The Third and Final Continent My Coursework

Reader Response the third and final continent

For this task, I have chosen The Third and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri. This story is about the Narrator who tried to adjust himself with new surroundings and his arranged marriage bride. The owner of his new home was Mrs. Croft who had shown the good qualities of his bride which he had not noticed. After time, the narrator became in love with his wife and did not forget the elderly woman whom which he had once lived with.
There are two main characters in this short story. They are Mrs. Croft and the Narrator. The character I like the most is Mrs. Croft. She resembles a round character that shows many different traits. She is a choosy person as she said that she will only rent rooms to boys from Harvard or Tech to the Narrator as he called her for a room (page 2). We know that she likes to give orders when she forced the Narrator to repeat the word Splendid each time she told the story about the American flag on the moon (page 3). Besides that, she was also senile because she had once wandered half naked to the tram depot (page 9). In the other hand, she also presents good traits. Mrs. Croft had a very high national spirit and likes someone who is a gentleman. These values are proven in page 4 and 7 when she was proud saying “There is an American flag on the moon!” and when her daughter said “Some of the boys run screaming. But I think she likes you. You’re the first boarder she’s ever referred to as a gentleman”. She had a mysterious life as the writer did not tell us what she had being doing for the 103 years besides playing the piano (page 9). These qualities really did show the nature of an ordinary human being.
The second character is the Narrator. He was also a round character to me. His role was so plain and toneless. He did not show any excitement in his daily life (page 1). He was such a boring person before his wife presents because he will only pass his time in the evening reading Boston Globe (page 2). He did not even show that he tried to approach his wife as he knows a little about her (page 10). However, he has a high respect towards Mrs. Croft as he was reluctant to raise his voice to her when Mrs. Croft forced him to repeat the word Splendid (page 4). After Mrs. Croft made him realized how lucky he was to have her, he begun to have a better relationship with Mala (page 14). He proved that he was a romantic person when they both kissed and hugged each other (page 14). He was also an appreciative person because he did not forget the good deeds by Mrs. Croft. He brought his son to the Massachusetts Avenue and pointed to Mrs. Croft’s street (page 15). He has a great determination because he had survived on three continents (page 15).
The main theme of this short story is culture and tradition. There are two cultures which can be identified in The Third and Final Continent. They are Indian culture and Western culture. The narrator and Mala obey the Indian culture by getting married according to the arrangement by the narrator’s older and his wife (page 5). The Narrator was used to opening his shoes before entering his room and he still did that in America (page 7). As for Mala, she was dressed up in Indian Traditional clothing when she first arrived in Boston. She wore sari, gold bracelet, a small red circle painted on the forehead and edge of her feet were tinted with decorative red dye (page 11). Other proves of Indian culture, they eat curries as the first meal the Narrator cooked for Mala is egg curry because he knew that Mala was not used to eat cereals (page 11) and they also speaks Benggali to each other. It was the first time the Narrator speaks Benggali in America (page 11).
The Western culture in this short story is they wore shoes in their rooms (page 7). As the food for the westerners are soup that is popular in America eaten by Mrs. Croft (page 8) cereals eaten by the Narrator (page 5). Mrs. Croft also believed that it is improper for a lady and a man who are not married to each other to hold a private conversation without a chaperone (page 8). Although she was also a Westerner, she cared for the clothes worn by the youngsters in America (page 8).
Next are the settings. In the year of 1866, Mrs. Croft was born (page 10). It had been forty years she taught piano lessons (page 9). While in 1964, the Narrator left India (page 1) and in 1969 the Narrator and Mala got married. There are several places stated in the story such as Finsbury Park, London where the Narrator lived during his stay in England (page 1). He spent his first night at YMCA in Central Square, Cambridge in Boston, America (page 1) before moving to Massachusettes Avenue (page 3). Societies that we can identify in the story are the western society, Mrs. Croft and Helen (page 7) and the Indian society, the Narrator and Mala (page 11).
Issues highlighted in this story are love, relationship, cultural shock and cultural diversity. Love is shown between the Narrator and Mala although their marriage was arranged (page 14). Mrs. Croft and the Narrator had a very good relationship that they tried to understand each other even though they are not the same race (page 6). We can see high cultured person, Mrs Croft as she played piano (page 9) and popular cultured person, Mala who obeys her traditional culture (page 11). They respected each other norms and values by not being racist (page 14). The Narrator helped Mala during her stay in America so that she will not have a culture shock as she was not use to the living in western countries (page 11).

by: Aamirah Aiza Zakaria PPISMP TESL JUN 2010