Loss of Identity and Consequential Alienation in Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

Any novel with the word 'loss' in the title is likely to deal with some kind of loss. Kiran Desai's novel The Inheritance of Loss develops the theme of loss. For Desai, in my view, the protagonists of the novel are all cut off from their own identity. As a result, they are totally alienated and pass into a sense of perpetual limbo from which they never recover. Studying the major characters -the Judge and the Cook -I have argued how these individuals suffer from a loss of identity. The identity-loss takes place when the main characters Jail to identify themselves with Indian (the colonized) identity. I have argued how these individuals suffer alienation, and how they finally reach a moment of impasse, where from they find no progress. ln such cessation, they suffer a sense of loss which they fail to overcome.