From Hybrids to Tourists: Children of Immigrants in Jhumpa Lahiri'sThe Namesake

Lahiri's The Namesake is an example of the contemporary immigrant narrative, which does not place the idea of an "American Dream" at the center of the story, but rather positions the immigrant ethnic family within a community of cosmopolitan travelers. Examining the experience of upper-class South Asian immigration through the eyes of American-born children, Lahiri's novel contains moments and tropes that resemble those of the travel narrative genre, particularly in its detached tone and digressive, pluralist narration.