The character I have chosen for analysis from Jhumpa Lahiri short narrative, “ The Third and Final Continent, ” is the storyteller, a really dynamic character who adapts to the traditions and life styles of the continents he travels to particularly America. The storyteller exhibits the most features than any other character in the narrative because he is speaking about his life and the actions that he takes when meeting a certain obstruction. The storyteller besides shows the most alteration than any other character. Populating from one continent to another continent and so to another continent once more can dramatically alter how a individual lives, thinks, and even eat. Despite all the alterations that he experiences he still retains some traditions from his civilization of beginning with the aid of a alien that he meets. This is a positive feature that distinguishes the storyteller from any other character in the narrative. The storyteller ‘s life contrasts slightly to other immigrants because they must all undergo a certain type of alteration and must worry about the passing of traditions to their American born kids. The life of the storyteller is a clear illustration of what most immigrants must travel through when life in a new continent.
The tone of the storyteller sounds slightly non enthusiastic or field due to the fact that both of his parents have passed off. He shows strong love and regard for his parents. “ Before we cremated her I had cleaned each of her fingernails with a hairpinaˆ¦ I had assumed the function of eldest boy, and had touched the fire to her temple ; to let go of her anguished psyche to heaven ” ( Jhumpa Lahiri 654 ) . The storyteller is besides a really good educated adult male, a alumnus from LSE ( London School of Economics ) , and he besides has a bent for larning new things. “ I attended talks at LSEaˆ¦ . I read every article and advertizement, so I would turn familiar with things, and when my eyes grew tired I slept ” ( Lahiri 650-651 ) .
The storyteller faces an internal struggle: how can he be a modern American Indian and retain some of the old traditional Indian ways at the same clip? His quest continues with the birth of his boy, afraid that his boy will bury his Indian traditions. “ So we drive to Cambridge to see him, or convey him place for a weekend, so that he can eat rice with us with his custodies, and speak in Bengali, things we sometimes worry he will no longer do after we die ” ( Lahiri 662 ) . The storyteller tells to his boy the journey of himself lasting in three wholly different continents as a manner for his boy to derive the morale that he needs to get the better of any obstruction. There is grounds in the narrative which suggest that the storyteller is seeking to happen solutions for his job because he tries to retain some of his old traditional ways by eating egg curry and walking barefoot in the house and being modern by stating his married woman that she does non hold to have on her saree all the clip. “ And took bends cooking pots of egg curry, which we ate with our custodies on a tabular array covered with newspapers ” ( Lahiri 650 ) . “ There is no demand to cover you head, “ I said. ” I do n’t mind. It does n’t count here ” ( Lahiri 660 ) . Cooking egg curry is his chief manner of maintaining Indian tradition alive. He cooks egg curry in India, in the crowded room in London, and even in his new place in America. He can ne’er abandon his roots and obeys every facet of his Indian civilization. “ I regarded the proposition with neither expostulation nor enthusiasm. It was a responsibility expected of me, as it was expected of every adult male ” ( Lahiri 654 ) . The impersonal comments that he makes towards his arrange matrimony shows that he is a really spiritual adult male, maintaining alive some facet of his tradition to let him to last the toughest of times.
The storyteller is astounded when he finds out from Mrs. Croft ‘s girl Helen that his land lady is over a century old ages old. “ I was mortified. I had assumed Mrs. Croft was in her 1880ss, possibly every bit old as 90 ” ( Lahiri 657 ) . He could non bare the fact of a widow populating all entirely by herself because he one time had close brushs with a widow before which drove her insane, his female parent. “ Widowhood had driven my ain female parent insaneaˆ¦ What pained me the most was to see her so unguardedaˆ¦.. And so it was my occupation to sit by female parent ‘s pess ” ( Lahiri 657 ) . When he realizes that Mrs. Croft is really old and besides a widow for so long he starts to take attention of her as if she was his ain female parent. “ At times I came downstairs before traveling to kip, to do certain she was sitting unsloped on the bench, or was safe I her sleeping room ” ( Lahiri 658 ) . This shows the storyteller ‘s strong bond between alien and alien which subsequently strengthens his relationship with Mala.
His brushs with his land lady, Mrs. Croft guided him with his new life in America. He shows esteem for Mrs. Croft because she has survived for so long while maintaining all of her old traditions integral and go throughing them on to her kids. “ She added that it was besides improper for a lady of Helen ‘s station to uncover her age and to have on a frock so high above the mortise joint ” ( Lahiri 657 ) . This paves the manner for how the storyteller should populate his life and learn his boy about Indian traditions. Mrs. Croft besides symbolizes the storyteller ‘s female parent stating that Maya “ is a perfect lady! ” ( Lahiri 662 ) , as though she is O.K.ing of Maya to be the storyteller ‘s married woman.
“ For immigrants, the challenges of expatriate, the solitariness, the changeless sense of disaffection, the cognition of and hankering for a lost universe, are more expressed and straitening than for their kids. On the other manus, the job for the kids of immigrants, those with strong ties to their state of beginning, is that they feel neither one thing nor the other ” ( Lahiri 663-664 ) . This quotation mark from Lahiri herself is fundamentally what the subject of “ The Third and Final Continent ” is all about. It strongly interprets the storyteller ‘s character in the narrative as an immigrant and the emotions that he feels when he enters a new state. It besides explains the interior struggle in which he is seeking to get the better of of being a modern Indian and a traditional Indian at the same clip, while explicating to his boy how of import it is to maintain a small spot of tradition alive within you. Although non every immigrant ‘s life in America can associate to the storytellers, it is true nevertheless that they all must undergo some type of alteration when life in a new state for the really first clip.
Plants Citied
Lahiri, Jhumpa. “ Chapter 20/Fiction For Further Reading. ” Literature Reading, Reacting, Writing. 7th erectile dysfunction. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 650-64. Print.
