Name: Muhammad Iqbal

NIM : 2211421151
Analysis of Interpreter of Maladies by Jumpha Lahiri
The story is about a tourist family named Dases family, who came from New Jersey,
United States, having a vacation trip in India. They had planned to visit a tourism destination,
Sun Temple which was located at Konarak. Realizing that they needed a vehicle to get their
destination, Mr. Das decided to get them a taxi. After that, Mr. Kapasi came to pick the family
up at the hotel where they stayed, Hotel Sandy Villa. But at the first sight, there was
something that looked different from this family to Mr. Kapasi.
From the physical look, this family looked like a common Indian. But what made them
look different was their attribute that they were wearing. The boys from the Dases family,
Ronny and Bobby wore the striking colourful shirts and sporty hats with transparent front on
their head. This appearance has shown enough the first culture difference between Indian
culture and American culture, which is shown by the Dases family’s genetic appearance
mixed with their attribute wearing, typically like American. The next finding about culture
difference was found when Mr. Das shook Mr. Kapasi’s hand with unfamiliar way, quite
strong and tight until Mr. Kapasi could feel it with his elbow. By seeing what Mr. Kapasi’s
feeling about this, it’s clearly can be assumed that this unfamiliar hand shaking is also part
of American culture, which is found in daily life when they do it with their partners or
colleagues.
Another American characteristic was captured when Mr. Das asked where his wife
belonged to his little daughter, Tina, yet there’s something sounds not right with Mr. Das’s
inquiry. He asked his wife’s presence to his daughter by telling his wife’s first name, Mina.
It sounds peculiar to Mr. Kapasi because as a general Asian especially Indian, either father
or mother calling each name with the call of ‘mom, dad, daddy’ rather than the first name. It
taught manners and polite ways to the children on how to talk with the elder. But it seems
that Dases family wasn't concerned about this. Another ignorance that was proven by these
both young parents were exposed when Tina, their little daughter toying with the lock button
of the car door then Bobby just put his foot on the gearshift where Mr. Kapasi used it to
control his wheel. But there wasn’t any reprimand thrown by Mr. and Mrs. Das, which
showed there’s no manner taught in this family.
Another kind of culture difference was exposed when Bobby asked his father on why Mr.
Kapasi sitting in the opposite position of the steering wheel seat where they usually saw back
in America. Continued with the little dispute between Mr. and Mrs. Dar about how hot the
car was with their signature accent, kind of accent where Mr. Kapasi knew about it from \
American TV shows he usually watched. In a nutshell, it is fairly enough that this culture
difference seems significant and shocking to each side's perception.
 Relating to the manner concern, there’s also reason why Mr. Das mentioned the initial
name of his wife, while talking to Tina. Commonly, parents call each other’s name with
‘mom’ or ’dad’ to show how lovely the chemistry they have. This is what Raj as the father
and Mina as mom didn’t have. They also behaved like a pair of siblings instead of husband
and wife. Each of them busy with their own business with Raj kept flipping his journal book,
whilst Mina stayed polishing and blowing her nails. All that they did was bickering and
debating with each other rather than supporting. The reason why they seemed don’t complete
each other was their own marriage, their marriage that was apparently too early for their age.
It was during high school when Raj persuaded Mina to be his wife, then they ran their
marriage during college. Since then, the whole of Mina’s young lifetime was spent clinging
to her husband. As a pair of husband and wife who have married from a young age, there
must be repercussions to bear. Raj as the husband was being faced with a hectic and busy
world outside of the house to keep feeding his young little family, while Mina was heavily
pressed with taking care of and nurturing her babies at home. Yet, when Raj got home, he’s
already exhausted and didn’t care about his wife. Then they kept ignoring each other,
repeatedly for eight years. It is obvious that actually, their marriage had no value at all,
because they are just physically and sexually married, not married in soul. Therefore, it is
clearly possible to assess that their marriage was immature and void.
Being deeply depressed and wanting to release all of her rage after sick eight years long,
Mina decided to spill all of her inner voice to Mr. Kapasi. The reason why Mina trust Mr.
Kapasi as the right person because as interpreter, she saw that Mr. Kapasi had the capacity
and credibility to understand other people’s pain. As interpreter of language, Mr. Kapasi had
a job to translate patients' complaints on symptoms of disease they experienced to the doctor
he worked for in infirmary, and explained back the doctor’s explanation of the proper
treatment and medicine prescriptions to cure the patient’s disease. That’s what expected by
Mina from Mr. Kapasi. After she had done telling her complaints of how severe the pain she
had been through, Mr. Kapasi must have been able to say the right thing, the proper treatment.
But this time, she required mental treatment instead of medical. Thus, this shows that
“Interpreter” symbolizes kind of person who can translate any types of language, including
language of inward, then fix their problem. It’s like psychiatrist and ambassador combined.
This story also doesn’t have a surprising ending, because it ends as how it should do. The
ending of the story is Bobby got assaulted by herd of monkeys which injured his leg bad
enough. After that, Mrs. Das immediately cured his leg by covering the wound with bandage.
This sudden careful action was done because previously, Mina was motivated by the right
remedy of Mr. Kapasi, which asking whether it’s the terrible pain she endured or the guilty
feeling that actually she had denied after this whole time. Hence, the ending was written fit
to the title of the story, translator of diseases. The person who gets what’s wrong, say the
right things, and finally make things right.