Repsonse to "Interpreter of Maladies"

For this blog entry, I wanted to reflect on my favorite short story that we have read this unit, “Interpreter of Maladies”. The two characters that the narrator focuses on most are Mr. Kapasi, the tour guide, and Mina Das, the tourist. Although they both share a common Bengali background, there is a clear deviation in Mrs. Das’s strong Americanized culture and Mr. Kapasi’s Indian culture. Mrs. Das finds comfort in materialistic items such as her purse whereas Kapasi finds satisfaction in visiting one of his favorite places, the Sun Temple. There is another commonality that links the two characters: the difficulties of a failed marriage.

The origin of Mrs. Das’s marriages begins when both her and Mr. Das were proposed in high school and married by the time they were in college. I can infer by this that Indian society places its youth in a stressful position to marry early and without great contemplation in order to secure the social and financial success of two the two families. The level of devotion and mutual recognition of love in her relationship was apparently lacking from the beginning. She birthed a child at a very young age forcing her to cut off many of her social relations with her friends. Both Dases seemed to have lived perfunctory lives, not taking the necessary time to discuss their feelings and issues with each other. Mrs. Das also committed the adulterous action of having an affair with Mr. Das’s Punjabi friend while he was on a business trip. In that moment, Mrs. Das also conceived a child that Mr. Das never knew wasn’t his own. Mrs. Das views Kapasi as therapeutic source for this failing marriage because of her knowledge of his profession as a medical interpreter. This is evident when she states, “Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy” (591). Mrs. Das misunderstands Kapasi’s role as an interpreter for a doctor, believing that his task involves more than simply translation of Gujantari. She creates a exaggerated, idealized image of Kapasi making him a solution, curing her marriages issues. Mrs. Das gives Kapasi much more attention than she gives her own husband and appears to be very interested in his life and profession. Her deep desire to communicate with a male than can aid her in mending her broken love life is disappointed at the realization that Kapasi cannot emotionally satisfy her.

Reciprocally, Kapasi has grown deeply attracted to Mrs. Das ands is deeply interested in her. She provides Kapasi with female attention that he has evidently been lacking since his failed marriage with his own wife. Whereas Mrs. Das referred to his interpreter profession as “romantic”, Kapasi’s own wife displayed a lack of interest in his work life and over all existence (584). This is apparent when the narrator explains, “She never asked him about the patients who came to the doctor’s office, or said that his job was a big repsonnsibility” (585). This unusual interest that Kapasi receives from Mrs. Das sparks a feeling of infatuation. Having been emotionally starved for a while, this sudden female attention wisps him away into a delusional impression of Mrs. Das’s true reason for displaying affection. He creates an unhealthy fantasy version of his future relationship with Mrs. Das extending far into the future with the exchange of letters, full of his anecdotes that she enjoys. His strong feeling for her culminates at the conclusion of the story when the piece of paper containing his information is blown away by the wind. At this moment, he is grounded back into the reality of knowing that he will most likely never have a relationship with Mrs. Das. This also dispels his embellished idea that they both will continue share a strong relationship in the future.