Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

The Remedy in “The Third and Final Continent”

The last short story “The Third and Final Continent” from Lahiri’s collection Interpreter of Maladies shows the malady of marriage, but also offers a remedy, which eventually cures the marriage into a healthy one. The Indian marriage of the narrator and Mala in which, wife comes from India to start living with her new husband, suffers from symptoms of the malady since the very beginning. Both of them do not know each other properly and the marriage seems like an obligation to the narrator. The accompanying symptoms are the narrator’s sense of duty because it is an arranged marriage, the weight of responsibility for wife and therefore the end of the narrator’s former life, and the narrator’s isolation. All of these signals manifest the malady in their marriage and prevents the narrator to find a way or any emotional regard for his new wife Mala. However, Lahiri offers a remedy in a form of Mala’s effort and willing to be a part of the narrator’s world. The improving communication and sharing experiences cements the marriage and cure the malady.

The first symptom of the malady in the relationship is the narrator’s showing only duty towards Mala. Such attitude has its roots in the arranged marriages, which are culturally acknowledged and very common among his fellow students: “Every now and then someone in the house moved out, to live with a woman whom his family back in Calcutta had determined he was to wed” (Lahiri 174). The narrator settles down in America with enough salary to share with wife and since he has no parents, his older brother and his wife takes the liberty of arranging the marriage for him with an Indian girl named Mala. The prospects of marriage and the future of being a married man are not seen as something to be looking forward to by the narrator: “The marriage had been arranged by my older brother and his wife. I regarded the proposition with neither objection nor enthusiasm. It was a duty expected of me, as it was expected of every man” (Lahiri 181). However, he regarded the arranged marriage not only as a moral duty, but also as a sign of heritage from India, which he is obliged to obey. ”He regarded the proposition as a duty expected of him, as it was expected of every Indian man“ (Brada-Williams 99). On the one hand, the sense of duty to Indian heritage and respect to his older brother is honourable, but on the other the duty becomes a first symptom of the malady in his marriage as the narrator feels no regard or warmth feelings towards his wife coming to America to live with him. Even when receiving her letter shortly after their wedding, he shows no emotions or care, even though she tries to please him and shows him her intentions to be part of his new life by writing in English: “’I write in English in preparation for the journey. Here I am very much lonely. Is it very cold there. Is there snow. Yours, Mala.’ I was not touched by her words” (Lahiri 189). Moreover, the role of isolation between the couple before even moving in together in Boston, mirrors the narrator’s apathetic approach and expectations concerning her arrival: “Before Mala moves to Boston, he regards her arrival as he would the arrival of a coming month, or season“ (Brada-Williams 100). Since his marriage is arranged and he did not have time to know Mala properly, only his sense of duty leads him to endure her coming, without any regard or warm feelings to her.

We had spent only a handful of days in each other’s company. And yet we were bound together; for six weeks she had worn an iron bangle on her wrist, and applied vermilion powder to the part in her hair, to signify to the world that she was a bride. In those six weeks I regarded her arrival as I would the arrival of a coming month, or season—something inevitable, but meaningless at the time. So little did I know her that, while details of her face sometimes rose to my memory, I could not conjure up the whole of it (Lahiri 189).

The marriage with stranger living in a foreign land has a great impact on the narrator, since he is still not able to comprehend the reality of being a married man. This makes him even more apathetic and his adjustment regarding marriage is completely indifferent. The symptom of duty, to do what is expected from him, eliminates any feelings and expectations from his side, because he sees Mala as a stranger and the marriage as some inevitable event, which is already decided for him.

The second symptom of the malady, which is consummating this young marriage, comes hand in hand with the first symptom and that is the narrator’s weight of unknown responsibility for his wife. The narrator lives a lonely life being on his own and the arranged marriage puts his previous routines to an end. Now he has to take a full responsibility for Mala, who is not only new to him, but also to the whole world around her, since she was living only in India before. The narrator is confronted with an Indian woman wearing a sari, which not only causes attention around her by being different and not fitting to the streets of Boston, but also causes her complications, from which the narrator is obliged to protect Mala now:

I saw an Indian woman on the other side of Massachusetts Avenue, wearing a sari with its free end nearly dragging on the footpath, and pushing a child in a stroller. An American woman with a small black dog on a leash was walking to one side of her. Suddenly the dog began barking. From the other side of the street I watched as the Indian woman, startled, stopped in her path, at which point the dog leapt up and seized the end of the sari between its teeth. The American woman scolded the dog, appeared to apologize, and walked quickly away, leaving the Indian woman to fix her sari in the middle of the footpath, and quiet her crying child. She did not see me standing there, and eventually she continued on her way. Such a mishap, I realized that morning would soon be my concern (Lahiri 190).

During this incident, the narrator starts to realize that the marriage will not be only a duty to him, but also a burden, what makes the gap between the couple even wider. He does not rejoice in his new responsibilities for Mala, taking care of her and explaining her details of the new world and society, which she is entering. Moreover, the narrator is afraid of the embarrassment Mala would potentially cause by being a new and unprepared to fit in the streets of Boston, like the unnamed Indian woman on the street. “The city thus appears inimical to the Indian female ‘other’, and it dawns on him that he will have to protect Mala from the unpredictable dangers of this unknown urban environment“ (Brada- Williams 100). However, he takes responsibility as a form of moral duty. The narrator realizes that he would be the first and only person she will encounter for her first days in Boston and he takes responsibility dutifully. But still, there is a fear of embarrassment, since her first separation from family causes her crying:

It was my duty to take care of Mala, to welcome her and protect her. I would have to buy her her first pair of snow boots, her first winter coat. I would have to tell her which streets to avoid, which way the traffic came, tell her to wear her sari so that the free end did not drag on the footpath. A five-mile separation from her parents, I recalled with some irritation, had caused her to weep

(Lahiri 190).

The narrator’s fear of interrupting his private world and habits keeps his mind occupied. For when Mala finally comes “he did not embrace her, or kiss her, or take her hand. Instead I asked her, speaking Bengali for the first time in America, if she was hungry” (Lahiri 191). His cold and indifferent welcome only highlights his notion of duty and responsibility. His sense of obligation helps him endure the first days of his married life by taking responsibility for Mala, which includes also supporting Mala financially. The narrator’s first reluctance with parting with the money, which he obtains, is later alternated by the weight of responsibility towards Mala: “The next morning before I left for work she asked me for a few dollars. I parted with them reluctantly, but I knew that this, too, was now normal” (Lahiri 193).

On the one hand, the burden of responsibility makes it easier for him to endure their life together, but on the other, it is a former symptom of malady of marriage, because it keeps him from making any bond with Mala except the formal one.

The third symptom of the starting malady of marriage in the narrator’s life is the isolation, which keeps him from making any connections and condemns his stay locked inside his own mind. The fact that he comes alone to a unknown country without any family or friends isolates him even more and makes it difficult for anyone to enter his private world: “The unnamed Bengali narrator is an extremely isolated man, not just the usual alienated hero of American fiction but a literal alien, utterly alone, trying to understand the conventions of the society to which he has come“ (Caesar 52). Through the beginning of the story, there is no one for him to confide or anyone who he will invite to his private life, except Mrs. Croft, an elderly woman to whom the narrator pays rent every week. The narrator does not know the culture and the world around him and is a stranger on another continent. Because of this, he should be eager to welcome his wife coming from India, bringing a bit of the culture and heritage he knows so well. However, the narrator feels quite the opposite, trying to build a barrier between him and the culture, family and heritage he once liked and which Mala even by her presence reminds him of: “This world that he is unsuccessfully running away from is represented by the ancestral home to which he takes his new wife Mala and in which he cannot love her“ (Caesar 54). The narrator’s trauma form the past keeps isolating himself not only from the outer world, his culture, but also from the institution of marriage and mainly his new Indian wife has roots in. His parents are both dead, but it was father who died first, which drove his mother insane and unable to cope with everyday life around her. “My mother refused to adjust to life without him; instead she sank deeper into a world of darkness from which neither I, nor my brother, nor concerned relatives, nor psychiatric clinics on Rash Behari Avenue could save her” (Lahiri 187). The trauma after caring for insane mother accompanies him through his life in India and by welcoming an Indian wife Mala in Boston, the memory keeps returning to him, keeping him unable to provide anything for her without obligation and constant want of shutting her down from his private isolated self. The recollection of madness keeps haunting him and therefore he is unable to show any joy or comfort to his crying wife after the wedding in India, since they are still in the same house where his mother went insane: “Her death and her madness are so close to him that the paragraph that begins with a description of how he came to marry Mala ends with a horrific recollection of his mother's insanity, of how she played with her excrement, and of how he used a hairpin to remove it from under the fingernails of her dead body “ (Caesar 54). Mother’s inability to cope with the death of her husband makes him think that his wife would be also so dependent on him. This thought strikes him even more, because he is unwilling to let anyone into his world. Such behaviour only straightens the gap between them and infects their marriage with malady, because every time he sees Mala in her sari, it keeps reminding him of his mother. Moreover, his introvert style of life leads him to believe that Mala is an intruder and stranger, even though they are married already and living together: “I waited to get used to her, to her presence at my side, at my table and in my bed, but a week later we were still strangers” (Lahiri 192). The haunting images of the mother’s madness in connection with his family and culture only expands his desire to run away from his past and isolate himself from his previous customs. The connection of food and habits is also a signal of his isolation. For example, the narrator’s switching from Bengali’s traditional food to American, which is visible in his new customs with breakfast. Although Bengalis enjoy rice as a starter of the day, he decides to fit in the new culture by switching to cornflakes: “I ate cornflakes and milk, morning and night, and bought some bananas for variety, slicing them into the bowl with the edge of my spoon” (Lahiri 175). The rejection of eating rice and curry is a symbol of dismissal of his previous culture in order to forget his past, which still haunts him and keeps him in isolation. This alienation is increased by Mala’s arrival, when he tries to keep her as far from him as possible. However, it is Mala who gives him examples and doses of remedy and proper treatment of not only ill marriage, but also his inner self.

Fourthly there is no longer a symptom of malady in marriage, but a remedy, which Lahiri offers mainly in this short story. It is the effort, which Mala puts into the marriage and the effects of such therapy. The willingness of Mala’s trying to be part of narrator’s world and being a good wife is a remedy not only in consideration with the malady, but also towards the isolation of the narrator. Mala’s effort to be a ‘proper wife’ narrows the gap between them and also brings back narrator’s good memories of his culture, although he is not fully aware of it from the beginning. The first show of care and attempt to be closer to narrator is Mala’s letter, which she writes in English in order to please him and make him aware that she is trying to get used to a new culture. The second one is her present in the form of sweaters, which she did by herself, when the couple was parted after their wedding: “Mala opened up one of her suitcases, and presented me with two pullover sweaters, both made with bright blue wool, which she had knitted in the course of our separation, one with a V neck, the other covered with cables. I tried them on; both were tight under the arms” (Lahiri 191). Unfortunately both of these efforts are overlooked by the narrator because of his indifferent attitude and remoteness towards Mala and the whole institution of marriage. “Mala tries her best to bridge the gap between them and to behave like a ‘good’ wife. Despite her efforts, he cannot get used to her fragrance of coconut oil, or the delicate sound her bracelets make as she moves about the apartment they share“ (Brada-Williams 100). However, after a time the narrator starts to accept his wife a bit, thanks to her determined attitude to wreck the wall between them and treat the malady of marriage by her endless effort. Moreover, with her determination also comes hand in hand narrator’s recognition for his own culture and the habits that were forgotten: “We sat at a bare table, each of us staring at our plates. We ate with our hands, another thing I had not yet done in America” (Lahiri 191). Even though the bare table might suggest the empty and loveless marriage of nearly complete strangers, the act of eating by hands brings back narrator’s inner-self, which is secretly longing for home: “Not only food but the eating habits also become dear as it induces a sense of belonging. Eating with hands gives pleasure as no spoon or fork does“ (Swarup and Devi 3). It was one small success of Mala in treating the malady of marriage, which emphasizes their former culture, especially when the couple is so far away from home. Mala’s dedication in offering and administrating medication to their ill marriage and therefore narrowing the gap between them is visible in her daily actions. All of them have only one goal and that is to please and show the narrator that she is willing to be a part of his new world in America. Unsurprisingly most of her actions are presented through the food and its preparation. Mala shows her treatment of the malady by the small gestures such as immediately changing the menu of breakfast: ”The first morning when I came into the kitchen she had heated up the leftovers and set a plate with a spoonful of salt on its edge on the table, assuming I would eat rice for breakfast, as most Bengali husbands did. I told her cereal would do, and the next morning when I came into the kitchen she had already poured the cornflakes into my bowl” (Lahiri 192).

Fifthly another crucial remedy of malady in marriage, which Lahiri offers is not only communication, but also sharing experiences and time with the partner. However, the isolation of the narrator makes the application of such remedy complicated: “He reacts to her intrusion by withdrawing from her emotionally, shutting her out metaphorically in a way he is too dutiful to do literally“ (Caesar 56). Although the narrator is closing himself in isolated world of his own, there is one person who he lets enter his world and that is Mrs. Croft, elderly woman to whom he paid rent, when he was still living alone. The importance of Mrs. Croft is essential in application the remedy and narrowing the gap between the married couple, because Mrs. Croft enables the narrator to see Mala through her eyes. The perception of American as someone who is not connected to Indian culture and her praising of Mala, warm the narrator’s attitude towards his wife, by being not afraid of the embarrassment anymore: “At last Mrs. Croft declared, with the equal measures of disbelief and delight I knew well: ‘She is a perfect lady!’ Now it was I who laughed. I did so quietly, and Mrs. Croft did not hear me. But Mala had heard, and, for the first time, we looked at each other and smiled” (Lahiri 195). This is the moment, when the narrator’s perception is changed and the wall between them starts to crumble. The narrator is in urgent need of approval by someone close to mother figure, who he is secretly still missing: “That is when the marriage begins. The narrator had to take her to see Mrs. Croft, imagine her through Mrs. Croft's eyes, and see her against the backdrop of his imagined American space before he could recognize her for the ‘perfect lady’ she is“ (Caesar 56). The moment in Mrs. Croft parlour lessens the distance between the narrator and Mala and they start to find a way to each other. Suddenly even the narrator comes to realization that communication is an important remedy in their malady of marriage, in order to know his wife better: “I told her about my voyage on the SS Roma, and about Finsbury Park and the YMCA, and my evenings on the bench with Mrs. Croft. When I told her stories about my mother, she wept. It was Mala who consoled me when, reading the Globe one evening, I came across Mrs. Croft’s obituary” (Lahiri 196). Moreover, it brings him knowledge that they are not as different and remote as he thinks. The communication, sharing of experiences and spending time together exploring not only each other, but also the new world around them, treats the malady of marriage and helps the couple to unite in the foreign continent: “Their experiences of immigration merge, uniting them in the process“ (Brada-Williams 100). The application of remedy in form of communication helps the couple to be not only part of their lives together, but also a part of the new world. “Mala no longer drapes the end of her sari over her head, or weeps at night for her parents, but occasionally she weeps for our son. So we drive to Cambridge to visit him, or bring him home for a weekend, so that he can eat rice with us with his hands, and speak in Bengali, things we sometimes worry he will no longer do after we die” (Lahiri 197). Communication as an important treatment of malady of marriage leads to sharing experiences and time and narrows the gap between the couple. Through years of administrating this medicine, the narrator not only finds way to his wife, but also to his culture.

In conclusion the last short story “The Third and Final Continent” brings the message of the sad malady in marriage, imposed by symptoms of remoteness, isolation and obligation from the narrator’s side, but also brings the solution to the illness of marriage. Lahiri offers a remedy to problems in marriage and shows the application of medicine through Mala, whose endless effort leads to starting a proper communication and sharing the experiences and time together in order to know each other better. This treatment helps the narrator to crawl out of the shell of isolation and finding regard for his wife and fondness for his former Indian culture, which unites the couple in happy and healthy marriage on the third and final continent in their lives.

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