When Mr Pirzada Came To Dine Summary

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In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”, Lilia's coming of age is exemplified by the in-depth observations that she begins to make, in addition to the more complex emotions she starts experiencing that are both conveyed through her point of view. As Lilia develops throughout the story, she gradually comes to learn things about the world that surround her due to the observations that she begins to make. When Lilia hangs up the phone with her mother on Halloween to say she made it to her friend Dora’s house safely, she notes, “When I replaced the phone on the receiver it occurred to me that the television wasn’t on at Dora’s house at all. Her father was lying on the couch, reading a magazine, with a glass of wine on the …show more content…

Pirzada began to come to her house for dinner, Lilia had slowly grown aware of the difficult and heinous things that were occurring across the globe that were previously irrelevant in her own world. However, while she is at Dora’s house, recognizes that the events that have had such a significant impact on her life have little to no relevance in the lives of some others. This concept that not everyone is affected by the same things in the same way that Lilia comes to grasp over the course of the story exhibits her maturing thoughts from those of a child, who has little mindfulness about the things that differentiate people from one another, to those more typical of a young adult. Lilia’s growth is also demonstrated by the new emotions of greater intricacy that she begins to experience as the plot progresses. One of the most prominent feelings that Lilia describes is that of empathy, a sentiment that she finally achieves at the very end of the story after Mr. Pirzada has been reunited with his family in Decca. As her family rejoices over the news that Mr. Pirzada is safely back home and his family has been physically unscathed by the war, Lilia begins to contemplate her own feelings and ponders, “Though I had not seen him for months, it was only then that I felt Mr. Pirzada’s

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