Literature analysis essay

Literature analysis essay

Jhumpa Lahiri is a renowned American author of short stories, essays, and English novels. Exceptional proficiency in her career has enabled her win several awards such as the notable award in 1999. Interpreter of maladies is one of her short stories collection, and the third and the final continent appears to one of the stories in this collection. Just by focusing on the title, one can identify that the author captures the author curiosity and hint to identify with the context of the story whose setting seems to rotate between three continents. Hence, the title appears to reflect the setting of the story in terms of place. More openly, it is realized that the story is set in varying locations that is London, America and India in the year 1964. It reflects the exposition of the story, which unfolds following the plot and the major thematic concepts such as isolation, foreignness, and coming home. Hence, the author uses this setting and development of the plot to convey the aspect of the narrator’s assimilation and discovery of his destiny in a foreign world.

In summary, the narrator informs of his foreignness in America after completing studies in London and shifting to the United States, where he had secured a job as a librarian. It is at this place that he rents a house from an apartment belonging to an old woman Mrs Crofts who initially appears strange but turns to be the closest friend of the narrator. Within this context, the narrator is also engaged to a marriage session back in Calcutta, and after marriage, he returns to Boston with his wife joining him six weeks later. While the author appears not to had a close connection with his wife, it is after the arrival of her wife Mala that Mrs. crofts describe her as a lady and this seems to re-establish the connection between the couples who later gets a son who happens to study in Harvard while the granny dies of old age.

The narrator and Mrs. croft happen to be together for quite a good time and with occasional interaction characterized by care, humour and acknowledgement. For example, Helen, who is a daughter to Mrs. croft, realizes the closeness between Mrs. croft and the narrator and as she quotes” I think she likes you. You are the first boarder she ever referred you as a gentleman” (10).  Ideally, this implies that Helen had discovered the cordial relationship between Mrs Croft and the narrator. Notably, this is far more revealed from the fact that the narrator was conscientious, attentive, and polite to Mrs Croft who in return had rented him a house at a cheaper rate and also admired staying with him. Care and affection are the attributes evident in the relationship between the narrator and Mrs Croft.

The arrival of Mala in America had a lot to do with the transition of the narrator into American culture and the rebirth of their love. Firstly, assimilation into American diet is a typical example of how Mala arrival impacted the narrator. In this case, it is realized that the narrator was not used to steamed ice which would be cooked by Mala as he quotes, “I still was not used to coming home to an apartment that smelled of steamed rice” (15). It means that the arrival of Mala initiated his adaptation to American diet. Further, the arrival of Mala can be attributed to changed attitude of the narrator towards his wife. For example, in a context the narrator claims not to have had a bond with his wife, in fact when Mala arrived at the airport he states, “I did not embrace her, or kiss her, or take her hand. Instead, I asked her, speaking Bengali for the first time in America, if she was hungry” (13). This is contrary to another statement later when the narrator states, ‘Mala had travelled far from home, not knowing where she was going, or what she would find, for no reason other than to be my wife”. This reveals the impact of coming home and more so, the reawakening of the narrator from isolation, negative attitude to love and affection.

As the story ends, it is evident that that at last, the narrator has been assimilated into US society. Primarily this is evident from the fact that every thread the narrator makes after living in America for a good time implies a more dynamic experience than any other bengalian family. For example, he states, We are American citizens now so that we can collect Social Security when it is time, he further expresses, So we drive to Cambridge to visit him, or bring him home for a weekend so that he can eat rice with us with his hands, and speak in Bengali.  This two statements, imply the contentment and full assimilation to American cultural values, diet, and way of life. On the other hand, the narrator’s statement, though we visit Calcutta every few years, implies that even though the narrator and his family are assimilated in America, they still have a connection with their native country and culture.

As a modern method of literature composition narrator’s names are not always revealed. This is because narrators rarely characters in the story. Instead, they are just intermediaries between the reader and the tale. Moreover, I think the narrator is not revealed to imply the sense of folklore, which is simply a literary culture of storytelling by word of mouth. Hence, limited reference from the narrator and need to imply the sense of folklore might be the reasons why the narrator is not named.