Interpreter of Maladies

The Importance of a Community 

Community is a safety harness. When you are part of a community, you are a harness. We have
an unspoken responsibility to look out for others. It is our job to make sure that everyone in our
community is okay, and to look out for and help those who are struggling. In the book,
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri uses multiple literary devices to develop this theme of
community. In the short stories, Mrs. Sen’s, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, and The
Treatment of Bibi Haldar, Jhumpa Lahiri uses literary devices like imagery, perspective, and
characterization to convey the central theme, to look out for others and not just worry about
oneself. It not only keeps readers entertained and hooked throughout the stories but also allow
them to obtain a thorough grasp on what it means to be a part of a community.

The use of Imagery in the short stories is depicted vividly in two different stories, When Mr.
Pirzada Came to Dine, and The Treatment of Bibi Haldar. In the beginning of the story, When
Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, Jhumpa Lahiri describes how Lilia’s parents are looking through the
university directory, trying to find other “Indian” people in their community. The writer’s
detailed description of Lilia’s parents’ search helps us to understand the theme of responsibility
in a community. Lilia’s parents know what it felt to be outside of one’s community and are
reaching out in their own community to make sure that people in the same situation that they
once experienced have a safe place/second home that they can rely on and feel comfortable.

In the story, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, the narrator’s description of Bibi’s sickness in the
beginning of the story, explains how everyone in Bibi’s community is trying everything they can
to cure her. The writer uses detailed imagery to illustrate the picture of wise men massaging
Bibi’s temples and steaming her face, trying to cure her. This description of the community
trying to help Bibi become healthy shows readers that the people in Bibi’s community are acting
on their responsibility to look out for her.
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In the story, Mrs. Sen’s, the point of view is 3rd person submissive, the perspective of the main
character, Eliot. This allows readers to closely follow and analyze the interactions between Mrs.
Sen and Eliot’s mom from the perspective of a young boy. Mrs. Sen wants to make sure that both
Eliot and his mother are getting a good meal to eat every night. She is doing her part in the
community to look out for them and oversee that they are eating well. Eliot’s perspective is vital
for readers to understand this interaction, because it shows that even a young boy like Eliot can
recognize Mrs. Sen’s effort to care for him and his family.

The use of perspective is also apparent in the story, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine. Lilia’s
perspective in the story helps readers to understand how her parents are taking care of Mr.
Pirzada. Lilia’s “eavesdropping” reveals how late Mr. Pirzada stays at her house, hanging out
and talking with his parents. Mr. Pirzada feels safe and comfortable in her home, and that her
parents are succeeding at their role in their community of looking out for others. Another use of
perspective can be identified in the story, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar. The perspective in this
story is the women of Bibi’s community. These women are very sympathetic towards Bibi and
do everything that they can to make her feel somewhat “normal.” Bibi is making the women all
about their weddings, because she wants to get married one day and therefore want to know what
it is like. Instead of the women being rude to Bibi and telling her she will never find love because
of her disease, or simply just ignoring her, instead they decide to take the time out of their busy
days to answer all of Bibi’s questions and show her their wedding books. This makes Bibi, who
usually feels like an outcast, feel happy and accepted in their community. This quote also
indirectly shows and characterizes that the women in Bibi’s community are kind, caring, and
sympathetic people.

The use of characterization in the short stories, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, and The
Treatment of Bibi Haldar helps Jhumpa Lahiri to convey the central theme, Responsibility of a
Community is to look out for others and not just worry about yourself. In the story, When Mr.
Pirzada Came to Dine, Lilia is about to go out trick-or-treating, and Mr. Pirzada expresses his
concern as overprotective and worried. Mr. Pirzada does not know much about Halloween and
Trick-Or-Treating and thinks it might be unsafe for kids to go out in the dark. He is worried that
Lilia will not be safe and wants to go out with her as a guardian angel. This characterization
shows that Lilia and her parents made Mr. Pirzada feel so comfortable in their home, that he now
feels extremely connected to them, and considers Lilia as a part of his family. Lilia’s parents
exceeded in not only making Mr. Pirzada feel welcomed and comfortable but made him feel like
a valued part of their family.

Indirect characterization can also be noticed in The Treatment of Bibi Haldar. In this story, the
author characterizes Bibi as jealous to develop the idea of how comfortable she feels speaking
her mind with the women in her community. This indirect characterization of Bibi being envious
helps to develop the main theme of the story. Bibi is talking/complaining to the narrators like any
other “normal” women would express their feelings to their friends. The comfortability in Bibi
expressing her feelings allows readers to infer that the narrators and women in Bibi’s community
are treating Bibi like a normal friend and fulfilling their responsibilities in ensuring that Bibi
feels welcomed in their community.

Racism and Ethnicity

One’s ethnicity or their cultural beliefs and traditions are what make people different in addition
to their physical appearance, and in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, these are the two
key aspects of life that are focused on as characters determine how they wish to interact with one
another. Lahiri’s short story exemplifies the struggles that make themselves visible when people
of different racial and ethnic backgrounds interact. Racism and ethnicity are two concepts that
drive the actions of characters, such as Lilia and Mr. Pirzada, because it provides something for
the characters to focus in on as differences between one another.

Initially, Lilia determines that Mr. Pirzada is different than she is for what she presumes is a
racial or ethnic reason, and it is that idea that drives all her actions in building a relationship with
him. She observed that something about Mr. Pirzada was not the same as what she was used to in
a person, which drove her curiosity to find out what exactly it was that caused this feeling. The
fixation that Lilia admits she has over his pocket watch reflects on the idea that no matter what,
she is already determined to find something that makes Mr. Pirzada different from herself and
her family. Over time, Lilia does take a strong liking to Mr. Pirzada once she is able to allow
herself to dismiss any preconceived notion she had, and then formulate a relationship with him
that was greater than any racial or ethnic difference.

Race at its surface is a simple term, which is in reference to one’s physical appearance and skin
color, however, characters in Interpreter of Maladies used this as a means of differentiating
themselves from one another, regardless of ethnicity. Jhumpa Lahiri’s character Lilia attempts to
use race to separate herself from Mr. Pirzada initially, but eventually allows herself to form a
bond with him by accepting what is under his skin.

Interpreter of Maladies: Through the Subaltern Lens

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, explores how the figure of the subaltern negotiates the
postcolonial climate resultant of the convergence between the Western and Indian societies. The
subaltern is defined as the lowest and least powerful population, that exists outside the
postcolonial hegemonic power structure. The subaltern figures in both narratives occupy a
position of liminality in an interstitial space between both cultures. This in turn provides for an
impartial stance between both cultures through which the narratives are focalized. The
focalization of both narratives through the liminal figure of the subaltern highlights the constant
flux and conflict between the cultural polarities of East and West, resulting in the subversion of
gender roles and the disintegration of the nuclear family unit. However, both narratives posit a
hopeful re-visioning of a family structure not presupposed by inheritance of the past, through the
symbolic acceptance of the illegitimate child, while recognizing the subaltern’s disadvantaged
position, which in turn allegorizes the wider postcolonial situation; thus, framing both narratives
as idealistic but not naïve of a progressive and impartial postcolonial future.

The figure of the subaltern in texts is defined by their position as a liminal character situated in
an interstitial space between the cultural binary of the East and West. This suggests that the
inability to ascribe liminal characters to either polarity of colonized or colonizer situates them
outside the hegemonic power structure, rendering them subalterns. This is evident in Interpreter
of Maladies, where Mr. Kapasi’s command of a multitude of native and foreign languages,
inspires him to be an interpreter who “[resolves] conflicts between people and nations, settling
disputes of which he alone could understand both sides” (Lahiri 52). Albeit unfulfilled, the
ability to communicate in diverse languages positions Mr. Kapasi’s character as a liminal
linchpin between nations and cultures. This is further expounded through the nature of his
occupation as a tour guide. Mr. Kapasi functions as a cultural broker, bridging the gap between
the Das family’s American culture and their genealogical Indian culture; in turn reinforcing his
liminal position between cultures. Thus, the inability to essentially categorize both protagonists
within the East-West binary results in their marginalization as a subaltern

The focalization of narratives through the liminal subaltern figure allows for an impartial
negotiation and examination of conflicts between differing cultural belief systems; illustrated
through the subversions of gender expectations and resultant disintegration of the nuclear family.
Gender expectations between Western and Indian cultures differ in their attitudes towards
stereotypical gender roles of femininity and masculinity in society. In Interpreter of Maladies,
Mrs. Das’s indifference towards her children is evident from the onset of the narrative, and
eventually culminates when she confides in Mr. Kapasi. Her desires of abandonment illustrate
her apathetic attitude towards her children, emphasizing her disassociation from the feminine
notion of domesticity and motherhood. On the contrary, Mr. Das is portrayed as the maternal
figure within the family. Mr. Das is inclined towards the domestic sphere and the nurturing of his
child, characteristic of motherhood, which in turn indicates a subversion of stereotypical gender
roles between him and Mrs. Das. With access to both cultures resultant of a position of
liminality, the focalization through the subaltern’s liminal lens, highlight these subversions
within westernized familial units as detrimental because it is incongruent with their indigenous
patriarchal Indian culture. Thus, delineating the disintegration of the nuclear family unit.
However, it provides a hopeful resolution in the form of the figure of the illegitimate child.
The acceptance of the illegitimate child, a symbol of failed filiation, allows for the re-visioning
of a new familial structure beyond the system of inheritance and in turn function as a reflection
of the macro postcolonial

In Interpreter of Maladies, Mr. Kapasi is “tempted to whisper a secret into the boy’s ear” (Lahiri
68) but eventually refrains from doing so. His exercise of restraint, as opposed to jeopardizing
family relations, denotes his acceptance of the illegitimate child’s position within the familial
structure as viable. This idea is further depicted when the entire Das family eventually gathers
round Bobby to offer him comfort and care, symbolic of their acceptance of the illegitimate
child. The acceptance of an illegitimate child suggests a symbolic break in lineage and the re-
imagining of a family unit that deviates and evolves from traditional stereotypes of family and
home. In turn, when mapped out onto a larger postcolonial setting, both narratives posit a
hopeful shift away from the lineage of hegemonic postcolonial power relations, towards the birth
and acceptance of a new postcolonial situation of impartiality. However, despite the hopeful
outlook, both narratives are aware of the deprived position of the subaltern to speak.
The conscious recognition of the position of the subaltern frames the narrative as idealistic but
not ignorant, allowing an attempt for the creation of a space for the subaltern to speak. In
Interpreter of Maladies, the narrative closes with “the slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address on
it [fluttering] away in the wind” (Lahiri 69). This scene is significant as it represents the
disintegration of the possibility of correspondence between Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. Mr.
Kapasi’s figuration as a subaltern and Mrs. Das as representative of the West, expounds the
paralytic position of the subaltern with respect to his ability to speak or be heard by hegemonic
powers in postcolonial society.
In conclusion, Lahiri situation of the subaltern figure in a liminal position is pertinent as it allows
for an unbiased focalization of both narratives. In turn, conflicts due to a convergence between
the East and West results in the implosion of the nuclear family unit, evident through the
subversion of gender roles. Despite this, both narratives suggest a possible resolution in the
symbolic figure of the illegitimate child. The acceptance of the illegitimate child functions to
allegories the acceptance of a postcolonial future not marred by legacies of the past. This coupled
with the awareness of the subaltern’s limits and constraints, frame of Interpreter of Maladies as
optimistic but not ignorant of the current socio-political postcolonial climate, attempting to
provide the subaltern a platform, to speak.
Different Stories in Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a collection of short studies whose characters’

experiences translate to those of several immigrants across the globe. The details of the stories
vary greatly; the reader learns of an Indian immigrant babysitting American children, a woman
living in absolute poverty on the streets of Calcutta, and a Hindu couple stumbling across
Christian trinkets in their new home. Despite the different settings and contexts, the stories are
unified by imperfect characters struggling with problems that any reader can identify with, such
as Lilia’s struggle with cultural collisions in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”. Through these
characters’ problems, Lahiri explores many of the problems in her own life, specifically the
dissatisfaction with the American Dream and American life that so many immigrants experience.
The struggles of the characters in The Interpreter of Maladies caused me to question aspects of
my own life, like what constitutes a healthy or normal relationship, and the correct manner of
falling in love.

In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”, the protagonist Lilia feels a disconnect between the
cultural values she is taught at school and those that she is taught at home. While at school, Lilia
is taught American History, and spends large portions of time exploring the American
Revolution. To Lilia, this learning feels impersonal and repetitive. On the other hand, at home
Lilia and her family keep up with the civil war in India. This war has special importance to her
because her family is Indian, and because a Bengali man named Mr. Pirzada comes over each
evening to watch the news and discuss the conflict. Mr. Pirzada’s family is in the war zone,
which gives the war a sense of meaning and severity that is not present in the lessons about the
Battle of Lexington and Concord. Lilia develops an interest in the Indian civil war at home but is
told at school that this interest is illegitimate. This cultural disconnect is highlighted by Lahiri
when Lilia is working on a schoolbook report about the Mayflower, and is caught reading about
Bengali culture by her teacher:
“‘Is this book a part of your report, Lilia?’
‘No, Mrs. Kenyon’
‘Then I see no reason to consult it… Do you?’” (33)
Lilia’s response to this question should have been that she did see a reason to consult the book.
The conflict in India is relevant to her life, and she feels that it is important to be informed about
life there. However, her American education is telling her that American history should take
priority over all else. Distinctly different cultures pull Lilia in different directions, and
unfortunately, this conflict does not reach a neat resolution by the end of the short story.
Through the Interpreter of Maladies, the reader is able to observe Lahiri’s struggle with the great
expectations that so many have for life in America, and the problem of disappointment with the
American Dream. The United States is often glorified as the land of opportunity, when anyone
one can become rich through hard work. However, as almost anyone working several jobs and
just scraping by knows, this is hardly the case. Many immigrants are disappointed by the harsh
realities of life in the US, as opposed to the image of a perfect life that is so often propagated by
Hollywood. This theme of disappointment arises in many of Lahiri’s short stories, such as
“Interpreter of Maladies”, “Sexy”, “Mrs. Sen’s”, and “This Blessed House.” However, Lahiri
most clearly displays this disappointment with the American Dream in “A Temporary Matter”.
In “A Temporary Matter”, the unraveling of the relationship between Shoba and Shukumar
exposes their disappointment in American life. Initially, Shoba and Shukumar are happily
married and are optimistic about their life together. However, this image of a perfect future
begins to deteriorate when Shoba goes into labor while Shukumar is out of town, and the child
does not survive. Each of the main characters react to this tragedy in different ways. Shukumar
loses all motivation to get out of bed in the morning and feels increasingly self-conscious about
being in his sixth year of graduate school. Additionally, Shoba’s mother holds a grudge against
Shukumar because he was not present when Shoba went into labor: “[Shoba’s mother] never
talked to him about Shoba; once, when he mentioned the baby’s death, she looked up from her
knitting, and said, ‘But you weren’t even there.’” (9). Shukumar’s self-respect is gone, and he is
presented to the reader as a man without a purpose. Inversely, Shoba becomes increasingly
active, and distracts herself with her workload outside of the home. The relationship between
Shoba and Shukumar suffers as a result of these differing coping methods. They stop eating
meals together, have insignificant surface level conversations when forced to interact, and begin
to act as if they are roommates rather than a married couple. Ultimately, the story concludes with
Shoba saying that she has found a new apartment and is moving out. Clearly, Shukumar’s life in
America is far from perfect. His expectation was to become successful, raise a family, and live
happily ever after with his wife. Instead, he is struggling to make it through graduate school, has
a wife that is leaving him, and he has tragically lost a child. Through this story, Lahiri
acknowledges the imperfections that exist in an American society like they do in any other and
refutes the perfect American life that so many claim is achievable.

As a reader of Interpreter of Maladies, I was forced by Lahiri to reevaluate many assumptions

that I have regarding relationships and love. Jhumpa Lahiri crafts all different types of
relationships in her short stories, and these relationships often drive the plot. “A Temporary
Matter”, “Interpreter of Maladies”, “Sexy”, “Mrs. Sen’s”, “This Blessed House”, and “The
Treatment of Bibi Haldar” all feature unhealthy or failing relationships. The only story in the
entire collection that features a happy and successful marriage is in “The Third and Final
Continent”, between Mala and the narrator (who remains unnamed). This marriage was arranged
by the narrator’s brother, which goes against the majority of what I have learned from American
culture regarding relationships. As the reader, my problem was accepting that love can be
something that is cultivated after marriage, rather than before it. In western culture, the accepted
practice is for two people to get to know one another first, then fall in love, and to finally
propose as a demonstration of absolute love and commitment. Of course, I had known that
arranged marriages existed, but I had considered them to be foolish and impractical. In the final
two pages of the book, when the narrator speaks of all the happiness in his life with Mala, I am
convinced otherwise. The problem for the reader is to accept the merits of an arranged marriage,
despite the unfamiliarity of this type of relationship in American popular culture.
The problems of The Interpreter of Maladies, such as Lilia’s problem of cultural collision,
Lahiri’s problem of disappointment with American life, and my problem, as a reader, with
arranged marriages all stem from short stories that are unlike my day-to-day life. They involve
people with drastically different backgrounds than my own, generally included themes of Indian
culture that are not present in my life. Yet because of the problems used to bring these characters
to life, their stories felt more familiar than foreign. The problems, such as troubled relationships,
adjusting to a new place, and cultural disconnect felt like they could have been my own. The
Interpreter of Maladies invokes empathy from the reader rather than just compassion because the
problems that Lahiri illustrates strike the reader close to home, despite a setting that may be
thousands of miles away.
Main Character in Interpreter of Maladies
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s intricately beautiful The Interpreter of Maladies, Mrs. Das serves as both a
catalyst for plot development and vehicle for social commentary. Through her indirect
characterization, Mrs. Das serves as a direct cultural contrast to Mr. Kapasi, thereby moving the
plot forward and creating poignant social commentary.
The short story begins with the Das family meeting Mr. Kapasi as they prepare for their trip
through a certain part of India. Almost immediately it’s clear that there is a cultural gap between
Kapasi and the Das family when it’s mentioned that “Mr. Kapasi found it strange that Mr. Das
should refer to his wife by her first name when speaking to the little girl” (page 14). The cultural
gap is later clear when it’s mentioned that “Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and
sister, not parents” (page 16). Such drastic differences often lead to curiosity, as is the case of
Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi. Mrs. Das represents a land far away, a land that Mr. Kapasi can’t
understand. As the story progresses, Mr. Kapasi’s infatuation with Mrs. Das grows he finds
himself staring at her, admiring her legs, wishing to be with her. What makes this infatuation
different and more interesting than other infatuations is the cultural clash between Mrs. Das and
Mr. Kapasi (thereby carrying the story forward). On one hand is Mr. Kapasi, a poor, down-on-
his-luck Indian who translates and does tours for a living. On the other, Mrs. Das seemingly has
a life of luxury. In reality, she doesn’t: she’s miserable because she lives a life of irresponsibility,
shallowness, superficiality, and extremely unhealthy serenity.

Mrs. Das moreover represents stereotypical American flaws: self-centeredness, ethnocentrism,

carelessness, and a lack of regard for the world around it. It’s her characterization that reveals
this. Our initial impression of Mrs. Das comes when it’s mentioned that “[Mrs. Das] did not hold
the little girl’s hand as they walked to the restroom,” suggesting that she is both a bad parent and
a careless, miserable person who focuses on herself rather than her kids (pg. 12). This elicits a
response from their tour guide Mr. Kapasi. He’s fascinated. Fascinated by the drastically
different culture than his own and fascinated by Mrs. Das herself. He’s also intrigued with her
because she and her family are ethnically Indian; in terms of their identity, though, she and her
family are American. This is because people are often attracted to things that they don’t
understand fully; Mr. Kapasi is no exception. They find that they are share many things in
common with each other and have an odd moment together in which Mrs. Das tells Mr. Kapasi
of her adultery and how her son Bobby was born out of said adultery. In other words, like Mr.
Kapasi, she has a loveless, miserable marriage. However, after these words are exchanged, it’s
clear that the two are nothing alike. In fact, they are complete opposites. This is illuminated
when Mr. Kapasi asks Mrs. Das if “It [is] really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or guilt?” (pg. 28),
angering her and severing the connection that they had once held despite their differences. All of
this is social commentary and a scatching indictment of America and the family unit its culture
promulgates. The Interpreter of Maladies argues that America and its people are too privileged
and too ethnocentric, leading to poor marriages, bad parenting, and an unnecessary superiority
complex, all of which are bad through the eyes of the author and presumably most Indians.
In effect, Mrs. Das is characterized in a way that moves the story forward and in a way that
creates social commentary. Mrs. Das is a self-centered, ethnocentric, careless woman who
happens to be ethnically Indian like her tour guide, Mr. Kapasi. They became attracted to each
other, creating the main conflict in the story (thereby moving it forward), providing a stark and
ironic contrast between their lifestyles. Their differences also creates social commentary. That is,
American culture is propped up on cruelness and shallowness, bad marriages that often lead to
infidelity, unwarranted privilege and an unjust sense of arrogance, as well as a glaring superiority
complex. In other words, Americans have an incredible amount and don’t know how lucky they
are, so they should, in the words of one of the more famous idioms, either shape up or ship out.

Interpreter of Maladies And The Lake of the

Woods: What Do They Have in Common?
Often in pieces of literature, similar themes are identified in which connections are made
between the characters experience from both novels. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies
and In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien, some characters from each text share similar
experiences which correspond to identical themes. For example, both novels share the themes of
the lack of communication as well as the burden of secrecy, in which obstacles are encountered
in these characters’ lives as they learn to face and overcome them.

Demonstrated in both novels, there is a difficulty of communication between the characters and
their loved ones. For instance, the short story of “Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” from Interpreter of
Maladies describes a man who moves to America for his job while his family remains in Dacca,
India, during the Pakistini army invasion. Mr. Pirzada is clearly unable to communicate with his
wife and daughters because of the war. He therefore experiences a lack of contact with his
family, with his only way of transmission being through the news channel of the television. Each
week, Mr. Pirzada would join a friendly Indian family who invited him over, and he would
watch the news to keep himself updated on the events taking place in Dacca, to make sure his
family was safe. By the end of the short story, although Mr. Pirzada does end up going back to
India to reunite with his family after several months, the disconnection between him and his wife
and children most likely affected the strength of his marriage and tested his love for his wife,
which in this case seemed to happily continue by the end of the short story.
Similarly, John and Kathy Wade in In the Lake of the Woods also experience a severe lack of
communication. Before John and Kathy were married, John spent some time as a soldier in the
Vietnamese war. Because John was away for such a long period of time, there was a
disconnection between Kathy and John, which potentially weakened their relationship. Even
when John wrote letters to Kathy during the war, she slowly stopped responding to them. In one
letter, however, Kathy wrote to John about how she was “seeing some guys” and that it was
“nothing serious” (p.186). Despite the fact that it was nothing serious, the fact that Kathy is
seeing other men while she is in a relationship with John proves their growing disconnection as
John spent his time in the war. The relationship between John and Kathy enfeebled, and although
they got married after the war, they did not seem like a true loving and married couple. This
disconnection could perhaps explain why Kathy decided to vanish from the lake-house the night
of her disappearance. However, the readers may never know since O’Brien only leaves
Hypotheses about Kathy’s disappearance for the audience to read. As portrayed, based on these
two texts, the characters have faced similar experiences involving the theme of the lack of
communication. However, the only difference is that Mr. Pirzada seemed to completely reunite
with his family without such a long-term effect of the disconnection between his family, while
John and Kathy did not lovingly come together as a true husband and wife, illustrating that the
war caused serious communication problems which in effect impacted their marriage negatively.
Another theme that can be related to both novels is the burden of secrecy, in which the characters
keep secrets away from others in avoidance of the truth. The short story “Interpreter of
Maladies” in Interpreter of Maladies portrays of perfect example of a character who hides the
truth. Mr. and Mrs. Das visit India with their children, and are driven and guided by an
interpreter, Mr. Kapasi. When Mrs. Das confides in Mr. Kapasi, she tells him about what she has
been hiding for eight years from everyone, and that he is the first person she has finally told.
“And no one knows, of course. No one at all. I’ve kept it a secret for eight whole years. But now
I’ve told you” (p.62). One of Mrs. Das’ three children, Bobby, is not Mr. Das’ son. Mrs. Das had
an affair with Mr. Das’ business partner that came into town for a job interview, in which she
became pregnant and conceived Bobby. Realizing that she cannot hide from the truth, she asks
Mr. Kapasi to interpret her malady. However, Mr. Kapasi sees only guilt from her secret and
cannot offer a remedy to her malady.
Comparably, John and Kathy Wade from In the Lake of the Woods both have some hidden
secrets that were never shared. Secrecy was a convenient way for John and Kathy to avoid facing
the facts. However, the burden of concealing the truth eventually proved to be too much when
Kathy mysteriously disappeared. Before the war, John had continuously spied on Kathy
whenever he gained the chance to. Although Kathy knew about this secret, it was still something
that was always kept to himself. As for Kathy, it is evident that she had an affair with another
man while she was with John, which he does not know about. “Kathy was no angel. That
dentist… I shouldn’t say his name… I guess it hurt him pretty bad— John, I mean” (p. 261).
Spoken by Kathy’s sister, Patricia, it is portrayed that Kathy was having an affair with a dentist
while she was with John. This secret was never figured out from John, and when Kathy
disappeared, there would really be no way for him to find out the truth. From both texts, one can
apprehend that running away from the truth will not solve anything, and that no matter what, the
truth will always come out.
The characters from both novels of Interpreter of Maladies and In the Lake of the Woods
experience intense and emotional stages in their lives in which they learn to accept and face the
truth. The two themes of lack of communication and the burden of secrecy reflect on the
characters’ actions in the novels and how they learn to face the large or little obstacles that come
along in their lives, such as the difficulty to communicate or the avoidance of the truth.
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Perception, Truth and Misconception in

Interpreter of Maladies
January 12, 2021 by Essay Writer
Time and time again, humans make a habit of imagining their lives as more glorious than they
are. Author Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories about
misconception. She exploits the universal yearning for something greater and, through her
characters, creates a clear deviation between a desired abstract and reality in each piece. For
every storyline, the gap between perception and truth does not last for long and ultimately ends
in a subtle personal tragedy.
The strongest example of constructing one’s own reality lies in “Interpreter of Maladies,” the
namesake of the novel, which further supports the idea that misperception is Lahiri’s focus. The
Das family, American tourists, take Mr. Kapasi’s taxi to Indian attractions. The cabbie quickly
becomes obsessed with Mrs. Das, even imaging an entire life with her, all the while ignoring her
coldness towards her family. Despite admitting her faults, even revealing that one of her children
is the product of an affair, he still fantasizes of her. “In those moments Mr. Kapasi used to
believe that all was right with the world…” (Lahiri 56); Lahiri purposes uses the word
“believe”—not knows, not understands, but believes. Having just faith means constructing a
reality that is not actually there. There’s zero chance they have any future together, but it is nice
for him to imagine so. He is disappointed but does nothing when she doesn’t even notice that the
paper containing his contact information floats away in the wind, obliterating the potential for a
future together. Then there is Mr. Das, who is infatuated with the country of India— but only the
good parts. He’s elated to explore his motherland for the first time. On a road, he tells Mr.
Kapasi to pull over because he wants “to get a shot of this guy” (Lahiri 49), an emaciated vagrant
—but does nothing to aid the man in any way. By treating the situation so casually, he capitalizes
on the poor man’s struggle in the name of what he imagines a developing, foreign country should
look like for the sake of his memories. Later on, he is still too distracted by his camera to notice
his son being attacked by monkeys. It is only once Mrs. Das shrieks during the attack that Mr.
Das is brought back to the brutal reality of the situation and thus agrees to return to the hotel
immediately, too shocked to really speak or act; he did not see the problems of India until they
personally affected him. The obliteration of these men’s false realities, meant to comfort,
unsettles them, as Lahiri leaves no resolution.
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In the story “Sexy,” a young woman deludes herself in what it means to be a mistress. Miranda,
lonely and new to Boston, is thrilled when a handsome, cultured, married man pays attention to
her. She wholly embraces the role of mistress, going so far as to “buy herself things she thought
a mistress should have” (Lahiri 92). She considers their relationship romantic, whereas it is
truthfully lustful, largely consisting of a regularly scheduled sexcapades. The illusion is fully
shattered when a child calls her “sexy”— a word she once treasured when Dev called her it—
when she models her prime, never-worn “mistress” outfit. Miranda is appalled and further
bothered by the young boy defining “sexy” as “loving someone you don’t know,” illuminating
the illegitimacy of Dev and Miranda’s relationship. From that point onward, she stops seeing
him, ignoring his calls, because the semblance of a relationship is no longer comforting.
Lahiri uses “This Blessed House” to draw attention towards the discomfort of making choices
solely for comfort. Sanjeev misleads himself by trying to plan out the perfect life. He, like
Lahiri’s other characters, focuses on the good while acting almost purposefully oblivious to the
bad. This is most evident in his choice of home and wife. He is hasty and stubborn—before even
buying the house that he and his wife live in, he “had already made up his mind, was determined
that he and Twinkle should live there together, forever, and so he had not bothered to notice the
switch plates covered with biblical stickers…” (Lahiri 137). It ends up being the religion
iconography that drives him crazy about his home, which he could have avoided if he had only
payed attention. But “when, after moving in, he tried to scrape it off, he scratched the glass”
(Lahiri 137); not only is his ignorance a discomfort to him, it is literally damaging. The house is
a metaphor for his marriage with Twinkle, a quasi-arranged marriage that he rushes into in
desperate need for a companion that is a safe option. It is only later that aspects of her
personality that he disregarded begin to aggravate him. Lahiri uses Sanjeev as an example of
what happens when people make serious but ordinary life decisions on a basis of blatant
misconceptions.
The reason the personal tragedies are “subtle” is because the characters cannot do anything about
the unraveling of their delusions. Lahiri’s writing is not dramatic and rather insinuates a calm
acceptance of the truth. Furthermore, the object of each character’s deceptions are not actually
deceptive. All fault lies on those with the overly-active imagination, seeking to escape harsh
realities. In life, the malady of delusion is unavoidable but never stands permanent. It is
impossible for people to make their lives wholly comfortable.
63
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Masking Reality with Illusion: Unhappy

Relationships in Lahiri’s Short Stories
January 12, 2021 by Essay Writer
Appearances and Unhappy Couples In Jhumba Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, there is a
common theme of glossing over the truth. Many characters preoccupy themselves with
appearances in hopes of escaping the reality of their unhappy relationships. In the short stories
“This Blessed House,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” and “A Temporary Matter,” symbols are used
to demonstrate the need to put on a façade not only for others around them, but more importantly
for the characters themselves. Ultimately, this inability to accept the truth is what causes each
character’s perpetual unhappiness.
In “This Blessed House,” the character Twinkle is the total package—beautiful, funny,
intelligent, and good-humored. Yet all her husband sees is a childish woman with a short
attention span. Unlike most people seeking a relationship, Sanjeev does not want a partner who
loves him or who brings meaning to his life. Rather, he wants someone who is just like him—
sensible, organized, mature. He wants someone who will give him the appropriate life for a man
of his age—a life that all of his friends have. This mistake costs him happiness as he marries
simply to fulfill a step in his life plan rather than for love. His obsession with appearances can be
seen in the way he gets angry at Twinkle for wearing heels because they make her taller than
him. Sanjeev cannot stand the height difference because it deviates from his traditional image of
a couple in which the man is taller than the woman. Similarly, his focus on appearances is seen
through the symbol of the Christian paraphernalia. To Twinkle, it is simply a game—an unsolved
mystery and an exciting treasure hunt. Yet to Sanjeev, it is inappropriate, strange, almost
blasphemous. He is worried that others will see the paraphernalia and judge them. When Twinkle
wants to put a statue of Virgin Mary on the front lawn, he adamantly objects and says: “All the
neighbors will see. They’ll think we’re insane…We’re not Christian” (Lahiri “Blessed” 146).
The Christian paraphernalia therefore becomes a symbol of the difference between Sanjeev and
Twinkle. Ironically, Twinkle—a woman who could care less what anyone thinks of her—ends
up being the most beautiful and likeable character. Because of Sanjeev’s need to appear a certain
way, he fails to appreciate the eccentric and untraditional nature of Twinkle. Only at the end
when he discards his preconceptions of what a couple should look like does he reveal any hope
for the couple’s future.
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Similarly, in “Interpreter of Maladies” both Mr. and Mrs. Das are too preoccupied with looking
like a perfect family to realize how dysfunctional their family truly is. For Mr. Das, he cares so
much about capturing idealized moments on his camera that he fails to notice that nothing about
his family is ideal. In this way, the camera becomes a symbol of his desire to avoid the truth and
to instead surround himself with pictures depicting a happy family—one that in reality is the
farthest thing from his own. And just like Mr. Das, Mrs. Das cares more about the appearances
of herself and those of her family than their actual happiness. She dreads having to take her
daughter to the bathroom and remains completely inattentive to any of her children’s wishes like
when Tina asks to have her nails painted. Yet, her fixation with appearances is clearly
demonstrated when Bobby is attacked by the monkeys—something that never would have
happened if she had not been so careless with her food. After the incident, she brushes it off as if
Bobby’s being attacked by a swarm of monkeys is no big deal and says, “He’s fine. Just a little
scared, right, Bobby?” (“Interpreter” 68). Instead of checking to see if he is alright, she is quick
to tape over the cut on his knee and fix his hair—caring more about how he looks than how he is
doing after such a traumatic event. Because of both Mr. and Mrs. Das’s need to appear perfect,
they become oblivious to each other and their wishes—so much so that Mr. Kopasi thinks they
look more like siblings than husband and wife.
The desire to cover up the truth is also present in “A Temporary Matter.” Both Shoba and
Shukumar have let themselves go, seen in the way that Shoba is “looking, at thirty-three, like the
type of woman she’d once claimed she would never resemble” (“Temporary” 1). They care
nothing about how they look and Shukumar does not even bother to brush his teeth. So when the
power goes out and darkness surrounds them, the couple is able to escape reality at least for a
little while. The light, therefore, becomes a symbol of the harsh truth and the darkness represents
their desire to avoid that truth. Though they are not preoccupied with keeping up appearances the
way the other two couples are, they are still keenly aware of those appearances. By not being
able to clearly see each other when the power goes out, Shoba and Shukumar can hide from the
unpleasantness of what they see when the lights are on. Yet for this couple, it is not a
concentration on appearances, but a lack thereof that defines their relationship. Ultimately,
however, both lead to the same end result—an unhappy partnership.
Perhaps the malady is not that the characters are incapable of love or of sustaining their
relationships, but rather that their desire to escape reality is what is ultimately holding them back.
In showing the two extremes of the spectrum—couples that care only about appearances and
couples that don’t care at all—Lahiri demonstrates that a healthy relationship must be composed
of both. That is why the story “This Blessed House,” in which Sanjeev faces the truth, is the
most hopeful of the three. Through Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri demonstrates that ultimately,
it is a balance of caring enough to keep up appearances and being honest enough to see things for
what they really are that leads to a successful relationship.
69
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Culture, Identity and Memory in Lahiri’s Short
Fiction
January 12, 2021 by Essay Writer
In her collection of short stories entitled Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates the
difficulties that immigrants face when displaced and distanced from their culture. Each story
serves as a different viewpoint on cultural experience, which allows Lahiri to bring together a
detailed image of cultural displacement and the challenges it poses when forging one’s identity.
The importance of cultural ties is emphasized in the stories, as is the natural longing to achieve
such connections. However, Lahiri shows the difficulties in doing so, especially with a younger
generation that has only family ties to their culture because they have already been assimilated
into American society. She also illustrates that distance is not always a disadvantage as she
begins to show the reader the first steps to establishing one’s identity and home. The stories in
the collection Interpreter of Maladies illustrate the need and natural inclination people have to
connect with their heritage and culture while conveying how to safely make those connections
and forge one’s identity.
In Lahiri’s stories, there is a longing among the people of the younger generations to connect
with their culture, a longing that seems impossible for those assimilated into American culture.
In “Mr. Pirzada Comes to Dine,” Lilia’s mother declares proudly that her daughter was born in
America as Lilia remarks, “She seemed genuinely proud of the fact, as if it were a reflection of
my character” (Lahiri 26). However, Lilia desires to understand Mr. Pirzada and treasures the
candies that he gives to her, as if eating one made a connection with her culture. As she observes
him and her parents in the living room watching the news from overseas, she observes, “…I
remember the three of them operating during that time as if they were a single person, sharing a
single meal, a single body, a single silence, and a single fear” (Lahiri 41). Lilia is an outsider
among them because she is the first generation to be separated from her heritage by distance and
she realizes in the end a connection with her heritage is impossible as she throws away the candy
from Mr. Pirzada. In the short story “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mrs. Das attempts to make a
connection with Mr. Kapasi, which in turn would serve as a connection to her heritage from
which she is far removed. Mr. Kapasi imagines corresponding with Mrs. Das after her return to
America saying it would fulfill his dream of “serving as an interpreter between nations” (Lahiri
59). However, as his address floats away, Lahiri shows, as she did with Lilia, that a cultural
connection cannot be forged when one has already become enveloped into American culture,
which creates both a physical and cultural distance too great to overcome.
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After her negative depiction of distance, Lahiri illustrates how distance can be used as an
advantage. In “This Blessed House,” Sanjeev becomes angry at Twinkle as she collects and
displays the Christian paraphernalia all over the house to the point that he questions whether or
not he loves her. However, when she takes the partygoers to the attic, Sanjeev feels completely
alone and distanced from her in the same way that he felt at the beginning of their relationship,
when they were in a long-distance relationship. Distance allowed Sanjeev to imagine their life
together and retain a romantic view of her fashioned through their phone conversations. He sees
her shoes on the floor and “instead of feeling irritated, as he had ever since they’d moved into the
house together, he felt a pang of anticipation at the thought of her rushing unsteadily down the
winding staircase…” (Lahiri 155). Distance forges a want to make a connection with Twinkle
within Sanjeev. In “The Third and Final Continent,” there is a similar occurrence. The narrator
observes the world of Mrs. Croft, where she retains the pieces of America from her time that she
is comfortable with and securely locks the rest of the world outside. She allots him physical
distance, which allows him to create his own “country” where he can feel at home. In both cases,
distance facilitates one to retreat away from reality and create a romanticized view of their world,
an illusion that encourages and aids connections with others.
Alongside the positive view of distance and its usefulness, Lahiri also illustrates the dangers of
forging this type of connection. In “A Real Durwan,” Boori Ma creates her own identity by
painting elaborate pictures of her past. In the same way that a romanticized version of reality can
aid connections in the real world, Boori Ma’s tales help her accept the harsh reality of her life.
Those around her suspect that “she probably constructs tales as a way of mourning the loss of her
family” (Lahiri 72). She grounds her identity in her savings and the keys she keeps in her sari.
After these are stolen, her forged identity is shattered. She has failed as the guard to her identity
and calls out for the people to believe her and her claims. However, when she shakes her sari to
emphasize her point and nothing jingles, she can no longer believe herself. Similarly, Mrs. Sen
attempts to keep India with her by placing rugs around the house and cooking traditional Indian
food. She also continues to identify her home as India and states, “Everything is there” (Lahiri
113). However, the letters that she allows to come through shatter the illusion of being in India
within her apartment because it reminds her that home is thousands of miles away, where life is
continuing without her. Boori Ma grounds her identity in concrete and insignificant things,
namely the savings and keys, while Mrs. Sen continues to identify her true home as India,
making both illusory coping mechanisms faulty and impossible to maintain.
In her short story collection, Jhumpa Lahiri establishes the need for a connection with one’s
culture and illustrates both the right and wrong way to forge such a connection. The strong
longing to connect with one’s culture is illustrated in Lilia and Mrs. Das as they both attempt to
make unsuccessful connections with those that embody their heritage. Next, Lahiri illustrates that
distance itself is not the problem by showing that it can be used to one’s advantage. Distance can
encourage a romantic view of the world, which aids one in making connections with others. At
the end of “The Third and Final Continent,” Lahiri finalizes her discussion about forging one’s
identity by illustrating the best way to do so. In the final lines, the narrator identifies his great
accomplishment by stating, “While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon,
I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years” (Lahiri 198). He avoids the faults of
Boori Ma and Mrs. Sen because he finds his cultural ties in nothing material and identifies his
home as where he resides. He has forged an identity within this “third continent,” which
symbolizes the world he has created for himself that cannot be tainted or taken away from him.
He claims, “…I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person
I have known, each room in which I have slept” (Lahiri 198). He does not feel the displacement
of being thousands of miles away from the country of his birth and yet he carries all the miles he
has traveled with him, making his identity a collection of where he has been and what he has
accomplished that is grounded in himself.
140
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Reflective Food in Lahiri’s Short Stories
July 24, 2019 by Essay Writer
Humankind has a tendency to inject their values and cultural beliefs into whatever they create or
come into contact with; this explains partially why America left the flag on the moon and why
there is such a conflict between western democracies and Arab nations. The desire to spread
culture is a common trait within societies. However, what most do not realize is that often times,
the creation is a mere reflection of the individual who created it, not the whole culture. For
example, instead of a hamburger being reflective of European culture, it is instead reflective of
the fact that there was someone lazy enough to use bread as an edible napkin. In “Interpreter of
Maladies,” “This Blessed House,” and “A Temporary Matter,” the food that the characters create
or consume are reflective of who they are as people, and in turn uncover what humanity holds as
valuable.
Mrs. Das in “Interpreter of Maladies” is not very likable. Although she is pretty and looks
fulfilling on the outside, she is a bland, empty shell on the inside; this is evidenced by the fact
that she is disinterested in having any real quality time with her family even though they are on a
trip together. It is no coincidence, therefore, that she is associated with puffed rice. This bland,
nearly nutritionless food is indicative of how she is on the inside: bland and lacking any real
substance. Not only does it describe her as a person, but it also illustrates her interactions with
others. She carelessly tosses the rice around, which symbolizes her careless interactions with
those around her. During a family trip, she is too preoccupied with doing her nails to interact
with those who want to form a connection with her. For Mrs. Das, forming a real bond with her
children would be inconsistent with her association with the puffed rice, as it would be the same
thing as adding a spice to it. Thus, an emotional bond would break through her static relationship
with her kids and create more depth. Any connection that she forms would indicate a three
dimensionality with her family which she lacks; she remains a reflection of the unspiced rice.
Just as rice can be flavored in a variety of ways, a variety of emotions can be felt by a person;
however, there can also be an absence of emotion, also known as indifference. This also
uncovers a human truth about the spectrum of human emotions. The opposite of love is not hate,
but rather indifference. This is precisely what Mrs. Das demonstrates: her indifference to her
family shows the reader that not caring can be worse than simply hating, as if she hated them,
she would not have come on the trip, which would have been better; the problems that she
caused would not have happened then.
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Mrs. Das’s carelessness with the rice also causes another problem; the monkeys have swarmed
the hotel area due to the food lying around. Although they are usually tame, the food whips up a
frenzy, and as a result poses hazards to the people. This further demonstrates how food is truly
reflective of one’s nature. The monkeys’ normal demeanor is usually calm as Mr. Kapasi
explains that “no need to worry…they are quite tame” (“Interpreter” 45). However, once they see
food, their true nature explodes out, turning them from calm creatures to true wild animals. Thus,
the food acts as a mirror to the true personality of those who have access to it, which is another
way the reader can know Mrs. Das’s indifference is genuine, rather than a facade.
Although food describes the individual linked to it, it can also illustrate the relationship between
two individuals as well. For instance, the first scene in “This Blessed House” is a discussion of
vinegar between the married couple. Vinegar is symbolic of the status of their relationship; every
time it is mentioned, Sanjeev is being dismissive of Twinkle or is rebuking her in some manner:
“‘Throw it away…You’ve never cooked anything with vinegar…Check the expiration”
(“Blessed” 136). Even when he is complimenting her on her cooking, he rebukes her by telling
her she ought to write recipes down as she goes. These interactions make sense in reference to
vinegar as it is an undesirably pungent liquid. Just as the cooking ingredient is sour, so is the
relationship between the couple. The only time vinegar is truly valuable is when it is combined
with a host of other foods, as it enhances and tenderizes whatever it is being cooked with.
Similarly, Sanjeev makes the decision to stay with the enigmatic Twinkle when they are hosting
the party; they are “combined” with a host of different people. Instead of separating, he instead
grudgingly accepts Twinkle and her strange obsession with Christian paraphernalia.
Furthermore, the boring party is spiced up by Twinkle, who leads everyone up into her attic to
discover new items for her stash. Instead of the standard “eat and talk” most people host,
Twinkle changes it into an adventure in which everyone is eager to participate in. Just as
vinegar’s value is realized when combined with other ingredients, Twinkle and Sanjeev’s
relationship’s value is realized in the midst of more people, and just as vinegar enhances the
flavor of the dish, Twinkle enhances the mood of the party.
Although the food itself explains a lot about different characters, the way in which they are
consumed also plays a role in demonstrating a character’s personality. When the men (look for
the name in book) and Sanjeev briefly talk during the party, they are described as “plowing”
through the food, creating an image of brutishness. Their discussion about Twinkle centers
around her looks, as on of the men says (insert quote). Although it seems like light talk, in
reality, this language almost commodifies Twinkle as a trophy wife; it seems to suggest that
Sanjeev should be lucky to have such a pretty wife to flaunt. The way in which they consume
their food symbolizes that the conversation they are having is an almost primitive one. Just like
the way they eat is not a polite way to eat, the content of their conversation is also not politically
correct. This message undermines the still common conception of gender relations; the woman is
the commodity, and the man is the owner. This patriarchal mindset is thus quietly repudiated by
a subtle detail in the way the men eat; they may feel as though what they are saying is
acceptable, but the description of how they eat says otherwise.
In “A Temporary Matter,” food is used differently to illustrate the characters. Rather than the
food itself or the way in which it is consumed, the way in which it is prepared defines Shoba and
Shukumar. Before they lose their child, Shoba is always prepared to cook; everything she makes
is kept in the freezer so she can create a full meal within a small time frame: “When she used to
do the shopping, the pantry was always stocked with extra bottles of olive and corn oil…There
were endless boxes of pasta in all shapes…”(“Temporary” 7). This symbolizes that she is always
prepared, as she creates food beforehand in order to meet any need later on. This is why losing
the baby is especially hard on her. The death of her child is something she could not have been
prepared off, and therefore catches her completely off guard. Ergo, she does not know how to
deal with the grief, and so finds a scapegoat in Shukumar, which culminates in her leaving him.
Furthermore, she is always methodological in her cooking; she is very neat and organized. This
further supports the idea that Shoba is the “prepared” one of the two, as she is focused and
equipped to deal with what may come in life. Ironically, it is the more disorganized of the two
who manages to cope better.
After the death of the child, Shukumar does more of the cooking, even stating that he is
beginning to enjoy it. However, his culinary style is different than Shoba’s. He cooks in a
disorganized fashion, creating everything on the spot. Although he has been cooking more often,
he still does not take the preparation steps Shoba used to; in fact, it never seems to strike him that
preparing beforehand could be a good idea The fact that he is cooking more and more
symbolizes that Shoba has given up on her “preparation” lifestyle. It also symbolizes that
Shukumar still has hope while Shoba does not. He still believes that the fire in the relationship
can be reignited; if he did not, he would not bother playing chef. The irony is that although
cooking is a way in which he attempts to stabilize his relationship with Shoba, she wants to
separate with him regardless. The differences in their culinary styles foreshadow this: they are
polar opposites in personality, and so a tragic event forces them to cope in different ways,
pushing them to crossroads. This also unearths another human assumption: hope is what makes
humans human. Shukumar is hopeful for a future with Shoba, while Shoba no longer cares
enough to stay in the relationship. Her loss of hope takes away her personality, fundamentally
changing her as a person. Without hope, Shoba is not the same woman Shukumar married.
Everything about food, from the cooking to the consumption, is used to describe or explain why
a character acts the way they do. Food is crucial to everyone; there is not one person alive who
does not need sustenance. Without it, one will wither away and eventually die. Lahiri may be
trying to tell the readers that these relationships and personality traits reflected by the food may
be just as important to the actual food itself. Food is a necessity, but it is also essential to
recognize that relationships and personality traits are just as important to the value of life. Food
keeps one alive; the emotional connections make that life valuable.

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Interpreter of Maladies
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The Detrimental Effects of Diaspora in The

Interpreter of Maladies
July 15, 2019 by Essay Writer
Do geographical demarcations define one’s identity? This question is especially poignant for
people from post-colonial nations exiled from their homelands. A recent article on diaspora
asserts that “Diaspora brought about profound changes in the demographics, cultures,
epistemologies and politics of the post-colonial world” (Silva 72). The effects of diaspora and
exile are exhibited in Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. Many
of the stories in Lahiri’s collection are set against the backdrop of the India-Pakistan War and the
Partition of India in 1947 during which India and Pakistan were geographically divided into two
separate nations (Keen). In particular, the stories “A Real Durwan” and “When Pirzada Came to
Dine” display the significant impact that the war and division had on the identities, culture, and
relations of Indian and Pakistani people at the time. While both of the stories dramatize the
experience of diaspora, Lahiri also shows how each character’s experience is unique to their
specific context. For example, in “A Real Durwan,” the main character, a poor woman named
Boori Ma, remains in India, and displays the “uneasy relationship between native Calcuttans and
the border crossers” (Mitra 242). Unlike Boori Ma, Mr. Pirzada is an upper-middle class, well-
educated Muslim in the United States conducting research about the foliage of New England. In
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” Lahiri demonstrates how Indians and Pakistanis stuck in the
United States are able to find “acceptance and solace beyond the barriers of nations, cultures,
religions and generations” (Rath 73). However, despite their different situations, both Boori Ma
and Mr. Pirzada endure dislocation from their homelands. As such, both characters experience a
similar sense of alienation, loss, and nostalgia for their home country that is central to the
experience of diaspora and exile.
After July of 1947, India would never be the same. In August, India broke free from Britain and
their apathetic treatment whose colonial rule had lasted almost three hundred and fifty years
(Keen). As Bates asserts, despite India’s attainment of freedom, a religious division existed
between the Muslims and the Hindus, resulting in continuous conflict due to supposed
irreconcilable differences. In 1943, the Muslim League resolved to extricate itself from India;
this resulted in a detached Muslim state, eventually to become known as Pakistan (Keen). Their
desire for separation can be attributed to the British system of classification based on religious
beliefs as well as the ideological differences that existed between the Muslims and Hindus of
India. While some still hoped to keep India united under a three-tiered government, Congress’
dismissal of this plan caused the Muslim League to believe partition was the only option. The
successful division of India into separate entities, India and Pakistan, was achieved at a great cost
(Bates). Riots led to the deaths of one million people along with countless rapes and lootings.
With new borders designated based on religious beliefs, fifteen million people found themselves
displaced from their homes and sought refuge in areas completely new to them in the largest
mass migration to ever occur. In 1971, a civil war in Pakistan resulted in further division and the
emergence of Bangladesh. According to Keen, “many years after the Partition, the two nations
are still trying to heal the wounds left behind by this incision to once-whole body of India. Many
are still in search of an identity and a history left behind beyond an impenetrable boundary.”
While the Muslims achieved their desired separation from the Hindus, this war detrimentally
affected millions of people, including both Boori Ma and Mr. Pirzada.
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In Calcutta as a refugee following the Partition of 1947, Boori Ma experiences “the rigors of
reconciling as well as easing into the disquiet labyrinth of a new life” after losing everything,
including her husband and four daughters (Rath 73). Transitioning from riches to rags after being
expelled from her homeland, like many others, Boori Ma involuntarily assumes the position of a
“splintered immigrant woman” living in a stairwell (Rath 73). With “her voice: brittle with
sorrows, as tart as curds, and shrill enough to grate meat from a coconut,…she details her plight
and losses suffered since her deportation” while she sweeps the stairwell daily, fulfilling her
duties as durwan—notwithstanding that “under normal circumstanced this was no job for a
woman” (Lahiri 70, 73). Often reflecting about her past in which she lived a life of luxury and
extravagance, she nostalgically shares with the residents, “A man came to pick our dates and
guavas. Another clipped hibiscus. Yes, there I tasted life. Here I eat dinner from a rice pot,”
“Have I mentioned that I crossed the border with just two bracelets on my wrist? Yet There was
a day when my feet touched nothing but marble. Believe me, don’t believe me, such comforts
you cannot even dream them,” and “Our linens were muslin. Believe me, don’t believe me, our
mosquito nets were as soft as silk. Such comforts you cannot even dream them,” (Lahiri 71, 74).
The affluence she experiences prior to the diaspora strongly contrasts with her current life style.
Sleeping minimally, owning very few possessions, and lacking friendships, Boori Ma is a
complete outsider living an impoverished life. Mitra’s comment that “a person uprooted by
history, displaced by the lines drawn on a map by an imperious colonial bureaucrat, Boori Ma is
perceived as different,” captures the magnitude of the aftermath of the Partition in the lives of
individuals (243). Because of the alterations made to India and Pakistan’s borders, numerous
civilians found themselves marginalized, including Boori Ma, as illustrated when the narrator
remarks, “Knowing not to sit on the furniture, [Boori Ma] crouched, instead, in doorways and
hallways, and observed gestures and manners in the same way a person tends to watch traffic in a
foreign city” (Lahiri 76). This perfectly depicts the sense of alienation Boori Ma faces. Rather
than feeling comfortable in the residents’ homes, Boori Ma develops timidity and
apprehensiveness similar to when “a person…[watches] traffic in a foreign city,” largely owing
to the residents’ treatment of her (Lahiri 76).
Regressing back to a significantly lower socioeconomic status, Boori Ma is not treated as an
equal, affirming the “sharp portrait of the postpartition isolation and helplessness endured by
migrants” (Mitra 245). With no support in the absence of both family and friends, Boori Ma’s
life in Calcutta starkly contrasts to her life before the diaspora. Ultimately, residents in the
building become so enamored with funding building renovations that their already limited
hospitableness becomes almost nonexistent as revealed when Boori Ma mentions, ““Her
mornings were long, her afternoons longer. She could not remember her last glass of tea” (Lahiri
80). Everyone was too caught up worrying about others’ perceptions of themselves as well as
contributing to the materialistic nature of society to acknowledge their durwan. The residents’
lack of appreciation for Boori Ma reaches a new level when she is wrongfully blamed for the
disappearance of the building’s basin and kicked out of the stairwell. The residents’ brusque
accusations, “’This is all her doing,’ one of them hollered, pointing at Boori Ma” and “We
shared our coal, gave her a place to sleep. How could she betray us this way?” vividly expose
their hostilities towards the border crossers (Lahiri 81). Sadly, because “her otherness renders the
community indifferent to her historical plight,” she finds herself homeless (Mitra 242). Because
of border adjustments and the resulting religious intolerance, Boori Ma is not only stripped of her
family and homeland, but also loses herself.
The depiction of Mr. Pirzada’s postpartition experience in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”
differs in several ways to that of Boori Ma’s. The narrator, Lilia, shares that “In the autumn of
1971 a man used to come to our house bearing confections in his pocket and hopes of
ascertaining the life or death of his family” (Lahiri 23). Although he also suffers from the
separation from his wife and seven daughters who remain in Dacca, where “teachers were
dragged onto streets and shot, women dragged into barracks and raped,” Mr. Pirzada’s status as a
Muslim does not provoke the hostility that so often arose following the diaspora (Lahiri 23).
Lilia’s Hindu family defies the typical antipathy expressed towards Muslims but rather offers
companionship to Mr. Pirzada as he helplessly watches the destruction of his homeland and
brutal killings of people on the nightly news from their family room. After Lilia, who is only ten
years old, refers to Mr. Pirzada as “the Indian man,” she fails to comprehend her father’s
response that “Mr. Pirzada is no longer considered Indian. Not since Partition. Our country was
divided. 1947. Hindus here, Muslims there” (Lahiri 25). Struggling to accept the alleged
disparities between her family and Mr. Pirzada, she says,
It made no sense to me. Mr. Pirzada and my parents spoke the same language, laughed at the
same jokes, looked more or less the same. They ate pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice
every night for supper with their hands…Nevertheless my father insisted that I understand the
difference (Lahiri 25).
Silva’s comment, “when Lilia tries to understand the difference between her father and Mr.
Pirzada, she shows that the organization of the work—or the division of people in homogeneous
and distinct groups—is not solid and fixed like the structure of a map” confirms the sentiment
that geographical demarcations do not define identity (Silva 61). While recognizing their
religious differences, Lilia’s parents, unlike many others, do not employ this as grounds for
unjust treatment. Despite the thousands of miles standing between him and his home, Mr.
Pirzada gains some consolation through the kind reception Lilia’s family affords him. Lilia
reminisces that while war was being waged in Dacca, “the three of them [operated] during that
time as if they were a single person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence, and a
single fear” (Lahiri 41). This proves the absurdity of the dissociation between Muslims and
Hindus in India and Pakistan. United in concern for the safety of Mr. Pirzada’s family, Lilia’s
family and Mr. Pirzada’s status as Hindu or Muslim holds no significance. With each of them
holding on to hope for the safety of Mr. Pirzada’s wife and daughters, Lilia assumes the position
of Mr. Pirzada’s temporary daughter while he remains in the States. He evidences his paternal
tendencies when asking Lilia, “Will you be warm enough?” and “Is there any danger [for
Lilia]?” (Lahiri 37, 38). Lilia cherishes Mr. Pirzada’s routine gift of candy, a symbol for his
daughters, as manifested when she says, “I coveted each evening’s treasure as I would a jewel, or
a coin from a buried kingdom” (Lahiri 29). Ultimately, Silva’s assertion that “As [Mr. Pirzada]
shows, dealing with the clash of two or more worlds means the possibility of a life in transit, or
in-between. There is no home to go back to, no identity to claim, no maps to establish as true,”
captures the limbo engulfing Mr. Pirzada (Silva 65). Eventually, Mr. Pirzada returns to Dacca,
blessed by the survival of his wife and daughters. Lilia exposes the giant hole left in her heart
when she shares, “Though I had not seen him for months, it was only then that I felt Mr.
Pirzada’s absence. It was only then, raising my water glass in his name, that I knew what it
meant to miss someone” (Lahiri 42). While Mr. Pirzada’s life would never be the same after
1947, his identity is not completely forsaken.
With Boori Ma experiencing the loss of her economic status and Mr. Pirzada facing the
separation from his loved ones, the Partition evokes a sense of nostalgia for their lives prior to
the diaspora when fleeing for their personal safety was not necessary. Like Rath claims, “Lahiri
delves headlong into the souls of remarkably identifiable characters grappling with displacement,
guilt, and fear as they try to strike a semblance of balance between the solace of the present and
the lingering suffocation of the past” (76-77). The division of India clearly impacts both of their
lives, although fortunately for Mr. Pirzada, he undergoes only temporary detachment from his
family.
Works Cited
Bates, Crispin. “The Hidden Story of Partition and its Legacies.” History. BBC, 3 Mar. 2003.
Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .
Keen, Shirin. “The Partition of India.” Postcolonial Studies at Emory. Emory, Spring 1998. Web.
26 Apr. 2012. .
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin , 1999. Print.
Mitra, Madhuparna. “Border Crossings in Lahiri’s ‘A Real Durwan.’” The Explicator 65.4
(2007): 242-245. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
Rath, Sujit Kumar. “Loneliness and Nostalgia Among Women Characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s
Interpreter of Maladies.” Cyber Literature 4.2 (2011): 72-77. Google Scholar. Web. 26 Apr.
2012.
Silva, Daniela Coredeiro Soares. “Reinventing Cartography: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of
Maladies and The Namesake.” Em Tese 10 (2006): 60-66. Google Scholar. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
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Universal Isolation in Interpreter of Maladies

July 5, 2019 by Essay Writer
Jhumpa Lahiri herself is the ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ in her poignant short-story collection,
laying bare universal features of loneliness and isolation. Enlightening experiences in Calcutta
empowered the Indian-American author to write from the perspectives of ostensibly dissimilar
characters, most of whom are afflicted with the emotional confusion of an outsider, stemming
from geographic displacement, migration, familial neglect or lack of communication. These
range from a displaced stair sweeper and grief-stricken couple to an eleven-year-old boy in the
care of a home-sick Indian wife. Imbued with explicit details of both Indian and American
cultures, the tales speak with universal articulateness and empathy to everyone who has ever felt
alienated.The ‘migrant experience’ responsible for evoking feelings of isolation worldwide,
personally or indirectly affects all of Lahiri’s characters. Holistically, the anthology voices grave
repercussions of India’s diaspora. By focusing in on Boori Ma, a seemingly insignificant
stairwell sweeper, Lahiri contends that feelings of seclusion are universal, irrespective of social
status, ethnicity or age. Her “deportation to Calcutta after Partition” shapes Boori Ma’s forlorn
destiny. She is consequently “separated from a husband, 4 daughters, a 2-story brick house” and
a community of people that make her feel home. Despite her initial reception of appreciation
from residents in the lower class building that she unofficially guards and voluntarily sweeps,
she is still treated like an outsider. “Knowing not to sit on the furniture, she crouche[s], instead in
doorways and hallways, and observe[s] gestures and manners is the same way a person tends to
watch traffic in a foreign city.” This despondent state exacerbates when Boori Ma is censured for
the theft of the building’s new water basin and “tossed” out, homeless and alone on the streets.
Although Calcutta becomes Boori Ma’s new home politically, she is yet again banished, this
time for allegedly neglecting her duties as ‘A Real Durwan’. By proving that geographical
displacement is not the only condition for an exile, Lahiri ultimately enunciates the universal
nature of isolation. ‘Mrs. Sen’s’ addresses isolated immigrants worldwide through the distressing
depiction of a woman expected to assimilate to a new culture. Mrs. Sen is unable to part with her
Indian customs and accept that although “everything is there,” India is no longer her
geographical “home”. Mrs. Sen’s lonesome life in America intensifies her craving for face-to-
face communication with her family, which is deduced from the solace she seeks in “aerograms”
from them and a tape of their voices. The imminent danger of Mrs. Sen’s stubborn attachment to
India is symbolised by the knife that she possessively withholds from everyone. This danger
emerges when Mrs. Sen’s frustration at being unable to assimilate – symbolised by her inability
to drive—culminates into her losing “control of the wheel” and crashing the car. Lahiri,
however, contends that Mrs. Sen chooses a secluded life and that there is a possibility of her
assimilation to America. The violent “wind, so strong that [she has] to walk back,” signifies the
hardship that comes with adapting into America, but Mrs. Sen eventually “shout[s]” in joy,
“laughing”, indicating that a different attitude would allow her to enjoy her new surroundings.
This hopeful message offered by Lahiri indicates that she acknowledges a wider audience of
people who are also struggling to assimilate into a ‘new world’ like Mrs. Sen, emphasising her
worldwide implication of ‘isolation’. Despite stark distinctions between Eliot and Mrs. Sen,
neither is devoid of feelings of isolation. Mrs. Sen is perceived through the eyes of the white
American 11-year-old boy she babysits, who is fascinated by the striking differences between the
domestic life of these Indians and his own. Eliot notices that “neither Mr or Mrs Sen [wear]
shoes” indoors, while he and his mother “wore flip-flops”. Further, the modesty of the Indians is
emphasised to the extent that even their furniture is “so carefully covered” to clearly juxtapose
with Eliot’s mother who appears “too exposed”. Save for cultural differences, Eliot and and Mrs.
Sen have mirror images in the story; Mrs. Sen’s solitude and failure to entangle with her
surroundings spurs Eliot to reflect on his own lonely life. He is utterly bereft of parental affection
with a mother who segregates herself “with a glass of wine” or retreats to “the deck to smoke a
cigarette” and a father who lives “two thousand miles west”. Eliot’s longing for companionship
is confirmed when he stares out at the empty sea, which represents his inner loneliness. His
parting from Mrs. Sen is represented by the “grey waves receding from the shore”. This can be
likened to Mrs. Sen’s quest for “fresh fish” from the sea, perceived as a search for the company
she misses from India. In addition, Eliot and his mother are “not invited” to parties held by their
neighbours and likewise, Mrs. Sen feels alienated from the American society, with nowhere to
wear her countless number of “saris of every imaginable texture and shade, brocaded with gold
and silver threads”. By comparing the unlikely pair, Lahiri contends that isolation does not betide
one based on ethnicity, race, gender or age, but that anyone can be a foreigner in their own
home.Lahiri establishes that the universal matter of isolation as a ramification of
miscommunication in relationships. The birth of a still-born baby dramatically impacts a once
contented married couple, Shoba and Shukumar. The latter recalls that Shoba “kept [his] long
fingers linked with hers […] at the party” she had surprised him with, symbolising their former
unity. The couple grieves the loss of their baby in silence and consequently grow apart and adopt
different personas. Shoba becomes “the type of woman she’d once claimed she would never
resemble”. They become “experts at avoiding each other”, and both retreat to their work, Shoba
sitting “for hours on the sofa with her coloured pencils and her files” and for months Shukumar
detaches himself from the advancing world, occasionally “not even leaving to get the mail”.
Failure to confide in each other has detrimental effects on their marriage until they merely sleep
under the same roof, but spend “as much time on separate floors as possible”, highlighting their
physical and emotional separation. The tragedy that triggers their remoteness is not common to
second generation Indian-migrants like Shoba and Shukumar, but Lahiri confirms that “these
things [can] happen” to anyone, strengthening her depiction of the universal subject of
isolation.All of Lahiri’s characters suffer from ‘maladies’, either of circumstance or of the heart.
Her characters are largely Indian or Indian-American and grapple with predicaments associated
with the migrant experience relating to India’s diaspora since the 1947 Partition. While Lahiri
correlates a deep sense of isolation and alienation with geographical displacement, she is able to
extend these elements to a universal audience through narrating her stories her from diverse
angles.
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Relationships and Failure in Interpreter of

Maladies
July 2, 2019 by Essay Writer
Jhumpa Lahiri’s labyrinthine anthology, ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ is an exposé of the plight of
Indians and Indian-Americans and their interactions with each other, society and their milieu.
The complexity of her tales is attributed to Lahiri’s efforts in forming meticulous character
profiles, enhanced by the distinguished approaches her protagonists employ to deal with their
afflicted “maladies”. In hindsight, it appears that failure to overcome these adversities correlate
with an absence of strong relations, but Lahiri also highlights that this is not always the case;
even the strongest of relationships can fail to overcome some obstacles in life. In addition, she
depicts that resilient connections do assist, but are not essential for attaining success. Boori Ma’s
despondent fate can be attributed to her lack of strong relationships in “Calcutta”. Ever since she
was ‘separated from her husband and four daughters’, she participates in few, loose associations
with the ‘residents’ of the dilapidated apartment building she serviced as ‘a real durwan’,
standing ‘guard between them and the outside world.’ Her detachment from fellow residents is
accentuated by the fact that on the ‘certain’ occasions when she was invited into their homes, she
knew ‘not to sit on furniture’ and instead, she crouched ‘in doorways and hallways’, disregarded
even as a guest. This meagre exhibition of hospitality and appreciation is not unconditional like it
would be in genuine affiliations, as they ‘toss […her] out’ the first time she fails to execute her
supposedly voluntary duty and instantaneously ‘begin their search’ to replace her. Despite being
a relatively closely acquainted beneficiary of sympathy and kindness from the Dalals who
promise her ‘a new bed, quilts, a pillow [and] a blanket’, they ultimately fail to defend her at a
time when she needs them most, and consequently she is left alone. Similarly, ‘twenty-two’ year
old Miranda and temporary lover Dev’s ephemeral, fruitless relationship and their failure to
attain an ‘everlasting…love’ is associated with the unstable factors it was constructed on from its
inception: lust, lies and superficiality. The latter is delineated in their initial meeting location at
‘Filene’s’, a cosmetic’s department whose ultimate purpose is to beautify, and is trailed by Dev’s
description of Miranda as ‘sexy’, which means ‘loving someone you don’t know’. Miranda then
understands that she is nothing but a “mistress” as Dev only loves her on the surface, thus
consolidating Lahiri’s proposition that failure is a result of weak affairs. Mala and her husband’s
successful assimilation into America can be attributed to the strength of their marriage. They
seek ‘solace in each other’s arms’ and have one another to confide in. ‘It was Mala who
consoled’ her husband when he discovered ‘Mrs’ Croft’s obituary’ in ‘the Globe one evening,
demonstrating their ardent display of support to overcome the “maladies” that befall them in life.
Similarly, the strength of the bond between formerly gratified couple, Shoba and Shukumar
enables them to eventually conquer the overwhelming grief that distanced them ever since their
‘baby was born dead’. Shukumar recalls that his wife “kept [his] long fingers linked with hers
[…] at the party” she had surprised him with, symbolising their former unity. Lahiri suggests that
they can rediscover this love through joint activities, evident by her inclusion of imagery of
‘melting snow’ outside that reflects the detachment between Shoba and Shukumar thawing as a
result of sharing meals, communicating and confessing ‘secrets’. Shukumar’s final admission –
that ‘he’d arrived early enough to see their baby [boy] and to hold him’—defies Shoba’s
assumption of his absence and conceivable source of resentment towards him and they thus they
weep “together for the things they now” know, which represents their reunion empowered by the
stability of their marriage. Although this is a much more emotionally satisfying ending, it is
ambiguous and Lahiri does not guarantee that they do reunite, conversely insinuating that Shoba
will still leave and their marriage is in fact ‘a temporary matter’. They have ‘both been through
enough’ and have transgressed a time where Shukumar ‘still loved’ his wife. The fact that he is
‘relieved’ by her decision proves that their prospective separation would be a mutual favour for
them both, indicating that even sturdy relationships can fail to overcome some hurdles in life.
Shoba’s desire to be “alone” infers that being stuck in her marriage is just pulling her back in
life. After the tragic birth of a stillborn baby, ‘thirty-three [year old Shoba…] was strong, on her
feet again’, as opposed to Shukumar who would ‘pull himself out of bed’ when ‘it was nearly
lunchtime’, implying that Shukumar’s inability to move on is encumbering Shoba’s endeavour to
fully heal and live a happy life. Moreover, Bibi Haldar is the epitome of relinquishment; both of
her parents die, her cousin and his wife abandon her, other “relations” return the letter explaining
her predicament ‘unopened, address unknown’ and she suffices on loosely bound ties with her
community, who ultimately ‘left her alone’ a majority of the time. Like Shoba, Bibi does not
allow her losses discourage her and all of her “privations” make her accomplishments even more
astounding: ‘she raised a boy and ran a business in the storage room’. The source of her plight,
her baffling “ailment” is ultimately “cured” by the end. Thus, at pinnacle moments, Lahiri
conveys a message of hope to those experiencing loneliness and isolation by reinforcing that
strong relationships are not required for success and it does in fact lie in the strength of an
individual. Lahiri’s intricate composition of short stories collectively addresses a wide audience
by analysing myriad relationships amid her characters, as well as the “maladies” that they
encounter. Miscarriage to surmount these afflictions is explicitly linked to a lack of strong
relations, but sometimes even resilient affiliations are inadequate. Lahiri counteracts this bleak
tenor by speaking with positivity to anyone thrust into physical or emotional exile through
presenting the strength of an individual in their pursuit and achievement of success.
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A Temporary Matter of The Permanent End
June 27, 2019 by Essay Writer
In A Temporary Matter, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates a temporary blackout that enables Shukumar
and Shoba to reconnect only to find that they have long been disconnected from each other.
Shukumar and Shoba face four states of light, which metaphorically represent four stages of their
relationship. Before the blackout, they are ambiguously distant as they avoid confronting each
other about their feelings. During the blackout, the couple takes the chance of reconciliation.
However, when the electricity has been repaired, they realize that they can only talk in a
temporary darkness. They finally wake up from ignorance when Shoba turns on the light and
reveals the purpose of their secret ‘game’. Through these stages, Shukumar and Shoba come to
admit that they are not happy to be together. Thus, the temporary blackout ironically leads to the
permanent end of their marriage life.Shukumar and Shoba’s relationship is in an ambiguous
stage before the blackout. They are uncertain about their feelings towards each other but they
also avoid confronting this uncertainty. As a result of seeking their own ways of resolving the
stillbirth trauma, their lifestyles change as if there is a reverse in gender roles. Shukumar
becomes passive in the house as Shoba interacts with the outside world. Shukumar does not find
the motivation to finish his paper or even to brush his teeth regularly. “He would lie in their bed
until he grew bored, gazing at his side of the closet”(4), while Shoba would be “sipping her third
cup of coffee already, in her office downtown, where she searched for typographical errors in
textbooks and marked them”(4). The contrast in their lifestyles highlights the distance that has
grown between them. For months, Shukumar and Shoba pretend to live their normal lives while
becoming “experts at avoiding each other in their three-bedroom house, spending as much time
on separate floors as possible”(4). Shoba’s busy schedule allows her to be gone to work before
Shukumar wakes up. Likewise, Shukumar pretends to write his paper in the room prepared for
their child because “it was a place Shoba avoided” (8). Before the blackout, the couple is in an
unresolved stage in their relationship, living an unhappy life together yet trying to ignore the fact
that they are disconnected.During the blackout, Shukumar and Shoba seem to be able to
reconcile their love. Because there is no electricity, Shukumar and Shoba have no excuse to take
their plates to each of their workrooms and so they have to dine together under the candlelight.
When Shoba initiates the secret game, the two begin to share secrets and memories of their
passionate love: “something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each
other again” (19). They start to revert each of their life patterns; Shoba “came home earlier than
usual” (14) and Shukumar finally has the motivation to go out “through the melting snow” (14)
to buy candles in preparation of their dinner. However, this reconciliation under the darkness is
sudden and unsual. Despite not knowing Shoba’s intention of playing the secret game, Shukumar
responds unquestioningly to the chance of reconciliation. He does not even know whether he still
loves Shoba, and yet he is excited by the idea of reconnecting with Shoba: “All day Shukumar
had looked forward to the lights going out. He thought about what Shoba had said” (15). As they
“walked carefully upstairs…making love with a desperation they had forgotten…in the dark”
(19-20), Shukumar and Shoba seems to be able to blindly reconnect their love.However, when
the electricity has been repaired, the house remains dark; Shukumar and Shoba could have turned
on the lights but they choose not to. At this point, they realize that they can only talk in the
temporary darkness. With the lights back on, they would have to return to their separate lives. “It
wasn’t the same…knowing that the lights wouldn’t go out” (20), Shukumar thought upon being
informed that the electricity has been repaired. That night, the couple refuses to turn on the light
and eat in a darkened room, in attempt to retain this temporary reconciliation. This reveals how
Shukumar and Shoba have been taking refuge from reality as they share secrets and make love in
the dark for the past four nights. Even Shukumar who remains hopeful of reconnecting with
Shoba knows that what they have been doing in the darkness is only a ‘game’.The temporary
matter finally leads to an understanding of their permanent end when Shoba turns on the light.
Shoba finally takes the initiative to admit the reality of their failure to reconnect as she “blew out
the candle, stood up, turned on the light” (20) and reveals her last secret to Shukumar. Upon
discovering that Shoba is moving out and that “she has spent these past evenings preparing for a
life without him” (21), Shukumar realizes that all along, even before the blackout, he has been in
a state of darkness. He has not been happy with his marriage life, living in a house that has been
neglected and living with a person who has neglected the house and him. It is finally time for
him to let go of living with “a flashlight, but no batteries, and a half-empty box of birthday
candles” (9), eating on a table full of “piles of mail [and] unread library books” (10), avoiding all
“the friends and friends of friends” (9), and refusing all the liveliness in his life. The secret game
that they have been playing during the temporary matter has not been a way of reconnecting, but
it has been “an exchange of confession—the little ways they’d hurt or disappointed each other,
and themselves” (18). When Shoba turns on the light, it is as if Shukumar finally wakes up from
a dark dream. As Shukumar reveals the last secret about their dead child—a secret “he promised
himself that day that he would never tell Shoba, because he still loved her then” (22), he finally
admits that he no longer loves Shoba. Their relationship has ended.
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The Role of Rituals in Lahiri’s Lonely

Characters
June 8, 2019 by Essay Writer
In Jhumpha Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, ritual plays important roles in both perpetuating and
alleviating the loneliness of her characters. Many characters such as Mrs. Sen, Mr. Pirzada,
Boori Ma, and Mrs. Croft maintain their rituals in order to connect to the society they miss.
However, characters who stick too rigidly to rituals, such as Mrs. Sen and Sanjeev, find
themselves even more isolated. On the other hand, Lilia, Twinkle, the narrator, and other
characters create rituals as a way to conquer loneliness.Mrs. Sen maintains rituals that resemble
her lifestyles in India because she misses her home. Despite being in America, “when Mrs. Sen
said home, she meant India, not the apartment where she sat chopping vegetables” (116). While
Noelle Brada-Williams suggested that Mrs. Sen’s “daily ritual or routine connects Mrs. Sen with
India” (459), her ritual also emphasizes her loneliness from being distant from home and from
her isolation in America.Mrs. Sen first appears wearing “a shimmering white sari patterned with
orange paisleys” (112), which she ‘neatened’ upon hearing the word ‘India’. Her eloquent and
formal manner of wearing her sari with a different pattern but “all identical, embedded in a
communal expanse of log chips” (119) emphasize her longing for a sense of unity and
community she finds in her hometown. Furthermore, Mrs. Sen occupies herself with ‘chopping’
abundant ingredients with her bonti. The bonti brought from India is a recurrent motif of the
community she lost (Mitra 185). As Mrs. Sen chops the spinach, she recalls the evenings when
“all the neighborhood women…bring blades just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous
circle…laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the night” (115).
Lahiri emphasizes Mrs. Sen’s longing for those nights when ‘it is impossible to fall asleep…
listening to their chatter” by contrasting them to Mrs. Sen isolated life in America where “she
cannot sometimes sleep in so much silence” (115). Moreover, Mrs. Sen’s focus on the ritual
process of chopping more than the meal itself and her persistence of chopping despite the fact
that it “was never [for] a special occasion, nor was she ever expecting company”(117) convey
her elaborate desire to connect to India. Lahiri depicts an imagery of Mrs. Sen chopping one of
the rare fresh fish she finds in a flamboyant manner:“She pulled the blade out of the cupboard,
spread newspaper across the carpet, and inspected her treasures. One by one she drew them form
the paper wrapping, wrinkled and tinged with blood. She stroked the tails, prodded the bellies,
pried apart the gutted flesh. With a pair of scissors she clips the fins. She tucked a ginger under
the gills, a red so bright they made her vermilion seem pale. She grasped the body, lined with
inky streaks, at either end, and notched it at intervals against the blade.” (127) Mrs. Sen sees the
fresh fish as a ‘treasure’ that connects her to her life in Calcutta, where she eats fish ‘twice a
day’, and thus her lengthy manner of preparing the fish serves to dramatize this
connection.However, the rituals that connect Mrs. Sen to India also prevents her from feeling at
‘home’. Laura Anh Williams suggests a ‘lack of correct ingredients’ in Mrs. Sen’s Indian food.
The tuna croquette is supposed to be made with bheki fish and the fish and green banana stew
lacks the green banana (73). This suggests the impossibility for Mrs. Sen to feel like being in
India despite maintaining her chopping rituals chopping with the same bonti she uses in India. In
addition to not being able to fully connect with India, by maintaining her Indian rituals Mrs. Sen
is also further alienated from American society. Madhuparna Mitra commented on Mrs. Sen’s
ritual of cooking only fresh, whole fish: “if the fish is the tool of nostalgia, it is also the symbol
of Mrs. Sen’s alienation” (185). Her desire for a fresh fish does not make sense in American
society: Eliot’s mother broiled ‘shell fish, or the fillets’ (123) not whole fish, the clerk does not
understand why Mrs. Sen wants the head despite it being the most valuable part in Mrs. Sen’s
culture (127), and the old lady on the bus is bothered by the smells of Mrs. Sen’s fish (132).
Furthermore, Eliot also notices that Mrs. Sen’s formal sari, “more suitable for an evening affair”
(112), contrasts with his mother’s “shaved knees and thighs too exposed” (113). If Eliot’s mother
represents a typical American, then the contrast represents Mrs. Sen’s isolation from American
culture. Thus, Mrs. Sen’s inability to belong to either India or America further intensifies her
loneliness from being far away from home.Alternatively, Eliot’s family’s lack of rituals also
causes Eliot’s loneliness. As Mitra suggested, “’Mrs. Sen’s’ is not only a study of Mrs. Sen’s
loneliness, but also that of Eliot and his mother who lived in a tiny beach housing having little
relationship with the neighbors” (187). In contrast to Mrs Sen whose life revolve around
sentimental rituals of preparing ingredients in elegant meals, Eliot’s mother does not “eat lunch
at work” and would “pour herself a glass of wine and eat bread and cheese, sometimes so much
of it that she wasn’t hungry for the pizza they normally ordered for dinner” (118). During dinner,
Eliot would be left “to wrap up the leftovers” while his mother goes “to the deck to smoke
cigarette” (118). The sense of isolation that Eliot associates with dining juxtaposes with the sense
of community that Mrs. Sen tries to get through dining. Yet, dining for both Eliot and Mrs. Sen
reminds them of their loneliness. Although Eliot has no awareness of missing someone from
home because his house is “just five miles away” (116), he shares with Mrs. Sen the loneliness
of not having a ‘home’.Together Mrs. Sen and Eliot construct rituals that enable them to alleviate
each other’s loneliness. Mrs. Sen and Eliot who otherwise would be alone in their houses are
able to keep each other company during Eliot’s daily visit. Each afternoon, Mrs. Sen would wait
for Eliot at the bus stop “as if eager to greet a person she hadn’t seen in years” (119). Eliot
“especially enjoyed watching Mrs. Sen as she chopped things” (115). While seeming an ordinary
activity, the two shares intimate connection as Eliot sits still upon Mrs. Sen’s order and watches
her use the bonti and share stories about nights spent chopping vegetables with her neighbors in
India. Eliot whose parents have always been away feels protected and cared for as Mrs. Sen
worries about his safety. Mrs. Sen who has always been left alone in her apartment now has
someone to express her homesickness to. Mrs. Sen gains the courage to practice driving with
Eliot because he understands that “she wanted him sitting beside her” (119). Thus, her rituals
with Eliot not only build her first human relationship in America but also enable her to reach out
to her new life.Nevertheless, Mrs. Sen crashes while trying to drive to get her fish. Her life still
only revolves around her Indian rituals and so is not ready to adapt into American lifestyles.
Thus, she becomes “startled by the horn” of other cars (134). If the car is a motif of her
connection to America and the bonti, her connection to India, the fact that Mrs. Sen gets ‘out of
the car’ and ‘put away the blade’ marks her failure to belong to any community. The car accident
ends Mrs. Sen and Eliot’s hopeful relationship. Lahiri suggests an unresolved loneliness as Eliot
is left alone in his house watching the ‘gray waves’ while Mrs. Sen runs to her bedroom and
‘shut the door’.Like Mrs. Sen, Mr. Pirzada also maintains his rituals because he misses his home.
The story ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came of Dine’ is also told through a child’s perspective about the
rituals in Mr. Pirzada’s visit. Every evening at six o’clock, Mr. Pirzada would come to dine with
Lilia’s family because they resemble the family he misses. In contrast, in ‘The Temporary
Matter’ Shukumar and Shoba establish their separate dining rituals (Shukumar eating in the room
prepared for their dead child and Shoba in the living room) so that they could avoid each other.
Note, however, that these opposite dining rituals both suggest the loneliness of Mr. Pirzada as
well as that of Shukuma and Soba. In fact, Lahiri often use dining rituals to portray the loneliness
of many of her characters such as Mrs. Sen, Eliot, Eliot’s mother, or even the narrator in ‘The
Third and Final Continent’ who eats cereal every day before Mala comes to America.During
dinner, Lilia becomes aware of Mr. Pirzada’s loneliness as she observes his rituals in order to
make sense of why Mr. Pirzada and her parents who “spoke the same language, laughed at the
same jokes, looked more or less the same” (25) are presumably ‘different’.He took out a plain
silver watch without a band, which he kept in his breast pocket, held it briefly to one of his tufted
ears, and wound it with three swift flicks of his thumb and forefinger. Unlike the watch on his
wrist, the pocket watch, he had explained to me, was set to local time in Dacca, eleven hours
ahead. For the duration of the meal the watch rested on his folded paper napkin on the coffee
table. He never seemed to consult it.” (30)Through observing Mr. Pirzada’s eloquent yet anxious
manner of looking at Dacca’s time, Lilia comes to understand that Mr. Pirzada is different not
because of the different map color of his country or his different religion, but because he is
lonely. He belongs to Dacca and is living there despite being in America. Lilia realizes that ‘life’
for Mr. Pirzada, “was being lived in Dacca first” and his life in America is only “a shadow of
what had already happened [in Dacca], a lagging ghost of where Mr. Pirzada really belonged”
(31). As Basudeb and Angana Chakrabarti pointed out, “this sense of belonging to a particular
place and culture and yet at the same time being an outsider to another creates a tension in
individuals which happens to be a distinguishing feature of Lahiri’s characters”(qtd. in Brada-
Williams 454). Lilia observes how Mr. Pirzara always maintains a posture “as if balancing in
either hand two suit cases of equal weight” (28), one suit case symbolizing his current life in
America, another being his life back home.Similar to Eliot and Mrs. Sen, Lilia also connects
with Mr. Pirzada through their shared loneliness although she does not understand the feeling of
missing someone far away from home. Despite being loved by her parents and being “assured a
safe life, an easy life, a fine education, every opportunity” (26), Lilia does not receive much
attention from her parents. Before Mr. Pirzada’s visit, her father does not know what she learns
in school (27) and she would be left with her book when the adults are watching the news (31).
Lilia is always “sent upstairs to do [her] homework” (34) alone as she listens ‘through the carpet’
about the adult’s conversations. The fact that Lilia is an only child further emphasizes her
loneliness.Mr. Pirzada and Lilia exchange their understandings of each other’s loneliness
through their own little rituals. As Mr. Pirzada calls Lilia “the lady of the house” (29) and gives
her candies with ‘rotund elegance’, Lilia who do not usually receive this much attention is
“flattered by the faint theatricality of his attentions” (29). Moreover, Mr. Pirzada has been
sending comic books to his seven daughters but has not heard from them for over six months
(24). Hence, being able to give Lilia her candies and seeing her joy of receiving them resembles
the joy he wants to see from his daughters. Despite not being able to utter her worries about Mr.
Pirzada’s family or her thankfulness of his attention, Lilia keeps “each evening’s treasure as
[she] would a jewel [and]…place it in a small keepsake box”(29) because she knows how
important these candies are for Mr. Pirzada as they are for her.In attempt to do something to help
alleviate Mr. Pirzada’s loneliness, Lilia innocently makes up her own praying rituals for his
family’s safety: “I did something I had never done before. I put the chocolate in my mouth,
letting it soften until the last possible moment, and then as I chewed it slowly, I prayed that Mr.
Pirzada’s family was safe and sound” (32). The fact that a little girl decides that she ought to
dedicate every night a piece of her ‘treasure’ to do something she has never been taught to do
shows her profound connection and understanding of Mr. Pirzada’s feelings.Similar to the little
Lilia, Twinkle in ‘This Blessed House’ improvises her own rituals. Twinkle does not have
nostalgic rituals that alleviate loneliness like Mrs. Sen or Mr. Pirzada, but she is not a lonely
character. She is always ‘content yet curious’ as she constructs her own meaning out of her
simultaneous discoveries. As Williams suggested: “the scavenger hunts allows for the emergence
of Twinkle’s identity” (76). Twinkle does know the cooking rituals that Mrs. Sen does, but she is
able to construct dishes that are “unusually tasty, attractive even” (144) out of the vinegar she
finds. Yet, still after a successful improvisation, Twinkle refuses to write the recipe down as she
refuses to stick to rituals but is ready to make endless new discoveries. Furthermore, although
Sanjeev reminds her that they are not Christian and he “can’t have the people [he] work with see
this statue on [his] lawn” (147), Twinkle refuses to rid her discovered statues of Christ because
“it could be worth something” (136). The incident illustrates how Twinkle sees everything in her
simultaneous discoveries as opportunities. In contrast, Sanjeev follows blindly to Hindi rituals
not because he sees meaning in these rituals but because he is afraid of how others might think of
him.By contrasting Sanjeev to Twinkle, Lahiri emphasizes the difference between not having
rituals and not having meaning in life. Twinkle does not have rituals but the one who is lonely is
Sanjeev because he sticks to the rituals meaninglessly. Sanjeev awkwardly reads about how the
Fifth Symphony is supposed to be “music of love and happiness” (140) in attempt to impress
people of his taste, while Twinkle simply feels the music. He is annoyed at how Twinkle lies
carelessly “in bed in the middle of the day” while he mundanely unpack boxes, sweep the attic,
or retouch the paint in preparation for the guests (141). Consequently, Sanjeev misses the
opportunity to feel the excitement and contentment in Twinkle’s everyday discoveries. Despite
all the rituals he tries to do to impress his guests, they are more impressed by Twinkle’s lack of
rigid rituals. As all his guests disappear to join Twinkle’s discoveries, Sanjeev is left alone.Yet
although Mrs. Sen, Mr. Pirazada, and Sanjeev are lonely characters, they are not hopeless. Mrs.
Sen is isolated from both India and America but Lahiri leaves possibilities of Mrs. Sen’s future
adjustment to her hyphenated life through the story’s unresolved ending. Moreover, Mr. Pirizada
eventually reunites with his family in Dacca. Sanjeev, although rigid and mundane, has the
hopeful and talented Twinkle by his side. Furthermore, even the lonely children in Lahiri’s
stories are portrayed in positive and hopeful notes. Despite not receiving much attention from
their parents, Eliot and Lilia still have their families and have a secured society that they belong
to.Some of Lahiri’s characters, however, experience tragic loneliness to the point that rituals
cannot alleviate their loneliness. Boori Ma in ‘Real Durwan’ and Mrs. Croft in ‘The Third and
Final Continent’ are alone and estranged from society with very little hope of reconciliation.
Their rituals only enable them to yearn for their long lost past. Every day for ‘twice a day’, Boori
Ma would sweep the stairwell from top to bottom as she enumerates “the details of her plight and
losses suffered…[being] separated her from a husband, four daughters, a two-story brick house, a
rosewood almari, and a number of coffer boxes whose skeleton keys she still wore” (71). Her
rituals of sweeping the stairs and wearing the skeleton keys emphasize her longing for the life
she lost. At other times as Boori Ma sweeps, she would ‘chronicle’ the elegant life she used to
have: “by the time she reached the second-floor landing, she had already drawn to the whole
building’s attention the menu of her third daughter’s wedding night” (71). Like Mrs. Sen who
recalls her time in Calcuatta to Eliot as she chops, Boori Ma also appears to be alleviating her
loneliness as she sweeps and recalls her ‘easier times’ by gaining attention from the tenants. Yet,
unlike Mrs. Sen and Eliot, the tenants do not share Boori Ma’s loneliness but simply like her
ritual stories because they are entertaining and like her ritual sweeping because she keeps “their
crooked stairwell spotlessly clean” (73). Thus, Boori Ma does not have any one who truly cares
for her and she is literally alone in the world. Furthermore, in contrast to Mrs. Sen’s memory of
her community, Boori Ma’s ritual story telling also seems illogical. This further suggests the
futility of her rituals that makes her live in a past that may not even exist. (15) Similarly, Mrs.
Croft lives alone in an irreversible past of the last century. Every day she sits “on the piano
bench, on the same side as the previous evening (182) remembering how she used to teach piano
and raise Helen up. She wears “the same black skirt, the same starched white blouse” (182) that
reminds her of “a world in 1866…filled with women in long black skirts, and chaste
conversation sin the parlor” (189). As she yearns for a society she lost, Mrs. Croft demands the
door ‘locked’ as if she is locking herself out of reality. Like Boori Ma, Mrs. Croft does her
rituals in order to live in her imagined world that can only be a distant past.Fortunately, however,
Mrs. Croft has the narrator who empathizes with her loneliness. Although the narrator shows
more capability of adjusting than Mrs. Croft because he has traveled across three continents and
is still young and hopeful, he initially is alone and estranged from American society just like
Mrs. Croft. Mrs. Croft is the narrator’s first friend in America. As Judith Caesar commented,
“despite all their differences, [the narrator] and Mrs. Croft are equally distant from the societies
in which they grew up” (54). Similarly to Mrs. Sen and Eliot, and Mr. Pirzada and Lilia, Mrs.
Croft and the narrator construct their own rituals as their little way of comforting each other’s
loneliness. Each evening Mrs. Croft “declared that there was a flag on the moon and declared
that it was splendid” (183) and the narrator would cry out “Spendid!” too. Mohit Ray commented
on how the narrator continues “keeping up the ritual even when he knew the flag no longer stood
on the moon” (193), because he understands how important these ritual means for Mrs. Croft.
Additionally, their rituals not only console Mrs. Croft from her loneliness during her last days of
life, but also help the narrator adjust into his new life. His relationship with Mrs. Croft enables
the narrator to see Mala as the ‘perfect lady’ as Mrs. Croft sees, thus marking the beginning of
his happy marriage life in America.The narrator and Mala are able to successfully establish a
happy life because they are able to adapt their rituals to suit their Indian-American lifestyles. The
narrator understands Mala’s need of connecting to India through her rituals of wearing saris and
preparing meals. Thus, instead of nudging Mala to become independent as Mr. Sen does to Mrs.
Sen, the narrator helps Mala adapt her Indian rituals to suit American lifestyle: he intends to tell
Mala to “wear her sari so that the free end did not drag the foot path” (190) and does not object
her preparing breakfast for him but tells her to make cereal instead of lengthy rice preparations.
Furthermore, in contrast to Mr. Sen who leaves Mrs. Sen alone knowing only that she is a
‘professor’s wife’, the narrator understands that Mala is homesick and needs emotional support.
He tries to include Mala into his society by showing her where he works and taking her to Mrs.
Croft. Similarly, Mala also shows her potential of adapting rituals. Like how Mrs. Sen, Boori
Ma, and Mrs. Croft dress, Mala initially wears her sari to resemble the society she misses.
However, she is prepared to adjust into American lifestyles that her sari does not drag the floor
when she arrives. When the narrator “told her cereal would do” for breakfast, Mala immediately
adjusts and “poured the cornflakes into [his] bowl” (192). Both characters are no longer lonely
because they adapt their rituals for each other and for their new life in America.Unlike the other
characters, the narrator and Mala construct rituals that not only alleviate the loneliness of missing
the society they grow up in, but also enable them to make both India and America the society
they belong to. They maintain good relationship with their relatives in India, but also establish a
life and raise a son in United Sates: “Though [they] visit Calcutta every few years, and bring
back more drawstring pajamas and Darjeeling tea, [they] have decided to grow old [in America]”
(197). They reach out to find “fresh fish on Prospect Street” and send pictures of their new life to
Mala’s parents (196), these being the things Mrs. Sen fails to get in America. By comparing their
liveliness with the other characters’ loneliness, Lahiri emphasizes how this ritual construction is
not an ‘ordinary’ adjustment but a notable accomplishment. Lahiri ends her collection with the
couple’s perfect rituals, suggesting hopeful potential for her characters to conquer loneliness.
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A Look Inside the Outsider

June 6, 2019 by Essay Writer
“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” These are
the words of the 19th century writer and poet Oscar Wilde, and they perfectly illustrate the oft-
contentious dispute between individualism and conformity to the community. Indeed, this
dispute has played out through the pages of history, and it is difficult to objectively state that
either of the extremes provides better outcomes or a more correct answer. On the side advocating
conformity to community, there are both unforgiving despots who wished to carve men into
machines, along the lines of Stalin, and cherished apostles of societal betterment, similar to
Mother Teresa. On the other hand, advocating individualism and relative neglect of larger
society, we can see both great writers, much like the above-mentioned Oscar Wilde, and cruelly
apathetic hedonists, including Nero and many other Roman emperors of the first century. In
reality, though, few people have devoted their lives to advocating either extreme conformity or
extreme individualism, as have the above-mentioned individuals. Rather, most people hold views
somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, incorporating bits of both theories. When the debate
does surface in the modern world, it tends to do so quite tacitly, perhaps through a certain slant
or implication about society when discussing current events or perhaps through symbolism and
hidden meaning in works of literature that focus on protagonists who are “outsiders.” The short
stories “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri and “What You Pawn, I Will
Redeem” by Sherman Alexie are perfect examples of this latter situation. Both of the stories
depict an individual from an outside world, so to speak, trying to live in a foreign society. This,
however, is where the similarities end. While “The Third and Final Continent” holds that
“outsider” individuals can become a part of society and benefit from it without having to lose
their tradition and dignity through complete conformity, “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem”
offers a much darker conclusion, stating that conformity in a new community is difficult to
achieve, but those who do not achieve it will be chewed up and spit out, with a loss of tradition
and dignity resulting either way.In his many adventures across three continents, the narrator in
“The Third and Final Continent” always manages to successfully blend himself into a new
society, in small and large fashions, all the while hanging on to both his tradition and his dignity.
The narrator never forgets to bring a small slice of his “first continent” wherever he goes. For
example, in London, before he has arrived in the United States, the narrator speaks of attending
the London School of Economics while living “in a house occupied entirely by penniless Bengali
bachelors like myself, at least a dozen and sometimes more” (1216). At the same time, he and his
roommates sip tea while smoking Rothman’s, a prominent British cigarette; they listen to
traditional Indian music on a western-made reel-to-reel tape player. All in all, this shows that the
narrator is keen on retaining his traditions, and the fact that he is able to easily do so is a
comment by the author. Entering a new society does not necessarily mean losing every bit of the
old society, she seems to say. Indeed, time and time again, it is emphasized that the narrator not
only wants to maintain his traditions while factoring in some aspects of his new community, but
that he is accepted for doing so. One particularly charming, if understated, instance of this state
of affairs is the narrator’s meal regimen after his wife, Mala, arrives. “I… [came] home to an
apartment that smelled of steamed rice,” says the Narrator, “The next morning when I came into
the kitchen, [Mala] had already poured the cornflakes into my bowl” (1225-1226). This blending
of Indian cuisine for dinner and American fare for breakfast suggests the ultimate harmony of
cultures in a mundane way. After all, when the narrator says he prefers cereal for breakfast, his
wife does not bat an eye, and when he comes home to an Indian dinner, he eats it as a taste of
home that he would not (and should not) deny himself. As if this wasn’t enough, there are many
more testaments to harmonious blending of old culture with a new community littered
throughout the story. Mala, for instance, wears an Indian sari every day, but it is not frowned
upon by the community. Indeed, when the narrator takes her to meet Mrs. Croft, he thinks to
himself, “I wondered what she would object to. I wondered if she could see the red dye still vivid
on Mala’s feet, all but obscured by the bottom edge of her sari. At last Mrs. Croft declared, ‘She
is a perfect lady!’” (1227). This delightful response on the part of Mrs. Croft exemplifies what
the story hammers into our heads again and again: communities are not at all incompatible with
outside individuals and their traditions.In stark contrast to the successful mixing of cultures in
“The Third and Final Continent,” the societal blending in “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” is
messy and unsuccessful, fraught with tales of lost heritage. The most strikingly obvious
testament to this is the homelessness of the main character and, indeed, most of the Native
Americans in the story. It clearly indicates that, for one reason or another, the goals and
tribulations of the Native Americans were not reconcilable with American culture. This
testament, however, is furthered immensely with the description of Jackson, the protagonist: “I
grew up in Spokane, moved to Seattle twenty-three years ago for college, flunked out within two
semesters, worked various blue- and bluer-collar jobs for many years, married two or three
times, fathered two or three kids, and then went crazy” (1246). The downward spiral of
Jackson’s life, then, began when he moved away from his Indian family to Spokane, into a new
community. Thus the implication here is that entering a new community does indeed mean
losing the bearings provided by the old community, and it also means that no new bearings can
be gained until very difficult conformity and assimilation are achieved. Jackson’s story is not the
only one, however. There are many more Indians in the story whose lives pay tribute to both the
difficulty of conformity and the dangerous results of being unable to conform. “Most of the
homeless Indians in Seattle,” Jackson notes, “come from Alaska. One by one, each of them
hopped a big working boat… to Seattle… [partied] hard at one of the highly sacred and
traditional Indian bars, went broke and broker, and has been trying to find his way back to the
boat and the frozen north ever since” (1249). Like Jackson, these Indians left their homes with
bright prospects, only to see everything spiral downward as they failed to conform. This passage,
however, makes note of something else. There is an intense irony in partying hard at a sacred,
traditional Indian bar, and this suggests a true loss of tradition and heritage. All Indians, even
those who ended up unable to conform, saw their valued traditions trampled in the process,
replaced with the American value of a good party even as they were still unable to conform and
fit in. This constitutes a slap on each cheek, and it also gives new meaning to the homelessness
of the Native Americans in the story (and the rootlessness of the few with a home). They could
not assimilate into the white community, and in the process, they lost everything that makes
them Native American, precluding a return to that community. The Native Americans in “What
You Pawn, I Will Redeem” truly are homeless in every sense of the word.Venturing into his
“Third and Final Continent,” the narrator of that story embarks on a true coming-of age journey,
for his new community affects him in an undeniably positive way, directly preparing him for the
rest of his life. When he first leaves India, the narrator is but a boy. He is unmarried. He has no
job. He doesn’t have much of a formal education. While he gains the latter of these three things
in England, it is without a doubt that the narrator truly comes of age in his third continent,
America, particularly through his interactions with Mrs. Croft. Over the time he spends with
Mrs. Croft, the narrator begins to feel a sense of duty toward her. At first, this is apparent simply
in the ritual that he performs every night, keeping Mrs. Croft company on the bench and telling
her how “splendid” it is that the American flag is now on the moon. After he learns of her age, he
is very impressed, and he offers to heat up her soup, though Mrs. Croft’s daughter turns down the
offer. The narrator laments, “There was nothing I could do for her beyond these simple gestures”
(1224). However, there is a tinge of admiration apparent in his voice when he tells Mala that “for
the most part [Mrs. Croft] takes care of herself” (1226), despite her age. This admiration, this
desire to care for another person is built up in the narrator by Mrs. Croft. When Mrs. Croft
finally meets Mala, she declares, “She is a perfect lady!” (1227). In giving the narrator her seal
of approval, the narrator’s care for Mrs. Croft is, in a way, bestowed upon Mala; it is this event
that begins to spark the love in their relationship. In this way, it is thanks to the narrator’s new
community that he grew into a good, caring husband. It should not be forgotten that the
narrator’s new community readily bestowed him with numerous other positive things. He easily
obtained a job; he found a home without any trace of discrimination; he grew emotionally
mature, living on his own for the first time. Despite these important positive contributions, it was
Mrs. Croft whose contribution was greatest, but either way, the third continent and its
community were undeniably forces for good in the narrator’s life.On the other hand, our outsider
protagonist in “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem,” is negatively affected by the community, his
interactions with the people of Seattle hearkening directly back to interactions between White
settlers and Native Americans so long ago. Negotiations with Native Americans from the 17th
through the early 20th centuries were marked by lavish gifts of everything from precious metals
to food and alcohol to “protected” reservation land in exchange for “just a little bit” of their
current, unprotected land. According to the government, they did not even own that land,
anyway. Eventually, the tribes began to rely on these gifts, economically and socially, but once
the supply of land, the only truly durable resource, had dried up, the flow of gifts was choked off,
and they were utterly ruined (Banner 51). They lost both their self-sufficiency and their dignity.
Was the little bit of protected land that they held onto truly theirs if it was tossed at them like
some sort of gift? Just the same, the whites of Seattle’s community that Jackson befriends are
constantly giving him “gifts.” When Jackson is trying to raise money to buy the regalia, the
pawnbroker decides to help him a bit: “He opened up his wallet and pulled out a crisp twenty-
dollar bill and gave it to me” (1249). Moments after receiving the money, Jackson went over to
“7-Eleven and spent it to buy three bottles of imagination” (1249). This symbolizes the manner
in which the Indian tribes lost their trades and abilities in the face of gifts provided by European
settlers. The prompt expenditure of the cash on alcohol also portrays something deeper. It
represents the downward spiral of alcoholism unleashed upon the Native Americans as they
became further dependent on something that only the white man could provide. If this was the
only occasion in the story along these lines, though, this symbolism could be written off. On the
contrary, it happens time and time again. Jackson later visits a newspaper publisher to buy a
large number of newspapers to sell on the street for profit. With only five dollars for initial
investment, the company manager says, “I’ll give you fifty papers for free. But don’t tell
anybody I did it” (1250). After selling five newspapers, Jackson promptly trashes the other 45
and spends the profit on some food. When Jackson wins $80, he spends it on alcohol. When
Officer Williams, a friendly white policeman, gives Jackson $30, he spends it on some more
food. All of this occurs in the course of a day, drawing an undeniable parallel between Jackson’s
dependence on gifts and alcohol and the dependence of the Native Americans on the settler’s
“gifts” and alcohol. In the end, Jackson is given the regalia only as a gift, likely foreshadowing
that he will eventually sell it for alcohol or a good time. The irony in this, though, draws one
final parallel between Jackson’s situation and that of the colonized Native Americans. The gift
that was ultimately given to them, the regalia in the former case and the “protected” reservation
land in the latter, already belonged to them in the first place. The numerous resemblances
between the sad state of Native Americans in the 19th century and Jackson’s situation in “What
You Pawn, I Will Redeem” puts it beyond doubt that Alexie intended to declare through his
story that an outsider can only be further hurt by a community which has denied him
acceptance.The narrator of “The Third and Final Continent” does not manage to change much
about his new community, but considering the story’s overall argument that larger societal
conformity is unnecessary, the small, personal way that he does have an effect on his community
is more than sufficient. Just as the most prominent mark left on the narrator came from Mrs.
Croft, the most prominent change exacted upon the narrator’s new community was concentrated
on Mrs. Croft. Mrs. Croft is a person very focused on the past, in no small part due to her age.
For example, note her response when her daughter, Helen, speaks with the narrator upstairs: “It
is improper for a lady and a gentleman who are not married to one another to hold a private
conversation without a chaperone!” (1222). Though the world Mrs. Croft speaks of is gone, she
still holds emotional attachment to it. It was, after all, that world of “chaste conversations in the
parlor” in which Mrs. Croft grew up. When Helen asks Mrs. Croft what she would do if she saw
a girl in a miniskirt, Mrs. Croft responds dryly, “I’d have her arrested” (1223). As time
progressed, Mrs. Croft slowly became more separate from and bitter toward her community. The
narrator actually gives her hope. One day, the narrator hands his rent payment, on time, directly
to Mrs. Croft instead of placing it on the piano ledge. This touches her. She says nothing at first,
but after the narrator returns that night, many hours later, she still holds the payment in her
hands, saying, “It was very kind of you!” (1221). While this is a relatively minor action on the
narrator’s part, these small acts of chivalry have come to be all that Mrs. Croft truly desires, as
mentioned above. After all, these acts of chivalry hearken back to Mrs. Croft’s time, a time
during which a gentleman would rise when a woman left a table or remove his hat in a woman’s
presence. Indeed, Helen tells the narrator, “You’re the first boarder she’s ever referred to as a
gentleman” (1222). In the final months of her life, the narrator gives Mrs. Croft something to
believe in, just as Mrs. Croft gives the narrator something to care for; in this way, he gives back
to the community that helped him, having a positive effect on it. In the end, this is a change that
the narrator exacts on an individual, not the community, but since the story touts maintenance of
individualism in the face of a new community as an admirable, possible goal, there can be
nothing more glorious than giving an old woman one last hope.Jackson of “What You Pawn, I
Will Redeem,” also falls completely short of changing the larger community around him, but
considering the story’s opposing message, this incapacity for change in the community has an
entirely different meaning. Recall that “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” holds that the effect of
a new community on an outsider is wholly negative, resulting in forced conformity, which
usually ends up unsuccessful and, either way, robs the subject of his/her heritage. This is directly
in contrast to the positive effect of a new community on an outsider extolled in “The Third and
Final Continent.” Thus the former is in need of change and the latter is not, so a lack of change in
this story can only be a bad thing. (The aspect of the community in need of change, of course, is
its perpetuation of the old, indirectly-cruel treatment of Native Americans.) Jackson does indeed
build close personal relationships with some white characters in the story, not too much different
from the narrator’s relationship with Mrs. Croft in “The Third and Final Continent.” In
particular, note the interaction of Officer Williams with Jackson. “You bet I’d give you a
thousand dollars if I knew you’d straighten up your life,” says Officer Williams. “He meant it,”
Jackson reassures us, “He was the second-best cop I’d ever known” (1256). At the end, though,
Williams gives Jackson $30, perpetuating the cycle of his dependence on gifts in exchange for
dignity. This previously-noted negative relationship between Jackson and his community is
further indicated by another passage relating to Officer Jackson: “He’d given me hundreds of
candy bars over the years. I wonder if he knew I was diabetic” (1255). A diabetic may crave
sugar, but it will only further harm him/her. Just the same, Jackson craves the gifts with which
his white friends provide him, but they only makes him more dependent on them, causing him to
lose his dignity (and recall that this, itself, parallels the larger situation of Native Americans). In
the end, the reader is left with the impression that, unlike in “The Third and Final Continent,”
individual relationships with the conformed members of the community do not matter here; they
have no influence on the community or how it eventually treats the outsider. However, the
conclusion of “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” does offer one small glint of hope. “I stepped
off the sidewalk and into the intersection,” says Jackson, adorned with his grandmother’s regalia,
“Pedestrians stopped. Cars stopped. The city stopped. They all watched me dance with my
grandmother” (1260). That the entire city takes pause to focus on a homeless Native American
man represents that the community has realized what its destructive behavior has wrought.
Perhaps they can realize the sad irony in the happiness of a homeless Native American man,
shunned from the land that should have been his, who is thrilled to receive that which belonged
to him all along. After all, while Jackson was, on a personal level, unable to change Seattle and
its destructive modus operandi in terms of Native Americans, the reader is left with the hope that
maybe, just maybe, it can realize the error of its ways and change itself.All in all, “The Third and
Final Continent” and “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” come to entirely different conclusions
about outsiders entering a community; according to the former, entering a new community can
be an emotionally enriching experience that does not require abandonment of traditions, but
according to the latter, an outsider who comes into contact with a new community will forcibly
try hard to conform, usually ending up unsuccessful, and always losing his/her heritage and
dignity. Throughout the two stories, differences that indicate these conclusions are made
obvious. While the narrator in “The Third and Final Continent” successfully brings reminders of
his first home wherever he goes, the story of Jackson’s life in “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem”
is one of an intense downward spiral after immersion in a new community. While the narrator in
“The Third and Final Continent” undergoes emotional and mental growth in his “third
continent,” coming to admire someone for the first time and learning to love his wife, Jackson’s
interactions with his new community are negatively marked by a dignity-draining cycle of
dependence on others and addiction to alcohol, mirroring the sad fate of many Native American
tribes. Even though the two stories agree that the only real effect an individual can have on a
large community comes about through individual relationships, they draw a different conclusion
based on this premise. “The Third and Final Continent” holds that these personal relationships
are more than enough, allowing any individual to have a beneficial and admirable effect on a
community as he/she chooses. On the other hand, “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” paints the
picture that, though caring individual relationships are possible, they can do nothing to change
the overall negative effect that a community has on an outsider. On the whole, these two
diametrically-opposed conclusions that Lahiri and Alexie have produced represent two different
outcomes for two different individuals. In conclusion, when we enter any society as outsiders, it
may be for the best to take both of the theories in each of our hands.
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The Gravity of Misconception

May 16, 2019 by Essay Writer
Time and time again, humans make a habit of imagining their lives as more glorious than they
are. Author Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories about
misconception. She exploits the universal yearning for something greater and, through her
characters, creates a clear deviation between a desired abstract and reality in each piece. For
every storyline, the gap between perception and truth does not last for long and ultimately ends
in a subtle personal tragedy.
The strongest example of constructing one’s own reality lies in “Interpreter of Maladies,” the
namesake of the novel, which further supports the idea that misperception is Lahiri’s focus. The
Das family, American tourists, take Mr. Kapasi’s taxi to Indian attractions. The cabbie quickly
becomes obsessed with Mrs. Das, even imaging an entire life with her, all the while ignoring her
coldness towards her family. Despite admitting her faults, even revealing that one of her children
is the product of an affair, he still fantasizes of her. “In those moments Mr. Kapasi used to
believe that all was right with the world…” (Lahiri 56); Lahiri purposes uses the word
“believe”—not knows, not understands, but believes. Having just faith means constructing a
reality that is not actually there. There’s zero chance they have any future together, but it is nice
for him to imagine so. He is disappointed but does nothing when she doesn’t even notice that the
paper containing his contact information floats away in the wind, obliterating the potential for a
future together. Then there is Mr. Das, who is infatuated with the country of India— but only the
good parts. He’s elated to explore his motherland for the first time. On a road, he tells Mr.
Kapasi to pull over because he wants “to get a shot of this guy” (Lahiri 49), an emaciated vagrant
—but does nothing to aid the man in any way. By treating the situation so casually, he capitalizes
on the poor man’s struggle in the name of what he imagines a developing, foreign country should
look like for the sake of his memories. Later on, he is still too distracted by his camera to notice
his son being attacked by monkeys. It is only once Mrs. Das shrieks during the attack that Mr.
Das is brought back to the brutal reality of the situation and thus agrees to return to the hotel
immediately, too shocked to really speak or act; he did not see the problems of India until they
personally affected him. The obliteration of these men’s false realities, meant to comfort,
unsettles them, as Lahiri leaves no resolution.
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In the story “Sexy,” a young woman deludes herself in what it means to be a mistress. Miranda,
lonely and new to Boston, is thrilled when a handsome, cultured, married man pays attention to
her. She wholly embraces the role of mistress, going so far as to “buy herself things she thought
a mistress should have” (Lahiri 92). She considers their relationship romantic, whereas it is
truthfully lustful, largely consisting of a regularly scheduled sexcapades. The illusion is fully
shattered when a child calls her “sexy”— a word she once treasured when Dev called her it—
when she models her prime, never-worn “mistress” outfit. Miranda is appalled and further
bothered by the young boy defining “sexy” as “loving someone you don’t know,” illuminating
the illegitimacy of Dev and Miranda’s relationship. From that point onward, she stops seeing
him, ignoring his calls, because the semblance of a relationship is no longer comforting.
Lahiri uses “This Blessed House” to draw attention towards the discomfort of making choices
solely for comfort. Sanjeev misleads himself by trying to plan out the perfect life. He, like
Lahiri’s other characters, focuses on the good while acting almost purposefully oblivious to the
bad. This is most evident in his choice of home and wife. He is hasty and stubborn—before even
buying the house that he and his wife live in, he “had already made up his mind, was determined
that he and Twinkle should live there together, forever, and so he had not bothered to notice the
switch plates covered with biblical stickers…” (Lahiri 137). It ends up being the religion
iconography that drives him crazy about his home, which he could have avoided if he had only
payed attention. But “when, after moving in, he tried to scrape it off, he scratched the glass”
(Lahiri 137); not only is his ignorance a discomfort to him, it is literally damaging. The house is
a metaphor for his marriage with Twinkle, a quasi-arranged marriage that he rushes into in
desperate need for a companion that is a safe option. It is only later that aspects of her
personality that he disregarded begin to aggravate him. Lahiri uses Sanjeev as an example of
what happens when people make serious but ordinary life decisions on a basis of blatant
misconceptions.
The reason the personal tragedies are “subtle” is because the characters cannot do anything about
the unraveling of their delusions. Lahiri’s writing is not dramatic and rather insinuates a calm
acceptance of the truth. Furthermore, the object of each character’s deceptions are not actually
deceptive. All fault lies on those with the overly-active imagination, seeking to escape harsh
realities. In life, the malady of delusion is unavoidable but never stands permanent. It is
impossible for people to make their lives wholly comfortable.
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Postcolonial Remembrance and Amnesia: A

Double-Sided View
May 11, 2019 by Essay Writer
“Postcolonialism can be seen as a theoretical resistance to the mystifying amnesia to the colonial
aftermath. It is a disciplinary project dedicated to the academic task of revisiting, remembering,
and, crucially, interrogating the colonial past” (Gandhi, 4). One of the most difficult aspects of a
confusing or traumatic experience on the part of the victim is the memory it leaves behind. More
often than not just the mention of a word or phrase or place can suddenly all at once bring that
victim back to the day or time something happened, forcing them to relive it again. In this case,
sometimes the victim has the ability to shut out a painful or difficult memory to protect his or
herself from being affected by it further. It is as if it never happened, and they enter a dangerous
phase called denial. The question of whether it is healthy to deal with the issues at hand or sweep
them under the rug is handled in two works: a novel called Midnight’s Children by Salman
Rushdie and Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, “Interpreter of Maladies.” The effect the recurring
memories have on the characters from each postcolonial work suggests that neither produces a
positive outcome in terms of remembering or forgetting.
In Salman Rushdie’s novel, Midnight’s Children, the narrator is Saleem Sinai, who travels back
and forth in the past years before he was born to the present, many years later, when his
experiences are far behind him. In this case, Rushdie’s entire novel is a form of postcolonial
remembrance. Saleem narrates to his fiancée as well as the reader the background of his family,
the struggles he has faced in his lifetime and the problems he still faces in the present: the ghosts
he cannot leave behind him, but cannot seem to silence. Bhabha wrote: “Remembering is never a
quiet act of introspection or retrospection. It is a painful re-membering, a putting together of the
dismembered past to make sense of the trauma of the present” (Gandhi, 9). Saleem’s
remembrance of his family’s history, especially when his mother, he learns, was unfaithful to his
father, proves particularly painful to Saleem. In the chapter entitled “Revelations,” Saleem finds
out his parents are not his, and that he was switched at birth with Shiva, his sometime rival and
childhood friend. The truth is revealed by Mary Pereira, who switched the children at birth, who
finally breaks her silence after believing to have seen the ghost of Joe D’Costa, her former
boyfriend. Her secret comes out as the result of her remembrance of Joe who was a political
radical and once planted bombs in a tower. The revelations surrounding Saleem’s life continue to
haunt him even more. He describes the major tragedies he has gone through as a chain reaction
to something that he did: “If I hadn’t wanted to be a hero, Mr. Zagallo would never have pulled
my hair. If my hair had remained intact…Masha Miovic wouldn’t have goaded me into losing
my finger. And from my finger flowed the blood that was neither-Alpha-nor-Omega, and sent
me into exile, and in exile I was filled with the lust for revenge which led to the murder of Homi
Catrack; and if Homi hadn’t died, perhaps my uncle would not have strolled off a roof…and then
my grandfather would not have…been broken…” (Rushdie, 319). Saleem has a lot of difficultly
in describing his life and keeping his guilt and pain hidden from his fiancée and the readers. He
is, obviously from reading this passage, racked with guilt for the things he has done. Even
though he may not be directly responsible for these things, it is apparent the act of remembering
is making him think so.
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Midnight’s Children explores the ways in which history is given meaning through the telling of
individual experience. For Saleem, born at the instance of India’s independence from Britain, his
life becomes inextricably linked with the political, national, and religious events of his time. Not
only does Saleem experience many of the crucial historical events, but he also claims some
degree of involvement in them. Saleem expresses his observation that his private life has been
remarkably public, from the very moment of his conception. Therefore, his remembrance carries
that much more weight than anyone else. Not only was he around during the notable
transformation of India, his emotions and experiences shape that time.
In articulating what Saleem views as the relationship between his personal life and the events of
the formation of India’s nationhood, he narrates, “It is my firm conviction that the hidden
purpose of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 was nothing more or less than the elimination of my
benighted family from the face of the earth” (Rushdie, 386). Saleem places more importance on
his own family history than upon the entire nation’s formative events. In addition, on the duality
inherent in Pakistani citizenship as a result of divide, Rushdie writes, “I suggest that at the deep
foundations of their unease lay the fear of schizophrenia, or splitting, that was buried like an
umbilical cord in every Pakistani heart” (399). This “splitting of self” reflects a fragmentation of
identity Saleem knows all too well. Raised by who he thought were his parents, only to find at
the age of eleven he is not their child, Saleem goes through a period of adjustment. His parents
are distant, his sister becomes a peer. Saleem’s fragmented identity is shared on a larger scale
with his nation’s fragmented identity. The fragmentation of the large British colonial territory
into Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, whose cultural, religious, political, and linguistic traditions
differ, presented a complex and intimidating task. Therefore, India’s early days as an
independent nation were burdened with division and strife. Rushdie draws a comparison between
India’s struggles with its neighboring peoples and Saleem’s struggles with various family
members and with the other members of the Midnight Children’s Club. Rushdie also uses
metaphorical allusions to fragmentation or disintegration that indicate the loss of a sense of
identity. For example, Rushdie describes both Aadam Aziz and Saleem Sinai as possessing a
void or a hole in their centers as a result of their uncertainty of God’s existence. In their
respective last days, Rushdie describes the “cracking” and eventual disintegration of their
exteriors.
At the end of Midnight’s Children, Saleem adopts a particularly pessimistic outlook on the
future. Saleem says, “My dream of saving the country was a thing of mirrors and smoke;
insubstantial, the maunderings of a fool” (Rushdie, 529). Linked to this sense of hopelessness are
both the loss of his silver spittoon and his knowledge that all of midnight’s children have been
sterilized. Rushdie does not always accurately recount the events in recent Indian history during
the course of Midnight’s Children. At times, he makes mistakes on details or dates, but he makes
them intentionally, in order to comment on the unreliability of historical and biographical
accounts. For example, Saleem informs the reader that an old lover of his shot him through the
heart; however, in the very next chapter he confesses to having fabricated the circumstances of
his death. By the end of the novel, Saleem discusses his imminent thirty-first birthday. At the
conclusion of the novel, Aadam Aziz, after having remained silent for the first three years of his
life, speaks his first word: Abracadabra. The reference to magic refers both to the novel’s genre,
magical realism, and to the role of magic in the child’s life. Rushdie writes, “My son, who will
have to be a magician to cope with the world I’m leaving him, completes his awesome first
word” (528). Saleem, despite the dominant tones of pessimism in these last chapters, also
expresses some degree of confidence in his young son and his ability to learn from the mistakes
of his father’s generation. Saleem says of his son that “Already, he is stronger, harder, more
resolute than I: when he sleeps, his eyeballs are immobile beneath their lids. Aadam Sinai, child
of knees-and-nose, does not (as far as I can tell) surrender to dreams” (529). All the way through
the novel up until this point, Saleem has given us a history of his family and his experiences,
unburying sorrowful memories and experiences that seem to be too fresh or too difficult to deal
with. Now he bestows on his son, who actually is not biologically his, the hope for the future. He
wishes for him a life unaffected by what his father has left for him and by the painful re-
membering Saleem has drawn out.
In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” we follow, for a very brief moment in
time, the experiences of an Indian family visiting their motherland. Although spoken in the third
person, we gain an astute filtration of the family through the eyes of their tour guide, a man
named Mr. Kapasi. When we are given our first description of the family, it is not what one may
expect. Indians who have migrated, or even some who were born in America, often do not adopt
the American way of dress or manner. They tend to be very sentimental or traditional in these
two things. Although Mr. and Mrs. Das were not born in India, but hail rather from New
Brunswick, New Jersey, they dress “as foreigners [do]”, their children as well, in “stiff, brightly
colored clothing and caps with translucent visors” (Lahiri, 44), and when Mr. Kapasi meets Mr.
Das, he “squeezes hands like an American.” Mr. and Mrs. Das are visiting their parents, who
have moved back to India, where they were born. Mr. Kapasi pays particular attention to Mrs.
Das, with whom he has the most contact with throughout the story. He notices she often becomes
annoyed and pays little attention to her three children: Tina, Ronny and Bobby. Their choice of
names suggests Mr. and Mrs. Das’s little regard for traditional Indian names and desire for more
American names, perhaps so their children can be considered as American as they can be. Mr.
Das says little throughout the narrative. He wears an expensive camera around his neck and is
portrayed as a tourist, a foreigner, in many ways. At one point he asks Mr. Kapasi to pull over so
that he may take a picture of a homeless, emaciated Indian man, which is some ways can be seen
as an exploitation of his people and his very little compassion for the state of the people in India.
Mr. and Mrs. Das’s disregard for their culture is shocking and a little unsettling. Everything they
embody, from their manner to their way of dress, is hugely American. They place no emphasis
on their family, ignoring their children and leaving them to their free will. Even when they visit
their home country, which they are doing by the time this short story takes place, they have no
interest in participating or at least trying to adapt to the different ways of life. They dress in
American clothing, get an English speaking tour guide, and either express little to know interest
in the country in Mrs. Das’s case, or act as a reporter in Mr. Das’s case, treating his country as a
vacation spot, disconnecting himself from it all together. Lacan’s ironic reversal of the Cartesian
cogito “I think therefore I am” to “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think”
(Gandhi, 9) expresses this notion quite well. Their inability, or perhaps their lack of desire, to
mesh with their culture turns them into what some stereotype Americans as: the label of the ugly
American, who goes to another country as disrespects the culture their by refusing to adapt to
their lifestyle, wanting everyone to adapt to him instead. The fact that Mr. and Mrs. Das belong
to this culture makes this stubbornness that much more imminent.
What is really happening in this story, if placed in the backdrop of postcolonial remembrance, is
Mr. and Mrs. Das’s unwillingness to remember their culture. Postcolonial critic Homi Bhabha
announces that “memory is the necessary and sometimes hazardous bridge between colonialism
and the question of cultural identity” (Gandhi, 9). This explains that Mr. and Mrs. Das’s
education of their cultural identity is either aborted or is never given the chance to form because
of their disinterest, or maybe even fear, of remembering where they came from. They were both
born in America and raised in an American culture. Although their parents were born in India,
they have since moved back, severing their ties to their roots even more, and Mrs. Das explained
even still she was never that close to her parents in the first place. It is never explained fully why
Mr. and Mrs. Das close their eyes to something that is still a part of them and do not recognize
their people as one of them. A particular scene where this is manifested is when Mrs. Das stops
to buy something to snack on and the shirtless man behind the counter begins to sing to her a
popular Hindi love song. Mrs. Das walks away, appearing to not understand what he is saying,
“for she did express irritation, or embarrassment, or react in any other way to the man’s
declarations” (Lahiri, 46). Mrs. Das’s reaction to the man, on a much larger scale, conveys her
attitude toward the land and the culture and the people in general. Not understanding but not
caring to understand, walking away as if it didn’t exist.
As Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das talk, we learn Mr. Kapasi’s second occupation: an interpreter for a
doctor. This additional means of work becomes very important. Mr. Kapasi, an interpreter of
maladies, acts as an interpreter of the families maladies the more he gets insight to their private
lives. Later on, Mrs. Das confuses his occupation after she lets him in on a secret of her infidelity
to her husband she had never told anyone until now. When Mr. Kapasi asks her why she has
done this, she explains it is because she hopes he can help her. Although he is an interpreter for a
doctor, he only is able to identify physical ailments, not psychological ones, yet wishing to
please Mrs. Das because of his growing affection for her, he tests out a theory about her anyway.
Mrs. Das explains she met her husband very young, a sort of informal arranged marriage
between their two parents. Although at first they were madly in love, they fell out of love very
quickly. Mrs. Das became overwhelmed very quickly by her premature marriage, and slept with
one of her husband’s friends to which Bobby was born. When Mr. Kapasi asks her, “Is it really
pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?” (66), Mrs. Das becomes enraged and steps out of the car.
This entire sequence, the telling of the secret and the failed marriage followed by Mr. Kapasi’s
inquisitive but out-of-bounds question, gives us an insight to Mrs. Das’s disenchantment with her
past, present and future. Her past is overrun with memories of her failed marriage to her Indian
husband, her infidelity with a white man, and her desperation to want to finally confide in
someone. Bhabha explains how memories can be harmful: “While some memories are accessible
to consciousness, others, which are blocked and banned—sometimes with good reason—
perambulate the unconscious in dangerous ways, causing seemingly inexplicable symptoms in
everyday life” (Gandhi, 9). The “banned memory” of Mrs. Das’s infidelity which surfaces easily
in this scene could have caused her to do a variety of these things Bahbha calls “symptoms.”
Either her symptom as a result of her unfaithfulness was then to disregard her culture because
she is turned off by it, or, in a sort of paradox, her blocked memory of her culture caused her to
commit adultery. Whichever one may be true, this shows Mrs. Das’s rejection of her culture has
somewhat of a motive. It surrounds her; it represents a life she does not want anymore, which is
very apparent, therefore she has no concern to cement a bond with or “remember” it.
In the story’s final scene, after Mrs. Das leaves the car in a huff to join her family who are
exploring the terrain (it might be beneficial to this paper’s thesis to also point out that Mrs. Das
initially refused to leave the car and explore with her family, wishing to rest, unconcerned with
her relationship to the land) her son Bobby, who is not her husband’s child, gets attacked by
monkeys. That this is the story’s climax and the final action suggests a harmful relationship
between the Das’ and the land. Although the attack was partly the fault of Mrs. Das, who
accidentally drops food on the ground for the monkeys to become excited over, that fact that this
negative action even happens is telling of how much the Das’ do not belong and cannot seem to
learn how to belong to this country. It all comes in a downward chain reaction. First with Mrs.
Das’s revelation followed by Mr. Kapasi’s offensive question, then to Mrs. Das becoming upset,
leaving the car, and dropping the food on the ground. All of this relates back to Mrs. Das’s initial
action of cheating on her husband, which then inadvertently did harm to the child who was the
result of that action. Mrs. Das’s recollection of her past therefore bled over into her present,
causing even more harm in the long run. This suggests the action of remembering being
detrimental in the case of the Das’. It caused, although in a strange sort of way, but in a clever
way nonetheless, a direct harm to a member of their family. As a final note, after Mr. Kapasi
saves the child from any more harm, he stands aside as the family tends to Bobby. When Mrs.
Das takes out her hairbrush from her bag, the paper on which Mr. Kapasi wrote his name and
address flies away with the wind. No one notices but Mr. Kapasi. That final link that would have
still connected Mr. Kapasi to the Das’ and the Das’ to the land is lost forever, and Mr. Kapasi
realizes that in a short time he too will be forgotten. He looks at the family once more, “knowing
that this was the picture of the Das family he would preserve forever in his mind” (Lahiri, 69).
This final act of forgetting make up the last lines of the story, and this encounter between the
Das’ and Mr. Kapasi will fade away just as everything else does and has.
Salman Rushdie’s novel and Lhumpa Lahiri’s short story, which are chronicles of Indians after
colonization, are in a sense very similar yet very different. Whereas “Maladies” is a observation
of a family who refuses to recognize their roots or “remember” any part of themselves as being a
member of that culture, they remain blissfully ignorant but effected. Mr. and Mrs. Das cannot
escape retribution when their son is attacked by monkeys, yet they refuse to identify this
unfortunate event as a punishment. If anything, it will perhaps even push them further away from
this culture, a culture they cannot seem to find any warmth towards, and a culture they will most
likely continue to push themselves away from. Therefore, the act of “amnesia” has produced a
harmful result in the form of a direct attack to their life. Midnight’s Children in its entirety is an
active work of remembering, and it for the most part makes for a very depressing novel.
Saleem’s narrative is downtrodden and self-deprecating. The novel does not end happily, but
rather with all the figures, all the ghosts of his past still coming back to haunt him, to remind
him, to squash him still. As we can see in the case of Saleem, postcolonial remembrance is
painful and can trap oneself into the past as if he or she were reliving it over and over again.
However, ignorance in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Das, who refuse to acknowledge their land or
play by the rules can prove just as harmful. In a larger scale, this shows colonization’s effects on
its victims. In a sense it embodies the saying, “You’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if
you don’t,” which does not offer any positive light for the colonized. Lahiri and Rushdie’s
stories give us an opportunity to view the options from both sides, and sadly, the view is rather
grim.
Works Cited
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1998.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. New York: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1999.
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. New York: Penguin Books, 1980.
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It Takes Two to Mango: The Role of Food (and

Clothing) in Interpreter of Maladies
April 30, 2019 by Essay Writer
Regardless of language or culture, certain aspects of life are present in every person’s life.
Among these are love, food and clothing; because of their connection to all peoples, they are
popular symbols in literature. Jhumpa Lahiri, in Interpreter of Maladies, uses these ideas to
convey major themes in each of the relationships she crafts. In her collection of short stories,
Lahiri demonstrates the healthy and unhealthy phases of relationships through the symbols of
food and clothing.
In “A Temporary Matter,” Lahiri crafts the entire plot around meals; the temporary power
outages are always during dinnertime. However, she illustrates the importance of food prior to
Shoba and Shukumar’s current relationship. When the couple enjoyed a loving, healthy
connection, the food was extravagant and comforting. Shoba had made a ten-course meal for
Shukumar for their anniversary, symbolizing the warmth and care that was present in their
relationship. During this time, Shoba also exhibited her interest in their life together through her
clothing. She would put her coats on hangers and her shoes in the closet, and if she went
shopping, she would buy two of whatever blouses or purses she might like. This illustrates the
attention to detail that she used to hold not just in her life, but in their relationship specifically.
Shoba used to enjoy spending time with Shukumar, and she was precise in her actions so that
they would live happily together. However, after the loss of their child, she lets herself go, and
Lahiri reflects this in the same symbols that once showed her true love. Instead of Shoba
preparing new and interesting dishes, Shukumar cooks. Not only do their roles switch, but their
motivations do as well. While Shoba cooked to provide Shukumar with pleasure, Shukumar
cooks because it is “the one thing that made him feel productive” (Lahiri 8). He also uses up the
preserved foods that Shoba had prepared years earlier, as opposed to Shoba’s use of fresh foods
when she cooked. The food that he cooks, regardless of quality, is not even eaten with his wife.
They eat their dinner separately, signifying their isolation within the relationship. Shoba’s
clothing also reflects this. Instead of keeping her appearance nice and neat, she wears a raincoat
over gym clothes, with smudged makeup and a satchel that she does not bother to put away after
work. She has become the woman “she’d once claimed she would never resemble” (1), and it
illustrates how she has let go of her and Shukumar’s relationship. The transition from comforting
food and put-together clothing to the exact opposite symbolizes the deterioration of their once-
strong connection, a connection that is now unhealthy and unsatisfying for both people.
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The relationship between Miranda and Dev in “Sexy” follows a similar path, ending in the
destruction of each person’s feelings for one another. At the start of their relationship, during the
love-filled, healthy stage, they go on dates to fancy restaurants, eating a pig’s head and holding
hands across the dinner table, symbolizing Dev’s extreme care for Miranda and their
reciprocated feelings for each other. Even when their first week together ends, they stay happy
for a while; Miranda buys all of Dev’s favorite foods, like baguettes, pickled herring, and pesto,
for his Sunday visits. These visits, and the food that accompany them, signify luxury similar to a
that of a honeymoon stage, and the couple is very obviously happy together. Miranda also buys
herself some luxurious items, “things she thought a mistress should have” (92), such as a silk
robe and a slinky cocktail dress, showing her devotion to the relationship and the value she
places on their feelings for each other. Unfortunately, following Dev’s wife’s return, things
slowly start to go awry, and the symbols follow. Miranda begins to eat sloppily, even eating
“straight from the salad bowl” while waiting for the Sundays during which Dev visits her (97).
As she tries to save the relationship, visiting an Indian grocery to find out what Dev’s wife looks
like, she finds the food in the store unfamiliar and confusing, feeling extremely out of place. The
worker in the store even mentions to her that the food is too spicy for her; this illustrates how
Miranda feels out of place in her relationship with Dev. He can only visit her on Sundays, and
his wife seems to be of more importance to him than Miranda is, hurting her subconsciously.
Their clothing also reflects this shift, as Miranda’s new “mistress clothes” go unused, her dress
in a pile on the floor of her closet and her lingerie tucked into the back of her underwear drawer.
This signifies that what was once a symbol of hope for the future of their relationship is now
gone, and the luxurious, loving stage is over. On Sundays when they meet, Dev wears sweats and
Miranda wears jeans, showing that they do not care about their appearance, nor do they care
about the relationship much either.
Lahiri uses the same symbols in “This Blessed House” in the marriage of Twinkle and Sanjeev.
When the couple first met, they were at a party; their bonding moment was when they agreed on
the lack of taste in the food they were eating, and Twinkle mentions that she was “charmed by
the way Sanjeev had dutifully refilled her teacup during their conversation” (143). Their happy
relationship, albeit short-lived, begins with this warm, inviting meal, one they can connect over.
This connection unfortunately proves faulty as time goes on. By the time they move in together,
the meals shared by the couple are not quite the same. The first meal shown in the story features
a fish stew made by Twinkle, but this is no ordinary fish stew. The stew is made with the vinegar
she found with the first Christ figurine, placed on a Jesus trivet, and finally covered with a
dishtowel featuring the Ten Commandments. This infatuation that Twinkle has with Christian
paraphernalia is the main issue in their relationship, and it manifests itself three ways in the first
meal of the story. The first meal in the new house is the exact opposite of the first meal they had
ever shared; instead of exemplifying hope for the future, it foreshadowed major issues to come.
Clothing is also prevalent in this phase of the relationship, as Sanjeev notes that he hates the way
she throws her undergarments at the foot of the bed instead of away in a drawer. This seemingly
insignificant issue with her handling of her clothing demonstrates his inability to deal with all of
her idiosyncrasies. Additionally, during their major fight over the statue of Mary, in which
Twinkle cries and Sanjeev yells at her, Twinkle is wearing a simple bathrobe. She is not wearing
real clothes, illustrating that a lack of care in clothing correlates to massive holes and
misunderstandings in their relationship.
Interestingly, “This Blessed House,” although similar to the other two stories in terms of
symbolism, does not follow the same plotline as them. While the first two stories end in the
termination of the relationships, this story ends with Twinkle and Sanjeev staying together. The
last scene shows Sanjeev caving in to his wife’s will, taking the bust into the living room even
though he is against doing so. This saving of their marriage, this turnaround of what seems like
the end of an unhealthy relationship has its own symbol in clothing as well. Each of the stories
prior to this one have two major stages of the relationship, love and heartbreak, but “This
Blessed House” introduces a new stage: reconciliation. Just before he agrees to carry the bust
into his living room, he moves Twinkle’s high heels out of the way so that she will not trip. This
is extremely significant because Sanjeev has previously noted that he hates when she wears high
heels, yet he moves them out of her way. This suggests that the one piece that the other
relationships are missing is not simply love but a willingness to work with one another. Sanjeev
cares about his marriage, and so he is willing to work through his issues so that they might
prosper. This idea is perhaps the strongest of the three stories, using the same symbol to
flawlessly convey a completely new concept.
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False Love, Forever Culture: “Interpreter of

Maladies,” “Sexy,” and “Hell Heaven”
April 6, 2019 by Essay Writer
Through stories of American-Bengali collision, Jhumpa Lahiri explores the nuances and
complexities of cross-cultural relations and desires. In her three distinct works, “Interpreter of
Maladies”, “Sexy”, and “Hell Heaven”, Lahiri examines how one’s roots can lead to resentment,
as well as how people can be vehicles for cultural exploration. In each story, Lahiri tells each
character’s unique stories of cultural frustration and transition through the lense of lust, both
sexual and platonic. Through this narrative of desire, Lahiri explains how while lust is often the
manifestation of cultural transitioning and dissatisfaction, it is also only temporary.
In three distinct stories dissecting American-Bengali cross-cultural relations, Lahiri uses lust to
explore the intense longings of each character to belong to a culture different than his or her own,
whether it be American or Bengali. In “Interpreter of Maladies”, Lahiri immediately establishes
this theme when Mr. Kapasi first describes Mrs. Das, the mother of the American tourist family.
In a description of intense fascination, Lahiri notes that Mr. Kapasi “observed her. She wore a
red-and-white-checkered skirt that stopped above her knees, slip-on shoes with a square wooden
heel, and a close-fitting blouse styled like a man’s undershirt” (“Interpreter of Maladies” 2). In
this description, Lahiri captures Mr. Kapasi’s lust through detailed observation and fixation on
the fit of Mrs. Das’s blouse. Hardly describing the other characters in similar detail, Lahiri
instead focuses on Mr. Kapasi’s obsession for Mrs. Das to explore how his lust for Mrs. Das is
also lust for America. Mr. Das’s attention towards the tight fit of Mrs. Das’ blouse as well as her
‘red-and-white-checkered skirt’ muddles the line between Mr. Kapasi’s attraction to Mrs. Das
and his interest in the ‘Americanness’ that the skirt and her other American attire represents.
Lahiri once again conveys desire for American culture as a lust for an individual person when
Usha, a girl raised in a traditional Bengali household, idolizes Deborah, the white, American
fiancé of her Bengali family friend.
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In contrast to Usha’s traditional Bengali outfits that her mother imposes on her, Deborah’s attire
is the archetype of American culture. Usha longs for this look and the American lifestyle it
implies and notes, “I loved her serene gray eyes, the ponchos and denim wrap skirts and sandals
she wore, her straight hair that she let me manipulate into all sorts of silly styles. I longed for her
casual appearance” (Hell-Heaven 4). Usha’s obsession not with Deborah’s personality but rather
with her appearance demonstrates Usha’s specific infatuation with the American culture that
Deborah represents. In contrast to the strict and formal lifestyle that Usha’s Bengali parents
impose on her, Deborah’s ‘casual’ appearance portrays the American freedom and ease that Usha
yearns for. Similarly, in “Sexy”, Miranda lusts after Dev in order to achieve the romantic
exoticism that she associates with his Bengali culture. Throughout the story, Miranda ties
together Dev’s Indian ethnicity with him being “worldly” and “mature” (“Sexy” 4), whether
these conclusions are fair or not. As she sits at her cubicle, Miranda fantasizes about taking
pictures with Dev at places like the Taj Majal, just as her Indian and more worldly deskmate
Laxmi already has with her boyfriend: “Miranda began to wish that there were a picture of her
and Dev tacked to the inside of her cubicle, like the one of Laxmi and her husband in front of the
Taj Mahal” (“Sexy” 4). The image of the Taj Mahal, a symbol of worldliness and Indian culture,
emphasizes Miranda’s desire to associate herself with this different culture. Miranda does not
simply want to be with Dev, but wants to be with Dev at the Taj Mahal, demonstrating how her
longing for Dev is not only for his love and companionship but also for the Indian culture that he
represents. In all three stories, Lahiri intertwines attractive features with symbols and indications
of other cultures to draw out how regardless of the characters’ awareness, their lust captures both
interpersonal and intercultural attraction.
Once this lust is established, Lahiri demonstrates how this desire derives from Mr. Kapasi and
Usha’s dissatisfaction with Bengali Culture, and Miranda’s guilt she feels towards her own
narrow American upbringing. In “Interpreter of Maladies”, Mr. Kapasi’s fantasies about Mrs.
Das stem from his unhappiness with his own marriage. While his own wife represents traditional
Bengali culture, Mrs. Das is the antithesis; while his wife serves her husband tea and dresses
conservatively, Mrs. Das is self-centered, demanding, and her attire exposes more skin. Lahiri
notes this distinction and explains “He had never seen his own wife fully naked… He had never
admired the backs of his wife’s legs the way he now admired those of Mrs. Das, walking as if for
his benefit alone” (“Interpreter of Maladies” 9). This juxtaposition contrasts Bengali and
American culture as well as highlights Mr. Kapasi’s attraction to the latter. His dissatisfaction
with his Bengali marriage not only fosters dissatisfaction for his culture, but also serves as a
point of comparison that awakens Mr. Kapasi to this perceived ‘value’ of American clothing and
culture. Usha similarly loves Deborah because she is the opposite as well as the enemy of her
mother. While her mother represents Bengali culture through her traditional family values and
reserved demeanor, Debora instead represents the American culture that Usha longs to be a part
of. As Usha’s begins to associate herself with American culture, her respect towards her mother
and her Bengali lifestyle falters: “I began to pity my mother; the older I got, the more I saw what
a desolate life she led” (“Hell-Heaven” 11). Usha’s pity for her mother who symbolizes Bengali
values not only demonstrates Usha’s disdain for Bengali culture, but also her perceived
superiority. Her choice of the word desolate further promotes this notion of a perceived hierarchy
between the two cultures by explaining how Usha’s love of America can only be so strong
because she compares America with her perception of empty Bengali culture.
However, presenting a contrast to Usha and Mr. Kapasi, Miranda’s lust derives not from
dissatisfaction, but rather guilt. Miranda, born into American culture, feels ashamed of how this
upbringing caused her to have racist misconceptions towards Bengalis. As a child, when Miranda
would pass by the home of the Dixits, a Bengali family, she “held her breath until she reached
the next lawn, just as she did when the school bus passed a cemetery. It shamed her now”
(“Sexy” 10). In Lahiri’s discussion of then vs. now, Lahiri explores how Miranda’s past informs
her present. In describing how Miranda’s only now feels shame about her past cultural
awareness, Lahiri connects Miranda’s very white, American, and homogeneous childhood
culture with her current obsession of experiencing Bengali culture through Dev. Like Mr. Kapasi
and Usha, the root of Miranda’s lust is not love but rather ulterior feelings of disgust towards her
origins.
However, ultimately Lahiri concludes that this lust is only temporary when the characters’
choose to return to the comfort of their original cultures. In “Interpreter of Maladies”, Mr. Kapasi
gives up on his hopes of a relationship with Mrs. Das when cross-cultural communication and
understanding proves to be too difficult. In a series of dissonant moments beginning with a
divided reaction to Mrs. Das’s affair, Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi’s cultural disconnect culminates
in the irredeemable loss of Mr. Kapasi’s address: “The slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address
on it fluttered away in the wind. No one but Mr. Kapasi noticed. He watched as it rose, carried
higher and higher by the breeze” (“Interpreter of Maladies” 15). This slip of paper, created at the
birth of their relationship, symbolizes Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi’s connection, as well as Mr.
Kapasi’s network beyond his own Bengali culture. As it flies away forever, Mr. Kapasi’s lust for
Mrs. Das and his hope to expand his cultural ties similarly becomes lost and irretrievable, as he
knows he will instead return to his wife and original culture. Furthermore, the way in which the
wind carries the paper away as Mr. Kapasi watches passively portrays cross-cultural
miscommunication as the natural way of the world and as something one has no choice but to
accept.
In “Sexy”, Lahiri once again notes the false and momentary nature of lust when she discusses
what the word ‘sexy’ means to Miranda as opposed to a child who is a victim of infidelity. When
Dev first calls Miranda sexy, she is blinded by lust and believes it is a sign of love, or at least
real emotion. Yet after asking Rohin, the child a cheating father, what the word ‘sexy’ means, he
explains that “it means loving someone you don’t know” (“Sexy” 13). Whereas Miranda
believed Dev used the word ‘sexy’ because he loved her truest self, Rohin realizes that in fact he
never truly knew her. Just like Miranda’s infatuation with Bengali culture, Dev’s love wasn’t
from a place of understanding, and so their love, as well as their cross-cultural relationship,
would always be too unfamiliar to last. Lahiri further enforces this point when Dev returns to his
Bengali wife and Miranda finds new friends in Manhattan, demonstrating their natural
tendencies to find comfort in similar people.
Finally, in “Hell-Heaven”, Usha witnesses this trade of cross-cultural connections for comfort
and one’s cultural origins when Pranab Kaku, her Bengali family friend, leaves Deborah for a
Bengali woman. Despite the seeming strength of his and Deborah’s relationship at the beginning
of the story, as the plot develops their lust gives way to the inevitable desire to find people who
share their backgrounds: “After twenty-three years of marriage, Pranab Kaku and Deborah got
divorced. It was he who had strayed, falling in love with a married Bengali woman” (“Sexy” 19).
Lahiri’s neutral and unsurprised tone makes clear that the Pranab and Deborah’s relationship was
hopeless from the start. Lahiri’s impartial acceptance of their fate only undermines the couple’s
history of lust and stability, demonstrating the little and temporary influence of lust, and the
immense authority of cultural ties.

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Interpreter of Maladies
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Interpreter of Maladies: Lahiri’s Guide to

Forging One’s Identity
April 1, 2019 by Essay Writer
In her collection of short stories entitled Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates the
difficulties that immigrants face when displaced and distanced from their culture. Each story
serves as a different viewpoint on cultural experience, which allows Lahiri to bring together a
detailed image of cultural displacement and the challenges it poses when forging one’s identity.
The importance of cultural ties is emphasized in the stories, as is the natural longing to achieve
such connections. However, Lahiri shows the difficulties in doing so, especially with a younger
generation that has only family ties to their culture because they have already been assimilated
into American society. She also illustrates that distance is not always a disadvantage as she
begins to show the reader the first steps to establishing one’s identity and home. The stories in
the collection Interpreter of Maladies illustrate the need and natural inclination people have to
connect with their heritage and culture while conveying how to safely make those connections
and forge one’s identity.
In Lahiri’s stories, there is a longing among the people of the younger generations to connect
with their culture, a longing that seems impossible for those assimilated into American culture.
In “Mr. Pirzada Comes to Dine,” Lilia’s mother declares proudly that her daughter was born in
America as Lilia remarks, “She seemed genuinely proud of the fact, as if it were a reflection of
my character” (Lahiri 26). However, Lilia desires to understand Mr. Pirzada and treasures the
candies that he gives to her, as if eating one made a connection with her culture. As she observes
him and her parents in the living room watching the news from overseas, she observes, “…I
remember the three of them operating during that time as if they were a single person, sharing a
single meal, a single body, a single silence, and a single fear” (Lahiri 41). Lilia is an outsider
among them because she is the first generation to be separated from her heritage by distance and
she realizes in the end a connection with her heritage is impossible as she throws away the candy
from Mr. Pirzada. In the short story “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mrs. Das attempts to make a
connection with Mr. Kapasi, which in turn would serve as a connection to her heritage from
which she is far removed. Mr. Kapasi imagines corresponding with Mrs. Das after her return to
America saying it would fulfill his dream of “serving as an interpreter between nations” (Lahiri
59). However, as his address floats away, Lahiri shows, as she did with Lilia, that a cultural
connection cannot be forged when one has already become enveloped into American culture,
which creates both a physical and cultural distance too great to overcome.
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After her negative depiction of distance, Lahiri illustrates how distance can be used as an
advantage. In “This Blessed House,” Sanjeev becomes angry at Twinkle as she collects and
displays the Christian paraphernalia all over the house to the point that he questions whether or
not he loves her. However, when she takes the partygoers to the attic, Sanjeev feels completely
alone and distanced from her in the same way that he felt at the beginning of their relationship,
when they were in a long-distance relationship. Distance allowed Sanjeev to imagine their life
together and retain a romantic view of her fashioned through their phone conversations. He sees
her shoes on the floor and “instead of feeling irritated, as he had ever since they’d moved into the
house together, he felt a pang of anticipation at the thought of her rushing unsteadily down the
winding staircase…” (Lahiri 155). Distance forges a want to make a connection with Twinkle
within Sanjeev. In “The Third and Final Continent,” there is a similar occurrence. The narrator
observes the world of Mrs. Croft, where she retains the pieces of America from her time that she
is comfortable with and securely locks the rest of the world outside. She allots him physical
distance, which allows him to create his own “country” where he can feel at home. In both cases,
distance facilitates one to retreat away from reality and create a romanticized view of their world,
an illusion that encourages and aids connections with others.
Alongside the positive view of distance and its usefulness, Lahiri also illustrates the dangers of
forging this type of connection. In “A Real Durwan,” Boori Ma creates her own identity by
painting elaborate pictures of her past. In the same way that a romanticized version of reality can
aid connections in the real world, Boori Ma’s tales help her accept the harsh reality of her life.
Those around her suspect that “she probably constructs tales as a way of mourning the loss of her
family” (Lahiri 72). She grounds her identity in her savings and the keys she keeps in her sari.
After these are stolen, her forged identity is shattered. She has failed as the guard to her identity
and calls out for the people to believe her and her claims. However, when she shakes her sari to
emphasize her point and nothing jingles, she can no longer believe herself. Similarly, Mrs. Sen
attempts to keep India with her by placing rugs around the house and cooking traditional Indian
food. She also continues to identify her home as India and states, “Everything is there” (Lahiri
113). However, the letters that she allows to come through shatter the illusion of being in India
within her apartment because it reminds her that home is thousands of miles away, where life is
continuing without her. Boori Ma grounds her identity in concrete and insignificant things,
namely the savings and keys, while Mrs. Sen continues to identify her true home as India,
making both illusory coping mechanisms faulty and impossible to maintain.
In her short story collection, Jhumpa Lahiri establishes the need for a connection with one’s
culture and illustrates both the right and wrong way to forge such a connection. The strong
longing to connect with one’s culture is illustrated in Lilia and Mrs. Das as they both attempt to
make unsuccessful connections with those that embody their heritage. Next, Lahiri illustrates that
distance itself is not the problem by showing that it can be used to one’s advantage. Distance can
encourage a romantic view of the world, which aids one in making connections with others. At
the end of “The Third and Final Continent,” Lahiri finalizes her discussion about forging one’s
identity by illustrating the best way to do so. In the final lines, the narrator identifies his great
accomplishment by stating, “While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon,
I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years” (Lahiri 198). He avoids the faults of
Boori Ma and Mrs. Sen because he finds his cultural ties in nothing material and identifies his
home as where he resides. He has forged an identity within this “third continent,” which
symbolizes the world he has created for himself that cannot be tainted or taken away from him.
He claims, “…I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person
I have known, each room in which I have slept” (Lahiri 198). He does not feel the displacement
of being thousands of miles away from the country of his birth and yet he carries all the miles he
has traveled with him, making his identity a collection of where he has been and what he has
accomplished that is grounded in himself.
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The Dual Womanist Perspective of Jhumpa

Lahiri’s Short Stories
March 24, 2019 by Essay Writer
Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer Prize-winning short story author, one who has been lauded as one of
the first authors to establish a literature for Indian/Bengali-Americans. These diasporic writings
address many issues that involve adapting to new cultures, generational relationships and
traditional gender roles for both men and women. Many have declared that Lahiri is a proponent
of feminism, however, a closer reading of her the characters and plot within her short stories
reveals that her writings display both pro-womanist and anti-womanist sentiments. Jhumpa
Lahiri has written two books of short stories: Unaccustomed Earth and The Interpreter of
Maladies. These short stories contribute to the womanist genre but also subvert this genre in
other ways by placing the masculine over the feminine. This occurs in “A Temporary Matter”
from “The Interpreter of Maladies” as well as “Unaccustomed Earth” and Nobody’s Business”
from her other collection. An examination of characters and plot within these stories allows us to
see the conflict that is created between the expected gender roles of male and females,
generational differences in the perspective of this dichotomy, as well as the difficulties that
surround cultural diasporization—all of which demonstrates that her stories contribute and
detract from womanist ideals. If many of her critics would take a closer look “they would have
known her to be writing against rather than with those significant segments of the past half-
century’s feminist culture” (Cussen 5).
The womanist movement differs from that of feminism only because it is focused on women of
color, in this case American-Bengali women. Thus it may seem it requires an even greater focus
because of the greater persecution of women of color over Caucasian women, though both often
lie at a disadvantage. Up until this point, womanism has primarily focused on African women
and the desire they have for greater freedom and rights. Other forms of womanism may develop
but in the meantime, “Indian-/Bengali-American womanism is yet to be heard of, let alone
articulated and this is unfortunate. Though she never explicitly addresses womanism by name in
her fiction, the womanistic manifestations of Jhumpa Lahiri in her various works of fiction
provide an insightful point of exploration” (Kasun 8). Many of the characters in her stories are
women that are exploring their independence in the face of their traditional genders role, rooted
in their culture. Indian/Bengali women face different cultural expectations than African or
Middle Eastern women would and Jhumpa Lahiri seems to make an effort at raising awareness
of their plight. However, we can also see evidence that contradicts a womanist reading of her
collections of short stories. Her stories “highlight Lahiri’s intervention in complicating and
expanding feminist critical expectations” (Ranasinha 175).
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The first of these stories is “A Temporary Matter”. It begins with a young married couple,
Shukumar and Shoba. Despite the fact that they are married, because of a tragedy they live like
strangers until a scheduled electrical outage in the neighborhood brings them together. The four
nights of darkness gives them time to talk to teach other. We are slowly given bits and pieces of
memory that bring insight to the distance that separate Shukumar and Shoba. It is revealed that
they are mourning over the death of their stillborn baby. This traumatic loss drives a wedge
between them. The readers feel hope that they can be reconciled because with each night of
darkness, they confess more and more of their secrets to each other. Many of them are simple
things like having a late night with a friend, a photo from a magazine, or disliking a sweater vest.
However, this hope for their marriage is quickly dimmed as they both reveal one last confession.
Shoba admits that she is moving out and has found her own apartment and Shukumar tells her
that he saw and held their stillborn son. Ultimately, “they wept for the things they now knew”
(Lahiri, “Interpreter of Maladies” 22).
In this story, Lahiri uses her descriptions of Shoba to place masculine over feminine. In this vein
of thought, “the woman becomes the object, the body, wheras the masculine is granted the power
of asserting his nihilating look at the feminine being-in-itself as a passive object” (Asl 124). This
idea of nihilating the female by placing the masculine in a station of power and the metaphor of
vision are both connected with constructs of sexual differences and gender roles. We see this
phenomenon in advertising and the way that a woman’s physical appearance is viewed. Men are
frequently placed in a position of power while women are merely passive objects in the story of
their lives. This is obvious in the writing of Lahiri in “A Temporary Matter” because Shoba is
frequently being looked at by Shukumar or described to the reader. She is reduced to a physical
entity as she and Shukumar only occupy the same space physically, not emotionally. This is a
method Lahiri also uses in a few of her other stories. It undermines a feminist reading of the
story. Her physical appearance is discussed frequently throughout the story. In one instance,
Shukumar notes that “her beauty, which had once overwhelmed him, seemed to fade. The
cosmetics that had seemed superfluous were necessary now, not to improve her but to define her
somehow” (14). Shoba is put into the position of being looked at and relegated to being an object
which is defined by her cosmetics. Shukumar can no longer relate to her on an emotional level
and this is causing their marriage to fall apart.
Even before the death of their baby, Shukumar seeks some sort of attraction elsewhere. During
the course of their secret telling, he admits to her that he had cut out a picture of a woman—an
advertisement for stockings—that he had found strangely attractive because Shoba had been
pregnant at the time and had grown so large “to the point where Shukumar no longer wanted to
touch her” (19). Especially pregnant, Shoba was not attractive to him anymore and he found
himself in a position of dominance over her because of this perspective on her attractiveness. “A
Temporary Matter” relegates women to an object in the sight of men and is in direct contrast to
the idea that Lahiri is primarily a feminist writer who portrays strong, independent female
characters that resist cultural norms. Another story that introduces the same idea of women being
objectified is “Nobody’s Business” which is also introduced in the collection “Unaccustomed
Earth.” Sang, an Indian American immigrant, is in a relationship with Farouk, an Egyptian man
who is away in Vancouver. Farouk returns and he and Sang spend all of their time together. One
of her roommates, Paul, is fascinated by her and wishes that he could be in a relationship with
her. While Sang is visiting her sister in London, Paul receives a phone call from a woman named
Deirdre who says that she is Farouk’s lover. Paul decides not to tell Sang what happened.
Eventually she finds out that a woman but does not believe Paul when he tells her what she had
called about. Eventually she listens in to a conversation between Deirdre and Paul, Sang decides
to go to Farouk’s apartment and she and Paul confront him together. Farouk and Paul fight and
eventually the police arrive to calm things down. Sang then returns to London to be with her
sister and Paul goes about his life before Sang arrived.
Sang, like Shuma, is frequently described physically in the way that Paul (who desire to have a
relationship with her) perceives her. At one point, he sees her in a towel after just finishing a
shower. “For weeks, he had longed to catch a glimpse of her this way, and still he felt wholly
unprepared for the vision of her bare legs and arms, her damp face and shoulders” (Lahiri,
“Unaccustomed Earth” 190). Just like Shuma, she is relegated to an object—a phenomenon that
Paul hopes to catch a glimpse of. It is interesting that we never get many physical descriptions of
Paul, Farouk, or any other man in her stories. But nearly every story has a description of what the
woman looks like. Paul sees her again when “she came up to his room, wearing a pretty dress
he’d never seen, a white cotton short-sleeved dress, fitted at the waist. The neck was square,
showing off her collarbones” (205). This is an example of when “the woman becomes the object,
the body, wheras the masculine is granted the power of asserting his nihilating look at the
feminine being-in-itself as a passive object” (Asl 124). Despite the examples of independent,
feminist women in her stories, Lahiri reminds her readers of the reality that women are
frequently relegated to objects in both the Western world and the Indian/Bengali culture. Another
story written by Lahiri that suggests the complicated dichotomy between male and females is
“Unaccustomed Earth” from her second book of short stories. This short story involves familial
relationships between three generations, a father, daughter, and grandson. This is in addition to
the discussion of cultural immersion and gender roles. However, we do not see objectification of
the female character. The father visits his daughter, Ruma, and her son, Akash.
After her mother’s death, Ruma suddenly felt a strong desire to resume many of the same roles
that her mother played. Ruma left a successful career outside the home to raise children while
her husband Adam supports her. After her two-week bereavement after her mother’s death,
“overseeing her client’s futures, preparing their wills and refinancing their mortgages, felt
ridiculous to her, and all she wanted was to stay home with Akash” (“Unaccustomed Earth” 5).
She suddenly has more of a desire for maternity, a womanist trait, and Lahiri points out that “it
was the house that was her work now” (6). Since it is also her choice to stay at home, she does
display more independence and ability than someone might who is forced to remain at home by
cultural requirements. It is also interesting to note that despite the fact that her father is of a more
traditional Bengali culture, he encourages her to seek employment outside of the home. He
himself is beginning to embrace Western ideas when he begins dating a woman who wears
western clothing, like cardigans and slacks. However, Ruma finds staying at home with her son
more fulfilling and does not seem to miss the time that she had in the work place. This
demonstration of choice in her desire to remain at home, Ruma is different from some of Lahiri’s
other characters who stay at home like Mrs. Sen or who in reality don’t speak much throughout
the story, like Shoba. “By placing her female characters in traditional roles—such as nearly
silent, often jobless housewives and/or mothers—Lahiri displays, through the inner monologue
and narrative of her female characters, their impact on other characters’ consciousnesses, and
their communal bonding—in short, their great power…despite situating her female characters as
outwardly powerless in Western society, Lahiri reveals their inner adaptability yet not over-
assimilatory nature” (Kasun 20). The character of Ruma really demonstrates the contrast
between the traditional gender roles encouraged by Indian/Bengali culture and the ideas of
feminism and womanism that many believe Lahiri promotes. She has an ability to choose for
herself a career and be independent, but she realizes that she is drawn to the responsibility of
motherhood and staying at home with her son instead of seeking the Western idea of success in a
professional life. Lahiri is presenting her audience with the idea that maybe gender expectations
can fit with the ideas of womanism.
We see that the subversion and support of a feminist reading of Lahiri’s works exist
simultaneously. Both tradition and non-traditional gender roles are demonstrated which leads us
to realize that in these stories “the configuration of gender roles for both male and female
characters become an intertwined, continuous process. Although there are some characteristics
that can be attributed to the different generations of character, an analysis of these narratives
show that they reject stereotypical representations of male or female characters” (Marques vi).
When characters are surrounded by their own culture, it becomes easier and more necessary to
follow the normative approach to gender roles and the traditions of their culture. Many of
Lahiri’s stories involve Indian/Bengalis who are transplanted into a new Western culture where
traditional gender roles are not necessarily the norm. Their diasporic state creates a conflict
between the culture of their heritage and the desire to assimilate with their newfound culture.
This creates situations where we begin to see a rejection of typical gender roles and stereotypes.
One of the examples of the rejection of these stereotypes is in how Lahiri writes her male
characters. Traditionally male characters in Asian diasporic literature are oppressive figures who
are esteemed above women. However, most of the characters in these short stories “struggle
almost in the same manner as the female characters do to deal with their feelings of being
hyphenated subjects who live in between worlds. As a consequence, the male characters in her
narratives often distance themselves from the stereotypical representation of Indian male
characters” (Marques 3). We can look at Shukumar for an example of a non-traditional male
character. At the beginning of his marriage to Shoba it seems that she followed the gender
expectations of their culture by cooking traditional foods for him and cleaning the house.
However, after the death of their baby, their roles seem to become opposite. Shukumar begins to
do more of the cooking. He stays at home and makes sure that the chores get done around the
house. Despite the fact that womanists may choose to reject typical gender roles, they celebrate
characteristics like maternity. After the death of her child in pregnancy, she rejects this role of
motherhood and seeks to separate herself from femininity in many ways and chooses to work
outside of the home more and more until Shukumar does take over the daily duties around the
house. Lahiri paints her characters in the typical male/female fashion and then chooses to subvert
these characteristics through small differences that separate them from the typical mold.
Another example of a non-traditional male character in Lahiri’s stories is Paul, Sang’s roommate
in “Nobody’s Business.” He is not of the same culture as Sang but he does not follow many of
the gender norms that have been placed on males even in Western culture. We find him to be
unexpectedly feminine. He does not have a strong, assertive personality and has retreated into
some form of a shell. Even though the story is written in a third person perspective of his life,
Sang is the center focus. He wants to have a relationship with Sang but does nothing to make this
a reality. In a self-analysis of a previous relationship, as it came to an end he realizes that “he had
not argued; in the wake of his shame, he became strangely efficient and agreeable, with her, with
everyone” (“Unaccustomed Earth” 187). Many would see this reaction as a fairly feminine one.
He becomes a spectator in his own relationship and accepts the fate that she places onto him. He
feels shame and hides by becoming agreeable with everyone—a common coping mechanism for
women. The only point that it seems he displays masculine characteristics is when he goes with
Sang to confront Farouk and they get into a fight. Despite this, Paul is generally a contradiction
—not the masculine character you might expect him to be. Lahiri continues to throw off the
balance between the male and female characters in her stories.
Even in “Unaccustomed Earth,” Ruma’s father, who may seem even more displaced because of
generational differences begins to embrace western ideas and finds himself struggling to
continue to accept the gender norms of his culture. He had been married so long to a tradition
woman who cared for him by cleaning, cooking, and being his companion that now that she has
passed away, he seeks the companionship of someone radically different. This can be seen as his
rejection of a need for traditional roles and a support of both feminist and womanist culture. He
also encourages his daughter to work outside of the home despite the fact that this advice goes
against much of what their traditional cultural norms are. Ruma’s father is an excellent example
of upending the traditional gender roles and upholding a womanist reading of “Unaccustomed
Earth”
In some of Lahiri’s stories we see her placing men as the more dominant characters who place
the women as objects that they look at, such as in “A Temporary Matter” with Shoba and
Shukumar or with Paul and Sang in “Nobody’s Business.” However, we also see the male
characters taking on female characteristics like Shukumar’s desire to remain at home and take on
the household chores and Paul’s inability to be assertive and put himself in control of his
relationships. Even still, Lahiri does uphold feminist ideals throughout some of her stories which
complicates a critical reading of her stories. Although some scholars would like to use Lahiri’s
short stories as an example of purely womanist themes, further examination reveals that the
dichotomy between male and female is increasingly complicated. This is especially true in
Lahiri’s text because of the complication of cultural differences and the Indian-Bengali diaspora.
Her writings both contribute and contest the ideas of womanism and feminism in a way that
demonstrates the difficulty of assigning one reading or the other to these short stories.
Works Cited
Asl, Moussa Pourya, Simon Peter Hull, and Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah. “Nihilation of
Femininity in the Battle of Looks: A Sartrean Reading of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary
Matter”” GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies 16.2 (2016): n. pag. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.
Cussen, John. “The William Morris in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Wallpaper and Other of the Writer’s
Reproofs to Literary Scholarship.” Journal of Ethnic American Literature 2 (2012): 5-72. Web.
Kasun, Genna Welsh. “Womanism and the Fiction of Jhumpa Lahiri.” Thesis. The University of
Vermont, 2009. Print. Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies: Stories. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1999. Print.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. Print.
Marques, Carine Pereira. “Unaccustomed Narratives: Crossing Gender Barriers in the Fiction of
Jhumpa Lahiri.” Thesis. Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais, 2013. Print.
Ranasinha, Ruvani. “Migration, Gender and Globalization in Jhumpa Lahiri.” Contemporary
Diasporic South Asian Women’s Fiction: Gender, Narration and Globalisation. London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 175. Print.
167
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Food Symbolism in Lahiri’s “Interpreter of

Maladies”
March 8, 2019 by Essay Writer
Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short works that explore and examine issues of
identity and assimilation between Indian and American cultures. Weaved into and between each
story and each struggle is the presence of traditional Indian food and the nuances of its ritualized
preparation. It serves as a metaphor for several things in interaction with the coping protagonists
of her stories: community, normalcy, culture, love, and so on. The meaning of food, its
implications and effects, is most prevalent in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Mrs. Sen’s,”
and “A Temporary Matter.”
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” exudes food symbolism from beginning to end, even in its
title. “Coming to dine” is, in and of itself, a social event, a routinized gathering to share space
and conversation over a meal. Sifting through phone books and university directories, Lilia’s
parents search tirelessly for Indian surnames in an attempt to find dinner company – that is, until
they find a Pakistani man named Mr. Pirzada. When he arrives at their home, he introduces a
portrait of his daughters, “producing from his wallet a black-and-white picture of seven girls at a
picnic… eating chicken curry off of banana leaves.” (23) Picnicking represents recreation and
familial bonding, and his introduction of them through that particular snapshot of their lives
frames them in a context that Lilia can relate to and empathize with. When Lilia’s father tries to
explain that Mr. Pirzada “is no longer considered Indian,” Lilia finds it hard to recognize the
differences between he and her parents, noting that they both “ate pickled mangoes with their
meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands… for dessert dipped austere biscuits into
successive cups of tea” and interacted like any other Indians would. (25) Even at her young age,
Lilia understands the meaning of food eaten between people of like-culture, the sense of security
and the shared understanding that come with it. In several scenes, Lilia helps her mother prepare
the table for dining or sets condiments and spices beside their plates, fully aware of the refined
blend of tastes customary – even expected – of Indian meals. She describes her mother’s efforts
in putting together a meal for her family, bringing forth a “succession of dishes” to the living
room where they would sit across from the television and await news from Dacca. (30) The labor
afforded by her mother is representative of Indian tradition and the women that spend hours in
the kitchen concocting elaborate traditional meals for their guests on a nightly basis. By bringing
the food out of the dining room and onto the couch, Lahiri signifies an informal scene; in this
way, she uses food to break down the polite distance between family and invitee and creates a
smaller, more special space.
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In “Mrs. Sen’s,” Lahiri presents the significance of food in a much less communal setting,
through the eyes of a young boy – Elliot – under the wary supervision of a lone professor’s wife.
Separated by an ocean from her family, Mrs. Sen uses the ritualized practice of cutting
vegetables, cooking stews, and hand-selecting fish to keep ties with her ideas of normalcy and
sociality. Elliot observes that a great deal of Mrs. Sen’s day is occupied by her detailed
preparation for grandiose meals she serves her husband when he returns from work. She lays out
newspapers opposite the television and sits comfortably with a steel blade, peeling, slicing, and
chopping an assortment of vegetables for nearly an hour every day. The procedure utilizes a
cultural instrument and reflects, as Mrs. Sen explains to Elliot, a ritual of sorts in which
neighborhood women celebrated an important event by “[sitting] in an enormous circle on the
roof of [her] building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the
night.” (115) Her recollection of the practice as a social event, a scaffold for bonding between
women, juxtaposes her alternate practice, performed without need for occasion and with only the
television to keep her company; it only emphasizes her estrangement from family and friends,
and reiterates her day-to-day alienation. The lengths to which Mrs. Sen is willing to go to secure
fresh fish for her dishes, and the precise care with which she portions and fillets each one, is
extremely telling of how important cooking proper meals is for traditional Indian women. She
pushes herself out of her comfort zone to travel to the fish market by the beach, even going as far
as getting behind the wheel without a license when Mr. Sen is unavailable (or unwilling) to drive
her all the way over. Lahiri also uses Mrs. Sen to draw a distinction between a traditional Indian
woman and Elliot’s American mother and how their cooking, or the degree to which they do,
signifies a pronounced difference in culture. Every evening, when Elliot’s mother comes to pick
him up, Mrs. Sen extends the courtesy of inviting her into the living room and serves her
something to eat; she always nibbles a bit on whatever she’s given, chalks up her small appetite
to a late lunch, and then orders a pizza for she and Elliot when they arrive home. Mrs. Sen’s rigor
toward preparing home-cooked meals is absolutely lost on Elliot’s mother. Correspondingly,
Elliot feels much more involved and important when observing the effort by Mrs. Sen to prepare
and cook dinner for her husband than when his mother orders takeout and leaves him to wrap
leftovers on his own. The hours spent preparing traditional meals is indicative of a sense of
appreciation and compassion by Indian mothers for their children, while fast food feels more
indifferent, and speaks more to the weaker affections (or lack thereof) between an American
mother and her child.
Lahiri explores the ideas of love and compassion as represented by food and cooking in “A
Temporary Matter” through the experiences of a disjointed married couple, Shoba and Shukmar.
Following the death of their newborn son, Shukmar witnesses a profound change in his wife –
her intrinsic “capacity to think ahead,” her impulse to prepare and store ready-to-serve, home-
cooked food for any possible visitor or occasion, suddenly disappears. (6) He recalls her ability
to “throw together meals that appeared to have taken half a day to prepare… peppers she had
marinated herself with rosemary, and chutneys that she cooked on Sundays, stirring boiling pots
of tomatoes and prunes” and the gratification it provided her. (7) Shukmar’s testimony of the
stark contrast of his wife before and after their son’s death is representative of the heart put into
Shoba’s traditional home cooking; when her grief presides her efforts, she completely stops
caring to even heat up meals from her prepared stock, leaving Shukmar to heat up what was left
for the two of them and noting that, “if it weren’t for him, Shoba would eat a bowl of cereal for
her dinner.” (8) He can just as easily purchase ready-made, microwaveable meals for Shoba to
heat up, but his concern for her wellbeing and willingness – enthusiasm, even – to pore through
her cookbooks and prepare full meals for their dinner indicates that he loves her, and still cares to
extend the effort. Inversely, he notes that, “for their first anniversary, Shoba had cooked a ten-
course dinner just for him,” but gifted him a lone sweater-vest for their third anniversary, and
presently has stopped cooking for him altogether – a sequence symbolic of their depreciating
relationship. (18) In this story, Lahiri uses cooking and preparation of food as a measure of
sentiment and intimacy, comparing endeavors in the kitchen to the strength of the couple’s
deteriorating marriage.
It holds true within any culture that a home-cooked meal brings people together and allows
bridges to be built, but Lahiri takes the meaning of food to another level. Like many other things,
traditional cooking and food tips the scales in the balancing act of maintaining a sense of both
cultures and ties people to their roots. Through her characters, their meals possess a special
symbolism and act as a means of grappling with the conflicting ideas of culture, identity, and
emotion that come with being immigrants or first-generation members of a community.
133
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The Interpreter of Girls: How Kincaid and

Lahiri Write Women
March 5, 2019 by Essay Writer
Among the many problems of society, the constrictions of gender has been perennially prevalent.
From birth, people are forced to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex.
Such constrictions are better associated with women because culture places more burden on
them. For instance, female vanity is solely for the purpose to attract a man, yet is a double edged
sword. A natural look is considered unattractive yet a woman who wears a lot of makeup and
minimal clothing is thought to sleep around. Moreover, the majority of female expectations
involve her submission to a man, in which she is obligated to love and cater to one. These
requirements are the basis of Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl.” Embedded in the necessary commands is
the harsh criticism of women in culture, presenting the societal image of what a female is
supposed to be and represent. If the girl does not heed to this advice, she will become much like
Mrs. Das, the heroine in “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri. This short story tells of the
Das family on vacation in India, following a tour led by Mr. Kapasi. In disregarding “Girl”’s
advice, Mrs. Das is not conscious of being a woman in Interpreter of Maladies, in which her
carelessness illustrates her as promiscuous and unloving.
The introduction of “Interpreter of Maladies” immediately takes note of Mrs. Das’s “shaved,
largely bare legs” (Lahiri, 335) dragging across the back of the car seat. Even though this
statement is in the point of view Mr. Kapasi, it shows an immediate attraction. At the same time,
her clothing captures the same interest. While “observing her,” Mr. Kapasi describes her wearing
“a red and white checkered skirt that stopped above her knees, slip on shoes with a square
wooden heel, and a close fitting blouse…decorated at chest level with a calico applique in the
shape of a strawberry” (Lahiri, 337). Details such as the length of the skirt and fit of the blouse
point to Mrs. Das’s licentiousness. Her revealing outfit directly contradicts the warning in “Girl”:
“this is how to hem a dress when you can see the hem going down and so to prevent yourself
from looking like a slut I know you are so bent on becoming” (Kincaid, 120). This translates to
the idea of clothing, or lack thereof, as being sexualized. The less clothes a woman wears, the
more promiscuous she is perceived to be.
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Repeated several times in “Girl”, the threat of being called a slut is often used as the
consequence of being ignorant towards womanly duties. For example, the speaker chides her to
“walk like a lady” on Sundays and not like the “slut you are so bent on becoming” (Kincaid,
120). The next repeated element, “bent on becoming,” makes the speaker, and therefore the
reader, believes the girl wants to be perceived sexually by men. This correlates with Mrs. Das’s
affair with her husband’s friend, resulting in Bobby’s birth, for “she made no protest when the
friend touched the small of her back, the pulled her against his crisp navy suit” (Lahiri, 350). The
consent shows that Mrs. Das reciprocated the same sexual desire, thus wanting the other man to
be sexually attracted to her. When Mrs. Das tells Mr. Kapasi of this affair, her main intention is
to gain his sympathy, but perhaps she also wants Mr. Kapasi to see her as a woman not bound by
marriage.
Despite his job as an interpreter of maladies, Mr. Kapasi does not understand the purpose of the
confession; in fact he finds it “depressing, all the more when he thought of Mr. Das at the top of
the path” (Lahiri, 351). Revealing the truth about Bobby evokes repulsion in Mr. Kapasi,
fittingly the one that the speaker in “Girl” predicts. Again cautioning against the pitfalls of
promiscuity, the speaker instructs, “this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know
you very well, and this way they won’t immediately recognize the slut I have warned you against
becoming” (Kincaid, 120). This piece of advice applies to “Interpreter of Maladies” in regards to
the Mr. Kapasi’s reaction after her confession of adultery. He is illustrated as the “man who
doesn’t know you very well,” and her “behavior in the presence of him” disobeys what the
speaker instructed. As a result, Mr. Kapasi discerns Mrs. Das differently for the worse. His
realization of her as a “woman not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children,
who had already fallen out of love with life” (Lahiri, 351), further discerns Mrs. Das as someone
who is careless in both sex and love. Her carelessness about these two subjects extends to a
carelessness of how men morally perceive her. In relation to “Girl,” Mrs. Das is therefore is
careless of her duties as a woman.
Although sex plays a role in the downfalls of women, love is an inevitable component that can
redeem its seemingly immoral quality. The speaker in “Girl” teaches the girl “how to love a man,
and if this doesn’t work there are other ways” (Kincaid, 120). The absence of love in the Das
family provides a reason for the wife’s wantonness as another “way” to express a feeling similar
to it. However, committing adultery does the opposite, for it exhibits that Mrs. Das has no love
for her husband or children. Along with Mr. Das, her interactions as a spouse and parent show a
disconnect between the Das family. They “bicker” over who should tend to their child, and ends
up with Mrs. Das “relenting” because Mr. Das took responsibility the day before, as well as the
lack air conditioning in the car (Lahiri, 335, 339). When they do not argue, they ignore each
other, especially Mr. Das, who is too focused on photography to pay his wife or children any
mind. Instead, Mrs. Das converses with Mr. Kapasi, emphasizing her lack of feeling for him, as
well as her flirtatiousness with other men. Combined with their bickering, their alienation of each
other could be considered bullying, which “Girl” addresses: “this is how to bully a man, this is
how a man bullies you” (Kincaid, 120). The speaker wants the girl to be aware of bullying so she
will be able to love, but Mrs. Das is incapable of loving her husband, and can only communicate
with him through conflict.
In their focus elsewhere, Mr. Kapasi and the reader sees the couple as parents who neglect their
children. Mr. Das continuously asks his children where the others are, and Mrs. Das chides her
daughter for wanting to interact with her. When Bobby is being beaten by the monkeys, neither
of them step in to rescue their son. Their inability to care for their children is a product of their
lost love, so they cannot project it onto them. Although the advice of “Girl” is told through a
conversation, the speaker can be perceived as an older, wiser, woman such as a mother or
grandmother. Despite their harsh tone, the speaker is probably informing her of this brutal reality
of women out of love. They want the girl to seriously consider the instructions because if she
does not, society will view her as dishonorable and unconventional. In this way, this female
authority figure cares about the girl, as she only wants the best for her, which will be
accomplished by conforming to society’s expectations for women. In contrast, the lack of
connection between Mrs. Das and her daughter expands on her carelessness. Juxtaposed with the
parental figure in “Girl,” Mrs. Das uses similar abrasiveness towards the children, but there is no
evidence of her love for them. Both of these portraits of parenthood are unconventional, yet it is
clear that one implicitly is out of love, and the other is completely devoid of it.
Kincaid and Lahiri utilize the female in their short stories as a mechanism of the point of view.
The rules and regulations are clear in “Girl,” so the reader can easily understand what society
expects of a girl and its cruel reality. Despite a different setting, the commentary applies to
“Interpreter of Maladies” because Mrs. Das is the product of failure to comply to it. She does not
embrace the commands of modesty and love, and in choosing to ignore it, she is deemed a slut
who is inept of endearment towards her family. By rebelling against the speaker in “Girl,” it is
evident that Mrs. Das is not conscious about being a proper woman. In its ending, the young girl
also rebels, asking if the baker will let her feel the bread, and the speaker is stunned: “You mean
after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?”
(Kincaid, 121). A prime example of this kind of woman is Mrs. Das, who has relinquished her
values and responsibilities of being a woman in society, resulting in a negative reflection of her
character.
Works Cited
Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, pgs. 119-121. Spencer Richard
Jones London. W.W. Norton Company and Inc. 2014, 2011, 2006. Print.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Interpreter of Maladies.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, pgs. 335-353.
Spencer Richard Jones London. W.W. Norton Company and Inc. 2014, 2011, 2006. Print.