Joseph-Lahiri-3/22

Jhumpa Lahiri is a more streamlined, overtly empathetic author than the ones we have read so far. There are a lot of convenient signs to unpack here. For example, upon noticing the Christian paraphernalia, Lahiri writes that it is “roughly the same size as the vinegar bottle in the other”, surely not an accidental contrast detail. Like the Misty story, an object binds yet separates these two people. In both stories, interests are together on the surface, but the really important ones divide them.  Sajeev and Twinkie both like P.G Wodehouse, but that’s hardly an indicator of a compatible relationship. The divisions between them are numerous. In “The Blessed House”, Sajeev needs to not only go through every composer (to find a classical music listener is rarer than ever nowadays, and it’s comical that he can’t see the value of items that can’t be put to immediate use); he has to do it in alphabetical order. This highlights the absurdity of his stubbornness.  It would appear that Twinkle has a more layered identity, one that her husband cannot accept.  She appears to be the one with a more stable sense of self, despite being portrayed as “lackadaisical” and the husband being portrayed as fully there. Identity in Lahiri’s story is less concerned with politics and more with empathy, it seems (the vinegar soon turns into water, and in the scene with the blue mask Twinkle is portrayed as a kind of Madonna). Perhaps the largest set political or societal construction of identity is the rather quick marriage. Only after they are married does it appear that they can begin constructing real, more fluid identities; and arrive at the state of grace that the day of marriage is supposed to create.  It is interesting to contemplate whether the ultimate acceptance of these important disparate interests is a matter of pity or love, or perhaps a bit of both.