Interpreter of Literary Theory

A Literary Analysis of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

Topic Suggestions:

Your analysis can focus on one story within the collection, more than one, or the collection as a whole. Use the below general topic suggestions to develop your own specific ideas for your thesis. Work to build your observations into a dynamic thesis with a clear argument, and developed cause/effect thinking.

Paralysis: According to many writers from the 20th century, paralysis is the great modern theme. Chekov, Beckett, Joyce, and Woolf just to name a few. Consider how this contemporary text explores the themes of internal and external paralysis through the characters, plot, imagery, and historical backdrop. Consider the endings of all the stories as new beginnings in response to the paralysis accumulated from unresolved conflict.

Characterization: How is this text an example of character-driven fiction? Consider how the central tension within the stories is often internal tension. How does internal conflict manifest externally, and are the outcomes satisfying? Think about how the Point of View (often a distant character, narrating in first person or third person omniscient, about other characters, camera as a metaphor) contributes to the themes of pathos and ethos. How are characters mirrors of each other? Round vs. flat, doppelganger vs. foil. Consider character dynamics within specific stories or across the collection. For example, the thematic characterization of children, or the unlikely friendships with strangers.

Love: How is the theme of love an operating force–subtly and overtly– throughout the text? Consider the different vantage points, definitions, and contradictions. For example: the exotic, the affair vs. the marriage, romance (the Taj Mahal as a metaphor), comfort vs. passion, duty vs. impulse, responsibility vs. desire, past vs. present, illness vs. cures, reality vs. fantasy, medicine vs. malady, the unknown future, themes of loss, consequences, longing, secrets, memory, and discovery.

Place: How do the setting and the themes of place, isolation, the traveler, and duality create meaning for the characters and conflict within the stories? Consider the metaphors of maps, houses, land, war, and shoes. Explore the conflicts within cultural identity: double-consciousness, internal vs external struggle, privilege, education, dominant culture, acceptance, generations, loss and/or gain of cultural identity, past vs. future, immigrant story, class, suburbs, American popular culture, the tourist vs. the local, language, interpretation.

Food as allegory. How does food become an extended metaphor for abundance or lack? How does it link the past to the present? Connections to gender and power? Comfort during times of loss, war? Celebration? How do particular foods serve as specific metaphors: lamb, shrimp, cinnamon hearts, Indian dishes, packaged and frozen food, strawberry decal, puffed rice, picnics, cereal, fish, cold canned soup, tea, rice, curry. Consider the tensions between hunger vs. satisfaction, abundance vs lack, and consumption vs preparation. Consider food as cultural identity, food as a link to the past, and food as memory.

Language: Lahiri claims, “As a storyteller, I’m aware that there are limitations in communication.” How do (mis)communications, (un)expressed feelings, and/or language barriers create conflict (internal or external) in the stories? Consider the theme of loss in relation to language. Connect to the title of the collection: who is interpreting what maladies and how (or how not) does this contribute to the cure?

Elemental Imagery: How does the imagery of the natural world operate metaphorically? Consider the themes of time in relation to nature. Seasons, weather as a metaphor (sun, snow, rain, humidity), extreme climate changes, animals, class structure in relation to the harshness of nature, horizons, walking, natural world as a witness, Sun Temple, Surya.

*Use The Method and Interpreter of Maladies Critical Thinking Questions to brainstorm your topic. Reflect back on your writing (peer insights) for the Interpreter of Maladies (Discussion Post #5 and Quiz #2) to generate ideas for your topic. Check out the 4 student examples in this week’s module for inspiration!

Essay Requirements:

4-6 typed, size 12 font, double-spaced, stapled pages with an interesting title.
A thesis-driven analysis. Either the “evolving thesis model” or the traditional academic model; both present a specific observation about the text that shows cause and effect, which all the evidence and thinking will work to support; work to move beyond the basic “5 paragraph essay” model.
Organization: the relationship between the thesis and the analysis, the relationship between the evidence and thinking, paragraph-to-paragraph flow, paragraph cohesion, and sentence-to-sentence logical connections.
Analytical Development: detailed and thoughtful analysis in response to quotes and ideas about and within text; at least 5 quotes following MLA format. Work to integrate textual evidence within your own writing. Use ellipses, avoid block quotes. Show all your thinking. Use “The Method” to help develop your analysis during brainstorming. Rely on your knowledge of the micro and macro analytical skills to ground your insights: literary terms and theoretical lenses are key here.
Writing: consider voice, style, sentence variety and construction, diction, readability, and REVISION!!!

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