If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
I was always aware of what the language I was using meant in terms of my bond with my parents - how it defined the lines of affection between us. When I spoke English, I felt I wasn't completely their child any more but the child of another language.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the complex relationship between language, identity, and familial bonds.
Jhumpa Lahiri expresses how language plays a crucial role in shaping her identity and relationship with her parents. Speaking English made her feel a disconnection from her cultural roots, as if she was becoming part of an external world that diluted her bond with her family, illustrating the profound impact of language on personal identity and relationships.
Themes
LanguageIdentityRelationshipsAffectionCultural Roots
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about bilingualism and cultural identity, this quote can illustrate the emotional complexities involved.
More from Jhumpa Lahiri
All quotes →When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
When I am experiencing a complex story or novel, the broader planes, and also details, tend to fall away.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
I think each time you start a story or novel or whatever, you are absolutely at the bottom of the ladder all over again. It doesn't matter what you've done before.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
The sky was different, without color, taut and unforgiving. But the water was the most unforgiving thing, nearly black at times, cold enough, I knew, to kill me, violent enough to break me apart. The waves were immense, battering rocky beaches without sand. The farther I went, the more desolate it became, more than any place I'd been, but for this very reason the landscape drew me, claimed me as nothing had in a long time.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
On the technical side, I hope that my writing is evolving and maturing, ripening, deepening.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
Similar quotes
Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn't, and I won't.
Bill NelsonRead
I have got my story. Adoptees rarely get our stories. We only know what we are told. I don't even have my story, really. My mother won't tell me. She won't tell me who my father is. She won't tell me the story of my birth.
Mary GauthierRead
I don't wait for people to give me respect. I always give them respect.
Mariano RiveraRead
But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it.
Diana GabaldonRead
Anybody who doesn't make you feel good, kick them to the curb. And the earlier you start in your life, the better.
Amy PoehlerRead
It is very hard to not be able to engage with people in a real and honest way because they either want something from me, or they see me as something that I simply am not.
Lady GagaRead