“Female Subjects and Negotiating Identities in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies”

    In “Female Subjects and Negotiating Identities in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies” by Bahareh Bahmanpour, the author talks about several stories from the book Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Bahmanpour focuses on the female protagonists of the stories rather than the males. The author seeks to find out why Lahiri projects woman in her writing the way she does. Bahmanpour shows the differences between each character and the similarities as well. Bahmanpour separates each story and then talks about it and why it’s significant and how each woman is portrayed in each of the stories. This is helpful because it gives a deeper sense of what Lahiri is trying to say about Indian woman. The readers can get a better sense of the purpose of each story.

"This Blessed House"

    The short story “This Blessed House” by Jhumpa Lahiri is about a newly married couple. They are settling into their new home when Twinkle, the wife, starts finding different Christian objects of worship. Sanjeev, the husband, finds himself to hate these artifacts because “[they’re] not Christian,” (137).
     I find Twinkle to be a very interesting character. At the beginning of the story, she seems to be very obedient, in some sort. She just goes along with whatever Sanjeev says and doesn’t put up much of a fight. Then, when Sanjeev tells her that he’s going to throw the Virgin Mary they found in the yard away, Twinkle finally stands up to him and wins. I think this is significant because Sanjeev realizes that Twinkle will stand up for something she believes in and that he can’t just control her.
    I also found Twinkle very interesting because of her fondness of these Christian objects. She curious about them but she’s also grown a bit attached to the collection of them. To me, it kind of seems as though she doesn’t really care much about her own religion. When Sanjeev points out to her that they are not Christian, she replies to him, “We’re good little Hindus,” (137). This sarcastic comment, to me, showed that Twinkle may not really take her religion serious. I just found it fascinating because Hindus are usually very devout and all about their religion and culture.

Negotiating Borders of Culture: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Fiction

In Negotiating Borders of Culture: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Fiction by Debarati Bandyopadhyay, the author talks about different works of Jhumpa Lahiri and how cultural borders are a main theme in her writing. Bandyopadhyay explains that Lahiri refers to the differences between India and America and their cultures, of course. In the beginning, Bandyopadhyay gives a brief history of Lahiri’s achievements and then she continues by giving a short description of what she’s going to address. In this case, Bandyopadhyay talks about “culture as a homogenization of the good…”(97). Bandyopadhyay also mentions different works of Lahiri’s and how they all seem to follow the same theme. Then, Bandyopadhyay describes all the different situations of cultural borders that Lahiri’s characters face throughout her work. I think this article will help me understand Lahiri’s book more because I now know what the purpose was for the book and what the author is trying to say. Bandyopadhyay states that “[Lahiri] occupies [a] privileged space in-between two countries, two continents, two cultures, and this multiplicity of perspectives…” (108) which shows that Lahiri uses what she knows most and it works for her writing.


Bandyopadhyay, Debarati. “Negotiating Borders of Culture: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Fiction.” Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies 7.1 (2009): 98-108. Web.

Lahiri, When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

I found “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” by Jhumpa Lahiri to be an interesting story. It’s about a little girl, Lilia, and her parents who invite Mr. Pirzada over for dinner every night. Lilia and her family are Indian and even though Mr. Pirzada is from a different place then them, Lilia doesn’t quite understand how he is different from them, as her father says he is. Lilia is the most interesting character to me. She’s an American and she just doesn’t understand how physical borders can affect someone. Every night when Mr. Pirzada goes over to Lilia’s house, he and her father watch the news and her father makes Lilia watch it with them. She isn’t aware of all the bad going on in the world until then. While Lilia is learning about the American Revolution and celebrating Halloween, Pakistan is about to go to war. In America, the bad in the world is seemed to be hidden from the children. When Lilia and her friend are in the library working on a report, she decides to look up a book about Pakistan and when her teacher finds her reading this, she seems quite upset, like she didn’t want Lilia knowing things about a whole different world. These two borders and cultures prove to be more different than Lilia could ever know.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1999. Print.