Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies and Character Identity Based on Cultural Influences
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies and Character Identity Based on Cultural Influences
Introduction
The majority of ethnic literature has the common theme of some sort of border issue, whether they are geographical, socio-economic, or cultural borders. In these works of literature, the characters endure some sort of situation that puts them in conflict that causes them to become aware of these borders. These situations force the characters to think about where they stand on such borders. Do they belong on one side? Do they want to belong somewhere else? Have they come to peace with living with one foot on one side of the border while the other remains on the other side or does this cause the character to feel torn between the two sides because it is not what is expected of them?
Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize winning work, Interpreter of Maladies, is a collection of nine stories each one centering on characters of Indian decent either living in the United States or in India. The characters in these stories have something else in common besides their ethnic backgrounds. In these stories, especially in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent,” the characters show that their identity has a direct connection to their Indian culture. In Lahiri’s collection she tells stories of characters that may have been born in India and then immigrated to the United States as well as characters that are American born Indians. She shows in these stories that those Indians that have emigrated from India to the United States have a difficult time assimilating to the American culture whereas those who have been born here are used to the American customs.
Typically, we as outsiders expect that the identity of India as a country would be united in aspects of ethnicity, religion and linguistics. However, according to Karen Smith in her article “India’s Identity and its Global Aspirations,” she states the exact opposite of what one would expect. Regardless of what it expected, even those in a country different then the one we live in or those of a different ethnicity or culture have internal struggles with their identity. More specifically, the characters in Lahiri’s stories “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent,” show that identity is not only what we make of it but that identity derives from culture and the borders the build the identity.
Background
An important feature that will be discussed in this paper is the effect that one’s culture, religion; language has on them as a person. In the article “India’s Identity and its Global Aspirations,” Smith states: “Some authors emphasize the fact that India’s national identity is particularly precarious and that numerous subnational ethnic, religious and linguistic identities threaten the idea of a united India. It must also be kept in mind that internally, multiple perceptions of identity vie for dominance,” (Smith 371). What Smith means by this is that these cultural aspects, (ethnicity, religion, and language), are greatly determined by one’s culture, and that in India these aspects of one’s identity try to dominate over the other. This fight for dominance between different aspects of one’s culture is known to tear an individual into two or even three directions and it is these separate identities that prevent India, or any culture really, from being strongly united. This is an internal dilemma that Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters go through in one way or another.
An important aspect of the discussion presented in this work will be of the global diaspora. Throughout the process of my research I came across this idea of the global diaspora in almost every article of research I came across that was applicable to this paper. The meaning behind the word “diaspora” means the dispersion of a people from their original homeland. In the article “Intellectual India: Reason, Identity, and Dissent,” Ganeri believes that:
Modern Indian identities in the global diaspora, as much as in India itself can call upon all these voices and traditions, re-think them, adapt and modify them, use the resources of reason they make available in deliberation about who to be, how to behave, and on what to agree. That is a fundamental freedom, one which he ought not to be surrendered in binding oneself to narrower, constricted understanding of what India is (Ganeri 262).
In this excerpt from Ganeri’s article, he believes that with the idea of a modern Indian identity the people can adapt and essentially outgrow the idea of living by ideas that tell one how to act or how to behave. Instead of allowing the different identities to continuously fight for dominance, referring to what Smith was saying, Ganeri suggests that we adapt and reevaluate what those identities are. He uses the concept of the global diaspora to show that India is one people made up of many different peoples around the globe and that the modern Indian identity is not the purely homogenous group of people that others expect it to be.
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”
The story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” is the second story in Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection Interpreter of Maladies. This story is told in the point of view of little girl named Lilia, a second generation Indian. Her parents are the hosts of a man named Mr. Pirzada who has traveled to Boston to study the plant life at the university. Although Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s family share many of the same traits, “…spoke the same language, laughed at the same jokes, looked more or less the same…” (Lahiri 25), they differ in the fact that Mr. Pirzada is not Indian. He comes from the town of Dacca, which is in Eastern Pakistan. This idea that Mr. Pirzada and her parents are different from each other confuses Lilia and she does not really understand the difference between them until she begins to see the terrible war ridden environment that is Dacca on the evening news during the time of Mr. Pirzada’s stay.
Lilia is a curious a young girl and when she is told that Mr. Pirzada is not Indian she decides to pay extra attention to the differences between him and her parents. “Lilia’s mounting confusions as to determining the ‘identity’ of Mr. Pirzada does crisscross the multifarious tributaries to the construction ‘identity,’” (Bhattacharjya 2). Lilia starts her observations of Mr. Pirzada’s differences at dinner time one evening “I began to study him with extra care, to try and figure out what made him different,” (Lahiri 30). One of the things that she takes note of is the pocket watch that Mr. Pirzada keeps with him, “…he took out a plain silver watch without a band…Unlike the watch on his wrist, the pocket watch, he explained to me, was set to the local time in Dacca, eleven hours ahead,” (Lahiri 30). This watch of Mr. Pirzada’s is a representation of his longing to be with his family. Other than the fact that Mr. Pirzada is not an Indian and that he carries this pocket watch with the time of home in Dacca, Lilia begins to understand that there really is no difference between her parents and their strange guest.
Lilia’s concept of identity here revolves around the idea that if one acts the same, looks the same and thinks in similar ways that they are obviously of the same people, which is why she is so confused about how Mr. Pirzada is different than she and her parents. According to the article, "Geo-politics and Construction of Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Story When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the author believes that “When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine is, uniquely important because it does not narrows itself down to the binary opposition of ‘home’ and ‘host’ culture; the story cuts across various significations of ‘identity’ and shows the impossibility of ascertaining the identity based upon any fixed determinant,” (Bhattacharjya 2). What Bhattacharjya means by this is that this story does not stick to the average approach to the concept idea of identity by staying with the typical ideas of the “home culture,” and the “host culture.” Bhattacharjya instead is saying that “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” shows that one’s logistical origin does not determine identity.
“Interpreter of Maladies”
Jhumpa Lahiri’s title story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” is the third story in her collection of short stories. “Interpreter of Maladies,” is the story of Mr. Kapasi, a tour guide in India and interpreter for a local doctor who does not see the importance of his job. He gives a tour for an Indian-American family who appears to be very Americanized and are tourists in a country where there families live. When Mrs. Das, the American woman on the tour tells him that she finds his interpreting job romantic and important, he becomes infatuated with her because she makes him feel important especially because his own wife does not show this kind of excitement and attention for either one of his jobs. The reason behind Mrs. Das’ interest however, is not to flatter Mr. Kapasi but to help her heal her own pain. She reveals to Mr. Kapasi that he youngest son, Bobby, is the product of an affair that she had with one her husband’s associates. Mr. Kapasi is offended by her assumption that he can heal her of her pain and asks her if it is actually guilt that she is feeling and not pain.
In this story, there are two characters that are affected by their identity in some way or another. The protagonist in this story, Mr. Kapasi, feels very unimportant with his everyday life as a tour guide in India as well as with his position as an interpreter for a local doctor in his area. His position as an interpreter is seen as a symbol for the borders of India. He is specifically an interpreter for the Gujarati dialect, which is a dying language. He serves as a bridge in between linguistic borders. The main reason behind this feeling of insignificance is because he has aspired to receive a higher education and become a diplomat of some sort. In face he felt that “The job was a sign of his failings,” (Lahiri 52). The other reason behind his lack of esteem towards his occupation is his wife’s lack of support. “If she ever referred to his position, she used the phrase ‘doctor’s assistant,’ as if the process of interpretation were equal to taking someone’s temperature, or changing a bedpan. She never asked him about the patients that came into the doctor’s office or said that his job was a big responsibility,” (Lahiri 53). Mr. Kapasi’s wife’s lack of interest towards her husband’s occupation contributes to this lack of self-esteem which is why he is so thrilled when Mrs. Das takes such interest in his position.
The differences between Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das is the perfect example of the differences between a native Indian and an American born Indian. Mrs. Das appears to be a typical American woman when she is described in the point of view of Mr. Kapasi when he picks up the Indian American family from their hotel, “She was wearing large dark brown sunglasses with a pinkish tint to them, and carried a big straw bag, almost as big as her torso, shaped like a bow,” (Lahiri 46). This description describes her to look like the typical American woman and is also a refelction of how she acts towards her family and Mr. Kapasi, which completely leaves out her Indian heritage. Her fascination with Mr. Kapasi’s occupation as an interpreter of maladies is in fact only exisistant only because she sees the possibility that he might be able to help her with the pain that she has supposedly carried with her for eight years. It is not until Mr. Kapasi asks: “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?” (Lahiri 66), that Mrs. Das really show an inkling of character by showing her guilt through the action of walking out of the car without answering Mr. Kapasi’s question. Mr. Kapasi sees Mrs. Das’ “pain” through eyes of someone whose traditional marital values are still very much an important part of his life. This is the opposite of Mrs. Das who admits to her affair and that her first born’s father is not her husband. It her Americanized identity that allows her to see her marriage as painful or a burden.
“Mrs. Sen’s”
The story “Mrs. Sen’s,” is the sixth short story in Interpreter of Maladies and it focuses on Mrs. Sen, who is an Indian immigrant who has moved to America with her husband who is a professor at the university in the area. She is a very dependent woman and identifies herself by her husband’s profession as shown in how she introduces herself to Eliot’s mother “Professor’s wife…” (Lahiri 111). She takes care of a young boy named Eliot, who observes the struggle that Mrs. Sen has with the process of assimilation. There are several things that Mrs. Sen struggles with in her attempt to assimilate to the American culture, and that is the seperation from her family in Calutta and her lack of ability to drive a car.
Mrs. Sen’s identity is very dependent on her pride of where she comes from and this is shown through the food she prepares and how she prepares it. There are certain things that she does that show how she keeps her culture and family with her from across the sea, such as the blade she uses to chop her ingredients,
She had brought a blade from India, where apparently there was at least one in every household. “Whenever there is a wedding in the family…or a large celebration of any kind my mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bing baldes just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetable through the night.” (Lahiri 115)
The way that Mrs. Sen describes this scene to young Eliot is with a longing for her home and family in Calcutta, also showing that she is not willing to let go of her home in India and assimilate to her new one. According to Eliot, there are two things that make Mrs. Sen happy, which are letters from her family and fresh fish from the sea. These two specific things are directly connected to the longing that she feels for Calcutta. When Mrs. Sen first recieves a a letter from home she shows great joy and even embraces the postman and then proceeds to grab the letter from his hands, (Lahiri 121). Although she is only reading a letter it is almost as if the letter alone had to power to take her back to India, “Though she stood plainly before him, Eliot had the sensation that Mrs. Sen was no longer on the room with the pearl-colored carpet.” (Lahiri 122).
Mrs. Sen’s difficulty with learning how to drive is a symbol of her dependence as well as her problems with assimilating to American customs. In America, we see driving as a symbol of independence and freedom as well as a neccesity of our everyday lives, whereas Mrs. Sen sees it has something that she only has to learn because she lives in America now. One evening, Mr. and Mrs. Sen are having a discussion about the arrangement of Eliot’s care by Mrs. Sen with Eliot’s mother when the subject of Mrs. Sen’s driving comes up. Although she is learning how to drive, she then says, “At home, you know, we have a driver,” (Lahiri 113). This is an example of Mrs. Sen’s inability to let go of what she had in India, this is assured at the end of the paragraph when she says, “Everything is there.” (Lahiri 113). This shows that Mrs. Sen bases her identity on where she is from and that assimilating to the American culture would be letting go of who she really is.
“This Blessed House”
“This Blessed House” is the seventh story of Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection Interpeter of Maladies. Lahiri tells the story of a young newlywed couple, Sanjeev and Twinkle, that see things differenctly when it comes to the odd Christian paraphenalia that is found around their new home. Twinkle, who is an American born Indian, thinks that the objects that she finds around the house are amusing and wants to keep them on display in her new home. Sanjeev, an Indian immigrant, sees these Christian objects in the opposite light. He thinks that the items are “idiodic” and feels the need to remind his wife that “We’re not Christian.” (Lahiri 136-37). The couple is a prime comparison between the second generation Indian and the first generation Indian.
The excitement that Twinkle experiences when she finds the Christian artifacts shows her personality to be whimsical and light-hearted. She believes that the artifacts that she is finding around the house are lucky making her believe that the house is blessed. (Lahiri 144). Her whimsical way of seeing things sees the discovery of these objects as a “treasure hunt,” (Lahiri 141). The reason that Twinkle is so accepting of these objects is because of the fact that she was born and raised in the United States, “Her parents, who lived in California…” (Lahiri 142). Her character can also be seen through the name she chooses to go by (Twinkle) as well as what she is studying for her master’s degree, Irish poetry. All of these factors lead to her whimsical acceptance of the strange Christian artifacts.
Twinkle’s Indian born husband, Sanjeev, has the total opposite reaction towards the Christian objects than she does. Because Sanjeev grew up in India and moved to the United States for college and his career, he sees these object in a harsher light. He is more concerned with what their new neighbors and his collegues from work will think about the objects than what his wife thinks of them, “Twinkle, I can’t have the people I work with see this statue on my lawn.” (Lahiri 147). Sanjeev’s concern for how others percieve him is a result of his traditional Indian upbringing and although he has spent several years in the United States he stands firm on his Hindu beliefs and finds no value in the silly things that his wife does.
Although Sanjeev and Twinkle come from very different backgrounds and have opposite personalites, Sanjeev in a way succumbs to his wife’s will when she begins to cry over his insistance on throwing away the objects that she has grown attatched to (Lahiri 149) and again when she and guest from their housewarming party go “treasure hunting” in the attic where she finds a silver bust of Christ and although he hates the object he “pressed the massive silver face into his ribs…and followed her.” (Lahiri 157). This gesture is Sanjeev’s way of assimilating into his new marriage.
Conclusion
The work of Jhumpa Lahiri showcases a variety of different characters that all have their own experiences whether they are happy or sad, enlightening or reinforcing. Either way, these characters that Lahiri creates all have one thing in common, and that is their cultural background and the struggles that they endure that challenge their beliefs or identity which ultimately leads the audience to see that one’s culture contributes to the development of one’s identity. These specific stories, “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mrs. Sen’s,” and “This Blessed House,” are about Indian people that were either born in India and move to the United States or American born Indians whose identities are challenged either by their new surroundings or new people in their lives. The lesson that Jhumpa Lahiri shows her audience in her work is that one’s culture is a part of who they are and even if it is challanged it does not mean that one must give in, but it means that there is a compromise to the challenge.
Work Cited
Bhattacharjya, Mithun. "Geo-politics and Construction of Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Story When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine." Golden Research Thoughts 1.10 (2012): 1-3. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Ganeri, Jonardon. “Intellectual India: Reason, Identity, Dissent.” New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation 40.2 (2009): 247-263. Web. MLA International Bibliography. 20 Oct. 2012.
Karunakar, P. “Threat of Globalization to Indigenous Peoples’ Culture and Identities in India.” Fourth World Journal 10.2 (2011): 153-166. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Koshy, Susan. “Minority Cosmopolitanism.” PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 126.3 (2011): 592-609. Web. MLA International Bibliography. 22 Oct. 2012.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen's,” “This Blessed House.” Interpreter of Maladies. Boston: Mariner, 1999. Print.
Mitra, Madhuparna. "Lahiri's MRS. SEN'S." Explicator 64.3 (2006): 193-196. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Smith, Karen. "India's Identity and its Global Aspirations." Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations 26.3 (2012): 369-385. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Williams, Laura Anh. "Foodways and Subjectivity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies." Melus 32.4 (2007): 69-79. EBSCO. Web. 5 Sept. 2012.
Introduction
The majority of ethnic literature has the common theme of some sort of border issue, whether they are geographical, socio-economic, or cultural borders. In these works of literature, the characters endure some sort of situation that puts them in conflict that causes them to become aware of these borders. These situations force the characters to think about where they stand on such borders. Do they belong on one side? Do they want to belong somewhere else? Have they come to peace with living with one foot on one side of the border while the other remains on the other side or does this cause the character to feel torn between the two sides because it is not what is expected of them?
Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize winning work, Interpreter of Maladies, is a collection of nine stories each one centering on characters of Indian decent either living in the United States or in India. The characters in these stories have something else in common besides their ethnic backgrounds. In these stories, especially in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent,” the characters show that their identity has a direct connection to their Indian culture. In Lahiri’s collection she tells stories of characters that may have been born in India and then immigrated to the United States as well as characters that are American born Indians. She shows in these stories that those Indians that have emigrated from India to the United States have a difficult time assimilating to the American culture whereas those who have been born here are used to the American customs.
Typically, we as outsiders expect that the identity of India as a country would be united in aspects of ethnicity, religion and linguistics. However, according to Karen Smith in her article “India’s Identity and its Global Aspirations,” she states the exact opposite of what one would expect. Regardless of what it expected, even those in a country different then the one we live in or those of a different ethnicity or culture have internal struggles with their identity. More specifically, the characters in Lahiri’s stories “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent,” show that identity is not only what we make of it but that identity derives from culture and the borders the build the identity.
Background
An important feature that will be discussed in this paper is the effect that one’s culture, religion; language has on them as a person. In the article “India’s Identity and its Global Aspirations,” Smith states: “Some authors emphasize the fact that India’s national identity is particularly precarious and that numerous subnational ethnic, religious and linguistic identities threaten the idea of a united India. It must also be kept in mind that internally, multiple perceptions of identity vie for dominance,” (Smith 371). What Smith means by this is that these cultural aspects, (ethnicity, religion, and language), are greatly determined by one’s culture, and that in India these aspects of one’s identity try to dominate over the other. This fight for dominance between different aspects of one’s culture is known to tear an individual into two or even three directions and it is these separate identities that prevent India, or any culture really, from being strongly united. This is an internal dilemma that Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters go through in one way or another.
An important aspect of the discussion presented in this work will be of the global diaspora. Throughout the process of my research I came across this idea of the global diaspora in almost every article of research I came across that was applicable to this paper. The meaning behind the word “diaspora” means the dispersion of a people from their original homeland. In the article “Intellectual India: Reason, Identity, and Dissent,” Ganeri believes that:
Modern Indian identities in the global diaspora, as much as in India itself can call upon all these voices and traditions, re-think them, adapt and modify them, use the resources of reason they make available in deliberation about who to be, how to behave, and on what to agree. That is a fundamental freedom, one which he ought not to be surrendered in binding oneself to narrower, constricted understanding of what India is (Ganeri 262).
In this excerpt from Ganeri’s article, he believes that with the idea of a modern Indian identity the people can adapt and essentially outgrow the idea of living by ideas that tell one how to act or how to behave. Instead of allowing the different identities to continuously fight for dominance, referring to what Smith was saying, Ganeri suggests that we adapt and reevaluate what those identities are. He uses the concept of the global diaspora to show that India is one people made up of many different peoples around the globe and that the modern Indian identity is not the purely homogenous group of people that others expect it to be.
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”
The story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” is the second story in Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection Interpreter of Maladies. This story is told in the point of view of little girl named Lilia, a second generation Indian. Her parents are the hosts of a man named Mr. Pirzada who has traveled to Boston to study the plant life at the university. Although Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s family share many of the same traits, “…spoke the same language, laughed at the same jokes, looked more or less the same…” (Lahiri 25), they differ in the fact that Mr. Pirzada is not Indian. He comes from the town of Dacca, which is in Eastern Pakistan. This idea that Mr. Pirzada and her parents are different from each other confuses Lilia and she does not really understand the difference between them until she begins to see the terrible war ridden environment that is Dacca on the evening news during the time of Mr. Pirzada’s stay.
Lilia is a curious a young girl and when she is told that Mr. Pirzada is not Indian she decides to pay extra attention to the differences between him and her parents. “Lilia’s mounting confusions as to determining the ‘identity’ of Mr. Pirzada does crisscross the multifarious tributaries to the construction ‘identity,’” (Bhattacharjya 2). Lilia starts her observations of Mr. Pirzada’s differences at dinner time one evening “I began to study him with extra care, to try and figure out what made him different,” (Lahiri 30). One of the things that she takes note of is the pocket watch that Mr. Pirzada keeps with him, “…he took out a plain silver watch without a band…Unlike the watch on his wrist, the pocket watch, he explained to me, was set to the local time in Dacca, eleven hours ahead,” (Lahiri 30). This watch of Mr. Pirzada’s is a representation of his longing to be with his family. Other than the fact that Mr. Pirzada is not an Indian and that he carries this pocket watch with the time of home in Dacca, Lilia begins to understand that there really is no difference between her parents and their strange guest.
Lilia’s concept of identity here revolves around the idea that if one acts the same, looks the same and thinks in similar ways that they are obviously of the same people, which is why she is so confused about how Mr. Pirzada is different than she and her parents. According to the article, "Geo-politics and Construction of Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Story When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the author believes that “When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine is, uniquely important because it does not narrows itself down to the binary opposition of ‘home’ and ‘host’ culture; the story cuts across various significations of ‘identity’ and shows the impossibility of ascertaining the identity based upon any fixed determinant,” (Bhattacharjya 2). What Bhattacharjya means by this is that this story does not stick to the average approach to the concept idea of identity by staying with the typical ideas of the “home culture,” and the “host culture.” Bhattacharjya instead is saying that “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” shows that one’s logistical origin does not determine identity.
“Interpreter of Maladies”
Jhumpa Lahiri’s title story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” is the third story in her collection of short stories. “Interpreter of Maladies,” is the story of Mr. Kapasi, a tour guide in India and interpreter for a local doctor who does not see the importance of his job. He gives a tour for an Indian-American family who appears to be very Americanized and are tourists in a country where there families live. When Mrs. Das, the American woman on the tour tells him that she finds his interpreting job romantic and important, he becomes infatuated with her because she makes him feel important especially because his own wife does not show this kind of excitement and attention for either one of his jobs. The reason behind Mrs. Das’ interest however, is not to flatter Mr. Kapasi but to help her heal her own pain. She reveals to Mr. Kapasi that he youngest son, Bobby, is the product of an affair that she had with one her husband’s associates. Mr. Kapasi is offended by her assumption that he can heal her of her pain and asks her if it is actually guilt that she is feeling and not pain.
In this story, there are two characters that are affected by their identity in some way or another. The protagonist in this story, Mr. Kapasi, feels very unimportant with his everyday life as a tour guide in India as well as with his position as an interpreter for a local doctor in his area. His position as an interpreter is seen as a symbol for the borders of India. He is specifically an interpreter for the Gujarati dialect, which is a dying language. He serves as a bridge in between linguistic borders. The main reason behind this feeling of insignificance is because he has aspired to receive a higher education and become a diplomat of some sort. In face he felt that “The job was a sign of his failings,” (Lahiri 52). The other reason behind his lack of esteem towards his occupation is his wife’s lack of support. “If she ever referred to his position, she used the phrase ‘doctor’s assistant,’ as if the process of interpretation were equal to taking someone’s temperature, or changing a bedpan. She never asked him about the patients that came into the doctor’s office or said that his job was a big responsibility,” (Lahiri 53). Mr. Kapasi’s wife’s lack of interest towards her husband’s occupation contributes to this lack of self-esteem which is why he is so thrilled when Mrs. Das takes such interest in his position.
The differences between Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das is the perfect example of the differences between a native Indian and an American born Indian. Mrs. Das appears to be a typical American woman when she is described in the point of view of Mr. Kapasi when he picks up the Indian American family from their hotel, “She was wearing large dark brown sunglasses with a pinkish tint to them, and carried a big straw bag, almost as big as her torso, shaped like a bow,” (Lahiri 46). This description describes her to look like the typical American woman and is also a refelction of how she acts towards her family and Mr. Kapasi, which completely leaves out her Indian heritage. Her fascination with Mr. Kapasi’s occupation as an interpreter of maladies is in fact only exisistant only because she sees the possibility that he might be able to help her with the pain that she has supposedly carried with her for eight years. It is not until Mr. Kapasi asks: “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?” (Lahiri 66), that Mrs. Das really show an inkling of character by showing her guilt through the action of walking out of the car without answering Mr. Kapasi’s question. Mr. Kapasi sees Mrs. Das’ “pain” through eyes of someone whose traditional marital values are still very much an important part of his life. This is the opposite of Mrs. Das who admits to her affair and that her first born’s father is not her husband. It her Americanized identity that allows her to see her marriage as painful or a burden.
“Mrs. Sen’s”
The story “Mrs. Sen’s,” is the sixth short story in Interpreter of Maladies and it focuses on Mrs. Sen, who is an Indian immigrant who has moved to America with her husband who is a professor at the university in the area. She is a very dependent woman and identifies herself by her husband’s profession as shown in how she introduces herself to Eliot’s mother “Professor’s wife…” (Lahiri 111). She takes care of a young boy named Eliot, who observes the struggle that Mrs. Sen has with the process of assimilation. There are several things that Mrs. Sen struggles with in her attempt to assimilate to the American culture, and that is the seperation from her family in Calutta and her lack of ability to drive a car.
Mrs. Sen’s identity is very dependent on her pride of where she comes from and this is shown through the food she prepares and how she prepares it. There are certain things that she does that show how she keeps her culture and family with her from across the sea, such as the blade she uses to chop her ingredients,
She had brought a blade from India, where apparently there was at least one in every household. “Whenever there is a wedding in the family…or a large celebration of any kind my mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bing baldes just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetable through the night.” (Lahiri 115)
The way that Mrs. Sen describes this scene to young Eliot is with a longing for her home and family in Calcutta, also showing that she is not willing to let go of her home in India and assimilate to her new one. According to Eliot, there are two things that make Mrs. Sen happy, which are letters from her family and fresh fish from the sea. These two specific things are directly connected to the longing that she feels for Calcutta. When Mrs. Sen first recieves a a letter from home she shows great joy and even embraces the postman and then proceeds to grab the letter from his hands, (Lahiri 121). Although she is only reading a letter it is almost as if the letter alone had to power to take her back to India, “Though she stood plainly before him, Eliot had the sensation that Mrs. Sen was no longer on the room with the pearl-colored carpet.” (Lahiri 122).
Mrs. Sen’s difficulty with learning how to drive is a symbol of her dependence as well as her problems with assimilating to American customs. In America, we see driving as a symbol of independence and freedom as well as a neccesity of our everyday lives, whereas Mrs. Sen sees it has something that she only has to learn because she lives in America now. One evening, Mr. and Mrs. Sen are having a discussion about the arrangement of Eliot’s care by Mrs. Sen with Eliot’s mother when the subject of Mrs. Sen’s driving comes up. Although she is learning how to drive, she then says, “At home, you know, we have a driver,” (Lahiri 113). This is an example of Mrs. Sen’s inability to let go of what she had in India, this is assured at the end of the paragraph when she says, “Everything is there.” (Lahiri 113). This shows that Mrs. Sen bases her identity on where she is from and that assimilating to the American culture would be letting go of who she really is.
“This Blessed House”
“This Blessed House” is the seventh story of Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection Interpeter of Maladies. Lahiri tells the story of a young newlywed couple, Sanjeev and Twinkle, that see things differenctly when it comes to the odd Christian paraphenalia that is found around their new home. Twinkle, who is an American born Indian, thinks that the objects that she finds around the house are amusing and wants to keep them on display in her new home. Sanjeev, an Indian immigrant, sees these Christian objects in the opposite light. He thinks that the items are “idiodic” and feels the need to remind his wife that “We’re not Christian.” (Lahiri 136-37). The couple is a prime comparison between the second generation Indian and the first generation Indian.
The excitement that Twinkle experiences when she finds the Christian artifacts shows her personality to be whimsical and light-hearted. She believes that the artifacts that she is finding around the house are lucky making her believe that the house is blessed. (Lahiri 144). Her whimsical way of seeing things sees the discovery of these objects as a “treasure hunt,” (Lahiri 141). The reason that Twinkle is so accepting of these objects is because of the fact that she was born and raised in the United States, “Her parents, who lived in California…” (Lahiri 142). Her character can also be seen through the name she chooses to go by (Twinkle) as well as what she is studying for her master’s degree, Irish poetry. All of these factors lead to her whimsical acceptance of the strange Christian artifacts.
Twinkle’s Indian born husband, Sanjeev, has the total opposite reaction towards the Christian objects than she does. Because Sanjeev grew up in India and moved to the United States for college and his career, he sees these object in a harsher light. He is more concerned with what their new neighbors and his collegues from work will think about the objects than what his wife thinks of them, “Twinkle, I can’t have the people I work with see this statue on my lawn.” (Lahiri 147). Sanjeev’s concern for how others percieve him is a result of his traditional Indian upbringing and although he has spent several years in the United States he stands firm on his Hindu beliefs and finds no value in the silly things that his wife does.
Although Sanjeev and Twinkle come from very different backgrounds and have opposite personalites, Sanjeev in a way succumbs to his wife’s will when she begins to cry over his insistance on throwing away the objects that she has grown attatched to (Lahiri 149) and again when she and guest from their housewarming party go “treasure hunting” in the attic where she finds a silver bust of Christ and although he hates the object he “pressed the massive silver face into his ribs…and followed her.” (Lahiri 157). This gesture is Sanjeev’s way of assimilating into his new marriage.
Conclusion
The work of Jhumpa Lahiri showcases a variety of different characters that all have their own experiences whether they are happy or sad, enlightening or reinforcing. Either way, these characters that Lahiri creates all have one thing in common, and that is their cultural background and the struggles that they endure that challenge their beliefs or identity which ultimately leads the audience to see that one’s culture contributes to the development of one’s identity. These specific stories, “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mrs. Sen’s,” and “This Blessed House,” are about Indian people that were either born in India and move to the United States or American born Indians whose identities are challenged either by their new surroundings or new people in their lives. The lesson that Jhumpa Lahiri shows her audience in her work is that one’s culture is a part of who they are and even if it is challanged it does not mean that one must give in, but it means that there is a compromise to the challenge.
Work Cited
Bhattacharjya, Mithun. "Geo-politics and Construction of Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Story When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine." Golden Research Thoughts 1.10 (2012): 1-3. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Ganeri, Jonardon. “Intellectual India: Reason, Identity, Dissent.” New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation 40.2 (2009): 247-263. Web. MLA International Bibliography. 20 Oct. 2012.
Karunakar, P. “Threat of Globalization to Indigenous Peoples’ Culture and Identities in India.” Fourth World Journal 10.2 (2011): 153-166. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Koshy, Susan. “Minority Cosmopolitanism.” PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 126.3 (2011): 592-609. Web. MLA International Bibliography. 22 Oct. 2012.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen's,” “This Blessed House.” Interpreter of Maladies. Boston: Mariner, 1999. Print.
Mitra, Madhuparna. "Lahiri's MRS. SEN'S." Explicator 64.3 (2006): 193-196. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Smith, Karen. "India's Identity and its Global Aspirations." Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations 26.3 (2012): 369-385. Web. Academic Search Complete. 13 Oct. 2012.
Williams, Laura Anh. "Foodways and Subjectivity in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies." Melus 32.4 (2007): 69-79. EBSCO. Web. 5 Sept. 2012.
Reflection
This is by far the longest assignment that I have yet to work on and I am sure that it is only the fist of many to come in my educational career. Had it not been for the fact that more than half of the paper was due for a rough draft, my procrastination would have gotten the best of me and the whole assignment would have been written the night before. I am hoping that the good habits I learned from this class on how to handle long assignments such as this.