INT

In ‘Mrs. Sen’s’ (pp.111–35) the minor boy character, Eliot, functions as a foil to demonstrate Mrs. Sen’s inability to assimilate into American culture. Although Mrs. Sen dominates the story, Eliot becomes a significant figure who not only illustrates the imbalance and differences between the cultures, but also develops as a character that grows substantially through experiencing other customs and traditions. Eliot is an eleven year old white American boy, while Mrs. Sen, the next in a long line of Eliot’s after school ‘babysitters’ (p.111), is hired because she is a ‘Professor’s wife, responsible and kind’ (p.111). She is, of course, much more than this – as Eliot is soon to find out. She is a traditional Indian wife who feels isolated and lost in the foreignness of American culture. We perceive Mrs. Sen through the eyes of Eliot, who notices and disects the striking differences between the domestic life of Indian immigrants and his own very American childhood. Through his thoughts, we are given detailed descriptions of the Sen’s apartment, suggesting that he perceives the family as oddly different. Indeed, his ability to absorb and enjoy the differences found within this alternative way of life becomes a rich learning experience for him. Eliot, in fact, compares the lushness of Mrs. Sen and her beautiful attire – ‘she wore a shimmering white sari patterned with orange paisleys’ – favorably against his mother’s ‘cropped hair … her shaved knees and thighs too exposed’ (pp.112–3). Unlike Eliot’s own home, Mrs. Sen’s is welcoming and her apartment is warm. She provides a stark and exotic departure for Eliot from what he is accustomed to. He soon comes to look forward to watching her ‘as she chopped things, seated on newspapers on th...

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...ildren as minor characters going off on their own adventure. It is interesting to consider that Lahiri makes evident throughout her stories the stresses felt by all of her characters over cultural rift. She emphasizes all of the hard work that Mr. Kapisi went through to learn foreign languages while he fears his own children already are more fluent in English than himself, simply from watching T.V. The cultural differences are further explored as the children are revealed as far removed from their Indian culture. The explanation Lahiri gives for this break in culture is having experienced their childhood years growing up in America. Thus once again the minor characters, principally the younger ones, help to highlight and uphold the main character’s flaws while further helping Lahiri pass off her overarching theme of the rift between cultures evidenced by immigrants.