"The Concept Of Human Flaws In Postmodern Literature"
Post-modernism literature is a genre written within a
certain period that spans from after World War II in 1945 up to the present
day. The philosophy that revolves around post-modernism is different from past
literature, it highlights the human flaws, and complexities within human
relationships. It is these imperfect qualities of humans that make post-modern
literature so powerful, as it can relate to many of our own lives. We all know
that our plans cannot always go the way we want them in this world, and none of
us are perfect, we are all challenged by the realities of the way that we live.
One piece of work written in this period is by Jhumpa Lahiri, known as
“Interpreter of Maladies,” which was written in 1999.
“Interpreter of Maladies” is a short story by Lahiri
which follows a family that goes on a vacation alongside a tour guide, and
throughout their day, they all find out things about each other. The tour guide
that escorts the family is named Mr. Kapasi, who only works as a tour guide on
the side, but he is mainly an interpreter for a doctor that he works with.
Kapasi is flawed in the way that he lives with his own failures and loss of
hopes and dreams. He is stuck in an unhappy marriage where his wife has no
regards for him after he fails to get his fatally ill son treated, this is told
in page 19, “He knew it reminded her [Ms. Kapasi] of the son she’d lost, and
that she resented the other lives he helped” (Lahiri 19). Another character is Mr. Das, who is the
father of the family. His shortcomings are his inability to connect with his
family, and he lacks intimacy with his own wife. One part where he seems to disregard
his family is at the beginning of the story, when Ronny is running to a goat,
and Mr. Das “appeared to have no intention of intervening” (Lahiri 13). Not
only that, but he refers to his wife by her first name, “Oh, Mina and I were
both born in America" and “’Where’s Mina?’ Mr. Das asked” (Lahiri 14). Another
flawed character in this story is the wife, Mrs. Das. Her shortcomings are from
her unhappiness in the marriage and guilt from an affair she had with Mr. Das’
friend, to which she conceived a child with who is known as Bobby. In page 26,
Mrs. Das explains her story and says, “She had been outraged when Raj told her
that a Punjabi friend…would be staying with them for a week…He made love to her
swiftly, in silence, with an expertise she had never known” (Lahiri 26). Bobby
is conceived after this affair, and her guilt comes from the fact that Mr. Das
doesn’t suspect anything and has been parenting a child that isn’t his. The flaws
in these characters are how postmodernism is seen throughout the story.
It is through these flaws that cause more in-depth complexities
within relationships between the characters. As previously stated, Mr. Kapasi
lives with his own failures and unhappiness, his wife does not care for his
career anymore, and thus, Kapasi is left with low self-esteem and dead hopes. It
is because of these flaws, that allow Kapasi to end up worse off after meeting
the family. After meeting the family, Kapasi and Mrs. Das have a conversation,
and Kapasi ends up telling her that he is an interpreter for a doctor, and he
feels it is insignificant. Mrs. Das then goes on to validate him by saying, “’So
these patients are totally dependent on you,’…’In a way, more dependent on you
than the doctor’" (Lahiri 18). Afterwards, the story goes on to say, “It
flattered Mr. Kapasi that Mrs. Das was so intrigued by his job. Unlike his
wife, she had reminded him of its intellectual challenges” (Lahiri 19). This tells us something about Kapasi’s
character, he isn’t happy with where he is with his wife, but Mrs. Das was able
to spark his significance about his job, which validates him, makes him feel
more grateful for his career, and alongside that, Kapasi begins to develop
feelings for Mrs. Das. This is where the crescendo of Kapasi’s hopes begin to
start escalating. As his hopes are rising, he reaches a peak, where he believes
that his life can be changed for the better. During a scene where the family
gets lunch and they take photos, Mrs. Das offers to send the photos to Kapasi
through mail and ends up asking for his address, to which Kapasi was inclined
to give. In page 21, it says, “When he finished writing his address Mr. Kapasi
handed her the paper, but as soon as he did so he worried that he had either
misspelled his name, or accidentally reversed the numbers of his postal code.
He dreaded the possibility of a lost letter, the photograph never reaching him,
hovering somewhere in Orissa, close but ultimately unattainable” (Lahiri 21).
Kapasi truly believes that this address would be the beginning of a
relationship between him and Ms. Das, and he thinks that his life may change,
he practically fawns over envisioning a better future with her.
Although he reaches his peak in hopes during this scene,
that means his hopes will drop with that. The falling of his hopes begin when
he and Mrs. Das are alone in the car together talking, and Mrs. Das makes a
confession. In page 25, they both have a dialogue, “’A brave little boy [Bobby]’
Mr. Kapasi commented…’He’s not his.’…’Raj’s. He’s not Raj’s son.’ Mr. Kapasi
felt a prickle on his skin. He reached into his shirt pocket for the small tin
of lotus-oil balm he carried with him at all times, and applied it to three spots
on his forehead (Lahiri 25). The lotus-oil carries a symbolic meaning, a lotus
is a symbol of purity, enlightenment, and spiritual growth in Indian culture, alongside
it’s healing properties. The fact that Kapasi immediately looks to apply this
oil on his forehead shows that he wants to purify and heal himself emotionally
from the news he had just been told. This is the point where his hopes start
plummeting. As it reaches an all-time low, a scene occurs where Bobby has been
beaten by monkeys with a stick, and as Mrs. Das runs over to Bobby, Kapasi
notices something. On page 29, it says “When she whipped out the hairbrush, the
slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address on it fluttered away in the wind. No
one but Mr. Kapasi noticed…Mr. Kapasi observed it too, knowing that this was
the picture of the Das family he would preserve forever in his mind” (Lahiri
29). This is the conclusion of the story, and the end of Kapasi’s
rollercoaster. Due to the fact that his hopes were brought up just to be let
down would make him have lower self-esteem than before, and he goes back to
facing his harsh reality possibly thinking that is what he will always be stuck
with. This is the complexity that is highlighted by Lahiri when it comes to human
relationships, and it’s how she tells a deep story in the post-modern time
period.
Throughout the story, Kapasi can be observed to show
signs of codependency. The only reason Kapasi is at such a low point in his
life is due to the fact that he failed to get his son treated, he was unable to
fund it, and then his wife mourns over the loss which results in her completely
shutting herself off and causing a lack of intimacy and affection in their
relationship. This is the root cause of Kapasi’s maladies and his feelings of
low self-esteem and insignificance. According to MHA National, “Co-dependents
have low self-esteem and look for anything outside of themselves to make them
feel better. They find it hard to ‘be themselves’” (MHA National). As
previously discussed, Kapasi’s self-esteem is known to be at a low point, and
he seeks validation from Mrs. Das in order to make him feel better about
himself, thus giving a link between Kapasi’s maladies and codependency. Not
only that, but Kapasi exhibits more signs of codependency, according to an
article on Medical News Today, “One person feels that their desires and needs
are unimportant and will not express them. They may have difficulty recognizing
their own feelings or needs at all” (Berry 2017). There are two ways that
Kapasi disregards his desires and needs. One of which is for his career, where
he isn’t happy with it, but he does not bother to pursue something that he
enjoys more, he only does it simply to cover funeral expenses for his son.
Another way he shows this is when Mrs. Das confesses to him in the car. On page
27, she says, “Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years. I was
hoping you could help me feel better, say the fight thing. Suggest some kind of
remedy" (Lahiri 27). As Mrs. Das resides in Kapasi to look for an answer, they
both disregard his feelings on the matter, and he simply attempts to give her
an answer that she would want to hear instead of telling her how he really
feels.
Jhumpa
Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies” is a deep piece of work that depicts
postmodern literature, which is expressed through characters such as Mr. and
Mrs. Das, and Kapasi. These characters are all flawed in their own way, which
is a trait that is prevalent in postmodernism. These flaws lead to complexities
within relationships, which results in problems between these characters. Mr.
and Mrs. Das are unable to revive their relationship, they lack intimacy, Mr.
Das can’t even interact with his own children in a fatherly manner, and Mrs.
Das’ feelings of guilt fester inside of her, and it is the reason for her
malady. Kapasi’s issues are caused by the loss of his son and his wife’s
disregard for his well-being. This causes him to feel insignificant and have
low self-esteem, to which he develops codependency. This codependency causes
him to look to Mrs. Das in order to spark his significance and make him feel
validated. In the end, Kapasi was unable to attain what he looked for with her,
and ended his day being more hopeless than before.
No comments:
Post a Comment