The Treatment Of Bibi Haldar Sparknotes

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies traces the lives of Bengali people, mostly immigrants, living their lives with the hardships that they face. In the eighth story, “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar”, the wives of a village tell of Bibi Haldar, a young woman put into the most unfortunate of circumstances. The ailment she suffers from, the lack of a loving home, her disgraced ending, and, most of all, the ability to become victorious through these hardships makes Bibi the most sympathetic character in Lahiri’s short story collection.
Bibi suffers from seizure-like attacks, an ailment that she had lived with for her entire life: “For the greater number of her twenty-nine years, Bibi Haldar suffered from an ailment that baffled family, friends, priests, palmists, spinsters, gem therapists, prophets, and fools” (158). She was “treated” by every known thing that might cure her illness. No cure, potion, or remedy has helped Bibi live a normal life. Unfortunately, “Bibi’s life was an encounter with one fruitless antidote after another”(159). “The nature of her illness, which struck

without warning…,” (159) caused Bibi to, “Collapsed on the third floor landing, pounding her fists, kicking her feet, sweating buckets, lost to this world” (161). This untreatable illness has caused Bibi to live a very sheltered life and caused her family to grow to despise and fear her presence.
Due to her condition and the heartlessness of her relatives, Bibi Haldar has no blood kin that truly loves and cares for her well being even though she is suffering. Bibi lives in the apartment of her older cousin and his wife. She works for her cousin, Haldar, by recording inventory at his cosmetics shop: “For her services, Bibi received no income but was given meals, provisions, and sufficient meters of cotton at every October holiday to replenish her wardrobe at an inexpensive tailor. At night she slept on a folding camp cot in the cousin’s place downstairs” (159). Haldar goes on to say, “Bibi has caused enough worry, added enough to expenses, sullied enough the family name” (163). Through his actions, Haldar acts as a foil character by emphasizing Bibi’s helplessness and unfortunate condition. He makes her situation unbearable even though he has the power to give Bibi a proper home.
Bibi Haldar is apparently cured of her ailment after being found pregnant and continues to provide a life for herself and her son despite the father not being present.

The married ladies of the village found Bibi in the storage room: “She was about four months pregnant. She said she could not remember what had happened. She did not tell us who had done it” (172). The wives then help Bibi birth a son and give her the necessary supplies to take care of him. Using the money Haldar has left her, she started selling cosmetics out of her storage room:“In this manner she raised the boy and ran a business in the storage room…”(172). The women of the village never learned what happened of the man that has impregnated Bibi, leaving it a mystery for all: “For years afterward, we wondered who in our town had disgraced her” (172). However, to the wives knowledge, Bibi was cured of her dreaded

ailment.
Living with an ailment that hinders her life, the rejection of her family, and becoming pregnant by an unknown man, Bibi perseveres through these circumstances and is able to create a life for her and her son. “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” is not told from Bibi’s perspective, but from the wives that watch and look after her in her village. This lack of communication between Bibi and the author, in most cases, would reduce the emotional connection between them. However, the lack of information causes the reader to put no limit on how much Bibi suffers, making the pity the reader feels for Bibi immense. Bibi survives her turbulent life, thriving amongst all her struggles, earning the reader’s sympathy and respect.