Between Tradition and Modernity: Generational Conflict and Cultural Adaptation in Jhumpa Lahiri's Fiction

Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction intricately explores the experiences of Indian immigrants negotiating the complex intersection of tradition and modernity, particularly through the lens of generational conflict. Her narratives reveal how the struggle between parental values rooted in Indian culture and the children’s exposure to Western modernity creates tension, transformation, and self-realization. This paper examines how Lahiri portrays cultural assimilation and intergenerational dynamics as central themes in her major works—Interpreter of Maladies (1999), The Namesake (2003), Unaccustomed Earth (2008), and The Lowland (2013). By focusing on her nuanced depiction of immigrant families, this study highlights Lahiri’s exploration of hybrid identity, belonging, alienation, and cultural continuity in the diaspora. Lahiri’s characters move between inherited traditions and adaptive modernity, revealing both the pain of displacement and the possibility of renewal. Ultimately, her fiction becomes a humanistic meditation on the evolving nature of identity in transnational spaces.