Interpreter Of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri's “Interpreter of Maladies” in Interpreter of Maladies begins with Mr. and Mrs. Das bickering about who should take Tina to the toilet. This first sentence already sets up the idea that their relationship is bound to end. Mr. and Mrs. Das have three children together, Ronny, Bobby, and Tina, and they met each other in high school. Despite this, their relationship will fail because they are childish and lack communication.
Mr. and Mrs. Das are both immature, in spite of the fact that they’re in their late twenties. Mr. Das shows this when “he wiped his palms on the front of his shorts. In his nervousness he accidentally pressed the shutter on his camera” (68). Mr. Das sees Bobby being beat up by the monkeys and does absolutely nothing. His incompetence to take control is similar to how children always wait for someone else to take action. Mr. Das also refers Mrs. Das as Mina when he asked his daughter
Das proves she is immature by being selfish. Throughout the short story, she flirts with Mr. Kapasi by calling his job romantic and asking for his address. This was all so Mrs. Das could seek his interpretation of this malady. She says, “Don’t you think it's unhealthy,” and “Suggest some kind of remedy” (65). This makes it clear that Mrs. Das is self-centered because she did not care that she was leading Mr. Kapasi on; she used his vulnerability to her advantage. Mrs. Das also makes apparent that she is childish when she gets frustrated with Mr. Das about not getting a car with air conditioning. She also pays more attention to getting her nails done than caring for her family. For example, when Tina wanted her nails to be done as well, “Mrs. Das flicked a drop on polish on the little girl’s finger” (49). She would also tell Tina to leave her alone because she would mess her up. A reader would be appalled as to how terrible Mrs. Das is as a mother. Mrs. Das and her self- centered self is a huge reason why her relationship with Mr. Das is