Ayu Illiyin

160221601823/OFF-C
Prose Analysis

Story: The Boundary

Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

1. Biography:
Jhumpa Lahiri is an American author which born in London July 11, 1967. She is
the daughter of Bengali Indian emigrants from the state of West Bengal, with original
(full) name Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri. Her family moves to the Unites States when she
was two, and she grew up there with her family. At that time her father works as a
librarian in University of Rhode Island. When Lahiri began to study at kindergarten, her
teacher calls her by name ‘Jhumpa’ and actually she is embarrassed by that name, but it is
become her nickname until now. Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School
and received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College of Columbia University
in 1989. She also received multiple degrees from Boston University, they are an M.A. in
English, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D.
in Renaissance Studies. She married with her husband in 2001, and now she lived with
her husband and her two children in Rome.
Lahiri’ career start when she want to start publish her story, but got rejection by
publisher, but finally released at 1999, by the title Interpreter of Maladies, the story
addresses sensitive dilemmas for Indian immigrants and such marital problems. In 2003,
she published her first novel “The Namesake” that inspired by the family story she heard.
Some of her works are The Lowland, Dove mi trovo, and so on. Now, Lahiri become an
author which has many awards from her masterpiece, novels, short stories, and her short
fiction.

2. Summary of the story:

The story is about the family that has a trip in a coastal area which tells by the
narrator as the hosts of the house. The guests are consists of four people: a father, a
mother, and two daughters. They are come from urban area that looks very happy to be in
this place, in contrary with the narrator’s family which is not that happy. The narrator’s
father woks as a caretaker of a big house, chops the wood, works the fields, and also
looks after the horses, at that time the mother of the narrators spending her time in other
town. Back to the guest family, they are all really happy to be there, they have a good
time to play around and they looks really excited.
Most of the story talks about how the family was really enjoy and having a good
time to be on vacation at the place where the narrator and her father lives. The narrator
 also said that actually her family used to lives in the city. Moreover, the mother of the
narrator often complaining about their lives and constantly having an argument with her
father. At the day when the happy family will heading out from the homestay, the mother
give the narrator some stuff at the fridge that they won’t bring back to the city, they also
leave a picture that the girls drew, shells they picked up at the beach, and also the paper
that they write about them . The mother said that she already miss that place as well.
After the farewell, the narrator starts to clean the house, preparing for the next guest that
will visit to their place.

3. Plot
The plot (series of interconnected events) in this story is a progressive plot, but it
also contains a little flashback. The flashback time can be identified when the narrator
tells about how they used to live in the city. The sequence of this story is can be pictured
like this: the happy family come – tells about their happiness – the narrator tells about
what she’s doing with her father – a little flashback about the narrator and her family was
– and the happy family leave the homestay. Basically this story is not that complicated
because the story is understandable enough, but it is contain message that the author
wanted to tell from this story, it shows the stable graphic of the connected events because
it was not contain any serious conflict.

4. Setting
There are four setting of this story, and also the explanation:
- Time: Summer time (around December – March). It is stated at the second paragraph
of the story, when the mother of the narrators goes away for spending summer time.
- Place: at the house (the rented house for the family from the city, which contains
cozy living room with two comfortable sofas in front of the fireplace, the well-
stocked kitchen, two bedrooms.), the cottage (where the narrator lives with her
family), and the beach. The place in this story is not that vary, and they are all stated
clearly.
- General environment and circumstance: from this story, we know that actually the
environment is delight, and enchanted. Maybe because it was located around the
beach and also it was on summer. The girls play around at the beach, the father goes
to the farm, and the mother sips the hot water with lemon in it. I think these events
describe how happy they are at that time.
- Mood of the story: there are two moods of this story. First mood was from the happy
family which they are really happy and enjoy their holiday time at that place. For the
second mood, it comes from the narrator that it looks like she was envy or jealous for
the guest family. It shows contrast of the two families here. After reading the story,
maybe mood of the reader will follow the narrator’s feels.
5. Characters
There are six characters that appear in this story, but they are all not mentioned by their
name. They were just mentioned by point of view of the third people.
1. The narrator: from this story, the narrator was implicitly described as a quiet person.
She just works as it required to do something, like cleaning the house, and etc. She
also not describes her own feeling.
2. The Father of the narrator: I think the father was really patient because it was
stated that when he has argument with his wife, he choose to sleep outside the room
rather than continue to argue.
3. The Father of happy family: from the story, it looks like the father was really kind
and lovable person, moreover he really loves his children and his wife.
4. The wife of happy family: she is really nice and kind person, it can be seen from the
interaction between her and the narrator.
5. The daughters: actually, I cannot describe how the characterization of them, but
maybe they are all is nice kids and obedient to their parents. They also enjoy their trip
at that time in the beach.

6. Conflict
The raising conflict of this story begin at the very first paragraph because
throughout the story, both families demonstrate a distinct characteristic of humanity:
envy. While this is not a sinister envy, the vacationing family, which is from an urban
area, demonstrates a strong desire for the lifestyle of the other family without realizing
the hardships faced. The story is not really facing a hard conflict but actually it is a social
issue that might be happen in every family, and actually every family have faced this kind
of problems.

7. Issue
The native family, depicted by the quote, also envies the other family, mainly
their happiness and by extension, their lifestyle. But their envy is different and inspired
by tragedy more than desire, and also kind of financial issue: like this paragraph.

“We used to live in the city, too. My father sold flowers in that very piazza. My mother
used to help. […] One night three men showed up. My father was alone and it was late.”

I think the issue is just mostly about: envy which raised from native family. The
native family cannot life that happily because they look at the happy family with envy. I
think the mother leave the narrator and the father was a symbol because she is often
having an argument with the father, because of their poverty and they are not life in the
city.
 It also can be a financial issue that happens mostly in family. It is a major
problem that happens in every family, the author not mentioned it as clearly, but
implicitly can be understand by the reader. The author wanted to show the differences of
the two family in difference financial income and how they life.

8. Symbolism
Symbolism from this story was about how the narrator describes how the happy
family lives happily enjoy their holiday at that place. Using inferences, one can assume a
major reason of the native family’s decision to move to a rural/native area is the father’s
embarrassment. Yet, they still envy the visiting family. We know that actually the native
family used to live in the city which now is not again. The mother of happy family use
paper to write a message for the narrator that she give her at the end of the story, is to
describe how they are really wanted to visit that place again next holiday. She also leaves
some stuff for them in case they need anything. It shows that the happy family is really
care and grateful for their holiday there.

9. Evaluation
This story is actually written in Italian language and translated into English by the
author, this story also classified as a new because it was published in 2018. From this
story, I also find this passage is commenting on how perspective of one’s situation that
happen is this story. The happy family obviously has a good perspective on their holiday
location, which located in area which is near with beach, and also despite the nuisances
described by the narrator inside the story, but the native family obviously despises their
location, despite once finding it desirable and enjoyable. It shows that the family having a
different view about this kind of place. They can enjoy and having a good time on their
own perspective. From this story, the author wanted to tell the reader that one should look
for all aspects of their life, not to focus on the negative, and doing so will result in a
rewarding life. We should not life with prejudice about life, because everything has its
own beautiful side. It is depend on how we see and enjoy our life. If we complain about
our life, and comparing with others, it won’t find the end.
For me, the story is really good and easy to understand because the word used is
not complicated and the topic is social issue that can be happen in every family. We don’t
know how other family struggle to get everything like others see, they just know about
how it looks like and the happiness. We need to be grateful on what we have despite to
complaining and envy to others. The narrator in this story also describe implicitly as a
good daughter for his father because she helps the father to clean up the house and also
welcoming the guests nicely. However, as I can see from this story the narrator wanted to
have a happy family like the guest, she wanted to have a holiday in summer, and also
enjoy the time with the family.
 For the reflection from me, I think I made many mistakes here, and also I want to
say that I am really sorry if I am not consistent to mentioned ‘happy family’ or ‘urban
family’ which is constantly repeated in this paper. I also find that I am not consistent
again to mention about house and homestay. Lastly, I hope from this story I can be a
good person, loving my family, and also being grateful for everything God have given
from me, even though I am not really that satisfied enough. Every family has their own
story, and their own struggle. Every of us also wanted to be seen as a good family in
others perspective, and I think we should view everything in a positive way so that we
don’t have any bad feeling about others.