Interpreter of Maladies

Ayten Salahi
Mr. Coon
English IV AP
12 September 2008

His Eyes and Mind, Her Words and Actions

Behind every character within Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, there exists a purpose, a theme—a window through which to perceive, or a sight upon which to bestow. Every action is transplanted with great precision, every response with careful meditation—nothing is said or done accidentally. Lahiri is able to manipulate these six characters such that Mr. Kapasi becomes this window, and the Das family becomes this site. Yet there are truly only two whose interactions the readers are most drawn to, whose thoughts and words are most captivating, and it is not inadvertently so. These two are not entire characters; they are parts of characters. It is through the eyes and mind of Mr. Kapasi that we become acquainted with the intense cultural disparities between the native Indian and the American assimilates. It is through the words and actions of Mrs. Das that we are introduced to both a personification of the seven deadly sins and a woman so suffocated by the pressures bestowed upon her by her heritage that she believes it justifies her way of being.

Lahiri utilizes both Mr. Kapasi’s perspective and his thought processes as tools to accentuate his and the Das’s profound cultural divergences, as well as the undeniable fascination that is born from these differences. Everything about them is different—the way the dress, the way they interact, and even the way they perceive. Upon observing these distinctions, one cannot help but notice that each and every contrast is carefully and purposefully transplanted immediately before or after its counterpart so as to powerfully present these concentrated contrasts. Lahiri describes the Das family’s attire, with their “stiff, brightly colored clothing,” their “flashing silver wires” covering the children’s teeth, and Mr. Das with this “shorts, sneakers, and T-shirt” and a “camera slung around his neck.” Directly following this description is that of Mr. Kapasi’s attire himself, with his greater concern for the durability and practicality of his “gray trousers” and “matching jacket-style shirt, tapered at the waist.” Further following that description comes that of Mrs. Das, with her “skirt that stopped before her knees,” her “close-fitting [chest-level] blouse,” and her unnecessarily large straw bag. Such distinctions—and such careful and thoughtful placement of said distinctions—allows one to observe that even the most trivial aspects of daily life differ between the two cultures.

And yet, that observation can only be made through Mr. Kapasi—he is truly the one and only character who is even mindful of the others around him; he is the only character whose thoughts seem to contain any substance concerning his surroundings. He notes this difference in clothing, and continues to note the unusual interactions between the family members in that they “were all like siblings, [and] Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents.” His work as an interpreter haunts him and his wife with an overwhelming sense of failure and an evocation of devastating memories, whereas Mrs. Das deems such an occupation as “romantic,” making the patients “more dependent on [him] than the doctor.” From these divergences, and from this lack of innate understanding, an odd infatuation is born between he who observes and that which he is observing, yet their intentions are not the same. She flatters him, however unintentionally, and he her with his admiration and unwillingness to part with her. To him, Mrs. Das represented the possibility of a new friend who valued his work. To her, Mr. Kapasi represented solely the possibility of freedom from her guilt—her intentions were almost entirely selfish, whereas his were to quench a certain burning curiosity.

It is through the greed defining her actions, the gluttony of her constant munching, the sloth in her unwilling and winy nature—it is through the lust that drove her infidelity, the cold and indifferent wrath she bestows upon her family, the pride with which she rejects Mr. Kapasi’s advice, and the envy with which she covets a different life—that we are presented with Mrs. Das—the personification of the seven deadly sins. Lahiri utilizes this character to symbolize the internal conflict that occurs within nearly every assimilate: how much of our own culture do we preserve? Mrs. Das symbolizes a woman so torn by this perpetual internal dilemma that she has surrendered to it, asphyxiated to the point where she herself has been lost, to the point where she had “fallen out of love with life.” From this loss of self and of love comes not only the onslaught of the seven deadly sins and her undeniable relation to them, but also the dreadful notion that her family must suffer for her unhappiness.