Misinterpretation of Maladies, Eve Jones

In both “Interpreter of Maladies” and “A Temporary Matter” Jhumpa Lahiri examines how relationships will be strained when there is a lack of communication and shows that marriages will deteriorate when spouses stop making an effort. She shows this through the eyes of a narrator watching a couple as they take their children on vacation. The reader can see the struggles of the couple and how the narrator relates it to his own life and marriage and examines further the complexity of communication and its limitations. Lahiri also explores the ideas of communicating across gender, linguistic and cross cultural borders and how translation can fail in those situations.

            We first see the relationship between Mr and Mrs Das when they are getting picked up by Mr. Kapasi in his taxi. Mr. Kapasi observes the couple and their odd ways of interacting with each other and their children. The narrator, Mr. Kapasi, notes their distance from each other and their almost indifference towards their children. He even goes so far to say that “Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents”(Lahiri) because of the way they handle each situation with their kids and with each other. They do not talk to each other unless it is necessary and take no interest in each other. They are both so wrapped up in themselves that they do not take the time to interact with their spouse or children unless it is absolutely necessary. Their lack of communication with each other creates a visible divide; they almost seem unwilling to put aside differences in order to open up possibilities of easier communication as a couple.

 While the Das’s do not seem willing to put aside their differences in order to make their relationship work, Mr. Kapasi is. As he creates an image of the future in his mind he imagines Mrs. Das and himself writing each other and sharing differences and secrets. He craves intimate communication with a woman that he loves since he doesn’t love his wife-- they had had an arranged marriage. Mr. Kapasi misinterprets Mrs. Das’s interest in his other job as an interpreter for a doctor. While she takes interest because she wants him to help her eventually, he believes that she is romantically interested in him. This is ironic because he believes himself to be able to interpret people and see what they are feeling based on their words and actions. However, the differences in gender and culture make it nearly impossible for Mr. Kapasi to interpret Mrs. Das’s “maladies” and the way she feels. Their ability to communicate is cut short by their differences, despite the fact that one of them is willing to look past them. Eleonora Federici points out that “the translator interprets the text in his own way; he grasps some references and loses others.” Mr. Kapasi is so caught up in his idea of the way things are that he is translating situations according to the way he wants them to be instead of seeing them as they really are. His perception of the way marriage and family should be is so different than the Das’s because their cultures are so unlike each other-- making it impossible for him to be able to understand the situation that the family is in.

            In the story we see that the narrator is distorting reality to see things as he wishes them to be. In the end of the story however, “Mr. Kapasi observes that his idea of family deforms the reality of the situation and still cannot fill out the cross-cultural gap”(Stefanovici). He realizes that although this family is technically Indian they are American in almost every way. They have different values and ways of seeing the world. Mr. Kapasi will never be able to see things in the same way because his life and culture are so different. He has been distorting reality which makes it impossible for him to effectively communicate because he cannot clearly see the situation he is in or how to handle it. When he creates an unrealistic image of Mrs. Das in his mind he is then unable to help her when she comes to him for help about her darkest secret.

 As Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das converse about Mrs. Das’s troubles we see the struggle in Mr. Kapasi to correctly interpret the situation, as it is not the type of translation he is used to making. Although the scene in the story is brief, there is a lot of tension as the two characters have internal debates about the things that Mrs. Das is expressing and requesting. Through this scene we “the difficulty and often the impossibility of communicating emotional pain and affliction to others, as well as expressing it to ourselves”(Federici). Mrs. Das does not know how to explain her dilemma to anyone and does not know how to accept what she is holding in.

            From the conversation with Mrs. Das we also see how miscommunication and even complete lack of it caused the Das marriage to turn out the way it did. Mrs. Das explains that she not only withdrew from her husband but also her friends and family. As she grew increasingly tired and overwhelmed “there was no one to confide in about him at the end of a difficult day, or to share a passing thought or a worry”(Lahiri), which led her to distance herself from her husband and ultimately make the decision to commit adultery. All of the troubles that she was going through could have been avoided if she had communicated with others around her. She could have opened up to her husband about the struggles she was facing or gone out with her friends. These simple things that were not done caused a huge divide in her marriage and led to even more unhappiness.

            As Mrs. Das talks with Mr. Kapasi in the car he gains a new understanding. We see that as the two talk Mr. Kapasi’s distortion of reality slowly disappears. As they communicate he has a reality check and realizes that he has not been seeing things as they truly are. Although we cannot see what she is thinking, Mrs. Das also seems to change and see the situation for what it really is. She decides to go to her family and interact with them-- and she had not done this at all before. We can also see Mr. Kapasi’s change when “the slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address on it fluttered away in the wind”(Lahiri) and no one but him noticed. As this piece of paper flies away he realizes that along with it goes his hopes of further communication with Mrs. Das. His eyes are opened from his dreams of a secret communication with her and he is no longer distorting the reality of the situation he is in.

            In “A Temporary Matter” their failure to communicate and grieve together over their loss causes a divide. When their baby died they were not together because Shoba pushed her husband, Shukumar, to go to an academic conference and so he wasn’t able to make it when she went into labor. The loss of their baby was hard on both them and affected them both deeply. However, they did not use this hardship to bond and grow closer together over their loss, they separated and went their own ways. Shukumar notes that “these days Shoba was always gone by the time [he] woke up”(Lahiri) and was already working in her office while he is at home “working” on his dissertation. They don’t see each other again until Shoba gets home later in the evening after she is done with her tasks for the day. This lack of communication causes a divide between the couple because they do not feel comfortable talking to each other anymore. Their interactions are so few and so awkward that it almost seems like they aren’t married.

Their differences become more and more apparent as neither of them make an effort to stop the distance between them from growing. Throughout the short story we see Shukumar noticing small things that have changed in their marriage and relationship. When she moves her stuff to another place instead of putting it away he thinks to himself “she wasn't this way before. She used to put her coat on a hanger, her sneakers in the closet, and she paid bills as soon as they came. But now she treated the house as if it were a hotel”(Lahiri). Shoba is not making an effort around the house to make it feel like home. Shukumar feels uncomfortable too-- he mentions that he feels that he shouldn’t put on a record because he doesn’t want to be rude. This husband and wife are both failing to make an effort to keep up their relationship. They way that they behave shows their spouse how they feel and communicates that they are not comfortable. They are not only failing to verbally communicate with each other to come together but they are also showing all of the wrong signs to each other through their various behavioral changes. This combination of miscommunication is just pushing this couple further and further apart as they continue to avoid the truth of their deteriorating relationship.

Throughout these short stories we see many different relationships and how they are affected by miscommunication and an inner distortion of reality. Lahiri shows this through Mr. Kapasi’s eyes as he observes the Das family and as he takes a look into himself and his own life. The characters each show a different aspect of miscommunication. We see Mr. Kapasi’s struggles to interpret reality and situations correctly as translations get lost and fail to accurately translate. Mrs. Das shows us how lack of communication with all of those around us can cause a divide in relationships with those close to us. In “A Temporary Matter” the husband and wife fail to work together through a difficult time and stop making an effort to close the gap between them.

The characters each have their own place where they feel that they belong-- yet they still feel as if they are outsiders. This causes them to isolate themselves and stop communicating effectively with those who are close to them, therefore causing their relationships to deteriorate.

Works Cited

 Brada-Williams, Noelle. “Reading Jhumpa Lahiri's ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ as a Short Story Cycle.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, Oxford University Press,

Federici, Eleonora. "THE TRANSLATOR'S INTERTEXTUAL BAGGAGE." Forum for Modern Language Studies 43.2 (2007): 147,160,190. ProQuest. Web. 20 Mar. 2018.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Harper Collins, 2014.

Quinn, Mary Ellen. "Interpreter of Maladies." The Booklist 95.16 (1999): 1514. ProQuest. Web. 20 Mar. 2018.

 
Stefanovici, Smaranda. "JHUMPA LAHIRI AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISLOCATION IN "INTERPRETER OF MALADIES"." Studia Universitatis Petru Maior.Philologia.18 (2015): 103-9. ProQuest. Web. 20 Mar. 2018.