with his family. Day by day, he stopped to go
“home in weekends, to go with them [parents] to pujos and Bengali parties” (NS 126).
He started to spend not only the holidays but also his birthdays with his American
girlfriend Maxine and her parents. In this way, Gogol wanted to set him free from the
clutch of his parents and grow up like an American, because like all other second
generation he believed that in America only by assimilating to American culture one can
attain success. A study of Lahiri’s second generation shows that how much they try to
embrace American ethos and culture, none of them can avoid the influence of their
parents, if not in their life time usually after the death of either parent. In The Namesake
we see, when his father dies something happens to Gogol which breaks his resistance to
avoid Indianness. He rediscovers the real meaning of his life that is to stick to Indianness
and continue the legacy of his parents. So, Gogol begins to observe the Indian rituals that
he once avoided. Now, he embraces the past of his father and reclaims his identity with
the story book of Nikolai Gogol that Ashok gifted him eighteen years earlier. His
American soul no more pushes him to Maxine or any other American women; rather he
marries Moushumi, a woman with whom his hyphenated identity is shared. But nothing
makes Gogol happy; because Gogol’s multicultural name and hyphenated identity not
only make him an alien to everybody but also offer him a life of discontentment and
anxiety. Although Gogol changed his name, that hindered his peace of mind, and tried to
evade the Indian attachment that blocked his hope, eventually he realizes that nothing
matters anymore, nothing provides any solace at all, “only failure and shame persists”.
Gogol, “an outstanding student, curious and cooperative” though could be a successful
careerist like his father or any other American man of his age ended up in a sense of
nothingness. Being nostalgic, he is groping between past and present, memory and reality.
Thus, for any immigrant this ‘ambivalence’ is inevitable and unavoidable. In the end,
Gogol’s dichotomy makes him feel that his life is a “building he had been responsible for
designing has collapsed for all to see” (NS 283-284).

Ruma and Gogol are not individuals, rather each of them is a type who typifies and
symbolically presents the chaotic diasporic experience that can even spoil the future of
the immigrant children. If we go back to the original cause of their plight, we see that
transplantation stands there. As the structuralists do, going to the core of the whole
process, we come to learn that the root of Ruma or Gogol does not belong to this land.
They are the off-spring of the first generation immigrants who embraced a self-willed
migration with a view to having economic success, advanced living and secured future for
them. For the next generation they believed that “My children have had other birthplaces,
and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into
unaccustomed earth” (Hawthorne 31). But the failure of the second generation proves
that the first generation fathers failed to strike their children’s root in the unaccustomed
earth and as a result the future of their children is troubled. In the migrated land, they
cannot control their children’s fortunes anymore and their dreams and expectations do
not come true. In Lahiri’s fiction, we see, while the first generation discovers America as
a land of opportunity and economic success, for the second generation, because of
diasporic contradictions this very land of good fortune turns into a land of dilemma,
contradiction, and mirage.

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In the fictions of Lahiri, analyzing the characters of two generations it comes to visibility
that, although the first generation Indian male immigrants could manage prestigious
places in America, none of the second generation succeeds to secure a niche in the
American myth of Success. However, this view is not applicable to every second
generation because Lahiri herself is an exception. In her fictions, by portraying the failure
of the second generation, she develops a type who being enmeshed in the conflict of
forming a concrete cultural identity, can neither live in mental harmony nor achieve any
economic stability. In the land of opportunity, the future of the characters is shattered in
such a way that there is no chance for any of them to be happy and successful in the
future in any way or other. In the end, it is clear that, neither Ruma, nor Rahul nor Gogol
is careerist; rather they are ambitionless and futureless. Being nostalgic (Ruma), alcoholic
(Rahul) and dreamless (Gogol), they are hovering between realities and reminiscing what
is lost and gained. Though the guarantee of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is
rooted in the very charter of the Declaration of Independence of America, unlike the first
generation, the children of the immigrants failed to grab either. In The Namesake and
Unaccustomed Earth, delving deep into the characters of Lahiri, it can be said that, when
the first generation discovered America as a land of good fortune and fulfillment, the
second generation experienced it as a labyrinth in which life is entangled in different twist
and turns, freedom results in self destruction and happiness is a myth, an abstract idea
that always floats beyond their reach.

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