A Journey Through India in the Book “Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

In the short story “Interpreter of Maladies” the narrator is inside Mr. Kapasi’s head, so we see the story from his point of view; moreover he is one of the protagonists in this short story. However, in this story we can see another protagonist – this is Mrs. Das. Mr. Kapasi observes the Das family, their habits and manners, their relationships within their family and comes to some conclusions about Mrs. Das after their tet-a-tet conversation. In this conversation, Mrs. Das has partially opened up her soul for Mr. Kapasi; however, Mr. Kapasi will not help Mrs. Das because his sympathy for her diminishes when he hears her confession about her son Bobby. Even though Mr. Kapasi does not truly understand Mrs. Das, this trip through India is

Literature work always has some lesson for the people that could even leave a thought-provoking effect on their lives and compel them to understand the reality of the world. However, there are some people, who just read literature as a source of entertainment, but the real meaning, of the reading or encountering any literature work, is realized when a reader understands a message. Which writer intends to give to a reader. It is because the literature work has a connection, in addition, influence on the character building process.

“They wept together, for the things they now knew.”(104) The last sentence of the first story in Interpreter of Maladies, reveals the cruelty of the elapsed romance in a marriage. In the two collections, A Temporary Matter and The Third and Final Continent, Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates that a marriage can be either uplifting or discouraging depends on the mindset held by the couple and the strength of human bonding. Lahiri emphasizes the significance of mindset and human bondings through the ending of the two stories. The endings of the two stories are polar opposite : In A Temporary Matter, Shukumar and Shobha weeps for the termination of their relationship; The Third and Final Continent, by contrast, the protagonist(MIT) enjoys a fairytale-like

Interpreter of Maladies is just one of the many short stories written by Jhumpa Lahiri. Interpreter of Maladies is the story of an American family and an Indian tour guide, Mr. Kapasi. Driving from location to location, Mr. Kapasi revealed his second job as a translator of symptoms of patients who speak a different language than the doctor. Mrs. Das declared his job romantic. Mr. Kapasi became smitten with the woman because he himself suffered from a broken marriage. Seeking help from Mr.Kapasi, Mrs. Das wanted a remedy for her malady; therefore, Mrs. Das admitted that her middle child wasn’t conceived by her husband. However, Mr. Kapasi could not find a solution to her problem. He could only diagnose her with the feeling of guilt. There

Interpreter of Maladies is comprised entirely of short stories revolving around the lives of Indian immigrants or their descendants.There are nine short stories in total. The book goes into the difficulties that people of color, particularly Indian people, go through in an effort to balance the culture of their heritage and the culture that now surrounds them in the new world. Two stories stood out in particular, those being Sexy and This Blessed House. Sexy describes the story of a girl in an adulterous relationship with a man she just met, while This Blessed House focuses on the lives of a newly engaged couple that find a bunch of silly religious artifacts in their home.Though these stories may be different, their plots are equally significant

Many of the stories in Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri include a fundamental composition of literary elements, such as conflict which readers see in both “Interpreter of Maladies” and “A Temporary Matter”. Lahiri shows the difficulty of communication which overtime turn into the destruction of the entire relationship. For instance, readers see difficulty in communication when Shukumar and Shoba become distant shortly after she has a stillborn child. The death of their baby has severe effects their entire relationship, and adds to their lack of communication. Similarly in “Interpreter of Maladies” when Mrs. Das hides information about Raj and

In daily life, people encounter many concepts such as emotions, thoughts, actions, and situations. These concepts can often be categorized into two atmospheres: positive and negative. In “The Old Masters” and “The Racer,” Amit Chaudhuri and Hanif Kureishi convey their atmospheres through character relationships involving greed and symbolic ideas. Within “The Old Masters,” the reader is focused on the relationship between Pramathesh and Ranjit--two colleagues who work together--and their lives as time progresses. Throughout “The Racer,” the reader experiences the failing marriage of a husband and wife and their desire to compete in a race and win to show superiority over one another. Although Chaudhuri and Kureishi utilize symbolism,

In both “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, and “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri, dysfunctional relationships are introduced between two characters; however, these relationships are greater in depth than a simple conflict and develop over time. Carver’s story begins with the narrator’s wife informing him of her close relations with Robert – the blind man – along with the many personal things she has shared with Robert; personal things consisting of her “[decision] to live away from her officer,” and later her divorce (Carver 35). This influenced the narrator’s reluctance to accept Robert, but the faith from the cathedral overpowered his distant behavior. Whereas, Lahiri creatively provokes dysfunction by illustrating misconceptions of a single word, “romantic”. Mrs. Das, a woman drowned in guilt and unhappiness refers to her tour guide’s – Mr. Kapasi – alternate job as an interpreter to be romantic; on the other hand, Kapasi, a man who longs for affection from a woman misunderstands her sudden interest for a physical and emotional attraction. Robert and the narrator’s relationship is more impactful than Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi because the narrator reaches an ultimate epiphany with the help of Robert.

Sunglasses, not only worn for protection from the sun, are also used for other reasons. Some are unrecognizable in sunshades and can even hide their true selves. Ultimately, sunglasses can even hide one’s shame. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, Interpreter of Maladies, Mrs. Das, a major character, is portrayed as a distant woman that searches for romance in all the wrong places. Throughout the story, Mrs. Das rarely removes her sunglasses. The symbol of Mrs. Das’s sunglasses represents the detachment from her own family, the potential bond breaking secrets she hides from them, and the inevitable guilt she feels.

The two short stories “Interpreter of Maladies” and “Sexy” by Jhumpa Lahiri are prime examples of literature written during the postmodern period. Each of these stories contain different tenets of postmodernism interwoven within each short story.

His arranged marriage is struggling because his wife cannot recover from her sorrow over the loss of their young son. Mrs. Das’s sudden interest in his job makes him start his romantic imagination journey. When the Das family has lunch, Mr. Kapasi is invited to join with them. Then, they take the photograph which Mr. Kapasi happens to sit next to Mrs. Das. At the time, Mr. Kapasi feels that he is the best match with Mrs. Das as both of them have the same maritally unsatisfied circumstances. Mrs. Das asks for Mr. Kapasi’s address to send the photograph that they have taken. For her, asking Mr. Kapasi’s address is nothing, but for Mr. Kapasi, writing his address on the scrap paper becomes the way to begin his romantic relationship.

1. Interpreter of Maladies: Think about the status and the role of children in this story: most obviously the fact that Bobby is illegitimate, but also that Tina and her mother (Mina) have rhyming names, that Mr. Kapasi became an interpreter because of his son 's illness and remains one to support his growing family. Think also about the relationships that seem skewed because the adults are acting like children: Mr. Kapasi thinks the Dases are “all like siblings,” that “Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents.” Similarly, Mrs. Das thinks Mr. Kapasi is old enough to be her father, or, as she puts it, “You probably have children my age.” That is, she is uncomfortable when he defers to her, and she thus (unwittingly?) insists that he think of her as a child. How does thinking about children and about the relationships between parents and children in this story help you determine the story 's theme?

Through her tasteful selection of contemporary Indian influenced prose pieces, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the unique journey of Indian families established in America. Focusing on the intergenerational aspect of traditional households, Lahiri conveys the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a person who is branded as a foreigner. In America, there exists a common misconception that immigrants who arrive in this country fully assimilate or seek to assimilate as time progresses. The category I chose was "The Dot of true Happiness." The dot which signifies the bindi, a traditional red mark worn by Indian people, is the source of true happiness among these immigrants.

The present study is based on the idea of displacement as the major theme of the selected short stories of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of maladies”. The book contains nine short stories and each one of them deals with the question of identity, alienation, and plight of those who are physically and psychologically displaced. But I would like to limit my studies to the three short stories from the collection viz. “When Mr. Pirzada came to dine”, Interpreter of Maladies”, and “Mrs. Sen’s”. The migration has become one of the most important issues of the contemporary world. Jhumpa Lahiri is also a diasporic writer like Salman Rushdie, V.S Naipaul and Bharati Mukherjee. The characters in the prescribed stories are citizens of more than one country

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.