ENG 1090 The use of storytelling in A Temporary Matter PDF

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Download ENG 1090 The use of storytelling in A Temporary Matter PDF

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x1 x Instructor Stephanie Dohey ENG 1090 February 3, 2021

The use of storytelling in A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri. Jhumpa Lahiri has perpetually stated that communication and its vacancy portray a great part of her writing. Hence, miscommunication and repressed feelings have a big impact on the characters, destroying their welfare. A Temporary Matter, a short story included in Interpreter of Maladies, gives a great example of how characters damage their relationships through isolation, lack of communication and grief. Shukumar and Shoba, centred in their own pain, stop communicating and sharing experiences with each other. It will be the blackouts’ role to offer them the freedom they needed to start communicating and sharing their personal stories again. Even though it is clearly seen that the story is told from the third-person point of view, it is also noteworthy that there is some implied discourse with Shukumar’s character through storytelling. This allows the reader to see occasional insights into his mind as evidence by his flashbacks. Therefore, it can be well observed how while there is still a well-formed immediate action narrative, the main character narrates his flashbacks in the form of stories, almost as if it was a way to escape his tormented present. As it has already been established, the greatness of communication is a prevalent theme in A Temporary Matter. It is here where the pain of losing a child causes a communication breakdown in the relationship between Shukumar and Shoba. It is the silence between them, the lack of shared experiences, that makes them grow as different people. As they stop sharing their experiences through storytelling, the couple grows apart. The timing in which they happen to engage in the game is a relevant aspect. As it is revealed near the ending of the short-story, Shoba decided to move away from Shukumar. The fact that she took the opportunity to create a dynamic in which the couple could try and fix what was broken, shows that Shoba wanted to fix the relationship before it was too late, this gives a meaningful purpose to the exchange of their stories as it is cited in the text: “Somehow, without saying anything, it had turned into this. Into an exchange of confessions — the little ways they’d hurt or disappointed each other, and themselves.”

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Once the couple finds a way to communicate and begin sharing their stories thanks to a certain level of anonymity, it is visible how Shukumar’s sentimental and almost regretful stories about the past show that he desires what he and Shoba had at the beginning of their relationship: while recalling the couple’s past closeness he realizes how incredibly distant they grew apart since the baby’s death. It is in fact said sentimentality what hints that he might endure out hope that his marriage can be fixed. Shukumar’s feelings are what make him realize that the game is unquestionably more than a simple exchange of laughs and stories: “Something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again”. The married couple is slowly starting to use this mechanism to talk with one another while keeping the recovered communication limited to the constraints of the game. These invisible restrictions can be noticed, for example, when Shoba’s story brings Shukumar to think about their stillborn baby, but he decides to not voice his thoughts aloud. As this reinforces Shukumar’s guilt, it also highlights the married couple’s incapability to express themselves vulnerably with each other. How Lahiri portrays their relationship transmits the reader dubiousness as to whether the game will lead to the couple’s reconciliation. On one hand, the gradual openness they develop after sharing each story seems to suggest an attempt at restored communication; however, on the other hand, it is clear that they are still not able to communicate and speak comfortably outside the context of Shoba’s game. A great inflection point in Shoba’s and Shukumar’s relationship is once Shukumar states that he reserved the baby’s sex from his wife: “he promised himself that he would never tell Shoba, because he still loved her then, and it was the one thing in her life that she had wanted to be a surprise”. It is when the character reveals to his wife the gender of the baby that he indicates that he no longer loves her. This portion of the story adds inauthenticity to the couple’s game. Shukumar seemed eager to grow closer to Shoba but always within the confines of the game: the new him does not love the new her. Yet, when caught off guard by Shoba’s news, he tells her the baby’s sex and he is ultimately able to address the tragedy out loud, outside of his head. The fact that Shoba and Shukumar make the final decision to turn away from one another definitely shows that they remain uncomfortable with their own vulnerability even after revealing their deepest secrets. This is how Lahiri’s finale leaves the reader unsure as to whether the couple has improved their communication enough to get past their discomfort or not....