Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection Unaccustomed Earth is filled with short stories, one of which is called “Hell-Heaven”, which is an excellent take on a young Bengali girl named Usha who was born in Berlin, Germany, (61) but is being raised in America. She lives with her two parents, her father Shyamal Da who is emotionally distant from everyone including Usha’s mother Aparna. One day walking home the pair of Usha and Aparna realize they are being followed by a fellow Bengali a student named Pranab Kaku. (61) Eventually the family welcomes him into their home and lives. This causes them to become very close, but eventually Pranab gets married and ends the relationship with the family causing extreme harm to Aparna. Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates jealousy in “Hell-Heaven” by how it leads to harsh judgments, it leads to isolation, and it causes self-destruction.
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Usha demonstrates physical harm in her mother when she almost harms herself: “… she had gone through the house, gathering up all the safety pins that lurked in drawers and tins and adding them to the few fastened to her bracelets. When she’d found enough, she pinned to her sari one by one, attaching the front piece to the layer of material underneath, so that no one would be able to pull the garnet off her body” (82). It is very clear what Aparna intends to do; it is the lowest state emotionally that she has ever been in during her life and once anyone reaches this state of depression, a suicide attempt is often very common. While it is awful that anyone can get this low in their lives, it also has to be understood that emotional pain can often be much worse than any physical pain, as it forces individuals to make decisions that they would never normally make. This is what jealousy is capable of doing to what most would consider normal
Usha demonstrates physical harm in her mother when she almost harms herself: “… she had gone through the house, gathering up all the safety pins that lurked in drawers and tins and adding them to the few fastened to her bracelets. When she’d found enough, she pinned to her sari one by one, attaching the front piece to the layer of material underneath, so that no one would be able to pull the garnet off her body” (82). It is very clear what Aparna intends to do; it is the lowest state emotionally that she has ever been in during her life and once anyone reaches this state of depression, a suicide attempt is often very common. While it is awful that anyone can get this low in their lives, it also has to be understood that emotional pain can often be much worse than any physical pain, as it forces individuals to make decisions that they would never normally make. This is what jealousy is capable of doing to what most would consider normal