Interpreter Of Maladies By Jhumpa Lahiri

The short story “Mrs. Sen’s”, which is a part of the “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri, portrays a woman’s failure to accept the culture she is being submersed into since she is still holding on to her past, putting a toll on her new chapter of life. Mrs. Sen is a house wife, who is married to her husband, Mr. Sen, who is professor at a university. Mrs. Sen and Eliot, the eleven year old boy she babysits, are a lot alike because of their detachment from society and lack of power to change their individual situations. Eliot’s mother is distant and nurture-less towards Eliot and since he is only eleven he has no power to help his situation. Moreover, Mrs. Sen is dragged from her homeland, India, and moved to America. She limits her own …show more content…
Mrs. Sen still communicates with her family in India, recently receiving “a letter over the weekend. Her grandfather was dead” (page 129). This is significant because it puts Mrs. Sen’s reality into perspective, because her grandfather’s death has already happened and she has to experience it after the fact, compared to as if she were back in India. Mrs. Sen speaks passionately by saying “I hate it. I hate driving. I won’t go on” (page 131) revealing her true reluctance toward embracing her new culture she is immersed in. Although, Mrs. Sen’s failure to see the progress being made by society welcoming her to America is her overall fatal flaw. The citizens of America eventually showed her compassion in such cases as when she had the car accident and didn’t have a license but when “He [Mr. Sen] spoke at length with the police man as he filled out some forms, but he said nothing to Mrs. Send as he drove them back to the apartment” (134) and no arrests or charges were made. To conclude Lahiri’s main point of, even though there are stereotypes and cultural indifferences, both sides must open up into accepting one another in order to fully embrace each