Post Modern Look on Human Interactions- Pub 4

The short story “Interpreter of Maladies” By Jhumpa Lahiri exemplifies the idea of postmodernism brilliantly. A postmodern outlook on life hones in on human flaw and how it affects the reality a person may live in, and that’s exactly what Lahiri conveys through her story through the misinterpretation of affection between Mrs.Das and Mr.Kapasi. The root of both characters interest in one another came from a deep emotional trauma each faced in their past Kulapi with the death of his son and Mrs.Das with the guilt of infidelity. The author used the actions of these characters in the story to display postmodern idea that interpretation is everything, and reality only comes to being as product of one's interpretation of life as they see it.

In the case of Mr.Kapasi the reality of the situation with Mr.Das to him quickly became skewed once he wrongly interpreted her calling his job “romantic” as a sign of attraction. He quickly became intoxicated with the idea of a love that could form between them. This fake relationship he fantasies of is him seeking the feelings he felt he was being neglected at home. After the death of his son and his hiring as an interpreter his wife became distant and he knew she “had little regard for his career as an interpreter.”(Lahiri 342). The death of a child, the job he’s currently employed at being a sign of his failings, and the neglect and isolation he must feel at home are the cause of him taking that one comment and turning into a world in which he’s happy. In Mrs.Das’s case Lahiri states it herself that she’s “a women, not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life”(351). Mrs.Das is broken, she has no love for her children which is shown in the way she treats them like not wanting to paint her daughters nails or just simply ignoring them. She believes that Kapasi has the answers to clear her of her guilt and that was her only reason in interacting with him on a personal level.

“Interpreter of Maladies” is reminiscent of “True Detective” a tv show whose characters personalities are highly influenced by some emotional trauma or issue in their past. The main characters are Rust, a alcoholic narcissist, and Marty, a cheating married man with kids. They’re both detectives but the show centers on their interactions with each other. The show exemplifies postmodernism since its focus is on these flawed characters whose flaws lead them to being better detectives in a way. For example Rust is a highly narcissistic person but his high distrust of people and his keen observations lead to him being able to decipher evidence a regular detective couldn’t. His narcissism came from the death of his daughter and the loss of faith in his religion. Marty on the other hand wasn’t the best detective but his adulterous lifestyle led him to getting information that some detectives couldn't get. Both the show and the story display how human emotions and complexities are involved in the reality that we are presented.