Truth About the Truth Don\'t

Truth About the Truth

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One of the unfair truths regarding life is that we truly never know someone. Regardless of how well we think we know someone, how long we have lived with them, and all the circumstances we may have seen them go through, we can never be completely sure about what another person is thinking or what they may be planning to do. People are simply unpredictable -- even to themselves, people are surprising creatures. In "A Temporary Matter," Jhumpa Lahiri reveals this truth as we watch the Shoba and Shukumar slowly separate from one another. In "Interpreter of Maladies," Lahiri reveals how our imaginations get the best of us and allow us to conjure up notions about people that are not even remotely close to the truth. Unfortunately, the truth hurts.

In "A Temporary Matter," truth hides in the routine of life. Shoba buries herself in her work and trips to the gym while her husband allows himself to become depressed. All he thinks about is how her and his wife are "experts at avoiding each other" (4). When Shoba tells Shukumar she will be moving out, he is "relieved and yet he was sickened" (21). The point of her game was for nothing more than to led up to this point and nothing more. Throughout the story, he anticipates their evenings together, thinking how good it is to remember her "as she was then" (15). The evenings become an "exchange of confessions" (18) with Shukumar obsessing over what will be said the upcoming night. He has no idea where Shoba is going with this routine and the truth of it all shocks him into hurting her. When it was Shukumar's time to reveal a truth, he decided to tell her the truth about her son because he did not love her anymore. These painful truths are things neither of them expected. Skukumar never expected to hear what he did and he certainly never expected to say what he did but he faced unintended consequences and his reaction, thought out or not, is such a result for both of them. The couple also realizes how selfish they have been throughout the course of their relationship and this, along with the truth of who they actually are, brings them to tears. The truth kills them and whatever chance their relationship had. The sad aspect of this fact is one would hope the truth would allow healing and restoration.

Every time a character in "Interpreter of Maladies" fails to see the truth about another person, the results are in some way harmful. The main conflict of the story centers on two people who romanticize each other, although in different ways. Mr. Kapasi sees Mrs. Das as a lonely housewife who could be a perfect companion to him in his own loneliness. He misses or ignores cues that she may not be interested in him for his own sake because, at some level, he wants her to be this companion. He sees many details about her, such as her bare legs and Americanized shirt and bag, but he passes over others, such as the way she dismisses her children's desires and her selfishness with her snack. Such unflattering details do not fit with his conception of her. Likewise, Mrs. Das wants Mr. Kapasi to become a confidante to her and solve her personal and marital difficulties. She views him as a father figure and helper and misses or ignores indications that he may not fit those roles. Mr. Kapasi is "flattered" (55) when Mrs. Das views his job with such interest. She is "unlike his wife" (55) in that she reminds him of "intellectual challenges" (55) and it does not take long for him to begin a romantic adventure in his mind about her. He wonders if the two are mismatched because he recognizes the sings of a bad married from his own experience. These include the "bickering, the indifference, the protracted silences" (55). He even becomes intoxicated as he remembers Mrs. Das saying the word romantic. He checks his appearance in the rearview mirror and quickly becomes absorbed with her. As he gives his/her address, he imagines their correspondence and their relationship growing, giving him hope that "all was right with the world" (56). He is consumed with this image because he wants it to be real. At the end of the story, Mr. Kapasi is awakened to the reality of what he contrives in his mind. In short nothing is at it seems and it takes the image of his address floating away on a breeze to understand how insignificant he is to Mrs. Das. He watches the Das family in the final scene, knowing this image of a disjointed family would be the one he remembers.