Navigating Identity and Urban Experience: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Language Use in Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke

Abstract

This paper explores how language reflects identity and urban experience in Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid, focusing on Darashikoh "Daru" Shehzad, whose decline from a banker to a life of poverty and crime mirrors Lahore’s fragmented society. Through Daru’s interactions and internal monologues, Hamid captures how language reveals his psychological state, struggles with social status, and evolving identity amid Lahore’s social divides. Using Social Identity Theory as a framework, this research examines how Daru’s language choices—shifting between English and Urdu, code-switching, and colloquial phrases—reflect his conflicting desires and sense of self. English symbolizes access to the elite and represents his aspirations for sophistication and social acceptance, yet it also heightens his awareness of his insignificant status, intensifying feelings of inadequacy. This paper analyzes how Daru’s shifting language reflects his broken sense of self, as he navigates his ambitions and hatred toward the very elite he desires to join. Daru’s interactions with wealthier characters like Ozi and Mumtaz further reveal language as a marker of class and social boundaries. Their linguistic dynamics highlight power imbalances and underscore Lahore’s rigid socio-economic divisions. Through Daru’s unraveling mental state—marked by tone and language changes—Hamid portrays Lahore as a place of alienation for those who cannot fit its social expectations. This analysis demonstrates that language in Moth Smoke is more than communication; it mirrors ambitions, psychological defenses, and identity struggles in a split society. By examining language as a reflection of identity and urban alienation through the lens of Social Identity Theory, this paper offers insights into how language functions in postcolonial literature, emphasizing the psychological impact of class and exclusion in an urban landscape.