How Different Cultures Shape up the Psychological Upbringing of Lilia
Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” is a beautiful story narrated by Lilia, an Indian American girl who is born and raised in the United States where people are sheltered from foreign affairs. The story has taken from Interpreter of Maladies (1999), Lahiri's debut short story collection. The story is told from the first person perspective of Lilia, primarily in her 10th year, through the eyes of a child. Lilia—our narrator—is telling us all of this as an adult remembering her 10-year-old self. Clearly, Mr. Pirzada made an impression on her back then. In the story, the American culture has its major impacts on Lilia and kept her away from her own culture, Indian culture, until Mr. Pirzada comes. After meeting Mr. Pirzada, she becomes interested in her culture and history. Assimilation of Indians to America is one of the overarching themes in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”. Lilia and her parents are on either side of a divide. Identity issues are typically compounded generation to generation. Though Lilia’s parents remember their own experiences in India vividly, Lilia is an American and therefore a step removed from the culture of her parents. Her mother is proud of her being American and she thinks that Lilia has “assured a safe life, an easy life, a fine education, every opportunity.” On the other hand, Lilia’s father is afraid of her isolation from her own culture. Her father asks her what her teachers are teaching her, whether she does not study history and geography. Lilia actually learns in her school about American history and geography which influenced her to follow American culture. Her father is also dismayed that she is ignorant of current events in India. Lilia does, in fact, attempt to study the history of Pakistan after knowing about the war between Bangladesh and Pakistan but she is unable to do so on school time. Lilia does have an interest in her parents’ world, but she is fully enmeshed in, to Mr. Pirzada, unthinkable customs.
Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s family are from different countries, but they are all the same in nature. Lahiri gives us an elegant story about people of different cultures who are greatly alike in so many ways, but is also very different. She also gives us example to contrast American and Indian/Pakistani culture. Mr. Pirzada came from Pakistan to study leaves in New England. And after Lilia’s parents recognized last names through the university directory that are “familiar to their part of the world,” they invited Mr. Pirzada to come and visit their home. Lahiri enlightens us about the kindness of Lilia’s parents to somebody they do not really know. The act of inviting someone to our home whom we hardly know is so uncommon for us Americans because we are not accustomed into doing something like this. Lilia’s family knew nothing about Mr. Pirzada but they still invited him to come and visit their home after talking to him over the phone. Mr. Pirzada’s visits establishes a bond of affinity with Lilia’s parents. Mr. Pirzada comes from Pakistan; whereas, Lilia’s parents are from India. But both the food that they relish and their actions show that they are similar. As Lilia tells us in the story,
They ate pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands. Like my parents, Mr. Pirzada took off his shoes before entering a room, chewed fennel seeds after meals as a digestive, drank no alcohol, for dessert dipped austere biscuits into successive cups of tea. At first, Lilia thought that Mr. Pirzada was Indian just like them, but his father told her that he is no longer considered Indian. The country was divided in 1947. “For many, the idea of eating in the other’s company was still unthinkable.” This made no sense to Lilia. Halloween is a purely American holiday observed on 31 October. Lilia is very much interested in the celebration, she along with Mr. Pirzada carved a jack-o’-lantern to keep it outside the door as the Americans do. She also puts on witch’s dress for Halloween and goes out to collect candy. It is an evident of her becoming a follower of another culture.
From Lilia’s perspective, the division of Pakistanis and Indians is arbitrary. When her father tells her that Mr. Pirzada is no longer Indian, she inspects him and his actions for clues of difference. This echoes her own relationship with her father, who worries that her American education is making her no longer Indian. However, America allows for Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s father to dine together, worry together and laugh together. Assimilation is seen as both positive and negative.
There is no mention of religion in Lilia’s family, though it can be assumed that her family is Hindu since they are unlike Mr. Pirzada. But Lili gives in to a secular type of prayer with the candy that Mr. Pirzada gives to her. Like traditions, rituals can expose belief systems of a person. Since Lilia, who says she doesn’t pray, performs a ritual to keep the Pirzada girls safe, it can be assumed that she does not typically practice the religion of her parents. Lilia can be read as a secular American, again removed from the culture of her parents.
A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Every culture is distinguished from another. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the author shows how different culture can impact one person who is from another culture, creating a vivid depiction of an Indian American girl.