Unaccustomed Earth “Part Two: Hema and Kaushik” - Literary Analysis

Lahiri adds a unique dimension to the stories found in Part Two: “Hema and Kaushik” as she describes two separate but intertwined coming of age stories set against a backdrop of contrasting world cultures and providing a full circle perspective on the lives of these two characters.

The collection of short stories within Part Two are stories about America told through the lives of Bengali immigrants. The story of the immigrant and of America are one in the same. We learn in “Once in a Lifetime” that Hema’s formative years were spent raised in Massachusetts but very much immersed in Bengali as well as American culture. Kaushik’s childhood was split between America and India, yet as Hema’s mother noted, “Bombay had made [the Choudhuris] more American than Cambridge had” (235). By the time Kaushik’s family returns to Massachusetts, Hema and her family have been there for over 13 years but still lived a very traditional and modest lifestyle strongly influenced by their Bengali roots. While they embraced American entertainment through the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Star Wars, and The Brady Bunch, one would easily believe that the Choudhuris had been the ones living in America for over a decade interrupted because of American habits such as drinking Scotch whiskey and smoking cigarettes. The combination of Eastern and Western cultures, the old world versus the new world, melded together complementary but without judgement perfectly illustrates a unique blend of cultural layers found within America.

By the end of “Going Ashore,” we witness Hema and Kaushik’s stories come full circle from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and beyond in a way other short stories and works of literature do not convey. Early on in “Once in a Lifetime,” we learn of Hema’s attraction to Kaushik and of her secret crush as she writes: “Long hours were devoted…to imagining you kissing me” (247). A little over 20 years later, she finally experiences this sensation and much more one fateful Italian evening after a chance encounter. It may have been love, but Hema recognized that in order to truly leave her childhood behind and fully embrace her life as an adult, she would need to move on with Navin, accepting that the love she shared with Kaushik would have to remain forever only in her heart. A physical representation of this detachment can be seen in her forgotten bracelet, one that Kaushik once remembered from their shared childhood. As she walked up the ramp to a plane set to deliver her to her destiny, she left her childhood behind in the form of a lover and a bracelet. For Kaushik, most of his young adult life was plagued by the death of his mother, a woman once vibrant with energy and a love for the ocean. After his mother’s diagnosis, nothing felt like home to him again, precipitating his nomadic career and lifestyle. From then on, he led a life devoid of acceptance surrounding his past filled with painful memories. Then one fateful day on the beaches of Thailand, he finally let go of the anger and denial that had surrounded his mother’s memory, whom he loved dearly, as he decided to swim in the Southeastern Asian waters “to show his mother he was not afraid” (331). He touched down and then “let go,” in a final act of acceptance in the cycle of grief he had been battling for years only to tragically join her once more, this time in death (331).