Post Modernism Piece- Interpreter of Maladies

                The short story Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a post modernism piece. The human relationships and human behavior are shown through the Das family and Mrs. Kapasi in the story. The author uses objects around them and external surrounding that they experience in their journey to express the mood of the characters and their complex relationship. Mr. Kapasi believes that his life is a failure. His career dreams are sacrificed for his family’s well being. His wife is grieving over their dead son and she does not support him in any way. Even though he is longing for companionship, he was able to accept his flaws in his career and married life. Even though he does not like his job he is sincere to his job and does it with perfection. Lahiri describes how he locks the door: “Reaches back to make sure the cranklike locks on the sides of each of the back doors were secured” (Lahiri 15).

                Mrs. Das does not seem to care about her surroundings. She does not care about her husband or her children. She is burdened with regret and a secret for eight years which she longs to share with someone. She seems more interested in external objects like nail polish, gum and puffed rice. She suddenly shows an interest in Mr. Das only because he is an interpreter. She assumes that he can help her with her issue. When Mrs. Das asks Mr. Das a question” what are you saving us, fifty cents?”(Lahiri 16) Mrs. Das ignores her and continues his conversation with Mr. Kapasi. Mr. Das appears more interested in his camera than his wife. When Mrs. Das refuses to come out of the car to visit the hills, he says “but we could use one of these pictures for our Christmas card this year.” He asks her to come not because he wants her to be there, but for a family photo. Mr. Das tries to cover up his problem with his wife and pretends to be normal and happy with his wife.

                The environment and setting helps the reader to understand the mood of the characters. It is a hot and sunny day, and Mrs. Das is unhappy about this. The sculptures in the sun temple create romantic and sexual tension between Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. Though he had already been to the temple, he gazes at the topless female sculptures in the temple, because of the romance he feels with     

    Mrs. Das. The author briefly describes the costume of each character in the story to show their personality. “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners.” (Lahiri 13) This shows that they were more American in personality than Indian. Mr. Das is described to be wearing simple clothes so that the camera around the neck was the only complex thing he wore. This shows that Mr. Das is a normal family person. Mr. Kapasi wears a perfect uniform which he usually wears when going on a tour and even mentions cut and fabric to the tailor, so the uniform does not get crushed during travel. All this show that he is organized and truthful to his job even though he thinks his job is a failure. When Mr. Kapathi observes Mrs. Das, she is described wearing blouse with print of strawberry, which may symbolizes desire to Mr. Kapasi.

   The external objects around the story symbolize the mood and behavior of each character in the story. The puffed rice that Mrs. Das carries may represent the secret that Mrs. Das was carrying for eight years. She was not ready to share the puffed rice with anyone else except with Mr. Kapasi at the hills, and asks Mr. Kapasi, “Want some?” (Lahiri, 25) Just like her secret that she was unable to share with anyone else but with Mr. Kapasi as she believed he might suggest some remedy. The monkeys that were around through the story represents Mrs. Das’s emotions. At first the monkeys were calm but at the hills the strength of the monkeys grew. As Mrs. Das dropped some of her puffed rice, it causes the monkeys to become aggressive. This represents her secret causing her emotion to come out as anger, which affects her son, Bobby. The fluttering of the paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address represents the way Mr. Kapasi’s desire towards Mrs. Das gets lost. The author uses symbolism in the story to provide the reader with an understanding of the relationship issues, the complexions and individuals human behavior. Clearly this piece is a work of post modernism.