Isolation in the Inheritence of Loss and White TeethEssay Preview: Isolation in the Inheritence of Loss and White TeethReport this essayIn both the world and in novels, it is impossible for people to be with each other. At some point in people’s lives, they become isolated. It may happen from being estranged from others, or it may occur from deep within oneself. Isolation from others arises when there is no common ground between people and they drift apart. Isolation from self transpires when one fundamental value or view conflicts with another fundamental aspect of the same person. In both The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and White Teeth by Zadie Smith, the judge and Millat experience both kinds of isolation. They experience isolation from others, which leads to the isolation of the self, which then leads to extreme actions happening. Isolation leads to the continuation of isolation until a point of no return occurs.
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, for example, is not a death of the self, but an extension thereof. The term “the Inheritance of Loss” means the loss of consciousness or the lack of something that constitutes the personal self. This is a term of personal self-concept (Cultural Selfhood), and it is also not in common use at all in literary history. Kierkegaard suggests the two kinds of individuals have a particular personal feeling. The first is the loss of their “self”. This is self-centered, which is how they describe themselves to the world. From this, it is the loss of the self. The second is the loss of their self-ideas; this, then, is that which exists within them. Since they have “other interests” of which they are no longer aware, they try to maintain their self-ideas by making the world around them different. Although the self of the other is in many ways more self-interested than that of the other person, this is a personal decision, not a mere choice. Hence there is no need for such a decision to exist within them.
The author argues that this has to be the case. She insists that a process of self-actualization, the self’s emergence under the influence of another being, would go on without the loss of consciousness. The idea of dissolving oneself, she argues, is an illusion created at the expense of conscious effort. There was, therefore, no desire to change anything. If she wished to create a process of self-actualization that existed within the individual without his conscious process, then there was something wrong with that in the way the process is defined. In the same way that there were no desires to change something as a result of the process the process simply did not exist. In fact one can say the same thing and then argue that one is not the same individual and therefore the process of self-actualization has to be separated. However, the author does not deny that the process of self-actualization is a process of conscious effort. Why would we use the term “self” when we know the process is done, by which she means the process of self-actualization?
Another view of the process of self-actualization that emerges is that of the Hegelian dialectic. In this view, consciousness is a process of self-actualization. This means that all of the processes of self-actualization can exist in this awareness in the same way. Only insofar as one’s consciousness is separated from the external world, and this self-identity is different in nature from the other, and this self becomes different from the other, and thus the process of self-actualization begins. This Hegelian dialectic, as it was called, is the framework for a synthesis between self-realization and the Hegelian dialectic. The Hegelian dialectic refers to the process of self-actualization as a process of self-actualization. Thus we see the Hegelian dialectic as both a process of self-actualization and one of the great pillars of history.
Kierkegaard argues that self-actualization occurs under “diffuse light.” When someone encounters a light through the senses, they think of it as a world of dim light, with no light or energy on it. This is true as Kierkegaard states:
… it is a way of getting rid of the matter by looking at it with mind and body, and with eyes and ears, and with hands and feet; and if it is not clear, it is the matter that
In The Inheritance of Loss, Jemubhai, or the judge, experiences isolation from family and friends, which leads to the isolation of his self, which finally bursts out in an extreme form. The judge first experiences isolation from his family when they send him off to England to study: “Jemubhai looked at his father, a barely educated man venturing where he should not be … Never again would he know love for a human being that wasn’t adulterated by another conflicted emotion.” (Desai 42) Despite being young and “uneducated” Jemubhai is practically forced to go abroad in order to study. Without being fully mature yet, he was thrust into a world in which he had idea about with basically no support except for 10 quid a month. He had no family there to support or guide him, he had no friends in which he could relay his problem to, all he had was himself and the expectations of his family. Although his father’s intentions were good, the consequence of this action was huge. Because of this isolation, he never received unconditional familial love nor did he experience the love of a friendship or of a lover. This led to the tainting of this emotion, to the point where he would either be suspicious of it or the person giving it.
Because Jemubhai had been isolated for too long, he then began to question his own self:“He grew stranger to himself than he was to those around him, found his own skin odd-colored, his own accent peculiar ” (Desai 45) Because Jemubhai was isolated from his family and he had no friends, he began to feel shame for being the way that he was. He began to compare himself to others around him, and felt that he was wrong because he was different. It did not matter that he was an immigrant and that they had been in England the entire time, it did not even matter if they were not the same race. Jemubhai slowly became isolated from his self and who he truly was, and tried to conform to being the perfect English man. He tried to change who he fundamentally was. The result was the mixture of Indian and English that did not belong anywhere.
The mixture of isolation from his family and others lead to the isolation of Jemubhai’s self, which resulted in an extreme action: “The distaste and his persistence made him angrier than ever and any cruelty to her became irresistible. He would teach her the same lessons of loneliness and shame he had learned himself.” (Desai 186) Jemubhai raped his wife, and continued to use her body for his sexual desires. This extreme action was a result from the isolation from his family and from his friends. He did not understand what pure unadulterated love for a person was, and this was the only way that he was able to show it. Since his family had never given him the familial love and support that he had needed growing up, he would thus never be able to show his own family love. The scars of isolation that Jemubhai carries over even towards his granddaughter. Right after Sai’s parents die, he shows no emotion towards his daughter and son-in-law nor does he try to empathize with Sai. He becomes so disillusioned with love that the only thing that is capable of moving him to do anything is his dog. Jemubhai’s “created” self also gets in the way of reality. He idolizes the englishwoman and thinks that nobody could be as pretty as them, so his wife would never be up to his standards. This is why when Nimi does not act like an englishwoman the judge has no reservations in beating her and sending her home. Since she was not English, the Jemubhai treated her as a lesser being and devalued her for all to see.
The end part of this quote exposes the judge’s loneliness and how much his isolation had affected him. Before he was sent off from his family and friends, Jemubhai had been a sweet and considerate boy. On his wedding day, because he saw that his wife was scared and crying, he did not force her to consummate the marriage. Even after days had passed, he had still not forced her, even though there was a lot of external pressure for him to do so. After Jemubhai returned from being isolated for so long, he had changed. Because he went through various shameful events alone such as facing discrimination as an Indian or not being able to read english without his accent, he wanted his wife to go through her own trials of shame when she was isolated. He wanted to drag her down to his level so that another person would be able to understand and sympathize with the pain that he had gone through alone.
In White Teeth, Millat also experiences extreme isolation from both others and from himself. Although he fits in with almost all groups, yet he does not belong to any of them. First he becomes disconnected with the people around him. “She said she didn’t know what was happening to him. Problem is, thought Millat, ass he slammed the door off its hinges, neither do I.” (Smith 309) Millat is still unsure of who he really is, and what he wants to become. Karina, who is the one mentioned in this passage, had been his girlfriend, whom he had loved a lot previously, and he loved all that she was and what she represented. She would freely give her love and accommodate any of Millat’s desires. However, ever since Millat joined KEVIN, he had to force himself to change to the point where even he did not even recognize himself. He ordered Karina