Interpreter of Maladies Plot Analysis

If you've ever made a playlist on your iPod, then you'll get this analysis right away. A great playlist has a flow to it; there's a reason why you place a song in a certain spot on the list. Well, think of this book like a playlist and the stories as different songs, starting with…

Exposition

Marriage Hurts

Instead of starting the book off with a cheery story about love, "A Temporary Matter"'s Shoba and Shukumar totally deflate our expectations, especially Shoba who, in a surprise twist, decides to leave Shukumar. Their failed marriage basically sets up the idea that marriages can come with a shelf-life and are easily broken apart.

Rising Action

The Only Way to Go is Up…Sort of

If you're already starting with incredibly low expectations for love, what then? If you're Mr. Pirzada in "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine," you keep hoping that you'll find your family once again (which he does), even if it means you're unknowingly breaking another little girl's heart. So, in other words, you believe in love. Or, if you're like Mr. Kapasi in "Interpreter of Maladies," you wish and hope for love but then you find out that the object of your affections is an adulteress who doesn't really care about you.

These two stories show us all the conflict and complications that come with hoping for and pursuing love in the context of marriage. That's why we call this part of the book "rising action."

Climax

Changes

First, there's Boori Ma, who gets turned out of the building she's been tending because the residents want "A Real Durwan." It's a heartless move because they're literally throwing out the old (Boori Ma) to bring in the new (a modern building with a new durwan). It's also what we call a moment of crisis: the old and the new are in complete conflict.

Same with Miranda in "Sexy"; she reaches a crisis in her life—does she stay in an affair with a married creep or does she leave? The difference here: unlike Boori Ma, she turns the crisis into a positive turning point by choosing herself over the creep.

But why consider these two stories the climax of the book? Because they turn all that built up confusion and conflict from the rising action into a need for clarity and a need for change.

Falling Action

It's All Downhill From Here

Well, only if you believe in soul mates and Valentine's Day. If you do, then you're in for a fall because in the next three stories—"Mrs. Sen's," "This Blessed House," and "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar"—love gets totally crushed under the weight of reality.

Mrs. Sen's a housewife who babysits on the side. Under pressure from her insensitive husband, she drives their car to the fish market even though she doesn't really know how to drive. So of course, she gets into a car accident with the kid she's babysitting and Eliot, the kid, stops going to Mrs. Sen's. It's a sad ending since both Eliot and Mrs. Sen, who've grown pretty close, end up lonely again.

On the other hand, in "This Blessed House," Sanjeev seems to surrender to his wife Twinkle's charm at the end. We aren't fully convinced that that relationship will last past a year or two because Sanjeev is drunk when he succumbs to Twinkle; plus, the whole marriage is only a few months old and they've already got major differences.

Then there's Bibi Haldar, whose only wish is to have a husband; instead, she gets raped by who knows whom and ends up pregnant.

Want that dreamy kind of love? Better look elsewhere…

Resolution

How About a Compromise?

Fine, there's no such thing as a perfect marriage whether it's built on love or arrangement. But there is, however, the kind of love that develops slowly over time. That's what happens in the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," when the narrator finds love only after years of living with his wife, whom he met at their arranged marriage.

After all the noisy conflict, betrayal, and heartbreak in the other stories, we get to a place of quiet contentment.