Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"She walked slowly, carrying some puffed rice tossed with peanuts and chili peppers in a large packet made from newspapers" (Lahiri, page 149).
The ignorance of Mrs. Das captivated the entirety of the short story. I did not notice until after the conclusion of the short story that Mrs. Das' rice would play such an important role in the story and was mentioned early in the story but left unnoticed. The story is full of intense description of events and people. Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi are both dissected early in the story on pages 148 and 149 leaving a distinct image of them for the remainder of the story. Further into the story I found an oxymoron of "humorless jokes" (Lahiri, page 151). The oxymoron allows for a greater understanding of the quite different focus of the story line. Mr. Kapasi's address seems to play an important role in the outcome and events of the story. Once Mrs. Das revealed her long kept secret, the address seemed to simbolize her readiness to leave the life she was a piece of. Mrs. Das' ignorace came into play when she did not understand the surroundings she was in and carelessly did not pay attention to the rice she was dropping for the monkeys. When her child of a different man was attacked, she seemed to notice that she was internally attacking the issue she has at hand with an outward attack of the reminder of her past careless and ignorant actions. The address flying away allowed for Mrs. Das to return to her previous life of lies as she is left with the past mistake she made for the remainder of her life and nothing could fix that for her.