Hector St. John De Crevecoeur said that: “The American is a new man, acting on new principles; must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions [. . . ] Here the individuals of all nations merge into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world [ . . . ] An immigrant on his first arrival [ . . . ] as soon as he breathes our air, he forms new plans and embarks on projects that he would never have thought of in his country. His definition of what an American looks like is characterized by a “new race,” fueled by new ideas, all combined together to create one man. His idea became applicable when the first immigrants began arriving in America. But how does this principle develop, in a modern sense, in a country whose ideas and cultures are constantly changing? How does an individual define the concept of homeland and, furthermore, how is that person affected by changing culture and ideas of assimilation? The 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Interpreter of Maladies, written by Jhumpa Lahiri, begins to answer these questions. In the book, Lahiri investigates, explores and considers the lives of people caught in a "middle ground" between who they were and who they will become, placing her characters in situations where they are forced to react. Her topics range from love and relationships, to explorations of tradition in a modern age, to self-understanding. It plays with the ideas of several generations of immigrants and, like Crevecoeur, strives to answer and define the idea of ​​what an American looks like, providing a general outline of who fits into American society and why. Lahiri addresses the fact that a character without a definite h...... middle of paper...... Marriage and Family.Vol. 59, no. 4 (November 1997), pp. 873-883. Published by: National Council on Family Relations. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/353789 Gonzales, Juan, “Asian Indian Immigration Patterns: The Origins of the Sikh Community in California. “International Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp. 40-54 (the article consists of 15 pages). Published by: The Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2545683Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Diseases. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. 1-198. Print.William B. Wood, “Forced Migration: Local Conflicts and International Dilemmas.”Annals of the Association of American Geographers.Vol. 84, No. 4 (December 1994), pp. 607-634 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2564146