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Unit 11: Literary Analysis: The Third and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri

aware of the dire consequences of such cultural isolation. And so it is in the face of assimilation, Notes
as they try to hold on to what little of their culture remains, it is then they ask how one can
function at all without a sense of identity, let alone be happy.
Raising a family is hard enough when you’re just trying instill the values of one culture. But
two? That’s the trademark challenge of all immigrant families, especially the ones featured in
Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies. But
it’s one story in particular, the final one of her debut oeuvre, which, after all of the collection’s
previous depictions of broken families, finally provides one shining example that raising a
family with two different sets of cultural values can work; and that creating a single, cohesive
identity out of the duality is the key to such success . And Lahiri would know. Drawing on
her own personal experience and that of her parents, Lahiri’s “The Third and Final Continent”
is a partially fictionalized account of her parents’ lives in the late 1960s, during which they
emigrated from India to Britain and then finally immigrated to America to settle permanently.
Similar to the narrator’s experiences, the lives of Lahiri and her parents not only span decades
but also continents: Asia, Europe, and North America. Lahiri was born in England, raised in
America, and traveled often to India during her childhood (Wcislo 2001). The story parallels
closely with her family’s history: a father who worked as a librarian and a mother who
meticulously adhered to Indian traditions regardless of where or how long she lived (Wcislo
2001).

Did u know? Everyone in the Lahiri family is represented in the story. Her father is the
narrator. Her mother is both the narrator’s wife, Mala and Mrs. Croft. Lahiri herself is
both Mrs. Croft’s daughter, Helen and the narrator’s son.

It begins with the narrator’s move from India to England “to educate and establish [himself]
abroad” (Lahiri 173). He eventually adapts to the British way of life but does not do so alone
as he lives in a “house occupied entirely by penniless Bengali bachelors like [himself]” (Lahiri
173). The fact that he is able to surround himself with people who truly understand where he
comes from, is advantageous for him as it eases him into his new life rather than abruptly
throwing him into the deep end. His time in England is the first occasion that Lahiri uses to
show that by actively keeping one’s cultural identity intact one can make anyplace their home.
Another case in point would be the constant reference to “egg curry” in the story: for no
matter where the narrator finds himself he is able to bring an affordable, yet nostalgic taste
of home wherever he goes. Keeping even the most trivial of traditions alive is what essentially
keeps him together.
Life in America is no different, as he learns to adapt in much the same way, though by now
he has annexed another culture to his arsenal of coping mechanisms, that of the British. But
that is not to say that he has abandoned his Indian roots entirely. No, in fact he opts to use
both to his benefit. His recollection of his “first meal in America” is an image of cultural
duality in and of itself (Lahiri 175). In addition to being a concession to the American way of
life, the bowl, spoon, milk and cornflakes were a direct result of a shopping trip to a store
“whose name [he] recognized from London” and where he “[converted] ounces to grams and
[compared] prices to things in England” food items themselves were chosen in accordance
with the religious beliefs of his homeland; since the consumption of “hamburgers or hot dogs,
the only alternative [he] could afford” would have been sacrilegious in the eyes of Hinduism
(Lahiri 175). He finds solace in such customs of his past and uses it build a home for himself
and his wife in Boston.

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