In “Shiloh” an injured truck driver sees his incapacity as a chance to start anew with his wife after twenty years of barely seeing each other and the death of their son. His attempts at this renewal of their love and the reinforcement of their marriage are feeble at best and have little to no positive affect on their relationship. Shiloh, as the sight of their inevitable breakup, is ironic because in the sight of a long-ago battle the war that was their marriage. As Pat Benatar once said “Love is a Battlefield,” and this theme is very prevalent in the progression of Leroy’s relationship with Norma Jean. His meager attempts to reintroduce himself into normal life are failures, his fixation on crafts leads to strange Popsicle stick houses and a Star Trek pillowcase. It is obvious from Leroy’s observations as well as Norma Jean’s behavior that she enjoyed her life when he was on the road and rarely home. After the death of their son they lose their connection and stop communicating their problems to each other.
Norma Jean is stuck in her life when she was nineteen and her son died. She is constantly relying on her mother and seems as though she is a teenage girl when she is actually almost forty. When her mother catches her smoking she reacts like a teenager instead of a responsible adult. The fact that she was hiding it is evidence enough that she was not acting as an adult; no adult need hide their smoking from their parents. When Mabel mentions the baby who was killed by “datsun” and mentions neglect Norma reacts with the angry response that is characteristic in teenagers. She dwells on her mother’s word as if it were law, the way in which a teenager takes their parents literally and as the final word in everything. Her insecurities mixed with the time she is forced to spend with her husband opens her eyes to the fact that maybe she and Leroy got married hastily after he got her pregnant. They, like the Dases, married almost immediately out of highschool and for all the wrong reasons.
Leroy is a very simple man who does not notice the plight of his wife and blindly strives for a rebirth of their marriage. He does not realize that Norma Jean is unhappy and even though he seems to notice that she does not seem to be happy that he is at home again he does not see a problem presenting itself. He keeps telling her that he is going to build her a log cabin, where he gets this idea is never certain and Norma Jean never gives it to him. She seems only to be against the idea of the cabin but Leroy still keeps plugging his idea even after he remarks to his drug dealer that he does not think Norma Jean likes the idea. His ignorance mixed with her teenage restlessness creates a battlefield, on one side is her growing distance and rejection and on the other his blind determination to fix a relationship that broke past repair long ago. In the end Norma Jean finally moves on her intentions and Leroy is left to ponder his failings. The final moment of him on a bench still cogitating the fact that they are no longer going to work and her walking away into the mists of the battlefield leaves us with a bittersweet image of accomplishment and remorse. (581)
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Acceptance in Cathedral
In Cathedral I was particularly struck by the way in which the narrator would brush away such irksome items as his wife’s past with relative ease. His casual brush-off method of dismissing his wife’s previous friends and lovers is a sure sign of insecurity and more than likely a feeling of inadequacy. When the issue of her previous marriage arises he mentions it quickly because of its relevance to the story but goes no further into the details than is necessary. He also ridicules or belittles anything that he can not understand and does not care to. When he talks about the blind man he makes a point to stereotype blind people saying that “the blind moved slowly and never laughed.” (1) The narrator has obvious problems accepting things in his life and living with the past. He makes no mention of his own life before his marriage and only mentions his wife’s past out of expository need. His blatant disregard of the things with which he is not comfortable is just his way of not dealing with them.
His wife’s last marriage seems to be a point of particular chagrin for him. When he is forced to mention her soldier fiancé his words even read with a sense of rush and ire. He even breaks off the thought with a simple etc which conveys his particular dislike of the subject. He also makes a large inclusion of the fact that his wife became disillusioned with their marriage and eventually tried to kill herself. The fact that he dwells more on his wife’s dissolving marriage and attempted suicide than he can on the marriage itself seems to convey a strange sort of satisfaction to the reader; as if he is happy that his wife was so unhappy that she resorted to suicide. His immature approach to his wife’s first marriage and their own marriage is just his way of shielding himself from the rest of the world, a world that he is forced to acknowledge with the introduction of Robert into his life.
When the blind man arrives he spends a large amount of his time ridiculing Robert mentally and doing things that strike his wife as disrespectful or unnecessary. When the narrator informs us of the conditions of Robert’s wife’s death instead of maintaining a respectful air he goes on about how she could wear whatever she wants and Robert wouldn’t even care. His disrespect over the issue of the death of a man’s wife from cancer is a sort of last straw from the reader’s point of view. After that little insight into the narrator’s mind I personally lost all faith in his ability to be civil to anyone and felt a sort of pity that he could not appreciate life without cynicism. In the end he seems to start truly understanding and accepting things. When he moves to cover his wife’s exposed leg it shows that he at least considers the feelings of his wife and Robert, of course he then thinks better because of Robert’s handicap. This moment showed a small but noticeable shift in his character and he seems as though he can recover from his own handicap of cynicism. In the end we see the narrator accepting the blind man and his ways. When they are drawing the cathedral together we see his disposition go from skepticism to tolerance to acceptance. That last moment when he refuses to open his eyes is his last hurdle to accepting the blind man and the rest of life’s little quirks. He is accepting the blind man’s handicap, if only for a moment, and releasing his own.
His wife’s last marriage seems to be a point of particular chagrin for him. When he is forced to mention her soldier fiancé his words even read with a sense of rush and ire. He even breaks off the thought with a simple etc which conveys his particular dislike of the subject. He also makes a large inclusion of the fact that his wife became disillusioned with their marriage and eventually tried to kill herself. The fact that he dwells more on his wife’s dissolving marriage and attempted suicide than he can on the marriage itself seems to convey a strange sort of satisfaction to the reader; as if he is happy that his wife was so unhappy that she resorted to suicide. His immature approach to his wife’s first marriage and their own marriage is just his way of shielding himself from the rest of the world, a world that he is forced to acknowledge with the introduction of Robert into his life.
When the blind man arrives he spends a large amount of his time ridiculing Robert mentally and doing things that strike his wife as disrespectful or unnecessary. When the narrator informs us of the conditions of Robert’s wife’s death instead of maintaining a respectful air he goes on about how she could wear whatever she wants and Robert wouldn’t even care. His disrespect over the issue of the death of a man’s wife from cancer is a sort of last straw from the reader’s point of view. After that little insight into the narrator’s mind I personally lost all faith in his ability to be civil to anyone and felt a sort of pity that he could not appreciate life without cynicism. In the end he seems to start truly understanding and accepting things. When he moves to cover his wife’s exposed leg it shows that he at least considers the feelings of his wife and Robert, of course he then thinks better because of Robert’s handicap. This moment showed a small but noticeable shift in his character and he seems as though he can recover from his own handicap of cynicism. In the end we see the narrator accepting the blind man and his ways. When they are drawing the cathedral together we see his disposition go from skepticism to tolerance to acceptance. That last moment when he refuses to open his eyes is his last hurdle to accepting the blind man and the rest of life’s little quirks. He is accepting the blind man’s handicap, if only for a moment, and releasing his own.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Cult of Cal
In “Teenage Wasteland” I was struck by the power that Cal had at his fingertips over both the children he was tutoring and their parents. His influence over the kids and his manipulation of the parents brings back vague memories of the descriptions of those cult leaders who claimed to be the Messiah. Short of the mass suicides his tutoring business fits the bill to a T. Cal is described as having a handlebar mustache, hair “as long and stringy as Donny’s,” faded jeans, and not old enough to be a family man. This description brings to my mind a man in his late twenties or early thirties who never really grew out of his college years. He is also learned in psychology and is probably well versed in psychoanalysis. His ability to relate to the teenagers with his attitude and at the same time to psychoanalyze them and their parents is what makes him so influential on everyone he tutors. He is seemingly able to perceive a weakness or insecurity in a person and exploit it, especially with Daisy.
When he first meets Donny and Daisy he gets into Donny’s good graces by being markedly less of an adult and more of a “cool” older guy. He makes Donny call him by his nickname and not his full name, like a teacher or other authority figure would, as well as making a point to sound as though Donny’s problems were the school’s fault. He also makes a big deal out of the fact that he may call of the tutoring sessions of his own volition. To a rebellious teenage kid like Donny this approach would be very appealing after the strict teachers he encounters at his school everyday. It is our first time meeting Cal as the reader and yet we can’t help but feel that there is something a little off about him from the start. In retrospect he seems more like one of those older parents or teachers who tries to be “hip” and “with it” while falling flat on their faces after making a fool of themselves. However Cal succeeds in his attempts and gains Donny’s trust and eventually becomes more of a parental influence to Donny than his own parents.
With the parents he takes a different tact by slowly breaking down their control on their child and breaks down their confidence. In Daisy’s case he hones in on the fact that she is extremely self-conscious and takes a huge stake in Donny’s education because of her former position as a teacher. From the first meeting we see Cal systematically breaking down her control over Donny. He tells her to let him make decisions on his own and eventually Cal even takes over talking to Donny’s teachers for her. Daisy takes this as a tutoring technique but personally I feel that it is just a tactic to get her out of the picture. She has absolutely no way of knowing if he has work or if he is getting bad grades. Cal affectively becomes Donny’s father, but in doing so he dooms Donny to expulsion and his later disappearance and most likely an untimely death.
Not until it is too late does Daisy realize what he is doing and by the time she figures it all out she can’t do anything to fix it. Donny is a devout follower of Cal and he even goes to him first when he gets expelled from school, leaving a worried Daisy believing the worst. I can not figure what Cal’s intent was in his control of Donny and the other kids and it is never really clear if he has anything to do with Donny’s expulsion or disappearance. Only in the end do we find out that Cal has had as many failed students as successful ones and that many upset parents have withdrawn their children from his care. After Donny is removed from Cal’s care we stop hearing about him. But at the end when Daisy sees the bone-white stripes of sunlight in Cal’s yard she seems so be insinuating that she thinks he is to blame in some way or another. As a reader I have to agree that Cal is almost completely to blame and that he may be more involved in the disappearance than we know. (722)
When he first meets Donny and Daisy he gets into Donny’s good graces by being markedly less of an adult and more of a “cool” older guy. He makes Donny call him by his nickname and not his full name, like a teacher or other authority figure would, as well as making a point to sound as though Donny’s problems were the school’s fault. He also makes a big deal out of the fact that he may call of the tutoring sessions of his own volition. To a rebellious teenage kid like Donny this approach would be very appealing after the strict teachers he encounters at his school everyday. It is our first time meeting Cal as the reader and yet we can’t help but feel that there is something a little off about him from the start. In retrospect he seems more like one of those older parents or teachers who tries to be “hip” and “with it” while falling flat on their faces after making a fool of themselves. However Cal succeeds in his attempts and gains Donny’s trust and eventually becomes more of a parental influence to Donny than his own parents.
With the parents he takes a different tact by slowly breaking down their control on their child and breaks down their confidence. In Daisy’s case he hones in on the fact that she is extremely self-conscious and takes a huge stake in Donny’s education because of her former position as a teacher. From the first meeting we see Cal systematically breaking down her control over Donny. He tells her to let him make decisions on his own and eventually Cal even takes over talking to Donny’s teachers for her. Daisy takes this as a tutoring technique but personally I feel that it is just a tactic to get her out of the picture. She has absolutely no way of knowing if he has work or if he is getting bad grades. Cal affectively becomes Donny’s father, but in doing so he dooms Donny to expulsion and his later disappearance and most likely an untimely death.
Not until it is too late does Daisy realize what he is doing and by the time she figures it all out she can’t do anything to fix it. Donny is a devout follower of Cal and he even goes to him first when he gets expelled from school, leaving a worried Daisy believing the worst. I can not figure what Cal’s intent was in his control of Donny and the other kids and it is never really clear if he has anything to do with Donny’s expulsion or disappearance. Only in the end do we find out that Cal has had as many failed students as successful ones and that many upset parents have withdrawn their children from his care. After Donny is removed from Cal’s care we stop hearing about him. But at the end when Daisy sees the bone-white stripes of sunlight in Cal’s yard she seems so be insinuating that she thinks he is to blame in some way or another. As a reader I have to agree that Cal is almost completely to blame and that he may be more involved in the disappearance than we know. (722)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Interpreting the Malady: Misconceptions and Connections
In “Interpreter of Maladies” Jhumpa Lahiri reveals to us the lives of two unsatisfied people stuck in loveless marriages, Mrs. Das and Mr Kapasi. Both characters have such different backgrounds yet they share the same difficulties in their empty marriages. Her choice of the narration from Mr. Kapasi’s point of view intensifies the misunderstanding between the two that drives the story to its ending. Both parties misunderstand the other and in their assumptions they reveal the difficulties of connecting to another person.
Mr. Kapasi, as the narrator, controls the way we see the story and so his misinterpretations about Mrs. Das make our surprise at the outcome all the more great. As the reader we are meant to take his observations as the truth so that the conclusion is even more powerful. Although he is an “interpreter of maladies” he fails to interpret the Dases because of his “intoxication” with Mrs. Das. He is unable to read her intentions correctly because of her interest in him and especially his job, which she mistakes to be the interpretation and curing of maladies, which his own wife never even mentions.(79) His own intoxication and her use of the word “romantic” leads him to perceive feelings of longing and even lust from Mrs. Das. Early in the story he notices the signs of her strained marriage to Mr. Das and takes a special note of the fact that, “[Bobby] was slightly paler than the other children.” (39) He entertains thoughts of their increasing friendship and possible involvement based on her attention to his occupation.
Their need to connect to each other, while based on misconceptions, is a universal need. This need is so great that they each pursue it blindly and incorrectly from both sides, she believes he can help her with her problem and he believes she can help him escape his unfulfilling life. This error is especially striking from Mr. Kapasi’s side because of his dreams to be a diplomatic translator. He had wanted to settle national disputes yet he misread the thoughts and intentions of a twenty-eight year old woman. They both take the other to be what they want them to be out of their intense desire to feel a connection with someone again. Mr. Kapasi notes that Mrs. Das “had already fallen out of love with life.” (161) He describes his own life in terms that show a detachment from his wife and family, and has “long been resigned” to his wife’s silence and unhappiness. This new found interest from a woman makes him throw caution to the wind and expect to finally have someone to connect with. Mrs. Das mistakes his job to be the interpreting and curing of illnesses and so she wishes for him to cure her of her family problems, she barely talks to the boys at all and practically ignores Tina during their trip. Out of an equal need to connect with someone and at the same time escape their own lives they seek each other out and in doing so they reveal their own fallacy.
When they finally confront each other with their need they both find that they have erred in their views of the other and that there is no real connection to be had. To her cathartic release of her history and feelings he can only respond with silence and resentment at her shallow expectations of a solution. Eventually he asks her the simple question “Is it real pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt,” and shows her the truth of her own feelings. (161) Her response to the realization that he is not what she supposed is simply anger and ultimately a kind of acceptance of her life. Mr. Kapasi also accepts this and his affection for her disappears with the loss of his address. The maladies that they both feel are loneliness and emotional pain, and in the end they learn to deal with their maladies on their own. In the end we are left with an image of acceptance and of the difficulties of connecting to other people.
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