Some people believe that opposites attract. Others believe that people who are more similar will have a better relationship. Some prefer relationships with older people, and some prefer them with younger people. Jhumpa Lahiri, author of the short story collection Interpreter of Maladies, explores the dynamic of relationships in her works. In her short story “Interpreter of Maladies” a married woman confesses a secret to a man she barely knows. In her story “This Blessed House” a couple fights over the religious relics they find in their new home. While one reads Lahiri’s stories, a theme begin to emerge that shows the woman of the relationship behaving like an adolescent and the man behaving like her father due to the internalized idea of …show more content…
In the house, they find Christian relics that Twinkle takes a particular interest in. Sanjeev’s resistance toward keeping the relics and Twinkle’s child-like obsession with them show the dynamic of their relationship. Twinkle behaves like a teenager and Sanjeev behaves like her father. When Sanjeev confronts her about moving the Virgin Mary that rests outside their house, she has a juvenile fit. “‘Don’t you dare.’ She stood up, letting the book fall into the water, bubbles dripping down her thighs. ‘I hate you,’ she informed him, her eyes narrowing at the word ‘hate’” (149). After she storms away in stubborn anger, she goes back to him in tears: “She went to him, placing her damp toweled arms about his neck, sobbing into his chest, soaking his shirt” (149). When she tells Sanjeev she hates him, it is clear that she can’t have a mature discussion about the statue and resorts to doing what a child would. When she comes back crying, she shows her weakness and how much she relies on him. She has become attached to the relics in a way similar to that of a child becoming attached to their toys. Her obsession with these objects and Sanjeev’s hatred of them represent the difference in their personalities and highlight the fact that Twinkle is the younger one in the relationship. When the couple hosts a dinner party, the guests seem …show more content…
Her fictional stories represent this relationship dynamic in the real world exceptionally well. Relationships featuring a younger and older figure, not by age, but by personality, often fail. In Indian culture, women often cannot make the choice of a partner themselves due to arranged marriages in which they meet their husband at a young age. In these cases of relationships, women are required to be submissive and are thought of as inferior to society. Misogyny in India should be undoubtedly put to an end, but to make that happen people need to accept women as equals. In any culture, a partner should not act like a parent, because they often end up to be too controlling and restrictive. They should not act like a teenager either and be mature in handling adult responsibilities. Relationships go exceptionally better if there is trust but also a level of
Our group chose "Speak To The Hand" by Lakita Garth. This song talks about the health
In the short story “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” by Junot Diaz, the author pinpoints on the Yunior’s life as a writer and college professor who is also struggling with his romantic relationships. The short story is filled with his experiences of using women for his beneficial needs and how it negatively affects him. It focuses on Yunior’s downfall through life after the destruction of his relationship with his fiance. The diction includes the narrator’s hateful consideration of women and a paradox of his own endeavors which prevent him from pursuing a meaningful relationship, but he grows to realize that he treats women awfully and his ex did the right thing by leaving him due to his untruthfulness.
Throughout the novel "Little Altars Everywhere", written by Rebecca wells, there are changes between the relationships of its characters. Viviane, the mother of Siddalee, Baylor and Little Shep, is one of the main characters, and most of the changes revolve around her. Throughout the novel, it is portrayed that Viviane has a closer relationship with her eldest daughter, Siddalee. Viviane has always been a distant mother, who is more worried with social things such as her "Yaya sisterhood", than developing a close relationship between her and her family. Viviane is not only distant with her children, but she does not have a solid relationship with her husband, Big Shep.
Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake illustrates the assimilation of Gogol as a second generation American immigrant, where Gogol faces the assimilation of becoming an American. Throughout the novel, Gogol has been struggling with his name. From kindergarten to college, Gogol has questioned the reason why he was called Nikhil when he was a child, to the reason why he was called Gogol when he was in college. Having a Russian name, Gogol often encounters questions from people around him, asking the reason of his name. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name from the fact that he was born in America, to emphasize that how hard an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
The story that Jess Walter tells, much like any other novel, is one of joy and sorrow. Lives intersect and separate, people fall into and out of love, and dreams are made and broken. What Walter does with his plot though is quite different. He writes it in a way where the whole book itself relies on the reader’s ability to realize that though some people meet for only a brief amount of time, their dreams and hopes, can hinge on even the briefest moments. Sometimes the characters in the novel have their stories intersect, some in very interesting ways, and other times you see their story as it is and was, just them. Walter does a wonderful job of bringing together many different lives, many stories, and showing how just because you feel alone, does not mean you are, your life and story can at any moment intersect with another and create a whole different story. Perhaps, Alvis Bender puts the idea that Walter is trying to convey into the best words, “Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story . . . your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid presents the hypothetical story of a tourist visiting Antigua, the author’s hometown. Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of the tourist, and tells the tourist what he/she would see through his/her travels on the island. She paints a picturesque scene of the tourist’s view of Antigua, but stains the image with details of issues that most tourists overlook: the bad roads, the origin of the so-called native food, the inefficiency of the plumbing systems in resorts, and the glitches in the health care system. Kincaid was an established writer for The New Yorker when she wrote this book, and it can be safely assumed that majority of her readers had, at some point in their lives, been tourists. I have been a tourist so many times before and yet, I had never stopped to consider what happens behind the surface of the countries I visit until I read this essay. Kincaid aims to provoke her readers; her style of writing supports her goal and sets both her and her essay apart. To the reader, it sounds like Kincaid is attacking the beautiful island, pin-pointing the very things that we, as tourists, wish to ignore. No tourist wants to think about faeces from the several tourists in the hotel swimming alongside them in the oceans, nor do they want to think about having accidents and having to deal with the hospital. It seems so natural that a tourist would not consider these, and that is exactly what Kincaid has a problem with.
Sociology professor Morrie Schwartz once said, "Rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble…” (Albom 149). Although not stated as clearly or concisely, the vast majority of Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories retell the truths told above. Three stories in particular; "A Temporary Matter," "When Mr. Pirzada Comes to Dine," and "The Third and Final Continent," especially exemplify the quote above. Throughout these stories Jhumpa Lahiri writes of the struggles Indians have building new relationships while trying to assimilate to American culture; Lahiri illustrates that in order to strengthen any relationship, one must display compassion, respect, and honesty.
to America with grace and compassion. This story by Jhumpa Lahiri, is an allegory establishing an identity with using symbolic meaning between two cultures that intersect. The themes throughout the story refer to immigrant experiences, the conflict of cultures, the contrast of assimilation and the connection between generations. The Namesake, opens the worlds of emotions Ashima experiences, while straddling her two worlds. This story of identity allows readers to travel with Ashima on an intimate journey through her life as an immigrant.
Home is about a Korean War veteran named Frank Money who needs to save his sister from dying. The story starts with Frank describing a scene from his childhood with his sister. They were in a field with horses he describes the horses being beautiful and brutal, but on the other side some men were burying a dead African American in a hole. When Frank becomes an adult he is soon committed to a mental hospital after his time in the war. Frank soon gets a letter stating that his sister was in danger and could die if he did not hurry to save her. Then he remembers his family being evicted and not being able to take any possessions. Frank then escapes the bastion of the hospital on his way to save his sister from the mysterious person. On his way Frank Money meets many different people who offer their assistance to him because he is not wealthy. Frank makes his way to Atlanta to continue the search for is sister but is attacked by gang of thugs, who steal his wallet and hit him with a pipe. After trying to find his sister he finds his sister being an experimental patient to Dr. Beau, a doctor who conducted experiments on colored civilians. After Frank saves his sister he takes her to some friends to help her get better from the experiments. While there his sister starts to make a quilt while she got better, which they eventually laid over the man’s bones, who was lynched, when they were kids. They nailed a sign to the tree as a sign of respect showing that someone was buried there beneath the tree. Finally, after nailing the sign, Frank looks at the tree for a while thinking of everything that has happened, then his sister Cee walks over and tells him it’...
In “My Two Lives” Jhumpa Lahiri talks about her hardship growing up in America coming from two different cultures. At home she spoke Bengali with her parents, ate with her hands. According to Jhumpa’s parents she was not American and would never be. This led her to become ashamed of her background. She felt like she did not have to hide her culture anymore. When Jhumpa got married in Calcutta she invited her American friends that never visited India. Jhumpa thought her friends would judge from being part of the Indian culture and isolate her.However her friends were intrigued by her culture and fascinated. She felt like her culture should not be hidden from her friends anymore, and that coming from an Indian-American culture is unique. Jhumpa believes that her upbringing is the reason why she is still involved with her Bengali culture. Jhumpa says“While I am American by virtue of the fact that I was raised in this country, I am Indian thanks to the efforts of two individuals.” Jhumpa means that she is Indian, because she lived most of her life and was raised here. In the story Lahiri explains that her parents shaped her into the person she is. Growing up coming from two different cultures can be difficult, but it can also be beneficial.
In this text Mohanty argues that contemporary western feminist writing on Third World women contributes to the reproduction of colonial discourses where women in the South are represented as an undifferentiated “other”. Mohanty examines how liberal and socialist feminist scholarship use analytics strategies that creates an essentialist construction of the category woman, universalist assumptions of sexist oppression and how this contributes to the perpetuation of colonialist relations between the north and south(Mohanty 1991:55). She criticises Western feminist discourse for constructing “the third world woman” as a homogeneous “powerless” and vulnerable group, while women in the North still represent the modern and liberated woman (Mohanty 1991:56).
In the novel Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi El Saadawi reveals a narrative about a woman named Firdaus who is sentenced to death after murdering a pimp in a Cairo street. Nawal, who is both the author and a narrator of the book, is a physiatrist that almost instantly forms a certain interests for Firdaus. As Firdaus’ stubbornness attracts Nawal to her physiatrist journey, El Saadawi notes Firdaus’ desire to be executed and accept death even though she was given the opportunity to spend a life in prison rather than be executed, As the novel progresses, Firdaus reveals her anger and bitter life to El Saadawi that revolves around the setting Firdaus has been from childhood to adulthood. With this, El Saadawi creates sympathy and admiration towards Firdaus because of Firdaus’ environment. As a result of this empathy, the setting is essential to Firdaus’ characterization as her surroundings prove her to be a brave and independent woman during the mid-1970s.
How different are families compared to the past? Lately there has been some major changes in relationships, weather female dominance, or even just having no relationships at all. We also see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships.
Throughout the narrator’s elaborate life; he experienced love, friendship, and sickness; as well as many other things described in his book: Love in Exile. This book discusses the different cultures and personalities that the narrator observes, the love of the narrator’s life, Brigitte, and the life of Bahaa Taher in general and the kinds of cultures he experiences.
This Blessed House by Jhumpa Lahiri is a short story that follows a small period of time in the two characters’ lives. Having known one another for only four months, newlyweds Sanjeev and Tanima, called Twinkle, are finding it difficult to adjust to married life. Both have very different personalities, a theme that Lahiri continuously points to throughout the story,. Their conflict comes to a head when Twinkle begins finding Christian relics all over the house. Sanjeev wants to throw the relics away, but Twinkle collects them on the mantle and shows them off at every opportunity. As a character, Sanjeev is unadventurous and exacting, while Twinkle is free-spirited and does not care for the fine details. The root of the conflict between Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters Sanjeev and Twinkle in “This Blessed House” is the clashing of their two very different personalities in a situation that forces them together.