Essay on Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

The book, Interpreter of Maladies written by the Indian-American author, Jhumpa Lahiri in 1999 is a collection of nine short stories. The heading of this book is taken from one of the stories in the collection. Besides the Interpreter of Maladies, other stories in the book are: A Temporary Matter, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, A Real Durman, Sexy, Mrs. Sens, This Blessed House, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar and The Third and Final Continent. The books have won international awards such as the Hemingway/PEN and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction award in 2000 and it featured in Oprahs Winfreys Top Ten Book List. Using Indian and Indian-American characters, the author capture the themes of love, identity, family, the experience of immigrant and cultural differences. Jhumpa Lahiri in the Interpreter of Maladies narrates the stories about the lives of Indian Americans and Indians who are facing the identity crisis as a result of differences between their original roots and the New World. The book has received global recognition for elegant thematic analysis of issues affecting immigrants and Indian nationalities. In the stories, the author using a powerful storytelling approach articulately narrates about the experience of Indian immigrants and their struggles and joys of assimilation to the new world. From a critics point of view, the presentation of these personal stories in the collection forms a story cycle that explores the central thematic issues in the book.

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In the first story A Temporary Matter, the author presents a married couple, Shoba, and Shukumar who live a life of separation without even uttering a single word to one another. Suddenly, the couple starts to engage each other in a conversation due to an electrical outage. According to the story, the pairs distance relationship was as a result of a disagreement, although their changed physical appearance proved that there was much more than a mere lovers conflict. The couples internal and emotional strife causing their complete separation was responsible for their changed physical appearance (Lahiri). Due to their real alienation, the couple underwent a traumatic loss of their stillborn baby. The traumatic experience formed the turning point in their relationship as husband and wife. They showed some hope for uniting again as they started sharing and confessing to each thing that they never said to one another as man and wife previously. Finally, the couple is presented engaging in conjugal rights with extreme anxiety. My personal feeling to the first story of the book is that Shoba and Shukumars effort to rejuvenate their marriage fails at an early stage in a situation that can be likened as a stillborn that has never started life. The author clearly illustrates this through the spouses confession first by Shoba and then Shukumar at the end of the story. Finally, the couple in full confidence with one another, they accept the reality of losing their marriage as they lament for the things they knew not, but they now do!

In the story When Mr. Pirzada Comes to Dine, the young Indian-American girl, Lilia meets a Pakistan man frequently invited to her family for dinner. Lilia, ignorant of her immigrant parents culture fails to acknowledge that Mr. Pirzada cannot be considered the same as her parents. The cultural differences between India and Pakistan originate from the 1971 civil war between the two countries whose impact is experienced by Mr. Pirzadas daughters who are still endangered by this war. Lilias experience of love and fear in the story enabled her to acquire new and better understanding of the world better. The author succeeds to illustrate the devastating effects of identity and cultural differences of the immigrants, which are central themes in the book.

The title for the Interpreter of Maladies is the brainchild of Mrs. Das who, after realizing Mr. Kapasis profession as an interpreter in a doctors office, concludes that the patients health depends on Mr. Kapasis accurate interpretation of their maladies (sickness). However, Mr. Kapasis wife belittles his profession as an interpreter in a doctors as wastage of his linguistic skills as the business could not help cure their son suffering from typhoid fever. The Indian-America couple, Mr. and Mrs. Das hired Mr. Kapasi as their driver and tour guide as they visited the country of their heritage. The couple acts childishly and immaturely throughout the story. For instance, Mrs. Das sit in the car and selfishly eat snacks without giving even to the kids and wears sunglasses as a cover-up for her childish behavior. She is further shown painting her nails, and when her daughter Tina approached her to paint her nails too, she refuses and turns her away (Noor 365). During the trip, Mr. Kapasi develops a romantic interest in Mrs. Das as he engaged her in private conversations with the objective of establishing an enduring relationship to bridge the transcontinental cultural difference between them.

As the conversation between them advances, Mrs. Das becomes free and opens to Mr. Kapasi, of her extramarital affair she once had. From the conversation, Mr. Kapasi learns that her son Bobby was born out of wedlock. According to Mrs. Das, she opened her secret to Mr. Kapasi hoping that his profession as an interpreter in a doctors office could help him interpret her feelings thus relieve and make her feel better just like his patients without condemning her. Unfortunately, Mr. Kapasi expressed the highest level of disappointment from her secret by pointing out her guilt making her run off (Noor 366). In this story of Interpreter of Maladies, the author clearly illustrates the theme of family and love, betrayal as Mrs. Das betrays her husband by engaging in extramarital affairs out of which her son Bobby was conceived out of wedlock. The theme of family is illustrated by the spouses negligence to their children as shown by Mrs. Das who eats snacks alone and rebuffs her daughter Tina. The issue of cultural differences amongst Mr. Kapasi and Mr. and Mrs. Das as a result of transcontinental differences is evident in this story.

The title of the story The Third and Final Continent tells us that the narrator has visited three continents. The narrator finally decides to stay in North America in YMCA before moving remain with a senior woman aged 103 years. The narrator was more comfortable in his new setting as he was not accustomed to the times of America and America as a whole. Unfortunately, the senior woman died a happening that hurt him as the woman was the first person in America for whom he had feelings for. The narrator later became more comfortable with his wife not because the senior woman was no more, but out of the quality time he spent with his wife (Noelle 451). The story The Third and Last Continent is entirely different from other stories in Lahiris collection. Unlike other stories in the book that depicts resistance to Indian culture, The Third and Last Continent illustrates the positive Indian-American experience. The narrators interaction is a demonstration of a high degree of forbearance and acceptance of Indian culture to the Americans. Helen, narrators daughter observes that Cambridge is a very international city the reason for the narrators general acceptance (Noelle 462). This can be associated with the signing of the International and National Act of 1965 into law by President Johnson B. Lyndon that abolished several immigration quotas. The abolition of immigration quotas resulted into increased immigrants from Asian countries e.g. India to the U.S. as professionals such as engineers who greatly contributed to the reputation of Asian-Americans as intelligent and well-mannered model minority. According to Jhumpa Lahiri, the experience of adapting to American society can only be realized by ending cultural tons of social tolerance and acceptance.

The story Sexy in Lahiris collection is centered on a young white woman, Miranda, who engages in the marital affair with a married man, Dev. Due to resistance to Indian culture, Miranda has little knowledge about India and its culture even though she works with and an Indian woman, Laxmi. In the first meeting with Dev, Miranda fails to identify his identity, but his charm overtakes her as an exotic and older man. This is elaborated nicely when we are told that Dev takes Miranda to the Mapparium and tells her, you are sexy making her buy sexy clothes which she considered suitable for a mistress but is haunted by the fact that Dev is married. In the same story, Laxmis cousin has been left by her husband for a younger woman. At the end of the story, Miranda acknowledges that Devs wife and she both deserve a decent life hence he decides to stop seeing Dev. The author, successful highlights the theme of family in this story whereby married men are not faithful to their spouses a theme that runs through other stories in the Lahiris collection. In summary, the author has used Indian and Indian-American characters to depict the themes of love, identity, family, the experience of immigrant and cultural differences due to continual resistance to Indian culture.

Works Cited

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of maladies: stories ISBN 0-395-92720-X; 1999

Noor, Ronny. "Review: Interpreter of Maladies." World Literature Today. 74 (2, English-Language Writing from Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines): 2004, 365366.

Noelle, Brada-Williams. "Reading Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" as a Short Story Cycle." MELUS.29 (3/4, Pedagogy, Canon, Context: Toward a Redefinition of Ethnic American Literary Studies): 2004, 451464. Doi:10.2307/4141867