The remaining of the four short stories, can each be analyzed briefly. The Treatment of Bibi Halder tells the story of a poor woman suffering from timely fits and how badly she wants to get married, but is ultimately raped and gives birth, and then disappears.This short story, apart from taking us in to the workings of a closely knit Muslim family, highlights the plight of women with no source of income in a society which promises to take care of them but ultimately is responsible for their demise.
This Blessed House is the story of a newly married couple, Sanjeev and Twinkle, who move into a new house and keep on finding gaudy Biblical figures all over the house.Twinkle's apparent enthusiasm in discovering these items and displaying them, irritates Sanjeev who(without much result) keeps on reminding her that they are Hindus and not Christians. Also he really does not understand his wife's fascination with these objects, but later in the novel he will realize that his wife likes being the center of attraction of a crowd, and would offer patronage to about anything that had the potential of being a potential conversation starter.
Mrs Sen's is the story of a woman,a university professor's wife, torn away from her motherland, who starts taking care of eleven year Elliot. She misses India terribly and is a systematic cook, she loves to cook fish but does not how to drive and though she is caring and affectionate towards Elliot, she still holds herself back, probably because she does not want to get attached to anything in a foreign land. This story is full of tastes and colors. Mrs Sen's kitchen is full of assorted Indian spices and curries and vegetables and knives, whereas her bedroom is full of colorful saris.Her attachment to her saris and other physical Indian objects in her house highlight the fact that she doesn't want to let go of India. This is a story of a woman clearly caught in the cross-over experience, she can not let go of her past and start living in the present. Although everyone around her tries to make her comfortable ( even though she has an accident, the Policeman does not give her a ticket, the local market people are very friendly to her and so is Elliot), she just doesn't want to settle in. This is the second story with a non-Indian narrator, Elliot being him.
The collection of short-stories ends on a positive note, with an uplifting Indian-American experience. No, the plot is not spectacular. It is still melancholy. This is a story about a boy, with a wife back home, who is struggling to settle down in Cambridge and does so with little difficulty and it is also a love story, as when the wife joins him in America, they slowly fall in love by the small conversations in bed.
Probably Cambridge was chosen and as is mentioned in the story "is an international city" and therefore the protagonist finds it easy to settle in. The story also highlights the sorry condition of old people in America. Maybe Lahiri was not trying to point it out, but the old woman in the story who lives alone and is clearly hung over the era of the world-wars, with no one to take care of her, sends the chills down one's spine.
This Blessed House is the story of a newly married couple, Sanjeev and Twinkle, who move into a new house and keep on finding gaudy Biblical figures all over the house.Twinkle's apparent enthusiasm in discovering these items and displaying them, irritates Sanjeev who(without much result) keeps on reminding her that they are Hindus and not Christians. Also he really does not understand his wife's fascination with these objects, but later in the novel he will realize that his wife likes being the center of attraction of a crowd, and would offer patronage to about anything that had the potential of being a potential conversation starter.
Mrs Sen's is the story of a woman,a university professor's wife, torn away from her motherland, who starts taking care of eleven year Elliot. She misses India terribly and is a systematic cook, she loves to cook fish but does not how to drive and though she is caring and affectionate towards Elliot, she still holds herself back, probably because she does not want to get attached to anything in a foreign land. This story is full of tastes and colors. Mrs Sen's kitchen is full of assorted Indian spices and curries and vegetables and knives, whereas her bedroom is full of colorful saris.Her attachment to her saris and other physical Indian objects in her house highlight the fact that she doesn't want to let go of India. This is a story of a woman clearly caught in the cross-over experience, she can not let go of her past and start living in the present. Although everyone around her tries to make her comfortable ( even though she has an accident, the Policeman does not give her a ticket, the local market people are very friendly to her and so is Elliot), she just doesn't want to settle in. This is the second story with a non-Indian narrator, Elliot being him.
The collection of short-stories ends on a positive note, with an uplifting Indian-American experience. No, the plot is not spectacular. It is still melancholy. This is a story about a boy, with a wife back home, who is struggling to settle down in Cambridge and does so with little difficulty and it is also a love story, as when the wife joins him in America, they slowly fall in love by the small conversations in bed.
Probably Cambridge was chosen and as is mentioned in the story "is an international city" and therefore the protagonist finds it easy to settle in. The story also highlights the sorry condition of old people in America. Maybe Lahiri was not trying to point it out, but the old woman in the story who lives alone and is clearly hung over the era of the world-wars, with no one to take care of her, sends the chills down one's spine.
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