Aditya Pratama

17.03.52.0012 / A2

A Reader Response Essay of “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpreter of Maladies is a short story about Das family who hired Mr. Kapasi as a
tour guide for their trip in India. The story began with argument between Mr and Mrs. Das
for who should take Tina, their daughter, to the toilet, which that Mr. Kapasi noted parents’
immaturity in them after observing their behaviors for a whole day. They acted more like
brother and sister rather than someone who took responsibility as a parent.

Along the road, The Dases and Mr. Kapasi have a conversation, Mr. Kapasi began
to put an interest on Mrs. Das after remarking Mr. Kapasi’s job as "romantic" and started
fantasizing about their future romance. Never once didn’t stopped thinking about Mrs. Das
whom he found attractive. But his hope evaporated after Mrs. Das told him the truth of her
marriage life and lies about Bobby, wishing that Mr. Kapasi could give her a remedy. At
the end, Mr. Kapasi buried his prior feelings on Mrs. Das and throw his imagination away
like the way he sees the paper which he wrote his address flew by the wind.

An American critic who has derived approaches to reader theory from psychology is
David Bleich. His Subjective Criticism (1978) is a sophisticated argument in favour of a
shift from an objective to a subjective paradigm in critical theory. ‘Subjective criticism’ is
based on the assumption that ‘each person’s most urgent motivations are to understand
himself’. In his classroom experiments, Bleich was led to distinguish between (1) the
reader’s spontaneous ‘response’ to a text and (2) the ‘meaning’ the reader attributed to it.
The latter is usually presented as an ‘objective’ interpretation (something offered for
negotiation in a pedagogic situation), but is necessarily developed from the subjective
response of the reader. Whatever system of thought is being employed (moralist, Marxist,
structuralist, psychoanalytic, etc.), interpretations of particular texts will normally reflect
the subjective individuality of a personal ‘response’. Without a grounding in ‘response’, the
application of systems of thought will be dismissed as empty formulae derived from
received dogma. Particular interpretations make more sense when critics take the trouble to
explain the growth and origin of their views.
 Aditya Pratama
17.03.52.0012 / A2

In my spontaneous response, I notice that Mrs. Das’s secret is very revealing in the
way she treats her family life with Mr. Das. Knowing that she has a secret and kept it for a
long time from her husband since the very beginning of their marriage also shows the
ugliness & dishonesty that shrouded in their interpersonal relationship, let alone marriage
life. “No, of course not. And no one knows, of course. No one at all. I've kept it a secret for
eight whole years." She looked at Mr. Kapasi, tilting her chin as if to gain a fresh
perspective. “But now I've told you." ”. It’s also worsen by Mr. Das’s lack of
communication and apathy with his own family that enable this kind of dysfunction to
perpetuate. This was observed by Mr. Kapasi as he relates that marriage dysfunction from
his own past relationship, but also gives hope within him. And his observation leads to his
own growing fantasy of romance towards Mrs. Das. “The signs he recognized from his own
marriage were there — the bickering, the indifference, the protracted silences. Her sudden
interest in him, an interest she did not express in either her husband or her children, was
mildly intoxicating. When Mr. Kapasi thought once again about how she had said
"romantic," the feeling of intoxication grew.”

In my subjective response or attributive meaning, I want to emphasize The Dases’

lack of parental affection to their children. “At the tea stall Mr. and Mrs. Das bickered
about who should take Tina to the toilet. Eventually Mrs. Das relented when Mr. Das
pointed out that he had Mr. Kapasi watched as Mrs. Das emerged slowly from his bulky
white Ambassador, dragging her shaved, largely bare legs across the backseat. She did not
hold the little girl's hand as they walked to the rest room.”. It’s also correlates to the fact
that their marriage was arranged by their parents, so their relationship was not based from
mutual understanding & healthy romance from the very beginning.

So in conclusion, The Das family is a perfect example of a broken household and

bad parenting. The arranged marriage, the affair & guilt of Mrs. Das, the apathy &
indifference of Mr. Das, their dissatisfaction toward each other and their lack of care
towards their children, show the depth of their familial brokenness and all contributes to
their discontent in life and their constant yearning of better life.