Tough... My Favorite Short Story

     My favorite short story was Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. In high school, we read this story, and when we discussed it and analyzed it, I got a better understanding of the complexity of the story. It amazes me how much she did with this story, how intricate and deep it is with so few details. Poems amaze me too, but that's not the point. The perspective was an interesting choice. Because we see the Das family's troubles played out through another person's thoughts, the author gives us a subjective view, an outside view that is judgmental and critical as we ourselves can be to others. Another interesting technique was the inclusion of the monkeys. They played a vital role in keeping the story moving forward, especially towards the end, when they beat Bobby with sticks. Through their actions, we see a true, unexpected side of the Das family: love. After hearing Mrs. Das's explanation of her "one afternoon stand" and seeing her apathy towards her family, the audience questions her attachment to her family, i.e. why is she still with her family if she hates them so much? She shows her affection by treating Bobby, and the rest of the family helps him and comforts him. 

       Also, I liked the choice of characters. Mr. Kapasi is a man who is smart enough to be a politician but has fallen on difficult circumstances, leaving him with a worse life than he had hoped. This enables Mr. Das, a high school science teacher, to consider Mr. Kapasi on the same level as him. By insinuating that he is as smart as him, Mr. Das is demeaning Mr. Kapasi, but it allows us to see the differences in their lives that led the smarter man to be poor and the dumber man to become rich. We also see a change in Mr. Kapasi towards the end of the story. Instead of revealing a dark secret to Bobby about his origin and conception (which would be morally right to Mr. Kapasi), he refrains and decides to view the family as they are in the one instance of compassion in the whole story. This makes the audience happy, even though Mrs. Das's secret is still a secret, and the audience wants to tell Bobby and Mr. Das. Mrs. Das is also interesting. I have always found it odd that people can be so self-absorbed and wonder why they are in so much self-inflicted pain. She did not call it her "guilt" but instead called what she felt "pain." How can she know so little about herself when she is so absorbed in it?

Overall, I don't really think there is anything Lahiri can do to improve it. It seems to me that she has achieved a perfect story already. Any more or less could ruin the whole story and the purpose it serves.