Interpreter of Maladies Reflection

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Interpreter of Maladies Reflection How does Mr. Kapasi’s perception of Mrs. Das change? Use examples from the text to show how Lahiri presents the characters of Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. You may choose to include thoughts, words, actions and/or narrator’s observations to support your points. ----------------------------------------------------- Mr. Kapasi’ is presented as a hopeful man who longs for a good friendship. Lahiri writes about how his marriage isn’t harmonious and how Mr. Kapasi longs to establish a relationship with Mrs. Das. Mr Kapasi is also seen as modest when he fails to see how important his job is (pg 51). Towards the beginning of the story, Mrs. Das is interpreted as a lady who has distanced herself from her family and acts more as a “sister” to her children than the parent she is. This is evidential when on page 48, Mrs. Das declines her daughter’s wish for painted nails by telling her, “Leave me alone… You’re making me mess up.” While it is expected for an older sibling to nonchalantly wave away a younger one, the same attitude is not usually likely with parents. On page 49, Lahiri lets it be known that Mr. Kapasi acknowledges that the Das’ acted as older siblings to the children rather than parents. She has him comment that he thought, “it was hard to believe they were regularly responsible for anything other than themselves.” However as the story progresses, Mr. Kapasi begins to see Mrs. Das as a potential good friend, if not possibly more. Mrs. Das’ comment on how his job seemed so romantic set Mr. Kapasi off on an intoxicated state where he wanders from one thought to the next. He sees the relationship between him and Mrs. Das through commonalities such as their faulty marriages, her interest and admiration in his job, as well as his attractiveness towards her physically (pg 53). Mr. Kapasi’s intoxication grows when he begins

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