"Interpreter of Maladies"

"Interpreter of Maladies"
Jhumpa Lahire

Mr. Kapasi's interpretation talents lead him to helping a doctor interpret his patients needs. I felt Mrs. Das misunderstood Mr. Kapasi's job. The problem with the Das family was their lack of love and communication with each other. When Mrs. Das reveals her secret to Mr. Kapasi, I did not think that it made her sympathetic. I think it allowed her to lift this burden off of her chest, and even though the burden remains in the end, I think she realized the love she truly feels for her family that she had not seen because of the burden she was carrying.

I found it interesting that Mr. Kapasi was an interpreter of maladies. Maladies are chronic diseases or an extremely serious illness. Though the relationship between Mr. Das and Mrs. Das would not be considered a disease, it was still tearing them apart. Illnesses attack from the inside; love is in a person's heart, and the lack of love attacks and spreads inside oneself.

The author was very descriptive throughout the tale. There were many details about what the characters looked like and what they were wearing which helped to picture the story. My favorite sentence was "In addition to Tina they had two boys, Ronny and Bobby, who appeared very close in age and had teeth covered in a network of flashing silver wires" (Lahire, 147-148). I thought it was a very clever term for braces.