在《繼承失落的人》的文本分析中，主要討論「身份的喪失」、「階級」和「身份恢復」三個問題以及這些觀念如何與文化認同相互牽絆。身份喪失的關鍵主題是討論悼念、憂鬱症、懷舊、悲傷、創傷和抑鬱。這裡討論的社會不平等主題主要圍繞於「白人與印度人」、「富人和窮人」和「印度婦女和西方國家的婦女」之間的扞格。身份恢復指小說中的主角因歷經身份喪失一段時間後，再次尋回其身份認同。對德賽而言，大概主要角色賽（Sai）「坐在門廊上」和「讀著一本過期《國家地理雜誌》上關於巨烏賊的文章」，象徵一條逃逸路線，脫離後殖民主義和幽閉種性社會的航程，以滿足她對新世界的想像。論文第一章處理「失落的意義和身份的喪失」。這個議題將與失落的理論一起討論。論文第二章以「階級」的視角來看印度殖民，因為「階級」是小說中的重要議題，而印度在被殖民以後，種族主義、資本主義和性別角色的思想開始與印度的種姓社會相融合，只是種姓制度長久以來為決定印度階級的主要因素。第三章，繼續討論第一章中的問題，並研究這些主要角色是否有恢復身份的可能性。很有趣地，透過發現屬於自己的地圖來引導定義他們自己，小說中的人物逐漸恢復身分。

This thesis attempts to analyze Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss in terms of identity loss, class, and identity recovery. The key theme of identity loss addressed here revolves around the practices of mourning, melancholia, nostalgia, sadness, trauma, and depression. The major idea of social inequality focuses especially on the class conflict between the white and the Indian, the rich and the poor, and women in India and women in western countries. As for identity recovery, I scrutinize the main characters in the novel who in desparate search for their identity after they have suffered from the hardship of identity loss for awhile. For Kiran Desai, probably the main character Sai—“sitting on the veranda” and “reading an article about giant squid in an old National Geographic”—symbolizes a line of flight from this postcolonial and claustrophobic caste society to satisfy her imagination about the new world. In Chapter One, the meaning of loss and the loss of identity will be discussed in conjunction with the theoretic discussions of loss. In Chapter Two, I look at colonial India in terms of class because the issue of class has always been a significant problem in the novel and the caste system had been a primary factor of deciding an Indian’s social class. After India was colonized, the idea of racialization, capitalism, and gender roles started to mingle with the caste society of India. In Chapter Three, I would like to continue the issue I have discussed in Chapter One and look into the possibility whether identity recovery is possible or not for these main characters. Through finding their own map leading them to define themselves, the characters in the novel do gradually recover their identity.

Introduction 
………………………………………1
Chapter 1: The Meaning of Loss and the Loss of Identity ………………………………………20
Chapter 2: Class 
………………………………………35
Chapter 3: Identity Recovery
………………………………………52
Conclusion 
………………………………………66
Works Cited 
………………………………………72

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