The novel The Inheritance of Loss follows the stories of several generations of different immigrant families as they try to come to terms with a brand new world and how to find an identity in America. There are many types of loss, most prominently in terms of material wealth, identity, and culture, and these trends are carried through the generations—inherited by the second and third generations.
Families of immigrants from India are explored both as newcomers who try to hold fast to Indian culture and as later generations who eschew the traditions of their motherland. The newcomers feel they have lost their homeland and their wealth, which is devastating. All the while, they are mocked for holding onto antiquated traditions by the more adapted immigrant families. On the other hand, the families with some history in America have essentially lost their culture because they no longer act like traditional Indians. In the midst of all of this, both groups have lost their identity because they feel like they’re in limbo between the cultures of India and America—and they are left out of place.
The significance of the title of Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss is to be understood as plainly and literally as it appears in the title. The book deals largely with the long-term effects of colonialism and how they can lead to a loss in identity. This loss can be both cultural and personal, as it is not exclusive to a single individual. The profound and overarching sense of loss is passed on from generation to generation. In this sense, it is inherited. From the perspective of Sai, we see the squalor of life in India and a conflict between adopting western values and holding to Indian traditions. From the perspective of Biju, we see the brutal exploitation of being an undocumented laborer in the competitive capitalist landscape of the United States. Both characters are experiencing a personal and cultural loss into which they were born and have no choice but to face.
The title of the novel The Inheritance or Loss is meant to encapsulate the generational continuation of loss that these immigrants have experienced. As it follows the story of several characters spread out from new immigrants to individuals who have been in America for several generations, it shows the loss of identity and culture these people have experienced.
One interesting thematic thread illustrates this idea well, as some characters show disdain for those newer Indian immigrants who continue to hold fast to the Indian culture and traditions. On the other hand, those same characters are criticized for losing their identity. It states how these people live in a constant state of flux, losing their identity when they arrive and watching it continue to degrade and shift through their lives and through subsequent generations. The characters inherit this sense of loss or a lack of identity, which makes their plight in America very heart-wrenching.
Various types of loss are depicted in the book: physical, material, spiritual, and cultural. Almost all of the characters in The Inheritance of Loss find themselves degraded or humiliated at some point. In that sense, they experience moments in which they lose their humanity, but it is a loss that they have inherited, either as ethnic Indians or as individual human beings. Failures of one sort or another have been passed on down through the generations, irrespective of the vagaries of time and geographical location.
A prime example of this comes in the shape of Biju. He is an illegal immigrant toiling away at an Indian restaurant in New York. He, like his cook father, is ruthlessly exploited. A new life in a wealthy capitalist country has not allowed Biju to dispense with the inheritance of his loss; the same thing that happened to his father is happening to him now, only in a different environment. Biju doesn't just lose his humanity in his squalid new existence; he also loses his cultural identity, a common inheritance among those forced to uproot themselves and seek a living in a completely different cultural setting far from home.
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