Interpreter Of Maladies

Being involved in two different religions is not that of a difficulty but having to adjust to two totally different cultures is a struggle. In Interpreter of Maladies,Lahiri presents various short stories depicting the division among characters who are mostly immigrants with different types of cultures. In most of Lahiri's stories, she shows how an immigrant life is as he/she enters a whole new world with everything new . “Mrs.Sen’s” is one of the short stories in which a fully Indian cultured woman is mostly refusing to accept and be part of the new American culture and is suffering through homesickness. She uses simple objects and certain types of food such as fish and a traditional knife, recurring memories from India to remind her of
her own culture everyday.Meanwhile, in another short story, “When Mr.Pirzada came to dine”, three different cultures are shown such as Pakistani,American and Indian with which how Mr.Pirzada and Lilia’s family deal with the difference of each other’s culture during the time of the war between their countries.
Both stories shows distance and isolation from their home country and culture that make it difficult for the characters to adjust for a new life. By introducing the theme of characters losing their cultural identity , Lahiri suggests how one struggles to obtain a new identity. By having characters depict the theme of cultural identity several times throughout her stories, Lahiri establishes that loss of cultural identity symbolize the struggle for new identity. Lilia’s parents held different views of how Lilia’s education in United States is affecting her. As the family discussed the Eastern-Pakistan war, Lilia’s unawareness about it made her father suspiciously asked her, “What exactly do they teach you at school,Do you study history?” (Lahiri 26). As a parent, Lilia’s father had concerns on the fact that Lilia is not learning anything about their own country or the world. It bothers him how instead they only focus on American history and do not even let the students know about what currently is taking place in the world. Lilia’s mother had a different view as Lilia described how she knew that Lilia “was assured a safe life,easy life,a fine education,every opportunity...would never
have to eat rationed food,obey curfews or watch riots” (Lahiri,26).
Having the usage of the phrase, that she had an assurance of a“safe,easy life”interpretes how Lilia’s mother is focusing on how American culture has given and impacted their lives so much more to what Indian culture has. The quote is showing a comparison between the two cultures on how having a life in India would affect Lilia physically and mentally including how she will consume limited food and witness violence of disturbance on the streets. India is popularly also known as the country where pressure of education and power outage from nowhere is high from which Lilia has been protected from. Lilia’s mother is proud of the fact that Lilia is “different” rather having and trying to become a “new” person while having past experiences in another culture to struggle along with a new one like they did. Mrs.Sen reveals how America does not give her the peace and happiness that she desires. Mrs.Sen describes to Elliot about when her neighborhood in India had any type of celebration, just the matter of minutes, the place gets loud and filled with crowds of women helping,gossiping and talking. After a bit of silence, in a complaining tone, she says how Mr.Sen has brought her in a place like this in which she“cannot sometimes sleep in so much
silence”(Lahiri 115). Mrs.Sen is used to a loud and crowded environment. Mrs.Sen is not a person who interacts with people a lot except for Elliot,Mr.Sen and the guy at the fish market which is even more preventing her to become part of a American culture. She misses the people of her circle, and the loud,disturbing noises and crowds in her neighborhood. “Silence” bothers her, it does not define peace or happiness for her but instead gives her even more reasons to how America is not her home. Mrs.Sen is suffering from homesickness but at the same time inside, she is refusing to sleep in “silence”, in short, rejecting the American culture. Mrs.Sen seeks pleasure of her culture through food. The narrator informs us how one of the two things that Elliot learned was that Mrs.Sen loved fish from seaside as it was a common food in her childhood that Mrs.Sen ate. As the narrator said, Mrs.Sen herself admits that “fish there tasted nothing like the fish in India,at least it was fresh” (Lahiri 126). One of the most difficult parts of evolving into a new culture or a person is getting used to a the type of food the people of that culture consume. Mrs.Sen’s endless love for India has a similar impact on the type of food as well. Fish is the closest she can find in America to have a connection to her country and not forget her culture. Mrs.Sen even argues about how she would not buy the fish at supermarket as they are always canned, she wants a whole size fish and fresh. Mrs.Sen struggles between the American culture and the Indian culture as she dislikes how the supermarkets sell their food. She attempts to be connected to her culture as much as possible as she does not want to let the thread of her culture slip from her hand and finds it easier to just stick to her culture as she is aware she will struggle to hold onto American“thread” of culture in her hands.