Short Story Unit Analysis

Short Story Unit Analysis

            Throughout the course, there have been many short stories that have been read and analyzed. The thing that is significant about these stories is that in some way they are all able to relate in at least one aspect, despite the fact that the literature would range from ancient Greek periods up to the postmodern era. Although, one theme that stands out is Misinterpretations. Misinterpretation means to understand something incorrectly based on the facts that are presented. It can happen in many ways, big or little, yet in the stories that cover this theme, they are displayed and highlighted in a significant manner. The stories in question are “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) by Tennessee Williams, and “Interpreter Of Maladies” (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri.

            In “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, there is one character in the spotlight that is the reason for many of the conflicts that are prevalent in the story. This character goes by the name of Blanche DuBois, the sister of Stella DuBois who is living with her sister for the time being, under the same roof as Stella’s boyfriend, Stanley Kowalski. Ever since the beginning of the story, from scene 2, Stanley suspects something with Blanche, he says “then I’ll inquire if she is acquainted with the Napoleonic code. It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you're swindled under the Napoleonic code I'm swindled too. And I don't like to be swindled” (Williams 35). After this, he proceeds to say that Blanche would be unable to afford all the fancy dresses she owns from a teacher’s salary. Although Stanley is pointing out these details to Stella, she continues to side with her sister, thus already falling for Blanche’s deception and misinterpreting her incorrectly. Not only that, but Blanche also toys with another character named Mitch, a nice and gentle man unlike the other male characters, who is only trying to take care of his mother. During the first time Blanche and Mitch meet and up until later in the story, Mitch and Blanche develop some feelings for each other, and in scene 6, Mitch tells Blanche, “I told my mother how nice you were, and I liked you” (Williams 94). Mitch’s mother is sick and due to pass within a few months, but Mitch is looking to settle down since that what his mother would like, and so Mitch believes Blanche is the person to settle down with, and to give his mother ease of mind he tells her that he likes Blanche. But in scene 7, Stanley mentions telling Mitch the truth about Blanche, and he says, “Well, he's not going to marry her. Maybe he was, but he's not going to jump in a tank with a school of sharks” (Williams 104). This line tells us that Mitch realized he misinterpreted and understood Blanche the wrong way, and when he knows the truth about her, he would like to have nothing to do with her.

            As the name suggests, “Interpreter Of Maladies”, the title refers to one character named Mr. Kapasi, who is an interpreter for a doctor, he works to communicate a patient’s maladies to the doctor despite having a language barrier. Although he works a job like this, he has another job on the side to pay off bills and debts he has, he works as a tour guide, and during one of his guides he meets the Das Family. To start with context, Kapasi has just loss his son, and lives with the guilt of his failures, alongside that, he has funeral payments that are due and a wife who has no regard for him, because of this, Kapasi is a man of no hope and low self-esteem. But on this trip as a tour guide, he meets a woman who goes by the name of Mrs. Das, a mother of 3 children and wife to Mr. Das. After some time through the day Kapasi and Mrs. Das begin chatting, and asks what Kapasi does, and after some explaining she calls his interpreting job “romantic.” Kapasi finds this strange but then Mrs. Das goes on to say “’So these patients are totally dependent on you,’…’In a way, more dependent on you than the doctor’" (Lahiri 18). Kapasi feels validated after a comment like this, considering the fact that he has low self-esteem, hearing this from Mrs. Das sparks some significance in his life. Since Mrs. Das was able to make Kapasi feel validated and feel good about himself, it would make sense for Kapasi to develop some likeness for her. 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 this happens, at the end of the story, Mrs. Das tells Kapasi her situation, that she had an affair with another man, and one of the children does not belong to her husband. After finding out this fact, it lingers in Kapasi’s mind, which leads to the end of the story, “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). Kapasi doesn’t bother to keep his address in her purse, he realizes that Mrs. Das can’t be the person that he would like her to be. He understands his own mistake that he interpreted Mrs. Das falsely, despite the fact that he works as an interpreter.

            Even though “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Interpreter Of Maladies” have completely different characters in a different place, their stories are both told on the same basis. They relate in the way that their issues are constructed on the fact that characters are misinterpreted incorrectly. Blanche was seen as an elegant, non-vulgar, gentle woman, but after the truth is revealed about her that she has been with many guys and even one of her students, everybody in her circle begin to fade and turn against her. Everybody turned against her so suddenly because of the fact that she was meant to deceive the people around her. As for Kapasi’s side, he was a hopeless man in a failing relationship, and he got his hopes up believing Mrs. Das could be the one for him, somebody who would finally bring some significance back to his life. But after he discovers the truth that she has an affair, his hopes drop even lower, and he wishes to never make contact with her or her family ever again. Misinterpretation is the theme that surrounds these two stories, and although they are both told in their own way, they are still expressed deeply and emotionally, which is what makes these stories powerful.