THE EXPERIENCE IN EXILE IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S
MRS. SEN’S, THIS BLESSED HOUSE AND THE THIRD AND FINAL CONTINENT
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Invani Lela Herliana
Student Number: 051214047
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
THE EXPERIENCE IN EXILE IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S
MRS. SEN’S, THIS BLESSED HOUSE AND THE THIRD AND FINAL CONTINENT
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Invani Lela Herliana
Student Number: 051214047
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work
or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the
references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, January 19, 2011
The Writer,
Invani Lela Herliana
051214047
v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswi Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Invani Lela Herliana Nomor mahasiswa : 051214047
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
The Experience in Exile in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan loyalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal 19 Januari 2011
Yang menyatakan
vi
Teachers are those who build a bridge,
students are invited to cross over.
When all of students are in the other side,
teachers are pleased to back off,
then encourage students to build their own bridges.
(Nikos Kazantzakis)
The thesis is dedicated to
My Grandmother and My Mother
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to the Supreme Being who enlightens
my way through these challenging years.
I also would thank my grandmother in Mojokerto, East Java who tolerates my laziness despite the fact that I spent too much sitting and typing in
her living room for a week rather than helping her to clean the backyard. My
gratitude is also given to my mother and my father who always pray for me every time they pray five times a day, as well as all my siblings who cherish me
up every day in our crowded house, Wisnu, Dea, Rizky and Bagus.
Next, I never forget to thank Drs. Antonius Herujiyanto, M. A., Ph.D.
for giving smart remarks and supportive guidance during writing this thesis.
I also thank Delfi Chinnappan, a beautiful friend from Mumbay, India for sending me Jhumpa Lahiri’s book via air mail since I found it difficult to find a
piece here. My gratitude also pours to Virgil Sequiera, Samy AREDS, Sally Rousset and all friends meeting in Karur, Tamil Nadu, South India for giving me a slice of spiritual journey in India, the personal reason why I chose Indian author
to be the subject matter of my thesis.
Still, I owe big thanks to Yayasan Pondok Rakyat (People’s Shelter Foundation) and all staff to allow me to take home some precious books from its library shelves and let me write my thesis while I am at the office.
Yet, my adventure in Sanata Dharma University would not be happened
viii
opened thousand doors for me and now I begin to open other thousand doors for
those who are staying too long outside and left behind.
Other special thanks go to Mr. Edi and his family in Mojokerto, East Java who allow me to spend overnight in their fancy bedroom to finish my chapter
2 and 3. Also, I thank so much for their kindness to pay my tuition for three years
so that I was not worried anymore about being unschooled girl.
I thank my best friends who always support me both in laughs and tears:
Arnovy Putty Febriani, Ifa Hadi Subardan, Anna Elfira Prabandari, Lusiana Sari, Hananto Kusumo, Muhamad Nur Hidayat, Natan Arya, all friends in
Orong-Orong as well as those great people who support ketjil.bergerak.
I thank Zanny Begg and Keg de Souza for being my proofreader, and of course, I owe big thanks to all lectures and secretary staff in PBI that I cannot mention one by one. For sure, their names are beautifully carved in my heart.
Last, I thank Greg Sindana, who always lights my fire whenever my furnace is getting cold and dry, and loves me without border.
Yogyakarta, January 19, 2011
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
PAGE OF APPROVAL ... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v
PAGE OF DEDICATION ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii
ABSTRACT ... x
ABSTRAK ... xiii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A.Background of the Study ... 1
B.Aim of the Study ... 5
C. Problem Formulation ... 5
D. Benefits of the Study ... 5
E. Definition of Terms ... 6
1. Exile ... 6
2. Postcolonial literature ... 7
3. Cultural Identity ... 7
CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Theories... 8
1. Postcolonial Literature ... 8
2. Theory of Place and Displacement ... 10
x
B. Critical Approach ... 13
1. The Beginning of the Emerging of Postcolonial Approach ... 13
2. The Characteristics of Postcolonial Criticism ... 14
3. The Stages in Seeing Postcolonial Criticism ... 15
a. Adopt ... 15
b. Adapt ... 16
c. Adept ... 16
4. Key Points in Postcolonial Criticism ... 16
C. Theoretical Framework ... 17
D. Criticism ... 17
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study ... 21
B. Approach of the Study ... 23
C. Procedure ... 24
CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS A. The Main Characters Portrayed in the Short Stories ... 26
1. Mrs. Sen’s ... 26
2. This Blessed House ... 30
3. The Third and Final Continent ... 34
B. The Experience in Exile ... 36
a. Mrs. Sen’s ... 37
b. This Blessed House ... 38
xi
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION, SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATION
A. Conclusion ... 42
B. Suggestion for Teaching Implementation ... 42
C. Recommendation for Future Researchers ... 43
REFERENCES ... 44
APPENDICES ... 46
A. Summary of the Short Stories ... 47
1. Mrs. Sen’s ... 47
2. This Blessed House ... 48
3. The Third and Final Continent ... 49
B. Biography of the Author ... 50
C. Lesson Plan for Teaching Intensive Reading I ... 51
xii
ABSTRACT
Herliana, Invani Lela. (2011). The Experience in Exile in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House, and The Third and Final Continent.
Yogyakarta: English Education Study Program, Faculty of Teaching Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study analyses the experience in exile experienced by the main characters in three short stories written by Jhumpa Lahiri, namely Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent. The three short stories above mainly discuss about the lives of Indian immigrants in exile, when they are striving for better opportunities in the New World. It includes the experience of displacement, the different understanding in defining ‘home’ and the crisis of cultural identity.
The aim of the study is to see one’s life experiences in exile as in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent. There are two problems discussed in this study. First, it is “how the main characters are portrayed in the short stories” and second, it is “how the main characters’ experienced in exile is analyzed.”
There are two kinds of sources used in this study, namely the primary source, which is the three short stories mentioned above, and secondary sources from references, books and internet sources which include explanation on Postcolonial Literatures, theory of Place and Displacement, theory of Cultural Identity and Postcolonial Criticism. Thus, this study employs Postcolonial Approach as a tool to analyze the subject matter.
Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the experiences in exile experienced by people who seek new life in the new continent are always faced into three stages of post colonialism which are adopt, adapt and adept. Thus, people who can survive with those three stages will physically and spiritually accept the place they live as a ‘home’.
It is recommended that the future researchers analyze deeper on the crisis of cultural identity faced by all characters in Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent. Thus, the topic on how the characters face the crisis of cultural identity and how they react toward the new cultures using socio-historical cultural approach and several theories in cultural identity and diaspora are interesting to be analyzed.
xiii
ABSTRAK
Herliana, Invani Lela. (2011). The Experience in Exile in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent.
Yogyakarta: Program Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Kajian literatur ini menganalisa pengalaman hidup para imigran sebagai ‘orang yang terasing’ dalam tiga cerita pendek karya Jhumpa Lahiri yang berjudul Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House dan The Third and Final Continent yang bercerita tentang kehidupan para imigran India dalam ‘pengasingan’, saat mereka berjuang untuk kehidupan yang lebih baik di negara baru. Pengalaman akan ketidaknyamanan tempat, pemahaman yang berbeda dalam mendefinisikan ‘rumah’ dan krisis identitas budaya juga turut diceritakan dalam ketiga cerpen ini.
Tujuan studi ini adalah untuk melihat pengalaman hidup orang-orang di ‘pengasingan’. Ada dua permasalahan pokok dalam kajian ini. Pertama, “bagaimana para karakter utama digambarkan dalam dalam ketiga cerita pendek tersebut”. Kedua, “bagaimana pengalaman-pengalaman para imigran tersebut sebagai ‘orang yang terasing’ dianalisa.”
Ada dua data yang digunakan dalam kajian ini, yaitu data utama yang berupa tiga cerpen di atas dan data pendukung yang dikumpulkan dari buku-buku dan sumber internet, termasuk penjelasan tentang Sastra Poskolonial, teori tentang Lokasi dan Dislokasi, teori Identitas Budaya dan Pendekatan Poskolonial yang digunakan untuk menelaah ketiga cerita pendek di atas.
Dapat disimpulkan bahwa pengalaman-pengalaman manusia dalam ‘pengasingan’ yang mencari kehidupan baru di benua baru tak dapat lepas dari tiga tahap dalam teori poskolonial, yaitu mengambil budaya baru secara langsung tanpa disaring (adopt), beradaptasi dengan budaya baru (adapt) dan berhasil menyesuaikan budaya baru tersebut sesuai dengan budayanya sendiri tanpa menhilangkan budaya asli (adept). Oleh karena itu, yang bisa melampaui ketiga tahapan tersebut dapat menerima tempat baru sebagai ‘rumah’, baik secara fisik maupun spiritual.
1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter is structured in five parts, namely Background of the Study,
Aim of the Study, Problem Formulation, Benefits of the Study and Definition of
Terms. Background of the Study represents the description of the topic of the
study and explains the personal reasons in selecting the topic of this study. Aim of
the Study presents the aims of conducting this study. Problem Formulation states
the problems to limit the scope of study. Benefits of the Study elaborates the
advantages that the reader may gain from reading this study. Last, the Definition
of Terms presents definitions of key terms used in this study.
A. Background of the Study
Enjoying literature is sometimes not enough if we only catch the surface
meaning without trying to find the deeper meaning of the work. When probing for
this deeper meaning, literature can provide a tool for analyzing culture and society
or even learning about the meaning of life itself.
Literature has varied genres. One of them is called postcolonial literature.
According to Ashcroft, postcolonial literature is literature which covers all the
culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the
present day. Therefore, the literatures of African countries, Australia, Bangladesh,
Singapore, South Pacific Island countries and Sri Lanka are all postcolonial
literatures (2). He also said,
More than three-quarters of the people living in the world today have had their lives shaped by the experience of colonialism…Literature offers one of the most important ways in which these new perceptions are expressed and it is in their writing, and through other arts such as painting, sculpture, music, and dance that the day-to-day realities experienced by colonized peoples have been most powerfully encoded and so profoundly influential (1; emphasis added).
One of the books categorized as postcolonial literature is Interpreter of
Maladies written by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is compilation of nine short stories
published in 1999 and was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2000.
Jhumpa Lahiri, born on July 11, 1967, is an Indian American author. She
was born in London, the daughter of Bengali Indian immigrants. She then moved
to US when she was three. Being Indian, born and raised in two different
continents and away from her motherland, has inspired her to write stories about
the first-generation Indian American immigrants and their struggle to raise a
family in a country very different from their own. She also wrote a novel, The
Namesake (2003) and a short story collection titled Unaccustomed Earth (2008).
This study particularly focuses mainly on three short stories, namely Mrs.
Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent. The writer has
chosen those three short stories because they portray the life of Indian American
immigrants living in New Land with all their emotional confusion of the outsider
and attempts to survive in the new continent. Yet, these immigrants living in exile
usually face problems in finding their own cultural identity as they live between
Mrs. Sen’s tells about an Indian woman who takes a job as a babysitter for
eleven-year old boy named Eliot since her husband is too busy working. She
defines herself as a ‘professor’s wife, responsible and kind, I will care for your
child in my home (111)’. She has a warm apartment and kindly serves Eliot when
he is at her place. Only one problem she has, she cannot drive. Mr. Sen, her
husband who teaches mathematics at the university, urges her to sit for her driving
license soon. In fact, Mrs. Sen hates driving. The ‘driving-matter’ then triggers
new problems.
As an Indian living in America, Mrs. Sen feels she lives in exile. Only two
things make her happy, when she receives a letter from India and finds fresh fish.
However, she is a bit depressed with his new life in the new land.
“’Send pictures,’ they write. ‘Send pictures of your new life.’ What picture can I send?” She sat, exhausted, on the edge of the bed, where there was now barely room for her. “They think I live the life of queen, Eliot.” She looked around the blank walls of the room. “They think I press buttons and the house is clean. They think I live in a palace.” (125)
The matter of being a stranger in a new continent and failure to adapt to
the new surroundings is seen clearly through Eliot’s eyes.
This Blessed House depicts a story about the Indian couple named
Twinkle and Sanjeev who have just bought a new house in Connecticut, US.
When they begin arranging their house surprisingly they find ‘treasures’ hidden in
every corner of their house in a form of Christian effigies and its paraphernalia,
such as a white porcelain effigy of Christ, a 3-D postcard of Saint Francis done in
The ‘treasures’ findings somehow surprise them since they are good
Hindus and still hold the Indian tradition even though they live and work in US.
The problem arises when the two big religion meets in one house belong to Indian
immigrants.
Behind an overgrown forsythia bush was a plaster of Virgin Mary as tall as their waists, with a blue painted hood draped over her head in the manner of an Indian bride…
“No, silly Sanj. This is meant for outside. For the lawn.” “Oh God, no. Twinkle, no.”
“But we must. It would be bad luck not to.”
“All the neighbors will see. They’ll think we’re insane.” “Why, for having a statue of the Virgin Mary on our lawn?”… “We’re not Christian.” (146)
The suspicious feeling of being the part of religion-converting effort and
mix feeling of excitement, denial and rejection-and-acceptance the belief color
this young couple’s life.
The Third and Final Continent tells about an Indian man who leaves his
homeland and seeks for better life in Europe, then in America. He begins his life
in the New Land and tries to adapt with his new surroundings, even when he
decides to rent a room in a house belong to an old woman named Mrs. Croft. The
old woman always demands him, even in their first encounter, to commend about
the America’s greatest leap: the first moon landing by Apollo 11.
The women bellowed, “A flag on the moon, boy! I heard it on the radio! Isn’t that splendid?”
“Yes, madame.”
But she was not satisfied with my reply. Instead she commanded, “Say, ‘splendid’!”…I said nothing.
“Say splendid!” the woman bellowed once again.
The attempt to survive in three continents, while not forgetting the roots of
one’s cultural identity, becomes the central issue in this short story.
Regarding the fact that those three short stories have shared the same
problems faced by Indian immigrants in America, the writer intends to conduct a
study to identify their experience in exile using postcolonial approach.
The personal reason for selecting this topic is because the writer has
experienced living in India, precisely in Tamil Nadu, South India for about a
month. The passion in experiencing new cultures has blended with the feeling of
being a completely stranger in a new land. The precious experiences such as how
to adapt in the new surroundings, how to communicate with the natives without
knowing the language and how to learn new habits and customs have triggered the
writer to conduct a library study in literatures written by Indian authors.
B. Aim of the Study
The aim of the study is to see one’s life experiences in exile as seen in
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final
Continent. However, due to the limitation of problem, this study then has two
problems to analyze. The first is to describe the main characters as portrayed in
those three short stories, while the second is to examine the experience in exile,
experienced by the main characters using postcolonial approach.
C. Problem Formulation
1. How the main characters are portrayed in the short stories?
2. How the main characters’ experienced in exile is analyzed?
D. Benefits of the Study
The study of literary works has several advantages. For the writer, this
study is an attempt to look deeper in understanding life and its values. Related to
the world of literature, this study is also expected to enrich the literary exploration
on the works of Jhumpa Lahiri in particular, and other Indian American authors in
general. For English Education Study Program students, the writer designs a
lesson plan for Intensive Reading II that uses some selected parts from those three
short stories as the implementation of this study.
E. Definition of Terms
In analyzing those three short stories, it is necessary for the writer to
highlight certain terms to provide an accurate analysis and a clearer explanation in
answering the problems formulated. There are three terms to define, which are
exile, postcolonial literature and cultural identity.
1. Exile
According to Maxwell’s theory of place and displacement stated in The
Empire Writes Back, exileis the problem of findings and defining ‘home’,
physical and emotional confrontations with the ‘new’ land and its ancient
2. Postcolonial Literature
Postcolonial literature points the way toward a possible study of the effects
of colonialism in and between writing in English and writing in indigenous
languages in such contexts as Africa and India (24). It emerged in their
present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves
by foregrounding the tension with the imperial power, and by emphasizing
their differences from the assumptions of the imperial centre. It is this
which makes them distinctively postcolonial (2). Postcolonial literary
theory, then, has begun to deal with the problems of transmuting time into
space, with the present struggling out of the past, and like-much recent
postcolonial literature, it attempts to construct a future (36).
3. Cultural Identity
According to Hall, there are at least two different ways of thinking about
cultural identity. The first position defines ‘cultural identity’ in terms of
one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one-true self’. It reflects the
common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide
us, as ‘one people’ (223). In the second sense, it is a matter of ‘becoming’
as well as of ‘being’. It belongs to the future as much as to the past. It is
not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and
culture. Cultural identities come from somewhere; have histories (225),
since identity is a ‘production’, which is never complete, always in process
8
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
This chapter consists of four parts. They are: Review of Related Theories,
Critical Approach, Theoretical Framework and Criticism. Review of Related
Theories involves the explanation on Postcolonial Literature, theory of Place and
Displacement and theory of Cultural Identity. Critical Approach will describe
Postcolonial Approach. Theoretical Framework explains the contribution of
theories in analyzing the study. Criticism presents some criticism on the short
stories and the author.
A. Review of Related Theories
In this part, the writer discusses the Postcolonial Literature, theory of
Place and Displacement and theory of Cultural Identity.
1. Postcolonial Literatures
Theory on postcolonial literatures in this part is mainly derived from The
Empire Writes Back written by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin.
The term of postcolonial is used to cover all the culture affected by the
imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is
because there is a continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process
initiated by European imperial aggression. Therefore, the literatures of African
Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Pacific Island countries, and Sri
Lanka are all postcolonial literatures (2).
Literatures from those countries above share the same distinct spirit. They
emerged in their present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted
themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial power, and by
emphasizing their differences from the assumptions of the imperial centre. It is
this which makes them distinctively postcolonial (2).
In The Empire Writes Back, it is also stated that there are four major
critical models in postcolonial literatures. First, it is called ‘national’or regional models, which emphasize the distinctive features of the particular national or
regional culture. Second, it is called race-based models which identify certain shared characteristics across various national literatures, such as the common
racial inheritance in literatures of the African diaspora addressed by the ‘Black
writing’ model. Third, it is called comparative models of varying complexity which seek to account for particular linguistic, historical and cultural features
across two or more postcolonial literatures. Fourth, more comprehensive
comparative models which argue for feature such as hybridity and syncreticity
as constitutive elements of all post colonial literatures (15).
Postcolonial literatures points the way toward a possible study of the
effects of colonialism in and between writing in English and writing in indigenous
languages in such contexts as Africa and India (24). It emerged in their present
form out of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves by
differences from the assumptions of the imperial centre. It is this which makes
them distinctively postcolonial (2).
2. Theory of Place and Displacement
Theory of Place and Displacement can be found in several books talking
about Postcolonial Literatures and its Criticism. Here, the writer will explain on
theory of Place and Displacement according two main sources which are entitled
The Empire Writes Back and The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Those two books
are written and edited by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin.
According to The Empire Writes Back, the disjunction between place and
language is once proposed by D.E.S. Maxwell (1965). Place and displacement are
major concerns of all postcolonial peoples (24). Maxwell said,
There are two broad categories. In the first, the writer brings his own language – English – to an alien environment and a fresh set of experiences: Australia, Canada, New Zealand. In the other, the writer brings an alien language – English – to his own social and cultural inheritance: India, West Africa. Yet the categories have a fundamental kinship…The ‘intolerable wrestle with words and meanings’ has as its aim to subdue the experience to the language, the exotic life to the imported tongue (25; emphasis added).
In this field, the term ‘exile’ appears. ‘Exile’ is defined as the problem of
findings and defining ‘home’, physical and emotional confrontations with the
‘new’ land and its ancient and established meanings (27). The theme of ‘exile’ is
one manifestation of the ubiquitous concern with place and displacement in these
transportation of language from its place of origin and its imposed and imposing
relationship on and with the new environment (29).
Furthermore, in The Postcolonial Studies Reader, ‘Place’ has its own
section and is considered as one of four fundamental postcolonial issues besides
‘Language’, ‘History’ and ‘Ethnicity’.
Place and Displacement are crucial features of postcolonial discourse.
‘Place’ here does not simply mean ‘landscape’. The idea of ‘landscape’ is
predicated upon a particular philosophic tradition in which the objective world is
separated from the viewing subject, while ‘place’ in postcolonial societies is a
complex interaction of language, history and environment (391; emphasis added).
Moreover, the character of ‘place’ is firstly seen by what so-called as ‘a
sense of displacement’ and secondly by ‘a sense of the immense investment of
culture in the construction of place’.
A sense of displacement, of the lack of ‘fit’ between language and place, may be experienced by both those who possess English as a mother tongue and those who speak it as a second language. In both cases, the sense of dislocation from an historical ‘homeland’ and that created by the dissonance between languages, the experience of ‘displacement’ generates a creative tension within the language. Place is thus the concomitant of difference, the continual reminder of the separation, and yet of the hybrid interpenetration of the colonizer and colonized (391).
The theory of place does not simply propose a binary separation between
the ‘place’ named and described in language, and some ‘real’ place inaccessible to
it, but rather indicates that in some sense place is language, something in constant
Place therefore, the ‘place’ of the ‘subject’. Thus a major feature of
postcolonial literatures is the concern with either developing or recovering an
appropriate identifying relationship between self and place because it is precisely
within the parameters of place and its separateness that the process of subjectivity
can be conducted (392).
3. Theory of Cultural Identity
During their experience in exile, the immigrants are questioning about
their cultural identity. The condition then is mixed, trying to define what is
‘home’ while struggling to adapt to the new environment where sometimes they
feel that they are ‘lost’ in the crossroads of cultures.
Thus, in this part, the writer chooses two main sources which best
described the cultural identity. First, it is taken from Cultural Identity and Global
Process written by Jonathan Friedman, and another is called Cultural Identity and
Diaspora written by Stuart Hall.
In this part, Friedman focuses on the fragmentation of the world system
and the formation of cultural identity. He explains that the crisis of identity in the
center is expressive of a more general global crisis. This crisis consists in the
weakening of former national identities and the emergence of new identities (86).
While Hall emphasizes that ‘identity’ is seen as a ‘production’ which is never
complete, always in process and always constituted within, not outside (222).
In addition, Hall describes two different ways of thinking about ‘cultural
The first position defines cultural identity in terms of ‘one, shared culture, a sort of collective one true self’…It reflects the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us, as ‘one people’. The second sense, it is a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as of ‘being’. It belongs to the future as much as to the past. It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture. Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories (223).
B. Critical Approaches
The writer employs postcolonial approach as a tool to analyze the three
short stories written by Jhumpa Lahiri. However, postcolonial approach is
relatively new approach and emerged as a distinct category in 1990s. Thus, it is
not mentioned in several contemporary literary theory books. This chapter
enlightens the beginning of the emerging postcolonial criticism, the characteristics
of postcolonial criticism as well as explains on three stages in seeing postcolonial
criticism. The source is mainly taken from Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory.
1. The Beginning of the Emerging of Postcolonial Criticism
Postcolonial criticism appears to criticize the universal standard of
literature claimed by the liberal humanist critics which stated that the great
literature has a timeless and universal significance. As a result, it disregards
cultural, social, regional and national differences.
This universalism is rejected by postcolonial criticism. Barry said that
whenever a universal signification is claimed for a work, then, white, Eurocentric
norms and practices are being promoted by a sleight of hand to this elevated
(193). Barry also emphasizes on what Frantz Fanon remarked on what he called as
‘cultural resistance’ in his book, The Wretched of the Earth (published in France
in 1961). Fanon argued that the first step for 'colonialized' people in finding a
voice and an identity is to reclaim their own past, and continued to erode the
colonialist ideology by which that past had been devalued (193; emphasis added).
A major book which inaugurates postcolonial criticism is written by
Edward Said, entitled Orientalism (published in 1978), which is a specific expose
of the Eurocentric universalism which takes for granted both the superiority of
what is European or Western, and the inferiority of what is not (193).
Said identifies a European cultural tradition of 'Orientalism', which is a particular and long-standing way of identifying the East as 'Other' and inferior to the West. The Orient, he says, features in the Western mind 'as a sort of surrogate and even underground self’. This means that the East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness, and so on). At the same time, and paradoxically, the East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive. It also tends to be seen as homogenous, the people there being anonymous masses, rather than individuals, their actions determined by instinctive emotions (lust, terror, fury, etc.) rather than by conscious choices or decisions. Their emotions and reactions are always determined by racial considerations (they are like this because they are asiatics or blacks or orientals) rather than by aspects of individual status or circumstance (193-194; emphasis added).
2. The Characteristics of Postcolonial Criticism
The writer finds four characteristics of postcolonial criticism in Barry’s
book. The first characteristic of postcolonial criticism is an awareness of
creates a pre-colonial version of their own nation, rejecting the modern and the
contemporary, which is tainted with the colonial status of their countries (194).
Language is a second area of concern in postcolonial criticism (195),
while the third characteristic is the emphasis on identity as doubled, or hybrid, or
unstable (196). The fourth characteristic is the stress on ‘cross-cultural’
interactions (196) characterized by the three stages in seeing postcolonial
criticism called Adopt, Adapt, and Adept.
3. The Stages in Seeing Postcolonial Criticism
There was a shifting attitude towards postcolonial writers in 1980s and
1990s which seeing themselves as using primarily African or Asian forms,
supplemented with European-derived influences, rather than as working primarily
within European genres like the novel and merely adding to them a degree of
exotic Africanisation. All postcolonial literatures seem to make this transition
(196). Therefore, there are three stages in seeing postcolonial criticism. They are
called Adopt, Adapt, and Adept.
a. Adopt
The postcolonial literatures begin with an unquestioning acceptance of the
authority of European models (especially in the novel) and with the ambition of
writing works that will be masterpieces entirely in this tradition. This can be
called the ‘Adopt’ phase of colonial literature, since the writer’s ambition is to
adopt the form as it stands, the assumption being that it has universal validity
b. Adapt
The second stage can be called the ‘Adapt’ phase, since it aims to adapt
the European form to African or Asian subject matter, thus assuming partial rights
of intervention in the genre (196).
c. Adept
In the final phase, there is a declaration of cultural independence whereby
African or Asian writers remake the form to their own specification, without
reference to European norms. This is called the ‘Adept’ phase, since its
characteristic is the assumption that the colonial writer is an independent ‘adept’
in the form, as in the first phase, or as in the second (196).
4. Key Points in Postcolonial Criticism
To sum up the postcolonial approach and its criticism, there are six key
points in postcolonial criticism as stated in Beginning Theory,
C. Theoretical Framework
This part explains briefly the contribution of the theories in analyzing and
solving the problems of the study.
This study involves the explanation on Postcolonial Literature, theory of
Place and Displacement and theory of Cultural Identity to answer both the first
and second research questions. Using these theories, the writer will be able to
describe the main characters’ portrayed in those three short stories (the first
research question) and to analyze the experience in exile, experienced by the main
characters in those three short stories (the second research question).
The explanation on Postcolonial Literature provides important background
to comprehend the text, while the theory of Place and Displacement offers great
help to identify the ‘exile’ experiences, experienced by those main characters
since it tells about the reason why the ‘dislocation’ feeling appears in those main
characters in three short stories analyzed.
In addition, the theory of Cultural Identity presents the way to analyze the
main characters’ difficulties in facing the new environments and their struggle
whether to maintain their cultural identity, or even resist against it.
The Postcolonial Approach then is used as a tool to analyze the text since
it relates much on the postcolonial reading.
D. Criticism
Once a literary work published for public, it may generate compliments,
the essay derived from Voices of the Gaps which were submitted by Nicholas
Gipe, Lindsay Greco, Geri Spencer and Jackie Yang. They criticized Jhumpa
Lahiri as ‘a popular young writer of Indian background who is a sort of
representative figure for non-immigrant Americans who do not fully understand
what it means to straddle the line between two cultures’.
In an interview with India-West, Lahiri admits: “I am lucky that I am
between two worlds. I do not really know what a distinct South Asian identity
means. I do not think about that when I write, I just try to bring a person to life”.
Thus, one main reason for Lahiri’s success as a writer is ‘because she writes for
herself; she does not have critics or peers in mind when writing; she just writes’
(http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/lahiri_jhumpa.php, accessed on December
15, 2010).
Furthermore, it is said that Lahiri is able to demonstrate her point in
writing by merely mentioning the issue that a character is facing and also able to
draw her readers into the story not only through her detail but also by making
them feel the emotional, physical, and mental needs of the characters. All nine of
the stories in Interpreter of Maladies focus on the characters' inability to
communicate with people who are important in their lives. Another impressive
aspect of Lahiri's writing is her ability to write in the voices of both genders. This
method of narration gives her the ability to balance the gender representation in
her book (http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/lahiri_jhumpa.php, accessed on
Those three short stories, Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third
and Final Continent are compiled in one book entitled Interpreter of Maladies
with other six stories. All stories contain themes of conflict in relationships
between couples, families and friends.
Through these relationships she explores ideas of isolation and identity, both personal and cultural. The characters in both works frequently encounter crises of identity, which are tied to their inabilities to reconcile their American identity with their Indian identity. Particularly in the short fiction of Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri often leaves these crises unresolved. As a result, her work gives us a rather bleak outlook on the future of her characters. We might imagine that this reflects some of Lahiri's concerns about their real-life analogues. She often correlates her characters' cultural isolation with extreme personal isolation, suggesting that the cultural isolation causes the personal. The instances in which this cultural isolation are resolved or avoided are generally accompanied by a similar resolution or avoidance of personal isolation (http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/lahiri_jhumpa.php, accessed on December 15, 2010).
Other remarks to Lahiri’s works come from Dr. Jaya Lakhsmi Rao V. She
said that ‘Miss Lahiri’s endeavor to interpret the maladies of the mind that people
suffer from and the unique manner in which she makes them realize their own
flaws, certainly merit the Prize and the prestige she won with her maiden volume
of short fiction’. With a remarkable insight she delves deep into the psychological
depths of her characters and reveals their inner world by a fascinating yet
deceptively simple style. We come across more reality than fancy in her fiction. It
is hardly an exaggeration to say that her interpretation of the maladies itself acts
like a potent medicine. Yet they are interesting and often make humorous studies
of life (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~vempala/family/Lahiri.html, accessed on
The last comment comes from Anita George, who emphasizes on the issue
of dual culture live in one body. She said that ‘Lahiri provides one shining
example that raising a family with two different sets of cultural values can work,
and that creating a single, cohesive identity out of the duality is the key to such
success’
21
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter will be divided into three parts. The first one is the Object of
the Study. It describes the short stories that will be analyzed. The second is the
Approach of the Study. It discusses the approach employed in the analysis, the
description of the approach, the reason of selecting the approach and the
procedure of the application of the approach. The last part is Procedure. It
explains the steps in analyzing the three short stories chosen.
A. Object of the Study
The three short stories explored in this study are entitled Mrs. Sen’s, This
Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent written by Jhumpa Lahiri, an
Indian American author. Those stories can be found in a compilation called
Interpreter of Maladies which contains nine short stories in total. It was published
in India by HarperCollins in 1999. This compilation of short stories received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2000.
Mrs. Sen’s tells the story of an Indian woman who takes a job as a
babysitter for eleven-year old boy named Eliot while her husband is busy
working. She defines herself as a ‘professor’s wife, responsible and kind, I will
care for your child in my home (111)’. She cares for Eliot when he is at her place.
the university, urges her to have her driving lessons. Mrs. Sen, however, hates
driving. The ‘driving-matter’ then triggers a multitude of problems.
As an Indian living in America, Mrs. Sen feels she lives in exile. Only two
things make her happy, when she receives a letter from India and finds fresh fish.
However, she is a bit depressed with his new life in the new land.
“’Send pictures,’ they write. ‘Send pictures of your new life.’ What picture can I send?” She sat, exhausted, on the edge of the bed, where there was now barely room for her. “They think I live the life of queen, Eliot.” She looked around the blank walls of the room. “They think I press buttons and the house is clean. They think I live in a palace.” (125)
This Blessed House depicts a story about the Indian couple named
Twinkle and Sanjeev who have just bought a new house in Connecticut, US.
When they begin arranging their house surprisingly they find ‘treasures’ hidden in
every corner of their house in a form of Christian effigies and its paraphernalia,
such as a white porcelain effigy of Christ, a 3-D postcard of Saint Francis done in
four colors, a wooden cross key chain, a plaster Virgin Mary and others.
The ‘treasures’ findings somehow surprise them since they are good
Hindus and still hold the Indian tradition even though they live and work in US.
The problem arises when the two religions meet in one house belonging to Indian
immigrants.
Behind an overgrown forsythia bush was a plaster of Virgin Mary as tall as their waists, with a blue painted hood draped over her head in the manner of an Indian bride…
“No, silly Sanj. This is meant for outside. For the lawn.” “Oh God, no. Twinkle, no.”
“But we must. It would be bad luck not to.”
The suspicious feeling of being the part of religion-converting effort and
mixed feelings of excitement, denial and rejection of religious beliefs color this
young couple’s life.
The Third and Final Continent tells about an Indian man who leaves his
homeland and seeks for better life in Europe, then in America. He begins his life
in the New Land and tries to adapt with his new surroundings. He rents a room in
a house belonging to an old woman named Mrs. Croft. Even in their first
encounter the old woman demands he comments about the America’s great leap
into space: the first moon landing by Apollo 11.
The women bellowed, “A flag on the moon, boy! I heard it on the radio! Isn’t that splendid?”
“Yes, madame.”
But she was not satisfied with my reply. Instead she commanded, “Say, ‘splendid’!”…I said nothing.
“Say splendid!” the woman bellowed once again.
“Splendid,” I murmured. I had to repeat the word a second time at the top of my lungs, so she could hear (179-180).
The attempts to survive in three continents while does not forget the roots
of cultural identity become the main problems in this short story.
B. Approach of the Study
This study utilizes a postcolonial approach to analyze the experience in
exile of the main characters in the three short stories, Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed
House and The Third and Final Continent.
The postcolonial approach is relatively new approach to literary theory
in several contemporary literary theory books. According to Peter Barry in
Beginning Theory, postcolonial criticism problematizes the claim by liberal
humanists that “great” literature has a timeless and universal significance
regardless of cultural, social, regional and national differences. This universalism
is rejected by postcolonial criticism (193).
Therefore, to find the answer to the research problems, the writer identifies
three stages in postcolonial literature, Adopt, Adapt and Adept, and combines
these stages with the theory of place and displacement, to ascertain the
fundamental characteristics for analyzing postcolonial literature.
C. Procedure
The primary source which is used in this study is three short stories, Mrs.
Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final Continent. In addition to these
primary sources, there are several secondary sources that are important to this
research. These include writings by theorists who have addressed Postcolonial
Literatures, theory of Place and Displacement, theories of Cultural Identity and
Postcolonial Criticism.
Since this study is not a field study, library study becomes the method to
gather the data. The writer goes to the library to find some relevant books, and
browse some sources from the internet.
In undertaking this study, there are several steps used by the writer. First,
the writer read the short stories several times to get a deeper understanding of the
determines the research problems based on the three short stories. Third, the
writer finds references related in this study by searching for scholarly articles,
books and other materials in the library that shed further light on the primary data.
Fourth, the writer reads broadly within the field of postcolonial discourse to refine
my approach to this particular study. Fifth, the writer synthesizes this study by
relating the theories in Chapter II to the writer’s central hypothesis regarding the
impact of the dislocation of the postcolonial condition on modern literature. Sixth,
26
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter explores two central problems: the first is to describe the
main characters in Lahiri’s Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and
Final Continent; the second deals with the main characters’ experiences in exile.
In answering the second problem, the writer will reiterate some of the key
experiences of the characters covered in these three short stories, including their
life experiences in exile, this will be followed by an analysis of the deeper
meaning of those three short stories.
A. The Main Characters Portrayed in the Short Stories
In this part, the writer will describe how the main characters in each short
story are portrayed. There are three elements in this part due to the three short
stories chosen, Mrs. Sen’s, This Blessed House and The Third and Final
Continent. Here, the writer tries to illustrate each of the main characters in detail
so that later on the next part, it will be easier to analyze.
1. Mrs. Sen’s
Mrs. Sen, the central character in this short story, is married to Mr. Sen, a
mathematics professor at an American University. Mrs. Sen is described as an
She had a small gap between her teeth and faded pockmarks on her chin, yet her eyes were beautiful, with thick, flaring brows and liquid flourishes that extended beyond the natural width of the lids. She wore a shimmering white sari patterned with orange paisleys more suitable for an evening affair than for that quiet, faintly drizzling August afternoon. Her lips were coated in a complementary coral gloss, and a bit or the color had strayed beyond the borders (112).
Mrs. Sen emigrated from Calcutta, India to the United States because of
her husband’s profession. However, Mr. Sen spends too much time at university,
prompting Mrs Sen to take up a job as a babysitter for Eliot, an eleven-year-old
boy, to assuage her loneliness. Everything is as it should be, but only one thing
matters. Mrs. Sen cannot drive. Previously, Mr. Sen urges Mrs. Sen to learn how
to drive so that she will be more independent like American women. Yet, Mrs.
Sen is reluctant to learn how to drive. Mr. Sen pushes her more than she expects:
“Switch lanes,” Mr. Sen said. “You will have to bear left at the rotary.” Mrs. Sen did not. “Switch lanes, I tell you.” He shut off the radio. “Are you listening to me?”…“No more,” she said…“I hate it. I hate driving. I won’t go on (131).”
Despite the fact that she finds difficulty in her driving effort, Mrs. Sen
lives her daily life like what she usually does back in her hometown in India.
When she wants to cook something, instead preparing the ingredients at the
kitchen cabinet, she prefers chopping vegetables on the floor.
He especially enjoyed watching Mrs. Sen as she chopped things, seated on newspaper on the living room floor. Instead of a knife, she used a blade that curved like the prow of a Viking ship…She took whole vegetables between her hands and hacked them apart cauliflower, cabbage, butternut squash. She split things in half, then quarters, speedily…She could peel a potato in seconds (114).
The blade she uses for chopping vegetables seems special to her. In one
She had brought the blade from India, where apparently there was at least one in every household. “Whenever there is a wedding in the family…or a large celebration of any kind, my mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bring blades just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the night (115).
Mrs. Sen still conducts Indian customs, like never wear shoes inside the
house and wearing sari every time, at house and outside. She also never forgets to
apply the vermilion powder in the center part of her braided hair.
…one day he saw her standing before the bathroom mirror, solemnly applying, with the head of a thumbtack, a fresh stroke of scarlet powder, which she stored in a small jam jar. A few grains of the powder fell onto the bridge of her nose as she used the thumbtack to stamp a dot above her eyebrows. “I must wear the powder every day,” she explained when Eliot asked her what it was for, “for the rest of the days that I am married.” “Like a wedding ring, you mean?”
“Exactly, Eliot, exactly like a wedding ring. Only with no fear of losing it in the dishwater (117)”.
Even though days are dull for Mrs. Sen before Eliot comes, she has two
things which make her happy. The first thing is when she receives a letter from
India. Checking the mailbox after driving practice becomes Mrs. Sen’s habitual as
she waits for any news from her family in India. When the arrival day of Indian
letter comes, Mrs. Sen will be so happy that she embraces Eliot and soon tells her
husband about the letter via telephone.
Another thing makes Mrs. Sen happy is fish from the seaside. She is fond
of fish so much that she complains on how difficult it is to find good fish in
America compared to Calcutta.
“It is very frustrating…to live so close to the ocean and not to have so much fish.” In the summer, she said, she liked to go to a market by the beach. She added that while the fish there tasted nothing like the fish in India, at least it was fresh…Mrs. Sen said she had grown up eating fish twice a day. She added that in Calcutta people ate fish first thing in the morning, last thing before bed, as a snack after school if they were lucky. They ate the tail, the eggs, even the head. It was available in any market, at any hour, from dawn until midnight. “All you have to do is leave the house and walk a bit, and there you are (123-124).”
Mrs. Sen orders her beloved fish by phone daily, and since she cannot
drive it is Mr. Sen’s duty to pick up the orders on his way home. When Mr. Sen
refuses to pick up anymore orders due to his busy schedule at university, Mrs. Sen
becomes so sad,
He found her on the sofa, weeping. Her face was in her hands and tears dripped through her fingers. Through them she murmured something about a meeting Mr. Sen was required to attend…She starred at him. Her lower eyelids were swollen into thin pink crests. “Tell me, Eliot. Is it too much to ask? (125)”
Soon, loneliness wraps up Mrs. Sen. She faces the climax of her
unspeakable alienation since she first came to America.
Mrs. Sen feels depressed by her loneliness at home, her homesick of India
and her incapability of adapt to the new place she lives in. Instead, her husband
keeps urging her to get her driving license quickly. Refuse to continue her driving
practice, Mrs. Sen finds another way to be independent. She takes the bus to go to
the fish market, but the passengers complain of the smell. Finally, she decides to
give it a try, to drive by her own to take the fish, and she gets an accident.
The accident occurred quickly. After about a mile, Mrs. Sen took a left before she should have, and though the oncoming car managed to swerve out of her way, she was so startled by the horn that she lost control of the wheel and hit a telephone pole on the opposite corner…Mrs. Sen cut her lip, Eliot complained briefly of pain in his ribs, and the car’s fenser would have to be straightened (134).
The accident makes Mrs. Sen sadder. She is no longer a babysitter for
Eliot since Eliot’s mother takes him home and asks Eliot to be a ‘big boy’ that
does not need babysitter anymore.
It can be implied from the explanation above that the main character in this
short story still holds the tradition she inherited from her origin, but does not want
to involve in the new environment she has been thrust into. She has difficulties to
adapting to her new surroundings and the feels left behind by her busy husband:
she sinks into a pool of sorrow.
2. This Blessed House
The main characters in this short story are Sanjeev and Tanima, called
Twinkle, newlyweds who are trying to adjust their life of marriage. Both of them
excited and delighted by little things. She also does not pay attention to details,
while Sanjeev is the vice versa. He is unadventurous and craves for orders. He
pays much attention to organization and neatness.
Now, in the second month of their marriage, certain things nettled him – the way she sometimes spat a little when she spoke, or left her undergarments after removing them at night at the foot of their bed rather than depositing them in the laundry hamper (142).
He tries hard to arrange every single part of their house in a right place and a right
order when they move to the new place.
He was kneeling on the floor, marking, with ripped bits of a Post-it, patches on the baseboard that needed to be retouched with paint…Sanjeev was organizing his engineering texts from MIT in alphabetical order on a bookshelf, though it had been several years since he had needed to consult any of them (136-137).
They have met only four months before their wedding. In fact, their
marriage was arranged by their parents who are old friends. Before leaving for the
wedding, Sanjeev has found a new house for a good price in a neighborhood with
a fine school system (145). At first, Sanjeev is not bothered when he notices that
the switch plates covered with biblical stickers, or the transparent decal of the
Virgin on the half shell (145).
However, when they begin arranging their house surprisingly they find
‘treasures’ hidden in every corner of their house in a form of Christian effigies
and its paraphernalia.
the black velvet background…There was also a tile trivet depicting a blond, unbearded Jesus, delivering a sermon on a mountaintop, left in one of drawers…a small plastic snow-filled dome containing a miniature Nativity scene, found behind the pipes of the kitchen sink (136-137).
When the first ‘treasure’ is discovered in that new house, and followed by
other ‘treasures’ and more ‘treasures’ come up in the upcoming days, Sanjeev gets
frustrated. He asks Twinkle to throw away all the stuff found, but instead she
collects them on the mantle and shows them off at every chance. Sanjeev thinks
that all items found by Twinkle lack a sense of the sacredness (138). However, he
cannot resist the display of Christian relics until one day when Twinkle finds a
larger-than-life-sized watercolor poster of Christ, weeping translucent tears the
size of peanut shells and sporting a crown of thorns, rolled up behind a radiator in
the guest bedroom (139).
“Now, look. I will tolerate, for now, your little biblical menagerie in the living room. But I refuse to have this…displayed in our home.”…“I’m going to put it in my study…That way you don’t have to look-at it.
“What about the housewarming. They’ll want to see all the rooms.”… “I’ll put it behind the door,” she offered. “That way, when they peck in, they won’t see. Happy? (139)”
Again, Sanjeev accepts his wife’s offer. Yet, when Twinkle once more
discovers another bigger ‘treasure’ in the weekend, this time Sanjeev loses his
patience.
Behind an overgrown forsythia bush was a plaster of Virgin Mary as tall as their waists, with a blue painted hood draped over her head in the manner of an Indian bride…
“No, silly Sanj. This is meant for outside. For the lawn.” “Oh God, no. Twinkle, no.”
“But we must. It would be bad luck not to.”
He decides to take an action to remove the Virgin Mary statue from the
lawn, but Twinkle gets angry and cries.
“Where are you going to put it?”…“For now I am going to put in the garage. Then tomorrow morning on my way to work I am going to take it to the dump.”…“Don’t you dare.”…”I hate you.”…“You can’t throw away that statue. I won’t let you.”…“Yes, I can. I will.”
“No,”…“This is our house. We own it together. The statue is part of our property.” She had begun to shiver (149).
Finally, they reach an agreement. The statue will be placed in a recess at
the side of the house, so that it is not obvious to passersby, but is still clearly
visible to all who comes. Nonetheless, when the housewarming party runs,
Sanjeev is surprised to see her wife leads the guests to join the ‘treasure hunt’ at
the attic. Surprisingly, the group finds a ‘big’ treasure, which is a solid silver bust
of Christ, the head easily three times the size of his own (156).
In this point, Sanjeev questions himself about his ‘home’ and more
dangerously his relationship with his wife. In this continent, where he strives for
the best opportunity, he feels that he is conquered by his own wife. He hates the
fact that he is not able to control the ‘treasures’, as he is usually in control over his
surroundings. Twinkle, more easily adopts the American way of life, likes
smoking and drinking, she cannot cook Indian food well, and builds her town
‘language’ to experience life in the new continent, far from home. She seems to
embrace all new things with a delighted heart and without prejudice.
In this case, religion is not the main conflict, but more the dislocation of
3. The Third and Final Continent
In this short story, the main character is remained unnamed. Anita George
in her essay, Juggling Apple Pies and Samosas remarks that The Third and Final
Continent is a partially fictionalized account of her parents’ lives in the late 1960s,
during which they emigrated from India to Britain and then finally immigrated to
America to settle permanently
(http://www.helium.com/items/1131538-indian-american-immigration-literary-analysis-the-final-continent-jhumpa, accessed
December 15, 2010).
The main character in this short story is an Indian Bengali man who leaves
India in 1964 with a certificate in commerce (173) and a great wish to achieve a
better future in the new continent. He arrives in London, in a house occupied
exclusively by penniless Bengali bachelors who all struggle to educate and
establish themselves abroad (173). Even though he studies and works in a
continent different from his homeland, he still practices his original customs, like
cooking egg curry which he eats with his hands on a table covered with
newspapers (173) and offering himself for an arranged-marriage (174). He also
adapts with his new environment quickly, like drinking tea and smoking
Rothmans (173), and watching cricket at Lord’s (174).
Soon after he gets married, he moves to America as he is offered a
full-time job with good salary in the processing department of a library at MIT. His
wife is still in India and she will follow him to America if her passport and green
card are ready. Therefore, he stays at YMCA in Cambridge, learns the American
converting ounces to grams (175) when he does his shopping. He moves from
YMCA to Mrs. Croft’s, who only accepts students either from Harvard or Tech
(177). Mrs. Croft is an old lady with a peculiar look and an old-fashioned manner.
She wore a long black skirt that spread like a stiff tent to the floor, and a starched white shirt edged with the ruffles at the throat and cuffs. Her hands, folded together in her lap, had long pallid fingers, with swollen knuckles and tough yellow nails. Age had battered her features so that she almost resembled a man, with sharp, shrunken eyes and prominent creases on other side of her nose. Her lips, chapped and faded, had nearly disappeared, and her eyebrows were missing altogether (178).
In their first encounter, he is surprised by the loud voice of Mrs. Croft who
always demands him to do something, like to lock up the door, fasten the chain
and firmly press the button on the knob (178), to be punctual in paying the rent
(178) and to shout for American’s success to land on the moon.
The women bellowed, “A flag on the moon, boy! I heard it on the radio! Isn’t that splendid?”
“Yes, madame.”
But she was not satisfied with my reply. Instead she commanded, “Say, ‘splendid’!”…I said nothing.
“Say splendid!” the woman bellowed once again.
“Splendid,” I murmured. I had to repeat the word a second time at the top of my lungs, so she could hear (179-180).
This command becomes his ritual every time he meets Mrs. Croft every
morning and afternoon in the living room after he decides to rent the room though
he cannot bring his wife in since Mrs. Croft does not allow lady visitors. Yet, he is
happy to have an access to kitchen for cooking curry.
When he unexpectedly meet Mrs. Croft’s daughter, Helen, who comes
once a week for bringing groceries for her mother, Mrs. Croft is at rage.
Helen said she was sixty-eight years old, old enough to be my mother, but Mrs. Croft insisted that Helen and I speak to each other downstairs, in the parlor. She added that it was also improper for a lady of Helen’s station to reveal her age, and to wear a dress so high above the ankle (186).
When the time of his wife’s arrival is getting near, he has to find a new
place of residence for him and his wife, Mala. He moves to a furnished apartment
a few blocks away, with a double bed and a private kitchen and bath (190). Mala
is twenty-seven, and she can cook, knit, embroider, sketch landscape and recite
poems by Tagore (181). Even though for the first time it feels strange for both of
them to live together in one room, they live their daily life by speaking Bengali at
home, eating Indian food as well as going to supermarket and having a picnic.
Their connection as husband and wife is bought closer after their short
visit to Mrs. Croft’s. When he reads Mrs. Croft’s obituary, he is stricken with
grief, it is the first death he mourns in America (196).
After thirty years of living his life in America with his wife and his only
son, they continue passing the tradition to their son, like eating rice with hands
and speaking in Bengali (197), things that they sometimes worry their son will no
longer do after they die. They reside as American citizens, own a house with a
garden and have social security. They have survived for three continents, as well
as survived in the crossroads of cultures.
B. The Experience in Exile
In this part, the writer will present several facts which are written in those
