In the
three short stories, Lahiri portrays cultural displacement as a melancholic experience for
individuals. It reminds them of how alone they truly are in a new world.
Cultural displacement lies in Mrs. Sen's heart. Eliot is perceptive enough to catch on
quickly that there is something beneath Mrs. Sen's exterior. He recognizes that India means the
world to Mrs. Sen, and that world's disappearance has impacted her tremendously:
The mention of the word [India] seemed to release something in her.
She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest. She, too,
looked around the room, as if she noticed in the lampshades, in the teapot, in the shadows
frozen on the carpet, something the rest of them could not. 'Everything is there.'
Mrs. Sen experiences cultural displacement in a physical and
emotional way. Physically, all of her belongings are in India. She in a world with few things
that remind her of home. Emotionally, "everything is there." Nothing...
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