In the short story, "Hell-Heaven," by Jhumpa Lahiri, the character Pranab Kaku, provides the reader with deep insight into his often ambiguous mind. Pranab Kaku has unconditional love and a strong familiarity towards other characters while remaining an ambiguous figure overall. The theme of cultural identity is reflected through each character's depth. Jhumpa Lahiri uses first person point of view to further add to the familiarity of the characters in this short story. The story is told from the perspective of Usha, the daughter of Aparna. We notice her cultural troubles and the struggles of all the characters through her perspective. Pranab's character is the catalyst for change for Aparna and her family. In the beginning of the story, he was immediately accepted into Usha's family due to their shared cultural heritage. He was accepted into the family as a brother of the father. Usha called him uncle and Pranab called Aparna Boudi, the traditional Bengali way of addressing an older brother's wife. Lahiri shows that Pranab was looking for a surrogate family in the way he associates Aparna with his family in Calcutta, "He noticed the two or three safety pins she wore fastened to the thin gold bangles that were behind the red and white ones, which she would use to replace a missing hook on a blouse or to draw a string through a petticoat at a moment's notice, a practice he associated strictly with his mother and sisters and aunts in Calcutta" (63). Usha's family was willing to adopt Pranab into the family since they were all dealing with adapting to a new country. Aparna was most affected by Pranab's introduction into her family. Lahiri uses Usha's narration to reflect on the changes her mother is going through, "I did not know, back then, that Pranab Kaku's visits were what my mother looked forward to all day, that she changed into a new sari and combed her hair in anticipation of his arrival, and that she planned, days in advanc