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Teaching Interpreter of Maladies

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Activities: 13
Quiz Questions: 183

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Description
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With her literary debut The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri won the 1999 O. Henry Award and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Reviewers raved, and she was featured on Oprah's Top Ten booklist (we all know what that means: this book went on to sell 15 million copies).

We can see why: these nine stories are about the contemporary Indian immigrant, but they sidestep all the stereotypes associated with "minority" or "ethnic" literature. The global stories, set both in India and in America, feel both local and universal. Why? Because they're such intimate explorations of specific character or events. It's like taking a magnifying glass to the heart of humanity, and having a good poke around.

In this guide, you'll find

an exercise dealing with the messy aftermath of "Interpreter of Maladies," with a chance to decide who gets what in the couple's divorce.
an opportunity to report on the case of the missing sink (oh boy) in "A Real Durwan."
a character analysis of the narrator of "The Third and Final Continent," through the lens of personal references.

Reading these stories can inspire you to consider diverse points of view, but also contemplate the shared experiences that unite us all. Try to resist breaking out the guitar and kumbaya-ing it up.

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

13 – 18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students
Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students
Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text
Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students
A note from Shmoop’s teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles

Want more help teaching Teaching Interpreter of Maladies?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.

Instructions for You

Objective: It's tough moving to a new city, but it's even more difficult when you don't have somewhere of your own to live and know very few people. That's the situation the narrator faces in Lahiri's final short story in Interpreter of Maladies, "The Third and Final Continent." Poor guy. We're rooting for you, buddy.

In this 60-minute activity, your students will take on Mrs. Croft's daughter's perspective, writing out a reference for the narrator that he can give to his new landlord. But the narrator actually needs two character references. So your students will then take on the narrator's new wife's perspective, who needs to provide an additional reference for her husband.

No pressure. It's just his entire future in a new country that hinges on it.

Materials Needed: a copy of the text and/or our Shmoop summary page

Step 1: The narrator is finally getting his own place, and all he needs is a reference from someone at his current address who can vouch for him.

He'd ask Mrs. Croft, but she's all distant since he said he was leaving, so he goes to her daughter instead. The students will write a reference from her point of view. They'll have to include the following four character traits:

His trustworthiness
His loyalty
His respectfulness
His good nature

Here's how the character reference should be written:

It should be in the form of a letter, written to the narrator's new landlord.
It should be written in first person, as Mrs. Croft's daughter.
There should be specific references to episodes while the narrator lived with Mrs. Croft to support the letter.
It should include at least three quotes from the story.
The letter should be around 250 words long.
The students have 20 minutes to plan and write the letter.

Here's an example:

He's also one of the best-natured people we have ever had stay with us. Every evening, without exception, he would come home and spend ten minutes talking to my mother, who would be waiting to see him: this despite being obviously tired and presumably wanting to spend time winding down after work.

Step 2: Whoops, there's a problem. The narrator's new landlord actually needs two character references. So he's asked his wife if she'll vouch for him and confirm that everything Mrs. Croft's daughter said was truthful.

The students now have to pretend they're Mala, who'll have a conversation on the phone with the landlord and agree with Mrs. Croft's daughter's thoughts.

Here's how the students should approach and write out the phone call:

It should be dialogue form, with the landlord asking questions and Mala answering.
It should be written in first person, as Mala and the landlord.
There should be specific references to episodes when Mala was married to the narrator.
Mala has to compare these episodes to the ones mentioned by Mrs. Croft's daughter.
There should be inclusion of at least three quotes.
The conversation should be around 300 words long.
The students have 20 minutes to plan and write the conversation.

Here's a quick example:

Landlord: "Ms. Croft Junior said your husband is good-natured. Can you confirm and give an example of when he showed this?"
Mala: "You're referring to how my husband thought of Ms. Croft Junior's mother and spent time with her when arriving home from work each evening, I presume. He showed such selflessness with me also: for example, when I first came to Boston and we were getting to know each other, he asked me out on the most romantic of dates, walking around the city one beautiful evening so I could get to know the place. It was a simple gesture but showed his desire for me to feel at home here, with him."

Step 3: Once they're all finished, you can ask some volunteers to read out their dialogue with a partner. Then the class can vote on whether Mala made a sufficient case for her husband's character, and if they'd rent out the place to him.

Fingers crossed, narrator.

Instructions for Your Students

It's tough moving to a new city, but it's even more difficult when you don't have somewhere of your own to live and know very few people. That's the situation the narrator faces in Lahiri's final short story in Interpreter of Maladies, "The Third and Final Continent." Poor guy. We're rooting for you, buddy.

Today you're going to take on Mrs. Croft's daughter's perspective, writing out a reference for the narrator that he can give to his new landlord. But the narrator actually needs two character references. So you'll also think from the narrator's new wife's perspective, who needs to provide an additional reference for her husband.

No pressure. It's just his entire future in a new country that hinges on it.

Step 1: The narrator is finally getting his own place, and all he needs is a reference from someone at his current address who can vouch for him.

He'd ask Mrs. Croft, but she's all distant since he said he was leaving, so he goes to her daughter instead. You're going to write a reference from her point of view. You'll have to include the following four character traits:

His trustworthiness
His loyalty
His respectfulness
His good nature

Here's how the character reference should be written:

It should be in the form of a letter, written to the narrator's new landlord.
It should be written in first person, as Mrs. Croft's daughter.
There should be specific references to episodes while the narrator lived with Mrs. Croft to support the letter.
It should include at least three quotes from the story.
The letter should be around 250 words long.
You have 20 minutes to plan and write the letter.

Here's an example:

"He's also one of the best-natured people we have ever had stay with us. Every evening, without exception, he would come home and spend ten minutes talking to my mother, who would be waiting to see him: this despite being obviously tired and presumably wanting to spend time winding down after work."

You now have to pretend you're Mala, who'll have a conversation on the phone with the landlord and agree with the Mrs. Croft's daughter's thoughts.

Here's how you should approach and write out the phone call:

It should be dialogue form, with the landlord asking questions and Mala answering.
It should be written in first person, as Mala and the landlord.
There should be specific references to episodes when Mala was married to the narrator.
Mala has to compare these episodes to the ones mentioned by Mrs. Croft's daughter.
There should be inclusion of at least three quotes.
The conversation should be around 300 words long.
The students have 20 minutes to plan and write the conversation.