Jason-Lahiri-3/23

This Blessed House presents two characters, Twinkle and Sanjeev, who seem to fit into the traditional versus modern archetypes found in South Asian lit. Within this theme might be an implied sense of “opposites attract.” Though Sanjeev’s affection for Twinkle seems to be based just as much on his near distaste for her personality than as his need for companionship. Still, Sanjeev’s traditional-ness is emphasized more by the juxtaposition of his being against his wife’s.

             The co-mingling of religious iconography and the importance of one religion’s images over another seems to also be an aspect of their traditional vs. modern dichotomy though it seems to be a whole unto itself as well. Twinkle’s fascination with the Christian objects found in her and Sanjeev’s home eventually endear her to the community she finds herself. Her openness allows both for her assimilation into “Americanness” and into the group invited to her and Sanjeev’s dinner party. The search for religious pieces that takes over party towards the end of the story is also emblematic of both its unifying and divisive qualities. Sanjeev is unable or incapable of participating within the openness of the dinner party group and seeks, instead, solitude – at least solitude from the type of intermingling that appears to go on within his own home.

            There might be some irony in the fact that Sanjeev is in some ways unable to find privacy within his own living space. It seems the idea of the crowdedness of India is a piece of him that he, in a way, rejects, but his wife, Twinkle, who appears to not have that cultural history attached to her, accepts.

            Awareness of hierarchical roles seems to be, in some way, imbedded in the relationship Sanjeev has with Twinkle and the dinner party guests. He remains by the ladder, on the lower floor, when everyone else ascends to the attic in search of fun (pleasure). He is also left carrying the bust of Christ and following behind Twinkle and the party guests at the story’s end. Though he’s attained a high status within American society, its mentioned he’s being considered for Vice President of his firm, he seems to be a notch lower in some ways (perhaps this is related to his inability to be “modern”) than those around him.