What Is The Meaning Of Silence In A Short Story

“Silence is violence” is a common phrase used by people nowadays which references people who lack initiative when it comes to speaking out against oppression. The same phrase could be applied to the ideas within Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence. Endo was clever to name his novel Silence, because the word is a very prominent symbol within the story. In fact, it plays a crucial role to the development of the main character. Although some readers may argue that the role of silence in the book is neutral, I claim that silence plays a negative role for the characters because it is what causes protagonist Rodrigues to renounce his faith. In the story, it represents the silence of God, which induces Rodrigues to question his religion through the torture of innocent Japanese Christians.

“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

When one reads Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s “The Interview”, it is very clear how gender roles are predominate within the family that is portrayed. Using this family as an extension to represent all of India, Jhabvala gives us some insight into the daily lives led over there. The story is told through the eyes of an upper-class man who is completely dependent upon his family, specifically his brother and the women in the house. This essay will examine the male and female roles that are presented in this short story, how they parallel each other, and the deeper meanings hidden within the text.

Doris husband believes that Doris has a high value, moral values according to the way that she raised their children and address her life now. For Doris husband, her arrest is compared to having a death on the family showing the deep pain he feels. Doris husband, even though, she has been lying to him, he still loves her very much.

To satisfy his thirst, Tom started searching for beautiful girls in the nearby town. In the next town, he found a gorgeous young lady named Isobel who had blond curly hair, hazel eyes, and curvy figure. Isobel was flattered by Tom’s look and body. They both first met at the mall in the coffee shop and they liked each other so much that they started dating on the same day. There was only one big problem with their relationship that Isobel was married and Tom knew it, but he still continued dating because he badly wanted to have pleasure with Isobel. Tom and Isobel usually met after midnight at the Lover’s Lane and make out in Isobel’s car. One night, the lovers decided to meet little early than usual because of some family emergency. They met at the same place and did the same thing, but this time there was a couple who saw them together. Alex, Isobel’s husband, was the richest and powerful person in the whole town. He had many connections throughout the town. Tom and Isobel tried to hide their affair, but the truth always overcomes lie. After few days, Alex heard people talking in the office about Isobel’s affair and how she makes out with her lover in the car every night. Alex went crazy with anger, hatred, and jealousy. He got angry and vowed to take revenge on them.

In everyday life, a relation is always identified as trust and support. In this novel, a relation between a husband and a wife is shown in a different way. Min, one of the characters in the story, is shown losing her mental stability and is living with her two children. She did not have any contact with her husband in few years and neither did he try to contact

Her unforeseen actions are due to the rest care tradition, which has progressively worsened her mental state and caused her to overlook her role as a caring wife in desperation to escape the imprisonment of the tradition. As witnessed from the two short stories, conflicts arise amidst families due to the events of old traditions, establishing a divide between family members that is difficult to overcome once constructed.

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

The narrator is totally crushed by the gender discrimination. She longed to be seen by her mother and her grandma. The narrator is heartbroken that her mother loved her brother more than her and failed to notice her. “When she went into Nonso’s room to say good night, she always came out laughing that laugh. Most times, you pressed your palms to your ears to keep the sound out, and kept your palms pressed to your ears, even when she came into your room to say Good night, darling, sleep well. She never left your room with that laugh” (190). Her agony can be easily seen by the way of her narrating. She does not get the affection that she deserves. She really needs the affection from her own mother, but she is not getting it. She compares the love which her mother shows to his brother and herself. This is gender discrimination can be seen with her grandmother too. She hated her grandma as she would always support her brother and find fault with her. Even though what the brother did, no matter what crime. Her mother and grandmother always supported her brother and never supported or showed interest towards

with girls in her life, “her relationships with other women are weak, her days are filled with

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.

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ Mr. Kapasi , the main character, seems to be a person with mixed feelings. He does not seem to have fixed stand neither in his job nor on his thoughts. His thoughts and experience are structured by the strict cultural society of India. His hidden wants and desires suppressed by the community rules are looking for way to come out. The consequence is his changing thoughts and desires which at different parts of the story appear differently and brings

The chief attraction for Virgil is of Jaya because she is the only person in that house capable of procreation and genuine emotion. There is a passing reference to a seer’s prediction that she would never become a mother. As prophecies are often equivocal, the curse on Jaya may be in fact indicative of her husband’s impotence. The illicit relationship with her brother-in-law must be seen as the manifestation of her irrepressible yearning to become a mother. Though her mother-in-law always finds fault with her sexual transgressions, she is the only character in the play who is true to herself. She desperately protests against the encroachment of colonial coercion and urban mechanization that enter in the form of the Guards and Agents. Her thirst for motherhood remains unquenched by the sham finger-play of her pitying brother-in-law. She is the only person who stands her ground in spite of the devious argumentations and warnings of Virgil. And she alone is fully conscious of the present condition: “It is not really a life any more. We’re just spare parts in someone else’s garage –” (34T).

On the one hand, she is profoundly aware of the perils of democracy, on the other, she fully realizes the dangers that lie before the individual in quest of self fulfillment. They are orthodox society, conventional morality, fears and superstitions, prejudices and the privileges of the privileged ones and inequality before law and so on. Most individuals in the novels of Nayantara Sahgal suffer because of social prejudices, prejudicial conventions, superstitions and baseless fears. Mira in This Time of Morning cannot understand why her daughter should even think of divorce. Because of her orthodox attitudes she makes herself as well as her daughter suffer. Mona in Rich Like Us and Prabha in A Time To Be Happy are not happy in their marriage but they lack courage to Madhu in A Situation in New Delhi commits suicide because she carries the stigma of rape for no fault of hers. There is a deep social and religious prejudice against divorce Simirt in The Day in Shadow is a divorces and has to work against odds in quest of her identity which is usually denied to women in our society. Bhushan Singh in Mistaken Identity cannot marry Razia, the girl he is in love with, because of deep religious prejudices. A Hindu Muslim inter- marriage in this country is likely to raise communal tensions to a feverish pitch. Religious prejudices and superstitions can inhibit the freedom of an individual in other interpretation induces many people to be passive. A person suffers for the past action

In order to overcome one’s malady, one has to interpret it at first. Mina Das also suffers from a malady. Her malady is deep-rooted and she had been suffering from it since seven years. For the first time in her life, she reveals to Mr.Kapasi that her younger son Bobby was not her husband’s. Raj and Mina got married very young. She was overwhelmed when she conceived very early. She spent her days in her house, nursing the baby and taking care of the house. Raj became very busy with his teaching assignments and life became dull and drab for Mina. Her problems became more complicated when she conceived Bobby because of a sexual encounter with one of Raj’s friend. She kept the secret for eight years and finally revealed it to Mr. Kapasi. She thought that Mr.Kapasi is the right one who could interpret her malady and give proper solutions to her problems- “Eight years, Mr.Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy.” (IOM,65). Mr.Kapasi, because of his typical Indian background and patriarchal ideology could not understand the depth of her problem. Instead he was disgusted. He felt that it was his duty to assist Mrs.Das and said- “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs.Das, or is it guilt?”(IOM,66) Mina Das was not ready to accept that it was her guilt that made her suffer. Mr.kapasi could not understand the fact that it was because of her unhappiness and dullness in her marriage that caused her to have an extra-marital sexual relationship. He considers it as an act of unfaithfulness towards her husband. In the story, Jhumpa Lahiri shows how the Indians and Americans are caught in the middle of two different cultures. Mr.Kapasi wanted to have a close relationship with Mrs.Das, he fantasized about her. But as soon as, he came to know about her secrets of the affair, Mr.Kapasi was disgusted. Mr.kapasi’s relationship