Maladies, Tracking Treatment Theme (2) Lahiri\'s Stories.

¶ … maladies, tracking treatment theme (2) Lahiri's stories. You: "A temporary Matters"

Product of Problems

Children play a very important role in the many tales that are found in Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, in which frequently "the pang of disappointment turns into a sudden hunger to know more" (Crain 1999). However, this fact is most noticeable, and perhaps most dire to the plot of the stories "A Temporary Matter" and "Interpreter of Maladies." Although both of these stories are about Indian people and their duality as American citizens (Wcislo 2001), the author uses children and allusions to them as harbingers of dissatisfaction in romantic relationships. Within most satisfactory unions, marriages, or romantic relationships between people, children typically symbolize the offspring and birth of a love that was produced by a happy pair. However, the author of Interpreter of Maladies utilizes children largely for the opposite effect in the aforementioned pair of stories. Within these tales, children are merely a means of physical evidence that reflects the fact that there are inherent troubles in the romantic relationships of the couples depicted.

This fact is perhaps most obvious in "A Temporary Matter," which is about a trip to India taken by a relatively young couple and their children. In this story, Mrs. Das ends up making an admission to her tour guide, Mr. Kapasi, that one of the children in her family was not fathered by her husband, Mr. Das. Instead, that son, whose name is Bobby, was sired by a friend of her husband's during a surreptitious affair the pair had approximately 10 years prior. In a brief moment of intimacy between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi, the former chooses to ask the latter about what do regarding this situation in which a child was produced because of the simple fact that Mrs. Das is no longer in love with her husband. Mr. Kapasi's answer is fairly accusatory, and demonstrates the fact that this child of Mrs. Das actually reflects the state of despair her marriage is in. The following quotation demonstrates this fact well. "He decided to begin with the most obvious question, to get to the heart of the matter, and so he asked, "Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or guilt?" (Lahiri 2000). This quotation indicates that Mrs. Das feels both pain and guilt at the birth of Bobby -- since he was sired out of wedlock and represents an egregious act of infidelity. The constant presence of Bobby in the lives of the Das family symbolizes this transgression of Mrs. Das' union to her husband, and is an enduring reminder of her cheating on her husband -- despite the fact that he is unaware that Bobby is not his child. In such a way does the author utilize children within this story to represent an unhappy, damaged relationship between the Das's in which they no longer love one another.

Whereas human offspring symbolize a history of troubles in the relationship between the principle couple in "A Temporary Matter," they serve as a precursor to the problems and falling out of love that eventually takes place within this story. This notion is largely due to the fact that the lone child within this short story is still-born, and after its death the relationship between Shoba and Shukumar slowly unravels to the point that the former eventually leaves the latter at the conclusion of this tale. Stylistically, the author utilizes a narrative technique that constantly incorporates elements of the past as well as of the present, and which frequently invokes references to the couple's still-born child. In such a way does the death of this child actually represent the impending death of the happiness of Shoba and Shukumar, as well as the impending death of their marriage. The following quotation, in which Shukumar reminisces about the child's crib, indicates this fact.

By the end of August there was a cherry crib under the window, a white changing table… and a rocking chair…Shukumar had disassembled it all before bringing Shoba back from the hospital... For some reason the room did not haunt him the way it haunted Shoba. In January…he set up his desk there…because it was a place Shoba avoided (Lahiri 2000).

This quotation strongly implies that the room that was to be dedicated to the baby is a place that Shoba dislikes, largely because it reminds her of the death of her child. However, this is the same room that Shoba's husband purposefully chooses to make as his study, because his wife "avoided" this place. In such a way does the author use the death of the couple's child as a literal place of separation for them -- as a haven, of sorts, into which Shoba will not enter and which Shukumar does not want her to. Therefore, it becomes evident that the death of Shoba and Shukumar's child symbolizes a place of departure in their union, and will eventually lead to the figurative death of that union.

There are actually several instances in "A Temporary Matter" in which children are used to denote unhappiness in relationships, and not all of them directly involve the Das family. Mr. Kapasi had a son who died when he was just a child, and Mr. Kapasi took a position as an interpreter to help pay for the medical bills associated with the illness that killed the boy. However, by continuing to work in this position, Mr. Kapasi is only reminding his wife of their son's death, which is one of the principle reasons Mr. Kapasi finds Mrs. Das so attractive and initially desires her romantically -- because of his own dissatisfaction in his relationship with his wife that was brought on by the death of his child. Additionally, it is significant to mention the fact that the troubles in the relationship between Mr. And Mrs. Das are reflected in the relationship between each of the parents and their children. The children virtually never heed their parents, who are usually too busy fighting with one another of with the children to pay them sufficient attention. Even the very appearance of the children, clothed "in stiff, brightly colored clothing and caps" (Lahiri 2000) denotes a clash of colors that reflects the clash of emotions of their relationships with their parents, and that of their parents with one another. Although part of the explanation for this appearance is that "these Indian-born parents want the American Dream for their children" (Kakutani 2008), the appearance of these children is just one more instance of the physical evidence they represent of their parent's marriage troubles.