Foiled

Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “The Third and Final Continent” is narrated by an Indian emigrant who moves to Boston. The piece tells the story of his actions and his settling within American culture, but it also tells the story of his emotional growth and the changes he experiences in the way he associates with other people, specifically Mala and Mrs. Croft. Mrs. Croft and Mala are set as foil characters in the short story. They each have agency in opposite ways, and these strengths help to determine how the narrator feels about each of them.

Mrs. Croft is strong emotionally but week physically. She is demanding and somewhat rude, much more frank than the narrator is comfortable with. She demands that he exclaim “splendid” in reference to the man on the moon, which is insulting to the narrator and creates resentment at first. “It also reminded me of my wedding, when I had repeated endless Sanskrit verses after the priest… which joined me to my wife.” By bringing in the wife at this moment Lahiri ties the wife and Croft’s home together at the outset. Her emotional strength is evident already, but it is the realization that she is a 103 year old widow that affects the narrator the most, and stirs compassion for her. Her mental and emotional strength is paired with complete weakness of body. She can’t eat solids or open the cans of soup, might at any moment fall and break her hip. This weakness is what creates compassion and courtesy in the narrator for Mrs. Croft, but it is it’s juxtaposition with mental strength that makes him care for her.

Mala is also viewed with disdain at first, but for her emotional weakness as opposed to the overbearing strength of Mrs. Croft. “A five-mile separation from her parents, I recalled with some irritation, had caused her to weep.” The narrator views her as an extra responsibility, a duty to fulfill and not a human being. This is contrasted with her physical strength and agency. She cooks and cleans for him, takes care of the home in a way Mrs. Croft cannot.

For both of them, it takes someone else to point out vulnerability that makes the narrator sympathize. Helen reveals how old and alone Mrs. Croft is, to which the narrator responds with “I was mortified.” Mrs. Croft is the one to allow the narrator to feel sympathy when she is glaring at Mala. “…for the first time since her arrival, I felt sympathy.” In the end, this foil and Mrs. Croft’s judgment and subsequent approval of Mala are what allow the narrator to close the emotional distance between them.

I’ve always been interested in the way that foil characters work, and I have yet to see them done organically the way Lahiri writes them in this story. Their relationship is no forced, yet reinforces and reveals the way the narrator operates emotionally. In a future piece I’d like to explore the way two characters can build off of each other before they meet as they orbit around a main character.