Interpreter of Maladies Primary Post

          In Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri stresses the importance of communication in any relationship through the struggles between Mr. and Mrs. Das as they travel in India with their tour guide Mr. Kapasi. Due to cultural differences as well, Mr. and Mrs. Das represent the typical care-free American family who do not care about their children's whereabouts and have trouble creating a stable relationship for their family. These conceptions of communication also portray the theme that communication is key and that no one cannot neglect their problems for long.

          Mr. and Mrs. Das are too engaged with their arguments and the struggles in their relationship that they don't properly discipline their children. Mr. Das refuses to argue back after he tells their son Bobby to watch his brother Ronny as he tries to feed a goat; Bobby responds saying, "I don't feel like it" (Lahiri, 13). Mr. Das is not caring for his children properly because he has gotten himself into an argument with Mrs. Das prior to this issue. Once Mr. Kapasi saw this, on the way to the Sun Temple, Mr. Kapasi thought that Mr. and Mrs. Das treats their children more like siblings rather than children; thus leading to the assumption that they don't properly discipline their children.

          Since Mr. and Mrs. Das lack the proper communication in their relationship, Mrs. Das begins to develop trust in Mr. Kapasi. As Mr. Kapasi describes his job to Mrs. Das, she thinks of it as "romantic" (Lahiri, 17). She suddenly builds up so much trust in him that she confesses to him that Bobby was a product of an affair she had with one of Mr. Das's friends several years prior; she also reveals that she no longer loves her husband. Since Mrs. Das hasn't had the communication needed from Mr. Das, she begins falling for Mr. Kapasi since he is paying her more attention than her husband.

         This miscommunication between the two parents eventually got out of hand that it eventually caught up to them and affected their children. Though Bobby wanted to feed some monkeys he saw, regardless of the fact that Mr. Kapasi said "not to provoke them with food" (Lahiri, 24), Bobby fed them regardless and they attacked him (Lahiri, 28). Here, Mr. and Mrs. Das finally realizes that they really do love their children and that they care for them so much that they may consider to change for the better. In this passage of the short story, the monkeys represent reality in general and that no matter how much they ignored kids while arguing, their problems would eventually begin to affect those around them.