Blog Post #10

One of the main themes of ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’ is the difficulty of communication. The main miscommunication explored in the story is miscommunication that is prevalent in loveless marriages. In this short story, both Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi are in loveless marriages and the short story explores some sort of chemistry between the two. The description of the sun temple in pages 21 and 22 explores this theme and topic of the story. The sun temple is filled with naked figures of women and these are used by the author to highlight the plight of Mr. Kapasi. “Though Mr. Kapasi had been to the temple countless times, it occurred to him, as he, too, gazed at the topless women, that he had never seen his own wife fully naked. Even when they had made love she kept the panels of her blouse hooked together, the string of her petticoat knotted around her waist.” This direct quotation from page 22 further enhances the loneliness felt by Mr. Kapasi in his marriage and cements his unhappiness in the reader’s mind. The author uses this to further discuss this topic in the short story.

Blog Post #9

Through ‘Brokeback Mountain’, the author Annie Proulx tries to educate her readers on many different issues that haunt the society we currently live in. One of these issues that is in the center of the story is the idea of love and how it is defined in our society. By having two gay men in the epicenter of this story, Proulx openly and distinctly challenges our society’s definition and constraints on love. She explores the idea of forbidden love with the help of the characters Jack and and Ennis. Furthermore, Proulx ties in our society’s emphasis on masculinity into her idea of forbidden live. She purposely chooses the setting and character descriptions of the gay lovers to challenge these stereotypes. Cowboys, who are often displayed as the poster boys of masculinity, are made to be homosexuals in this story. The story even takes place in the extremely conservative state of Wyoming where homosexuality is shunned. Through the events of the story, the author is trying to educate the masses regarding the unfair prejudices that we hold against homosexuality. “You and me can’t hardly be decent together if what happened back there”—he jerked his head in the direction of the apartment—”grabs on us like that. We do that in the wrong place we’ll be dead. There’s no reins on this one. It scares the piss out a me.” (70) By challenging society’s judgmental outlook on love, Proulx is pleading society to divert from it’s harsh and unfair constraints.