One of the overarching themes in Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies” is the theme of cultural heritage and identity. The main characters in both stories were born and raised in America, and both stories show them traveling to their motherlands: China and India. In “A Pair of Tickets” Jing-mei is the narrator, while in “Interpreter of Maladies” readers see everything through Mr. Kapasi’s perspective. At the beginning, neither Jing-mei nor Mr. and Mrs. Das exhibit any traits of or connection to their roots.
However, Jing-mei appears to be more eager to discover her Chinese self than Mr. and Mrs. Das. Although convinced at the beginning that she had no “Chinese whatsoever below her skin”, Jing-mei changes through the story. She describes the fear to meet her Chinese relatives, feeling insecure because of her “broken Chinese” and American identity. This alone demonstrates that she is not as indifferent about her heritage as the Das family is. Mr. and Mrs. Das, on the other hand, are described by Mr. Kapasi as a very American family, because they dress, speak, and behave like Americans. This shows that they have no desire to change or re-discover their Indian origins. The fact that Mr. Das carries the guidebook on India most of the time also shows that they approach this country as tourists. Until the end, Mr. and Mrs. Das remain strangers to their homeland, whereas Jing-mei manages to find her “Chinese self”. She states, “and now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood”.