Jhumpa Lahiri's "This Blessed House"

934 Words4 Pages
Jhumpa Lahiri’s “This Blessed House” In this short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, Lahiri presents the conflict that arises between a newly married Hindu couple who discover numerous miscellaneous Christian relics in their home shortly after moving in. The ongoing discovery of these items yields tension between the couple, who have only known each other for four months and do not understand the other adequately. The husband, Sanjeev, is portrayed as a very practical individual who is almost completely unwilling to accept change or diverge from Hindu beliefs. A graduate of MIT and successful businessman, Sanjeev struggles with looking beyond the logistics of different situations. He avoids any emotional attachment to anything at all, even, at times, his wife. Serving almost as a character foil, his wife, Twinkle, is overcome with emotion and appreciation towards almost everything. In direct contrast to what Sanjeev does for a living, Twinkle is “completing her master’s thesis at Stanford, a study of an Irish poet whom Sanjeev had never heard of” (Lahiri 145). She expresses immediate attachment to every Christian memento that they find in the home; a collection that begins with a small white porcelain effigy of Christ and culminates in the discovery of a valuable solid silver bust of Christ. Sanjeev openly expresses disdain and even hatred for each of the items. In contrast, Twinkle sees the beauty in how significant the items were to someone else in spite of her own religious views. The couple struggle with seeing eye-to-eye throughout the entire text. Their mantel becomes a “display shelf for a sizeable collection of Christian paraphernalia”(Lahiri 137), which Sanjeev initially despises only silently. Tensions escalate until the couple discovers a statue of the Virgin Mary under a pile of leaves in their backyard, which Twinkle naturally insists on keeping. Sanjeev,
Open Document