Analysis of Interpreter of Maladies - Case Study Example

Literary Criticism on ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ One of the most important elements of the story ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ is the lack of parental care, love, and affection for the children. Mr. and Mrs. Das provide plenty of evidence from the start through to the end of the story that suggests how little they care for their children. This paper offers a literary criticism on ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ from the standpoint of lack of parental care for the children. Mr. and Mrs. Das argue with each other at the tea stall, each suggesting that the other takes Tina to the toilet. This is not how caring and loving parents behave even in private, whereas Mr. and Mrs. Das were doing this in the presence of an outsider Mr. Kapasi and there was a possibility of the bickering to be noticed by other passersby as well. Normally, either of the two parents assumes the responsibility of toilet-training of the children. Even if the responsibility is unassigned, parents tend to volunteer to nurse their children when the children need to visit the toilet out of their love, care, and affection for their children. However, in this case, taking Tina to the toilet overtly seems like a liability or a responsibility that either of the two parents is least interested in fulfilling. “Eventually Mrs. Das relented when Mr. Das pointed out that he had given the girl her bath the night before” (Lahiri 12). This also shows that Mr. and Mrs. Das were more playing the role of American parents toward the children than Indian parents, since in India, bathing a daughter is an understood and established responsibility of a mother whereas such duties are undecided and case-sensitive in the American culture. “Lahiri mildly satirizes the culturally insensitive American-born Mr and Mrs Das traipsing India with their Fodor’s style guidebook…their egalitarianism is depicted as weak child-rearing, and Mina’s sexual freedom leads to infidelity and an illegitimate child within a dysfunctional romantic marriage” (Iyer and Zare 38). It is, indeed, inconsiderate of Mrs. Das to confide the secret of her extra-marital affair with Mr. Das’s friend and of Bobby being an outcome of that affair to a person as briefly known to her as Mr. Kapasi. While she has kept it a secret for eight years, suddenly she comes across a stranger whom she trusts so much for his intellectual abilities judging him merely from his job as an interpreter that she confides such a deep secret to him, saying, “No, of course not. And no one knows, of course. No one at all. I’ve kept it a secret for eight whole years…But now I’ve told you” (Lahiri 25). Even Mr. Kapasi admits to Mrs. Das that he cannot interpret her guilt just because he is an interpreter of languages. By trusting a stranger for such a deep secret, the least Mrs. Das does is decrease the status of her own child Bobby in the eyes of Mr. Kapasi. A responsible and caring mother would never disclose such a secret about her illegitimate son to anyone, but Mrs. Das does this so easily to a stranger. This reflects how little she cares about Bobby. Another element in this confiding of secret is the fact that Mrs. Das is herself looking for psychological support from a parent-like figure like Mr. Kapasi; “She plainly sees Mr. Kapasi as a parent, someone she can confide in, and consequently Mr. Kapasi’s passion is rapidly destroyed” (Wu 3). This shows that while Mrs. Das expects parents to be emotional and psychological support and guides for the children, she herself fails to live up to her own status of a parent. Another notable and interesting fact is that Mr. Kapasi plays the role of a traditional or ideal parent, unlike Mr. and Mrs. Das. This is evident from the fact that “When, before the story begins, Mr. Kapasi’s son dies, his life changes sadly and irrevocably, and though he accepts his fate, he continues to harbor various hopes” (Greenblatt 11). Perhaps, Mrs. Das notices the same ideal parental affection in Mr. Kapasi which, for her, is so overwhelming that she confides a secret in him that she has not confided in anyone for eight years. Mrs. Das plays indifferent to petty harmless desires of her children. An evidence of this is how she refuses to apply nailpolish on the nails of her daughter as Tina asks for it, saying, “Mine too. Mommy, do mine too” (Lahiri) to which Tina replies, “Leave me alone,… You’re making me mess up” (Lahiri). Even the nail polish that Tina was requesting her mother to apply was colorless, which means it could hardly create any problem for the child anywhere, but Mrs. Das still does not think for a second before refusing to apply. “The attitude of Mrs. Das towards her children can be contrasted to the widowed mother of the female protagonist in Chitra Divakarunis story "The Word Love" who had lived only for her daughter when she had been widowed at a very young age” (Aravind 63). Loving and caring mothers not only entertain such desires of their daughters, but also voluntarily teach them how to apply nail polish; it is a kind of training for grooming that develops the ever-lasting bond between a mother and a daughter and makes the two the best of friends forever, but Mrs. Das seems to care the least for developing such a bond with her daughter, be it about entertaining her request to apply nail polish or taking her to the toilet. “The family is not a homogenous group where all the members’ occupy equal positions and derive equal benefits in terms of source, training opportunities and entitlements. The socialization of members and especially girls lead to women themselves accepting their secondary role in family . . . gender difference that are culturally produced are , almost invariably, interpreted as being rooted in biology, as part of the natural order of things. However, gender roles are conceived, enacted and learnt within a complex of relationships (Desai and Thakkar 80). Lack of parental care and affection in Interpreter of Maladies is, in part, grounded in isolation and exclusion that both Mr. and Mrs. Das experience in their life. In their isolation, they are so lost and confused about their own roles and identities that they cannot play their natural roles of parents dutifully; “All characters are defined by isolation of some form or another: husbands are isolated from wives; immigrants are isolated from their families and their homes; children are isolated from their parents; and people are isolated from the communities in which they live. In their isolation, these characters feel that they are missing something very important to their identities” (“Displacement in Jhampa” 56). The effect of this isolation is so overpowering that their parental sensibility is considerably blanketed and hidden under it. This is the reason why neither Mr. Das nor Mrs. Das take any practical measures to save Bobby when he is caught in the midst of the monkeys, and instead of them, it is Mr. Kapasi who volunteers and takes practical measures to save Bobby. The height of ignorance towards his fatherly responsibilities can be estimated from the fact that when he notices Bobby caught in the midst of the monkeys, Mr. Das cannot think beyond capturing a photo of the scene. This not only provides the evidence of his lack of care for his children, but also gives an indication of the numbness of his basic humanity. Concluding, Mr. and Mrs. Das in Interpreter of Maladies provide ample evidence to suggest that they are not caring and loving enough as parents. From the start through to the end of the story, either Mr. Das or Mrs. Das or both have been engaged in a behavior that can be classified as irresponsible toward their children to say the least. Regardless of gender preference or the preference of one child over another which may normally be the case with a normal family, Mr. and Mrs. Das are equally negligent toward their daughter and both their sons which suggests that there is something inherently wrong with their parenting. Some examples of their negligence toward their children as parents include their argument with each other over who would take Tina to the toilet, Mrs. Das’s confiding of the secret of illegitimate birth of Bobby to Mr. Kapasi, Mrs. Das’s refusal to apply nail-polish on the nails of her daughter, and both parents’ failure to take practical measures to save Bobby from the monkeys. Some reasons for lack of emotional bond between Mr. and Mrs. Das and their children include their role confusion as Indian immigrants in the American culture, their poor marital relationship, and their personal social isolation. Contrary to Mr. and Mrs. Das, Mr. Kapasi provides the example of a normal parent who mourns over the loss of his own son and also takes practical measure to save the son of Mr. and Mrs. Das from the monkeys. Works Cited: Aravind, Angalakuduru. “Jhampa Lahiri is herself a second generation immigrant.” Research Journal of English Language and Literature 2.2 (2014): 62-66. Desai, Neera, and Thakkar, Usha. Women in Indian Society New Delhi. National BookTrust, 2001. Print. “Displacement in Jhama Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies.” N.d. Web. 11 May 2015. . Greenblatt, Ellen. “Hearing the Tone in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies””. AP English Literature and Composition. The College Board, 2006. Web. 11 May 2015. . Iyer, Nalini, and Zare, Bonnie. Other Tongues: Rethinking the Language Debates in India. Rodopi, 2009. Print. Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Interpreter of Maladies.” N.d. Web. 11 May 2015. . Wu, Chao-Jung. “The Quality of Books: Fahrenheit 451 and “Interpreter of Maladies”.” 6 Dec. 2001. Web. 11 May 2015. . Read More