Jhumpa
Lahiri writes a stirring story in “The Third and Final Continent” with simple
yet emotional prose. An important relationship in the narrator’s life is with
Mrs. Croft, who provided his first real home in America—which he develops a
lasting emotional bond with—and his wife Mala.
When the
narrator first moves into Mrs. Croft’s home, he is introduced to the American
lifestyle of someone who is one hundred years old. Although the narrator is a
stranger in this society, so is Mrs. Croft. And they develop a relationship
that is not very close, but unbelievably sentimental for the narrator. One
exchange that is repeated is Mrs. Croft’s amazement at the astronaut’s landing
on the moon. The conversation on page 182-183 goes:
“There is an American flag on the moon, boy!”
“Yes, madame.”
“A flag on the moon! Isn’t that splendid?”
…
I felt like an idiot. But it was a small enough thing to
ask. “Splendid!” I cried out.
This exchange, in which Mrs. Croft
constantly expresses her pleasure and amazement of the landing on the moon, and
then forces the narrator to say splendid with her is a sort of humorous
engagement, yet brings some form of consistency to the narrator’s life that
really helps him settle down in this new country, and his past journeys. And as
annoying is it may have been, Mrs. Croft never judged the narrator for who he
was or where he came from, but simply expected a few small things from him:
checking the lock, saying “Splendid!” and cleaning up after himself. Although
it is not written, this relationship, especially with the narrator’s shock at
discovering the age of Mrs. Croft, allowed him to look at the big picture, see
how regular life will eventually be, and take comfort in the presence of
someone so old.
Contrarily, the narrator’s
relationship with his wife is completely the opposite. They are from the same
place, but are more strangers than the narrator with Mrs. Croft ever was. The
narrator has to lived with Mrs. Croft, but never really felt uncomfortable in
her presence. However, with his wife, he is uncomfortable and annoyed at times.
The scene where he sees a women wearing a sari dragging on the ground, and she
is assaulted by a dog. This scene at once showed the incongruence of Indian
society with American life, as well as made the narrator realize that he will
have to take care of Mala when she gets here. He refers to the women as “a
mishap” (190) and felt irritated at how Mala cried when separated a mere five
miles from her parents. The narrator has gotten used to American life and takes
up the unfamiliar role of helping someone else adjust to this new country,
instead of being the one adjusting.
Again, it is Mrs. Croft who helps
bring them together, unwillingly. To a woman who is even further from what she
is used to than the narrator himself, she declares, “She is a perfect lady!”
(196). The narrator laughs. He looks at Mala and smiles. While the relationship
between the narrator and the two women in the story are at once simple, they
signify an emotional bond that can only exist between the lonely and kind. They
are all lonely in life. Mrs. Croft has probably outlasted her peers. The
narrator and his wife are new to the country. But, they bring each other
closer, again unwillingly, yet beautiful all the same.
Works
Cited
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies:
Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Print.
It’s really interesting how you point out that Mrs. Croft caused the narrator to “see how regular life will eventually be” by bringing “consistency to the narrator’s life that really helps him settle down.” As I was reading this story, I noticed many points of consistency developing in the narrator’s life. habit and regularity. The narrator “ate cornflakes and milk, morning and night” (175). The narrator began eating a very American meal and has made a routine of it. Another example is how the narrator would sit with Mrs. Croft every night: “each evening when I returned the same thing happened: she slapped the bench, ordered me to sit down” (183). I think a turning point in the story is when the narrator “led her [Mala] down the quiet street where for so many nights [he] had walked alone” (193). This clearly demonstrates the narrator letting this new woman into his new life in America and the routines, habits and experiences he has established within it.
ReplyDelete"Simple" is definitely the word to describe Lahiri's story. And it's so effectively simple too! Most people would associate simple with boring, but I know I was definitely enthralled with this story.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you discussed Mala in your response. I appreciate the way you juxtapose the narrator's relationship to Mrs. Croft and Mala. I found it clever of Lahiri to somehow use these two different experiences as some sort of foil. I like the fact that you stated that not only were the narrator and his wife strangers to modern (at the time) America, but so was Ms. Croft. I hadn't thought of it that way, though I would certainly say she is old-fashioned. (It's so crazy to t think that she was around in the 1800's!)
The link between Mrs. Croft and Mala is probably what struck me the most in Lahiri's piece. I don't know about you, but I was shocked that Mrs. Croft approved of her (though I was glad that she did). Mrs. Croft was surely the liaison that brought the narrator and Mala together. I love the new outlook the speaker seems to have of his wife and marriage after that impactful scene with Mrs. Croft.
Good analysis.