In her collection of short stories titled Interpreter of Illnesses, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates the difficulties immigrants face when they are displaced and removed from their culture. Each story serves as a different perspective on cultural experience, allowing Lahiri to bring together a detailed picture of cultural shift and the challenges it poses when forging one's identity. The importance of cultural ties is emphasized in the stories, as is the natural desire to achieve such connections. However, Lahiri shows the difficulties in doing so, especially with a younger generation who only have familial ties to their culture because they have already been assimilated into American society. It also illustrates that distance is not always a disadvantage as it begins to show the reader the first steps in establishing their identity and home. The stories in the Interpreter of Maladies collection illustrate people's need and natural inclination to connect with their heritage and culture, while teaching them how to safely make those connections and forge their own identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Lahiri's stories, there is a desire among people of younger generations to connect with their own culture, a desire that seems impossible for those assimilated into American culture. In “Mr. Pirzada is coming to dinner,” Lilia's mother proudly declares that her daughter was born in America, as Lilia observes, “She seemed genuinely proud of the fact, as if it were a reflection of my character” (Lahiri 26). However, Lilia wishes understand Mr. Pirzada and treasures the candy he gives her, as if eating one creates a connection to her culture As she watches him and his parents in the living room watching the news from abroad, she observes, “…I remember that the three of them operated in that period as if they were a single person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence and a single fear” (Lahiri 41). Lilia is an outsider among them because she is the first generation to be separated from her heritage due to distance and ultimately realizes that a connection with her heritage is impossible as she throws away Mr. Pirzada's candy. In the short story "Interpreter of Diseases", Ms. Das attempts to establish a bond with Mr. Kapasi, which in turn would serve as a link to her heritage from which she is far removed. Mr. Kapasi imagines corresponding with Mrs. Das after his return to America saying that this would fulfill his dream of “serving as an interpreter between the nations” (Lahiri 59). However, as her speech fades, Lahiri shows, as she did with Lilia, that you cannot create a cultural connection when you are already enveloped in American culture, which creates both a physical and cultural distance too great to overcome. Distance representation, Lahiri illustrates how distance can be used as an advantage. In "This Blessed House", Sanjeev becomes angry at Twinkle as she collects and displays Christian paraphernalia throughout the house to the point that he questions whether he loves her or not. However, when she takes the party goers to the attic, Sanjeev feels completely alone and distant from her the same way he felt at the beginning of their relationship, when they were in a long-distance relationship. The distance allowed Sanjeev to imagine their life together and maintain a romantic view of her through their phone conversations. He sees his shoes on the floor and "instead of feeling irritated, as he always had been since they moved into the house together, he felt a pang of anticipation at the thought.