Bridging the Gap: Lahiri's Closure

The close of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Final Continent” encompasses many themes including travel, the feeling of foreignness and discovery, even culture. However, the themes and conclusions that are pulled together by the final section of the piece prove most powerful and resonating, and through Lahiri’s diction and syntax, we’re left to contemplate three final themes: the passage of time, assimilation into a new culture, and the development of people and their relationships to one another. Through placing such a long gap between the previous section and the very last one, these themes are emphasized and thus we are almost forced to focus on them, centralizing them in our minds.

What’s most clear in this final section is that much time has passed. Lahiri does this syntactically by utilizing a style called “catalogue rhetoric”, that is, listing all the things that the protagonist and Mala have done, from “explor[ing] the city” to “walk[ing] to the Charles River” (213). This style of writing takes more time for us to read, and draws out each sentence longer and longer, making us as readers feel the time passing and taking moments to visualize each event listed by Lahiri. Plot-wise, we can locate the amount of time that has passed by the addition of a son into the scene and the fact that he is in college gives us a time frame as well. Additionally, the death of Mrs. Croft signifies an emotional event that places us on a solid timeline. 

Secondly, the protagonist and his wife Mala (and even their son) have made great strides in assimilating themselves into a society that, at first, seems frightening and foreign. As mentioned, one way Lahiri does this is by listing all of the ways in which the protagonist and Mala explore the city, while still maintaining relationships with “other Bengalis” (213). The purchasing of a camera in order to “document [their] lives together” shows the development made and the effort made by these characters to make record their new life (213). They’ve assimilated so well, in fact, that they worry that their son has grown so accustomed to America that he will never speak Bengali once his parents are gone. While they still hold onto their roots overseas, they’ve acknowledged that they’ve placed new roots in the Boston area, and are even familiar enough at this point to point Massachusetts Avenue and now-familiar buildings out as they drive. This portion of the text is more solidly concerned about the past, the memories that have already formed; it’s a reflection on the rest of the text. 

What I most loved about the very ending is the way it seems that the family grew closer due to their shared need to assimilate with the passing of time. Lahiri effectively displays this through the narrator/protagonist’s discussion of his relationship with Mala. While it is true, the narrator states, that they “were not yet fully in love”, it is immediately acknowledged that Mrs. Croft sparked the lessoning of distance for the two (213). After so long of not embracing or being physical, the protagonist explains that they kissed, “shy at first but quickly bold…discover[ing] pleasure and solace in each other’s arms” (213). 

I think that Lahiri’s closing section of this piece proves most powerful because of these three features, and I think I would definitely utilize her techniques in “The Third and Final Continent” in order to provide a moving end to my piece. I would allow that gap of time to occur between the last section and the one prior to emphasize the level of growth my characters have made in their new environment. What makes this piece so powerful is the way readers are relieved and feel closure because this family that they’ve followed through their lives has finally settled down.

CITATIONS:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. "The Third and Final Continent." The New Yorker (June 1999) Print.