Paige Imel
8/5/13
Mrs. Young
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri wove many themes throughout the Interpreter of Maladies, one of which is loneliness. In A Temporary Matter, Shukumar has become lonely over the course of his marriage with Shoba. During one of the couple’s dinner nights he shares with her that he had found a page from a magazine that had an attractive woman on it. He admitted to keeping it for a few days just to gaze at the woman. “He felt and intense desire for the woman, but it was a desire that turned to disgust after a minute or two. It was the closest he’d come to infidelity.” Lahiri (19). The fact that Shukumar even felt attracted to a picture from a magazine proves how lonely he really was. The story Sexy, is somewhat the same type of loneliness that Shukumar felt. Miranda, being a mistress, feels both lonely and guilty. Lonely in the majority of her time living by herself and guilty as she comes to realize what damage she could cause to Dev’s family. “Then she would tell him the things she had known all along: that it wasn’t fair to her, or to his wife, that they both deserved better, that here was no point in it dragging on.” Lahiri (110). The natural loneliness that Miranda felt tore her up inside, especially once she thought of the pain her actions would cause to others. Bibi Haladar’s story is a life of pain, and suffering. She is made lonely in her mystery illness that her father so desperately tried to solve. After he died she was left
