Life Of Foreigner
A foreigner can be defined as someone who comes from another country and he or she does not owe allegiance to the country he she is currently in. Being a foreigner in a new country can be associated with so many problems. Such a person may find so much difficulty in the process of trying to adapt to this new environment. The person may encounter cultures that are quiet different from those of his or her country of origin. The foreigner may never attain satisfaction even though the person may have stayed in the new country for quite a long time. The foreigner may always be haunted by the feeling of loneliness, lacking a sense of belonging. Worse still, the person may come across discrimination from the indigenous inhabitants of the host country. Sometimes this discrimination may be real or perceived by this person. In this paper, an effort has been made to consider Ashina’s definition in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake” of who a foreigner is together with his or her experience as a foreigner. There is also relating of this Ashina’s view to the personal experience.
Ashina’s Definition of a “Foreigner” and Its Relationship with the Personal Experience
According to Ashina, the state of being a foreigner can be related with a state of being pregnant. It is a state in which one keeps on waiting without ceasing. It is a steady load and a never ceasing feeling of being out of place. Ashina sees that being a foreigner, just like in pregnancy, involves responsibility that is never ending. It is a situation in which one thinks that life is ordinary just like it used to be but only to realize that such a life is no longer there. There is a realization that what used to be ordinary life has been substituted by a life that is more complex and one that is so much demanding. According to Ashina, just like it is the case with pregnancy, being a foreigner draws out strangers’ feelings of wanting to find out, drawing out their pity and respect.
This Ashina’s view is quite true and in line with what most of the foreigners come to experience. It is not possible for one to actually feel completely the same as the people who stay in the country in which they have roots. People are on several occasions curious about the foreigner; always wanting to find out more about where he/she comes from is like. A person is reminded by the circumstances that the ordinary life that she or he used to lead is no more and has to stand and face the new challenges. This makes life so much complicated for this person. The person has to make himself accustomed to the new environment through getting to learn the new culture. But as much as one can get used to the new environment, the level of his or her comfort is restricted by that inner feeling that this is not home. Sometimes, as a foreigner, one can earn some respect from the people in the host country. This respect may stem from these people viewing the foreigner as one who is widely traveled and has had a chance to even learn about several cultures and met people from different cultures. Sometimes the people in the host country may show their pity to the foreigner. This pity may result from feeling for this person towards his or her struggle towards learning to fit in the new environment.
According to Gilodo (5), it is quite okay to be a foreigner in the case where you are a tourist in a new country. But the case turns out to be really different when one is a foreigner and to live in this new country. To him, this is like a guest living in another person’s home. And to make matters worse, this is a guest who is not going away. The person hosting this guest tries to put up with the person in the home but the guest is not entitled to anything in this home, limits are set beyond which the guest can not go. It is expected that a foreigner who has just arrived will have to undergo a period during which he or she will experience low self-esteem. This person will experience a feeling of the loss of what initially defined him or her as a specific individual in his or her country in which he or she was born. Now that the person has moved away from his country physically and not emotionally in to the new country, this person loses the sense of belonging. He or she does not know where he or she really belongs. The person feels as though he or she has lost track of his or her identity, something the person had initially taken for granted. This person might have a feeling that he has a sense of himself that is divided. This division is between two senses; one being the well-known sense of him felt during the time he uses his or her own language to speak and another sense is the one that is quite unfamiliar that the person experiences in the feeling of not unbelonging. This person undergoes suffering as a result of his or her past not getting incorporated in his present and having a feeling that his or her life and identity are a precarious state. Comparison can be made for this person with a person who has just retired from employment that does not tell who actually he or she is and how to go on with life in the absence of the system and the significance which his or her job used to contribute to his or her life.
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