 Please read both "The Interpreter of Maladies" and "The Real Durwan" and consider how Lahiri uses shifts in mood to communicate the difficulties of relationships in these stories.
Last Name Ab -Le: Your Primary Blog Entry should be about Chapter 3 "The Interpreter of Maladies" and your Secondary Bog Responses should be in response to Primary Blog Posts regarding Chapter 4 "The Real Durwan." Last Name Ma - Vu: Your Primary Blog Entry should be about Chapter 4 "The Real Durwan" and your Secondary Bog Responses should be in response to Primary Blog Posts regarding Chapter 3 "The Interpreter of Maladies." Part One Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 200-250 words, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "number" given to you in class as your "pen name." Part Two Expectations (read everyone's first responses, select two that interest you, and respond to their ideas): 100-150 words EACH, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class.
3
9/11/2015 05:47:35 pm
The author of the story Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri, uses a variety of moods. In this story the Das family is touring with their tour guide Mr. Kapasi, who is also an interpreter to a doctor. Mr. Kapasi has done many tours and seems to be very observant of the tourist, but on this tour he develops a crush for a married woman with a big secret. Mr. and Mrs. Das are very young and they also have some serious relationship problems. On pages 44 and 46, the mood is kind of a careless and judgmental; author speaks about Mr. Kapasi observing different aspects and attitudes that Mr. and Mrs. Das portray. Mr. Das is most of the time looking in his book not caring about anyone else, while Mrs. Das was very careless, hiding behind her shades, neither caring much about their children like if they were a full time parent. They didn’t act like they had a good husband and wife relationship or even a good family relationship. The author then later on in the story changed the mood from intimate to an awkward reality. On pages 64 and 65, the mood changed in Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das’ friendship or acquaintance relation. Mr. Kapasi thought they were going to get close intimately, but the mood then change to awkward when Mrs. Das reveals her secret and then asks for keep in a way that made Mr. Kapasi feel like a parent to her when he was thinking about her in a sexually attractive way.
8
9/11/2015 09:14:47 pm
I agree that the mood really changes on page 64. Mrs. Das definitely rejects Mr. Kapasi. For the rest of the story, there’s a sense of hopelessness for all of the characters. The paper with his address slipped away and no one noticed due to their carelessness. Lahiri ends the story by saying that this was the picture of the Das family he would preserve forever – unchanging. Mrs. Das was hopeless with the life she lived, Mr. Das was to careless to even notice anything wrong with the big picture, and Mr. Kapasi felt romantically for Mrs. Das while also being in an unhappy relationship. But having that picture of them “preserved” makes it seem like they will just go about life as it is, unwilling to make any changes, which really emphasizes that careless mood and the hopelessness for all their true desires that will go unspoken.
10
9/13/2015 04:14:29 pm
I agree that one of the main shifts in "Interpreter of Maladies" occurs on page 64, when Mrs. Das said "'For God's sake, stop calling me Mrs. Dad. I'm twenty-eight. You probably have children my age'" (Lahiri 64). From this moment, it is clear that Mr. Kapasi's crush on Mrs. Das will not develop into something more. (Also, isn't it ironic how Mrs. Das refers to God's sake?) Anyway, Lahiri set the awkward mood between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi, especially at the end of the story when his slip of address flew away carelessly in the wind as Mrs. Das walked back to the car with her family. So beautiful and unfortunate is this story that the readers even empathize with Mr. Kapasi and his lost dream.
14
9/13/2015 09:45:18 pm
I agree that there was a shift in the mood during that conversation in the car. After Mr.Kapasi had developed feelings for Mrs. Das, they were getting greater and greater overtime. As he watched the way the family interacted, he was searching for opportunities to make himself closer to Mrs. Das. When the moment had finally come when he was alone with her, things went nothing like how he had planned. I agree with you when you said that he thought they might be intimate. In actually, Mrs. Das confessed a very dark secret and made him uncomfortable when asking him for words of advice.
15
9/13/2015 09:51:45 pm
I agree that the shift in mood explicitly happens on page 64. Mr. Kapasi’s crush on Mrs. Das was “crushed”. “‘I beg your pardon,Mrs.Das, but why have you told me this information?’” (Lahiri 64). Once learning Mrs.Das’ secret he no longer feels the same towards her. His view of her completely changes, changing the mood. It becomes awkward. Mr.Kapasi already had his thoughts on Mr. and Mrs. Das’ relationship. He now understands why the couple is so unattached and didn't really care for each other or their children. I believe he looses some respect for her. His romantic feelings towards her dissipate.
02
9/20/2015 01:11:13 pm
I also agree with your statement, I believe that Mr. Kapasi had lost respect for Mrs. Das after she had told him about her secret that she had kept from her husband for past eight years. Mr. Kapasi was surprise by the news that she had a son for her husband's friend and has kept that secret from him and the boy's real father. Instead of seeing a beauiful and unspoken attraction towards Mrs. Das, the mood had shifted to the complete opposite.
8
9/11/2015 08:55:29 pm
In “The Real Durwan”, the mood is set early on. We are introduced to a frail 64 year old woman who was a doorkeeper and stairwell sweeper in exchange for shelter at the apartment building in which that she worked at. She tells stories of her rich past life, and also the turmoil that followed it when she was separated from her husband, daughters, and home. Whether her anecdotes of her previous fortune are entirely true, you begin to feel sorry for her and her situation, where she is barely making it by. When Boori Ma goes out in town, someone steals her keys and steals the new basin put in the apartment. With everyone angered and blaming her, she is kicked out. At this point, there is a huge shift in the mood. Everyone who lives at the building does not want the same fate as Boori Ma and without her presence they aren’t reminded of their actual social status. On the last page, Mr. Chatterjee says, “Boori Ma’s mouth is full of ashes. But that is nothing new. What is new is the face of this building. What a building like this needs is a real durwan” (Lahiri 82). Lahiri presents the overall mood through resentfulness, jealously, and sympathy.
3
9/12/2015 08:24:14 pm
I agree with you that the author Lahiri, of The Real Durwan, set the mood was set early in the piece. Seeing Boori Ma’s life and her struggles and losing her husband, children and prosperity; that’s a lot and how the author tells in makes the read want to feel sympathetic. Then there was a shift it the in the piece when the residents of the building were jealous of the Mr. and Mrs. Dalal and instead of being gratefully about the basin. Lahiri also made the mood change to feel a bit disrespectful and angry that they wanted Boori Ma to come back because they felt out of place in society.
1
9/13/2015 07:00:21 pm
I agree that there was a shift in the mood when the people of the apartment began to blame Boori Ma for the theft of the basement. However, I feel that the mood, as it is how the readers are affected by the novel, shifted from being annoyed with Boori Ma to sympathizing with her. At first, she comes across as being a show off who constantly talks about her lavish past life. This kind of took away from the life that she was currently living. But when she begins to sleep on the roof and becomes practically useless to the building. Readers realize just how important Boori Ma was to the building and how much work she put in to it for the people of the building to completely disregard her. And when the basin was stolen, the immediately blamed her and were quick to get rid of her without a second thought. Readers begin to feel really bad that this older lady, who may have talked a lot but gave a lot to the people of the building, was thorn out so easily.
17
9/13/2015 07:10:07 pm
I agree in how the mood changes, since at the beginning, it was as thought the people were thankful to have her there for them. She was guarding their property and preventing anything bad from the streets to pass into their homes. As the time goes on, the people almost become more concerned on fixing their homes and do something that a family like them did, and they fill the place with people, and leave no space for Boori Ma to be. The people are expecting her to do something, but yet, they don't leave room for it, that is absurd. Since they are being selfish and not considering the situation completely, it is easier to throw her out and have no remorse.
13
9/14/2015 01:14:25 am
I agree with you because I also thought the biggest shift in the mood occurred after the basin was stolen at the apartment. Jhumpa Lahiri had made the readers feel as if Boori Ma was talking too much about her past and making the others tired of it. The shift in the mood made the readers become more empathetic towards Boori Ma. I also agree with you when you said that the author set the overall mood with resentfulness, jealousy, and sympathy. The jealousy is evident at the beginning of the chapter while the resentfulness and sympathy became the mood after the biggest shift.
18
10/6/2015 08:50:43 pm
I agree that the overall mood is resentfullness, jealousy, and sympathy because it's very clear that the relationship Boori Ma has with her neighbors isn't a strong one, it's based on them feeling pity for her. Even the neighbors themselves don't have good relationships with one another because they're very jealous of one another and what they contribute to the building. It's also very sympathetic because of how they allow Boori Ma to stay in the building without paying as long as she cleans and guards and how they give her things when she needs them.
5
10/7/2015 09:57:46 pm
I agree with you that in “The Real Durwan” the mood was set early on. For me, while I was reading, the the first word that came to my mind was sympathy. I could not help but feel bad for Boori Ma. As they talk about how her blankets are worn out and dirty, I begin to feel very sad. I even felt a slight bit of anger mixed into these emotions. I was mad that nobody was willing to do more for Boori Ma. It is amazing that Jhumpa Lahiri can evoke such emotions from her audience.
1
9/12/2015 11:08:26 pm
In "The Interpreter of Maladies", Lahiri uses a shift in mood to display the difficulties in the relationships between the characters when Mr. Kapasi, the driver, begins to develop an infatuation with Mrs. Das, the wife and mother in a tourist family, and learns her biggest secret. At first, Mr. Kapasi views the Das family as any average tourist family, despite their Indian appearance. He also notices how strange Mrs. Das acted towards her husband and children- constantly ignored them or showed little interest in what was going on. However, when Mrs. Das shows an interest in Mr. Kapasi's second job, an interpreter at a doctor's office, he begins to dream of being able to talk and spend time with her. Mr. Kapasi realizes that similarly to his own relationship with his wife, it was possible the relationship between the bickering Mr. and Mrs. Das was dysfunctional. Due to her interest in his interpreting career, Mrs. Das tells Mr. Kapasi her biggest secret, the thing that has been ailing her for years- she had been unfaithful to her husband and one of her children had been fathered by the other man (64). This was a crucial shift in mood because the audience went from being confused as to why Mrs. Das acted the way she did, to resenting her for her decisions yet having an understand of how she felt as to the way she treats her family due to her own guilt. However, there is another shift in mood at the end of the story when Mrs. Das shows compassion to her son and offers to clean him up, a complete 180 from when she ignored her daughter in the car. Readers feel a sense of consolation because it is suggested that Mrs. Das will attempt to heal her relationship with her family due to her new sense of relief.
10
9/13/2015 04:26:54 pm
This is a really well written summary and explanation of the shift between Mr. Kapasi's and and Mrs. Das' relationship. I agree that one shift occurs when Mrs. Das shows interest in Mr. Kapasi for the first time when she was intrigued by his job as an interpreter of maladies. She went from paying him, nor anyone else, any mind to being fully involved in conversation with him. Another shift you mentioned was the one on page 64 when Mrs. Das disclosed her secret of having an affair and bearing a child with another man. This sets an awkward and discomforting mood as Mr. Kapasi's dream of becoming close to Mrs. Das becomes only just a dream. I love how you said that "readers feel a sense of consolation" at the end because we hope that she is attempting to aid her relationship with her husband and children.
4
10/3/2015 11:52:32 pm
I do agree, this is a very well written summary of this short story. There was a major shift in tone especially on page 64 with Mr. Kapasi’s crush of Ms. Das and how he found out that she didn’t like or feel the same towards him. This made things very awkward between them which change the mood of the story. After that he acted if he didn’t want anything to do with her because of the fact that she rejected his feelings even though she didn’t reject it, she just didn’t feel the same way towards him.
14
9/13/2015 09:38:04 pm
I agree that there was a shift when Mrs. Das confessed her secret to Mr. Kapasi. After Mr. Kapasi had started to develop feelings for Mrs. Das, he thought very highly of her and dreamed about forming a relationship with her. He seemed to be in a state of bliss while in her presence and paid little attention to anything else. He was happy to have her around him and wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. When Mrs. Das stayed in the car and talked to Mr. Kapasi, all of that changed. He realized that she did not think of him in the way that he thought of her after she referred to him as a father figure. He was also shocked to see how she could ruin her family and marriage in the way that she did.
15
9/13/2015 09:42:18 pm
I agree that the author uses a shift in tone to convey Mr. Kapasi’s and Mrs. Das’ relationship. It is quiet interesting how they were both intrigued by each other. Maybe Mr. Kapasi was more so infatuated with Mrs.Das than she was with him. She was just looking for a therapist essentially. Someone to take away her pain. But Mr.Kapasi’s infatuation shifts away quickly once finding out Mrs.Das’ secret. I feel the mood shifts to disgusted. “Her confession depressed him, depressed him all the more when he saw Mr. Das…” (Lahiri 66). He’s disgusted that she slept with another man, that she doesn’t love her children, that she doesn’t care for them at all. How could a mother no longer care for her children?
10
9/13/2015 03:55:24 pm
In the short story “The Real Durwan” Lahiri uses shifts in mood in order to convey the difficulty between the relationship between Boori Ma and the residents of the apartment. Boori Ma was first introduced as an elderly woman who was separated from her husband, children, and wealthy life when she was deported to Calcutta. This sets a sympathetic, yet stressed and unsettling mood for the readers. It is puzzling that Boori Ma ended up being a “gatekeeper” after being deported from her “rich and lavish” life. Her stories of her past served as entertainment for the residents, for they knew those extravagant stories were fictitious. When Boori Ma left the apartment and traveled to town, someone stole her skeleton keys and robbed the newly put basin in the apartment. The residents were enraged and felt betrayed by Boori Ma, for they felt as if she aided the robbers in stealing the basin. This set the mood of jealousy and uncertainty, however the sympathetic mood towards Boori Ma remained. Readers are faced with sympathizing towards Boori Ma, a sixty-four year old woman who has lost the many fortunes of her past life, or the residents, who let her sleep in the rain and are quick to find a scapegoat in Boori Ma. At the end of the story, Mr. Chatterjee said that “Boori Ma’s mouth is full of ashes. But that is nothing new. What is new is the face of this building. What a building like this needs is a real durwan” (Lahiri 82). This enhances the sympathizing mood as Boori Ma was dismissed as the gatekeeper, tying together the losses of her past and present life.
17
9/13/2015 07:19:48 pm
I would almost say that what changes isn't necessarily the way the people would perceive Boori Ma, instead the people's priority changed, which led to a change of them as people. Before they were compassionate and caring about this old lady being in the streets and now they don't care. After they saw that someone in their building can afford to buy basils, they feel as they should be able to have things like that too, and are concerned on their obtaining of goods more than anything. I understand that something got stolen; however, it wasn't even theirs. They should have waited for the actual owners of the basil to decide what should be done and not just kick her out in seconds, based on a decision made driven by anger.
3
9/13/2015 07:27:04 pm
I agree with you that the author Lahiri, of The Real Durwan, uses shifts in mood to convey the difficulty between the relationship between Boori Ma and the residents of the apartment. Seeing Boori Ma’s life and her struggles and losing her family, and prosperity; and how the author portrays this makes the reader want to feel sympathetic. Then there was a shift it the in the piece when the residents of the building were jealous, but I more feel they were jealous of Mr. and Mrs. Dalal than Boori Ma about the basin. Lahiri also made the mood change to feel sympathetic and angry of how the residents treated Boori Ma.
7
9/14/2015 12:59:52 am
While yes it does give a sympathetic mood, I think that it’s also this betrayal mood because they immediately turn their backs on Boori Ma once they’re building is suddenly too good for their durwan. They don’t stop to think about all the good she’s done for them, they only care about themselves and they betray Boori Ma. Even Mrs and Mr.. Dalal betray her by promising to bring her back sheets and a bed for her to sleep on, but they never returned. Boori Ma gave her all for these people and they just turned their backs to her at the moment it was available.
18
10/6/2015 09:06:38 pm
I agree that the mood is very sympathetic because throughout the whole story Lahiri puts Boori Ma in stressful and sad situations in which she sleeps on the floor, someone steals her money, they kick her out, and she's forced to live outside leaving with almost nothing. It makes the reader have sympathy for her and what she's going through. The shifts in mood also help us see past Boori Ma and look at her neighbors and the relationship they have with one another. They have very distrustful relationships where they try to compete with each other and gossip about one another which just shows us how they're not very good people.
5
10/7/2015 10:12:17 pm
I completely agree with your idea of shifts in mood in order to convey the difficulty between the relationship between Boori Ma and the residents of the apartment. I never thought to interpret the mood in such a way but I see where you are coming from. I believe you are pointing out two different sets of moods; the mood the audience feels and the mood the characters are suppose to feel. As readers, the mood was always sympathetic towards Boori Ma’s situation. However, the characters moods shifted from stressed and unsettling to jealous and uncertain. I found this to be an interesting way to approach mood.
17
9/13/2015 06:31:47 pm
Lahiri, in the brief story “Interpreter of Maladies”, tells a story about a family, who is going on a trip for vacation in India, they are accompanied by a tour guide, whose name is Mr. Kapasi. Mr. Kapasi, has done tours for a while now, so he has some sort of way to perceive things from people, and the first thing he gets from the Das family is that they aren’t a happy family that is going on vacation to spend time together. We keep getting this mysterious and isolating mood from the family, since we see Mr. and Mrs. Das always from each other, and Mrs. Das very intrigued in Mr. Kapasi for some reason. We don’t find out anything, until we take a shift and realize the why of things, and the real feelings of both parties. “‘Raj’s. He’s not Raj’s son”’ (Lahiri 62). After revealing the secret to Mr. Kapasi, Mrs. Das mystery and flirtatious behavior towards Mr. Kapasi seems to be clear and due to loneliness and the major feeling of guilt. Mrs. Das needs someone who will listen, not judge her, and it can be someone who won’t see her again, so she is able to be relieved from her silence and never face it again. The mood then turns to guilty, but with no willingness to change and move forward in a much better way. Even though of Mrs. Das knowing how she’s not creating a great environment for her family, she has no plans of doing anything. All she is hoping is to simply let Mr. Kapasi tell her something that will help her, but since he doesn’t, nothing leaves a promising future.
17
9/13/2015 06:54:36 pm
are always away from eachother*
19
9/20/2015 07:13:07 pm
I agree where you see the shift in mood. In the beginning we wonder how Mrs. Das can be so strangely distant to her family almost as if she did not care. However, I do partly disagree on Mrs. Das's behavior towards Mr. Kapsi. I don't believe it was as much flirtatiously that she looked and spoke to him after all she does say, For God's sake […] children my age” (Lahiri 64). She seeks him out for the advice that she hopes he'll give her. She seeks only to use him and there is no other emotional reason to other than her guilt for Bobby and her husband.
15
9/13/2015 09:29:09 pm
The author ,Jhumpa Lahiri, sets the mood in The Real Durwan right away. She introduces 64 year old Boori Ma.This woman works as a doorkeeper and a stairwell sweeper. She at one point was very wealthy, but after being separated from her family and going through complete turmoil she's looses everything. She is hardly making it by now and barely sleeping. And the mood is definitely set. The short story starts “…she had not slept in two nights. So the morning before the third night she shook the mites from her bedding “ (Lahiri 70). It makes you her struggle right away sets a sympathetic mood. You feel bad for Boori Ma. The shift in mood comes when Boori Ma is shamed by people living in her apartment building. Someone steals Boori Ma’s keys and steals the new basin put in the basement. Everyone gets angry at her and she is eventually kicked out of the apartment. The resentment of the people in the apartments makes Boori Ma’s life a lot harder than it already was. This causes a shift in mood to resentment. The mood is still somewhat sympathetic because of the fact that Boori Ma was kicked out of her living space. You feel bad that she no longer has anywhere to go.
7
9/14/2015 01:13:08 am
The resentment mood does make Boori Ma’s life harder but it wasn’t really just that. It made them forgetful of her, like she wasn’t even there. Sympathy is a major thing that trails through the entire thing, from her struggling with her injury and climbing all the stairs with no help from any of the tenants. I like that you described them as shaming her because they made it seem like it was her fault that she was stolen from. Like she should be ashamed that she let someone steal her life savings from her, instead of shaming themselves for not hearing the robber come in and steal all of the money that they put into the place.
13
9/14/2015 01:47:46 am
I agree that the author does make readers sympathize for Boori Ma at the beginning of the chapter. Of course after the others blame Boori Ma for stealing the Basin and kicking her out, she becomes even more pitiful. It seems as if even after it seemed like she lost everything, she was able to lose even more and become kicked out of the apartment. I also agree that the biggest shift was during that part, too. The author made us feel for Boori Ma and go against the feelings and opinions of those who were living in her apartment.
14
9/13/2015 10:05:49 pm
In the story “The Real Durwan”, a woman named Boori Ma is living on her own in an apartment. She is separated from her husband and has four daughters that she no longer lives with due to being deported. Her life used to be luxurious but she now lives on very little. Boori Ma is a gatekeeper and tells anecdotes about her life to the other residents although they are aware that many of her stories are not completely truthful. While she was in town, someone stole Boori Ma’s keys to the apartment and stole a basin that had just been purchased. This had outraged many of the residents and this made them turn on Boori Ma. This was when the shift occurred in the story. The residents believed that Boori Ma had used her keys to help the thief steal from the apartment and they forced her to leave. Boori Ma was left without a place to live after this incident. She pleaded with the residents and tried to assure them that she had not collaborated with the robber to steal from the apartment. The residents were still not convinced that she was innocent and turned their backs on her. This change in shift went from a woman living contently with the little she had to a woman who had absolutely nothing at all and no one to turn to.
1
9/13/2015 11:24:47 pm
While this is a good summary for the chapter, this lacks a mention about the mood, or the reader's reaction, to the chapter. As you mentioned a pivotal, or climatic, part of the story, how did this part resonate with readers? For example, you could say that at first, readers could have agreed with what some of the people in the building said about Boori Ma because she could be an annoyance. However, as readers learned the amount of work she did for the building and what little she had compared to the others, readers felt compassion and pity for Boori Ma because of how quickly people turned their backs on her.
02
9/20/2015 12:57:43 pm
I agree, readers did felt compassion and pity for Boori Ma because they were aware of how much hard work she has done for them and never ask for much. The author has shown how jealously and selfishness has played a major part contributing to the shift of the mood in this short story. We all knew that Boori Ma play no part of why their things were stolen and to see how quicky everyone blamed it on her was shocking but kind of expected. Boori Ma played the innocent victim in this story and as i sated before that it was expected that she wasnt going to be blamed for whatever goes wrong in the building because she was seen as the guard. They expect her to provent a event like that from occuring.
12
9/13/2015 11:17:58 pm
In the short story, “The Real Durwan”, the author starts the story off by being depressing. Boori Ma is an old woman who is working as a doorkeeper. This woman is hard working and never takes a break. At one point in her life she was very wealthy so she tells some people who live in the apartments about it. These people people don’t know if the stories are true or not. Going from being completely wealthy to very poor makes the people not so much believe her. She also has been separated from her family which makes the reader feel sympathetic for her. The people in the apartments care about this woman and are empathetic towards her. All of this changes after one day as Boori Ma goes into town and someone steals her keys. After stealing the keys they broke into the apartment to steal the new basin. This made the residents in the apartments believe that it was Boori Ma who helped the person take the basin. This made the mood change completely about her. It made the residents doubtful about her and completely dislike her. The readers on the other hand still had a sympathetic mood towards Boori Ma because they got to see what she did and didn't do.
13
9/13/2015 11:39:15 pm
In “Interpreter of Maladies”, Jhumpa Lahiri had started off the chapter with a more optimistic and hopeful tone and then ended the poem with a bitter and disappointed tone. At first, the author had introduced the story by making Mr. Kapasi become attracted with the fact that Mrs. Das had thought his interpreter job was “romantic”. Mr. Kapasi was a part of an unhappy marriage and he was hopeful for his relationship with Mrs. Das to work out. While he was giving the Das family a tour, he was looking forward to Mrs. Das getting in touch with him after she got back to America. This mood changed when Mrs. Das confessed to Mr. Kapasi about her cheating on her husband. The change in mood represents the difficulties of relationships because relationships always look like they will work out at the beginning. The relationship between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi had a hopeful start, however this changes after the confession. Attraction can change and feelings are not always set in stone. This is represented with the fact that Mr. Kapasi stops liking Mrs. Das at the end of the poem. Relationships can go from sweet to bitter within a small time frame just like how the mood of the poem changed.
12
9/14/2015 07:35:32 pm
I agree with this when this person says that the story started off very optimistic and hopeful. The family was having a good time and so was Mr. Kapasi. He was answering all of the questions that the family was asking and was taking them on nice tour. Throughout the story Mr Kapasi begins to have a crush on Mrs. Das. This is where it starts getting interesting because he already knows that she has a husband and children but still goes for her. I agree with what this person is saying about how the story ends in a bitter and disappointed tone. At the end of the story the reader can just feel the awkwardness and bitterness that comes with reading the end.
7
9/14/2015 12:42:11 am
In “Interpreter of Maladies”, Lahiri shows the difficulties of relationships starting with the Das with their children. Through the majority of the story it depicts them as these uncaring figures in their children’s world, this doesn’t really shift until Mrs. Das is talking to Mr.Kapasi and he gives her this realization that what she was feeling was guilt instead of uncaring and it seems to snap her into how she actually is when Bobby is getting attacked by the monkeys and how she dotes on him after. Another shift is on page 50 when Mrs. Das calls Mr. Kapasi’s job romantic, this then leads into the reader finding out about how he and his wife are at odds because of his job. From then on until the last few pages of the story he romanticized Mrs. Das because she admired his job in a way that his wife hasn’t. This is ultimately shattered when the mood shifts once more when he gives Mrs. Das the advice of her pain, when he realizes how far away from everything he is and how special she doesn’t see him as besides a small confidant with one of her biggest secrets. Which he then is tempted to reveal to a child after being attacked by monkeys.
12
9/14/2015 07:27:13 pm
I agree with all of these shifts in the mood. I think that the biggest shift was on page 64 when Mrs. Das reacts to Mr. Kapasi calling her Mrs. Das and says, “For God’s sake, stop calling me Mrs. Das. I’m twenty-eight. You probably have children my age” (Lahiri 64). This kind of set the mood to embarrassing and awkward for Mr. Kapasi since he had a crush on her and wanted something more. It finished off with the note that had his address on it, drifting off into the wind which ultimately set the mood for that story.
02
9/20/2015 12:46:17 pm
In chapter 4 “A Real Durman” the author wrote about a woman named Boori Ma. This woman worked as a stairway sweeper for a flat building. Many of the residents respected her and look out for her since she is so willing to go out her way to guard their building and their belonging. In this short story the author created a shift in the plot where once Boori Ma left the building for awhile to go buy food out of her life saving. When she had returned everyone started to blame her for their stuff being lost and stolen. At this point of the story the author made it obvious that a shift in the mood had occurred. The mood went from being caring and loving between Boori Ma and the rest of the residents to being frustration and anger. From reading this, we knew that Boori Ma wasn’t to be blamed for what went wrong but it was so surprising to see how quickly everyone that lived in the building turned on her and kicked her out even though she was already homeless and had nowhere to go. The author showed us how quickly a person’s reaction can change when something terrible has happened.
19
9/20/2015 07:11:42 pm
In Jhumpa Lahiri's short story The Real Durwan the change in the relationship between Boori Ma and the residents is caused by confusion. In literary terms we know that heat is the symbolic equivalent to confusion. There is evidence of heat in the beginning where Boori Ma is unable to sleep and Mrs. Dalal believes it to be because of prickly heat. Boori Ma believes it to be the cause of creature that can fly away before she could crush them. There is also evidence of heat and confusion when Mr. Dalal comes back form work with good news that he had been promoted and in his excitement he buys two new basins when it is not something that the Dalal's desperately need. When he arrives home “he [presses] a folded handkerchief to his forehead and throat” (Lahiri 77). Mr. Dalal says in his excitement but the author means in his confusion. This decision that Mr. Dalal makes is what leads to the next on to the next decision made by the residents of the flat. Because of the installment of the basin downstairs they become resentful of the Dalals and so they decide that they should be able to make improvements as well. For a number of days the clamor of construction workers and the heat brought on by the mass of bodies leads Boori Ma to wander among the streets aimlessly and neglect her duties as a Durwan. The basin is stolen among the confusion of workers and it is blamed on Boori Ma. She is then thrown out into the streets by the residents.
5
9/20/2015 09:22:18 pm
In Interpreter of Maladies, the major theme throughout this chapter is the difficulty of communication, particularly between Indians and Indian Americans. This theme can be seen through the narration of Lahiri when she says “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners did, the children in stiff, brightly colored clothing and caps with translucent visors” (Lahiri 44). Here the narrator describes the Das family, emphasizing the ways in which they are and aren’t Indian. The fact that the family seems both Indian and American forms part of what fools Mr. Kapasi into thinking he can communicate intimately with Mrs. Das. With his other tourists who are foreign but non-indian, Mr. Kapasi readily maintains an appropriate distance. He does not seek any sort of connection. This scene established a lonely and tense mood. However, this mood changes when the similarities between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi become apparent. The awkward interaction gestures to the idea that the cultural gap between Indian immigrants and those they leave behind in India can be enormous, a gap that widens further between the immigrants and second-generation Americans born in the United States. This gap sets a misunderstood mood because of the miscommunication. This then results in a painful mood for everyone else involved.
4
10/3/2015 11:37:59 pm
In “The Real Durwan” I believe the mood is a mood that makes us feel bad or pity for the older woman that is introduced to us in the beginning of the short story. The old lady is a doorkeeper and stairwell sweeper but explains to the readers that she used to be rich in her past life when she was deported to Calcutta. Not only was she rich before but she also had a family, now she doesn’t have much. The residents in the beginning showed much sympathy towards the elderly woman as she explained to them her life and how it used to be. She made a mistake as she traveled around the town which caused many problems throughout the apartment making the residents feel betrayed and disappointed. After that they started to not sympathize for her as much as before which completely changed the tone and mood of the chapter. She has done so much for them and then one little mistake that she made, changed how the whole resident population felt about her. Boori Ma, the elderly lady was kicked out of her living space which made the audience continue to feel bad for her.
18
10/6/2015 08:40:22 pm
In both the "Interpreter of Maladies" and "The Real Durwan," Lahiri portrays situations in which relationships are either on the verge of falling apart or already are falling apart but it is not visible to the people in it. In chapter 3 she sets a very critical tone to describe Mr. and Mrs. Das. In a way she creates a very judgmental tone by focusing on them as parents, making them seem very careless and too young to even be taking care of children. This creates a very negative mood, very disapproving of them and the way they manage their children. Then Lahiri talks about how long they've been together, how close they once were and how young Mina was when she had her first son, which shifts to a very understanding mood because it's clear as to why they are the way they are and helps the reader understand their situation better. Then finally we end up with a distrusting mood when we find out how Mrs. Das cheated on Mr. Das and how sad it is to see how broken their relationship really is, where the only thing that ties them both together are their three kids. In "The Real Durwan," Jhumpa Lahiri creates a comical sad mood when she describes Boori Ma's life and how drastically it has changed because of her deportation to Calcutta. It's humorous because we see a 64 year-old women whose sweeping a stairwell blabbering on and on about her once lavish life before partition, stories that no one in her building believes but her. But at the same time this is sad because we feel bad for her since she has no family to count on and she's all alone. From the start we can see the type of relationship she has with her neighbors, they trust her but at the same time consider her the lowest type. When all the neighbors start repairing the building they're all in a way trying to compete with each other and that's when the mood shifts from humorous to sort of mean because we see them forgetting Boori Ma and in the end blaming her for something she didn't do. This shows how dishonest their relationship was to begin with. It shows how they used Boori Ma to their benefit to guard the building but always considered themselves better than her. When they finally kicked her out the literal meaning was because they thought she told the robbers, but figuratively I think it was because they knew that while she was there they would always be considered "low class" because Boori Ma wasn't like them. Lahiri shows how relationships can be difficult to handle and sometimes not even worth handling because of the people that surround you that don't deserve you. Comments are closed.
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