It
was obvious from the get-go that Interpreter
of Maladies had a theme, and as we all quickly realized, that theme was
India. India is a common point through all the stories appearing in this
collection, whether it is the setting, the object of memories, or the topic of
discussion. With India constantly re-appearing, readers get multiple
descriptions of the way Indian culture compares to that of America, and of the unique
customs in India. Two particular stories that showcased these descriptions were
“Mrs. Sen’s” and “A Real Durwan.”
Both
“Mrs. Sen’s” and “A Real Durwan” contain a principal character of Indian
origin, experiencing or recounting events particular to the setting of India.
Mrs. Sen tells Eliot about the community of India, how for any special event
the women of the neighborhood would “sit in an enormous circle
on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of
vegetables through the night” (115) and how you could “just raise your voice a
bit, or express grief or joy of any kind, and one whole neighborhood and half
of another has come to share the news, to help with arrangements.” (116). These
were things that Mrs. Sen loved about India and which made her homesick, and
that sense of community definitely seems appealing. But as we see in “A Real
Durwan,” this kind of community is not universal.
Boori Ma, the stair-sweeper
and doorkeeper for an apartment building in India, upon first introduction
seems very welcomed into the community of the apartment building. The residents
“assured Boori Ma that she was always welcome.” (76). That quote would
definitely seem to set the scene for a communal relationship similar to the one
described in “Mrs. Sen’s,” but as we soon see, this impression doesn’t persist.
When the Dalals get a sink of their own and another for the other residents to
share, the residents begin to get jealous, and tensions begin to build. They
get on edge with one another, negating the tight-knit, ultra-bonded community
we saw in “Mrs. Sen’s.” These tensions culminate in the residents throwing
Boori Ma on the street when the sink gets stolen and they believe it to be her
fault. This gesture is obviously not one to be expected from a closely
connected community.
All this is not to say
that things were falsely portrayed since scenarios didn’t line up across
stories. It’s to say that we should be careful about over-generalizing. We
talked a lot in class about the way we saw Indian community as different, more
personal and profound than our own American communities. While this may be true
in general, we must bear in mind that across all stories and all of India,
there is as much variation as one could expect in the kinds of relationships
exist between respective communities.
