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Interpreter of Maladies

Topics: Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies, India Pages: 2 (795 words) Published: October 7, 2012
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  • Interpreter of Maladies Essay

    ...Lahiri’s stories show the importance of communication in relationships. Discuss. Interpreter of Maladies focuses on communication as one of the universal themes throughout the book. The stories demonstrate how communication is the key to the success or failure of relationships. While there are instances when communication is effectively employed and therefore enabled the characters to build strong and intimate connections, there are examples of where communication was superficial or ineffectual, leading to unstable, limited relationships. Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates the importance of communication within relationships by allowing readers to experience the consequences and advantages that have developed as a result throughout the short stories. We recognise the necessity to communicate with our loved ones vicariously through the lives of several of the characters. Mr. Kapasi, the interpreter of maladies, has essentially lost the ability to communicate with his wife, leaving him to drink tea alone at night. Because of this the Kapasi’s find themselves in a loveless marriage. This kind of relationship also exists within the Das family. Mr and Mrs Das are unable to efficiently communicate because of the material barrier each has which prevents them from any form of contact. Mrs. Das often hides behind her sunglasses, while Mr. Das is kept away behind his guidebook. Because of the somewhat non-existent relationship...

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  • Interpreter of Maladies Essay

    ...Interpreter of Maladies Practice Text Response Essay Topics 1. ‘Lahiri’s stories show the importance of communication in relationships.’ Discuss. 2. ‘Lahiri’s stories are much about much more than the migrant experience. They also explore ‘maladies’ common to all people.’ Do you agree? 3. ‘Whilst all the characters in Lahiri’s stories carry burdens in their hearts, few are able to find peace within themselves.’ Discuss. 4. ‘A person’s identity and sense of belonging is intrinsically linked to their place of origin.’ To what extent do Lahiri’s stories support this view? 5. ‘Loneliness and isolation pervade the lives of many characters in these stories.’ Do any characters find a way out of this misery? 6. ‘In Lahiri’s stories, many of the characters struggle to find love.’ Why is love so elusive for them? 7. ‘Lahiri’s stories show that all people face challenges no matter where they live in the world.’ To what extent do you agree? 8. ‘In seeking to improve their lives, some of the characters in the stories lose sight of what they truly value.’ Do you agree? 9. ‘In Interpreter of Maladies the vulnerable characters invariably become scapegoats when life becomes difficult for others.’ Do you agree? 10. ‘It is those who leave their homeland that struggle the most in Interpreter of Maladies.’ Do you agree? 11. ‘Changing one’s life...

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  • Interpreter of Maladies Essay

    ...communicate with others, we will fail in many ways such as failure in romance. In the book Interpreter of Maladies with the tittle “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri, the difficulty of communication becomes one of the problems. Mr. Kapasi feels lonely in his life and in his marriage because he lost his ability to communicate with his wife. However, Mrs. Das is a selfish woman that always hides behind her sunglasses most of the time. She doesn’t care about her family, her husband and her children. These two characters are drawn together because they both have troubled marriages. But if they still have the common sense to think about their own responsibility to their family, they shouldn’t get closer and become interested each other. Mr. Kapasi believes that his life is a failure. He can’t have a successful marriage in his life because his marriage is arranged by his parents. His wife can’t forgive him because of the loss of their young son and also because Mr. Kapasi work for the doctor who failed to save their son’s life. His career is far away from what he dreamed might be happen. Because in his past, he got scholarship and diplomatic greatness so he hoped that he would be success in his career. But now, he only be a tour guide and an interpreter for a doctor. As a tour guide, he speaks in English to the Europeans and Americans about the sights of India. And as an interpreter, he...

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  • Text Response Interpreter of Maladies Essay

    ...‘Interpreter of Maladies’ explores how one culture adapts to living with another.’ Discuss. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection ‘Interpreter of Maladies’, the writer silhouetted the adaption of one culture to live within another in the form of allowing differences to exist and reaching a compromise. Lahiri drew the readers into the witness of different people battling with the obstacles they encounter. While some people like Mrs Sens, fell to the abysm of culture-displacement because of her unwillingness to adjust herself into the new society; whereas for individuals like Mr Kapasi, are stopped by the hindrance of misunderstanding on the way of bridging the culture gap. However, tolerance can resolve the difficulty in the coexisting culture, which is evident in the marriage of Sanjeev and Twinkle. To begin with, the unwillingness to adapt into a new culture will not allow two cultures to live with one another. This stance was clearly built up in Lahiri’s depiction of Mrs Sen, she came to America with her husband, a professor who adjusted himself finely into the new culture and barely had an understanding of her malady- including the fear of learning to drive and finding the equilibrium of facing new life and homesickness. Learning to drive symbolised to live independently and finally integrating into the American culture, whereas for Mrs Sen, she voiced that she ‘hate it, (I) she hate(s)...

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  • Interpreter of Maladies Essay

    ...Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri tells a story about a family on vacation in India. The story shows how much a single family can be completely distant and careless of one another. No one in the short passage sees each other for who they really are. The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Das, do not act like parents to their three children instead they act as an older brother and sister. The Das marriage is nothing near a stable, loving, or happy relationship. Their relationship is entirely thoughtless and do not care to bother with changing. Mrs. Das is so unhappy with her life as a result her family comes second when, her needs are first. Everyone in the Das family does not see each other in anyway therefore making each person invisible and careless to one another. Mr. and Mrs. Das are no where’s near being considered good parents. Mr. Das is stuck behind his camera while Mrs. Das into herself. They are both equally oblivious to their kids and don’t care. “They were all like siblings, Mr.Kapasi thought as they passed a row of date trees, Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents” (Lahiri 49). It’s extremely obvious to see that Mr. and Mrs. Das did not show attention or love to their kids. Mr. Kapasi is their tour guide that the Das family hired to show them around to sightsee and drive. The family sits in the car, which is stopped near a tea stall when Tina, the youngest needs to go to the bathroom. Mrs. Das ultimately...

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  • Interpreter of Maladies Essay

    ...Jhumpa Lahiri's book of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, reflects a realism that is seldom read in fiction. The characters are neither boring nor extraordinary, but they do face situations and dilemmas that are indicative of real life. Though the stories are all unrelated, they do share similar themes. These reoccurring motifs are religion, New-world v .Old-world tradition, gender roles, and secrecy. These themes become vital in the development of each and every character in the work. In Lahiri's collection of works, a common, yet subtle theme is secrecy. In the stories, many of the characters find themselves in different situations that manifest solely because they have withheld things from their loved ones. Such an example is in the opening story of the book, A Temporary Matter. In the story, the married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, find themselves divulging secrets that they concealed their entire marriage. In the end, their lack of communication proves to be their downfall. In the story Sexy, the entire story is centered around a secret affair between a single woman and a married man. In this story, Lahiri takes a creative turn, in which the protagonist Miranda keeps secrets from Dev, the married man with whom the affair is taking place. This is a bit of irony that even within an affair, a relationship initially built upon secrecy can in fact fall prey to secrecy. But furthermore, it is Lahiri's use of secrecy that in turn humanizes...

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  • The Story “Interpreter of Maladies”, by Jhumpa Lahiri Essay

    ...Fantasy vs. Reality The story “Interpreter of Maladies”, by Jhumpa Lahiri, the major theme is self-reflection. The main characters Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das, dwell on there past but once they meet they both were looking for excuses to move on. In comparison, the story “Half a Grapefruit” by Alice Munro has to do with the same concept, if you read in between the lines. Rose sees herself better than the people that surround her. She tries very hard to be better than them, but does not succeed. However, it makes her feel better about herself and her life in general, just like Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das are trying to better their lives. In the two stories, the authors illustrate the struggles to find happiness within their main characters lives; to stop living with regrets of the past, they both show that only an escape from reality will result in a realization of their meaningful existence. The female characters in both stories are alike in some ways. They believe in a similar life style. Mrs. Das lives the life style that Rose fantasizes to have, which makes them similar in an odd sense. “Puffed Rice in the summertime”(Munro 41). Throughout the tour Mrs. Das snacks on Puffed Rice, just as Rose pretends to have for breakfast, “She walked slowly, carrying some puffed rice tossed with peanuts and chili peppers in a large packet made from newspaper”(Lahiri 60). Even though Mrs. Das’ puffed rice is packed in newspaper, which means she probably bought...

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  • It is those who leave their homeland who struggle the most in Interpreter of Maladies. Do you agree? Essay

    ...It is those who leave their homeland who struggle the most in Interpreter of Maladies. Do you agree? Though Jhumpa Lahiri is a London born writer who grew up in Rhode Island in the United States of America and is now currently living in New York; she is able to craftily expose the fragility of immigrants while settling in a new environment in her debut novel – Interpreter of Maladies. Although Lahiri’s parents’ ultimately adjusted to living in America, they must have had frequent longings of their mother land, allowing Lahiri the opportunity to observe, first hand, the often painful adjustment of immigrants living in an adopted country. The psychological dislocation that immigrants often suffer can cause their children to feel a similar sense of alienation and loneliness, as depicted in several of Lahiri’s stories. Homesickness that is mostly felt by the majority of migrants in the early years of their new settlement is contrastingly portrayed between new migrants and migrants who have migrated for some time. Lahiri then compares the characters’ ability to assimilate in a foreign culture and proves to the reader the broad spectrum of integration that is achievable by migrants. However, the identity crisis suffered by new migrants is inescapable for second generation migrants as well. The predominant factors for unhappiness for immigrants are due to isolation and loneliness. These isolation and loneliness is not...

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