Narration in “Interpreter of Maladies”

[Elia Wong]

Mar 23, 2022 7:17:53 GMT -8 Christine Gu .-. said:

College Board video 7.4 4D, Explain the functions of the narrator/speaker, shows how a narrator’s perspective of what they choose to include or not include reveals about their biases, motive, and understanding of the situation. The narrator essentially shapes which details are shared, which influences the readers’ understanding of the characters and situations while providing details others cannot.
In the “Interpreter of Maladies,” the story is seen through Mr. Kapsi’s perspective. The build up tension from the couple’s arguments fed to the misunderstanding of the relationship between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapsi, because of the details Mr. Kapasi chose to include. This feeds into the misunderstanding of how Mr. Kapasi views Mrs. Das, especially when they arrived at the Sun Temple since it had carved statues “erotic in nature” (22) and from Mr. Kapsi’s perspective, the power of the situation influenced how he perceived that “Mrs. Das has taken an interest in him” (22). Through the trip, Mrs. Das has shared numerous stories about her life to Mr. Kapasi, even how Bobby was not actually Mr. Das’s. These details that he choose to include also mislead the readers to think an affair was going to happen, only to be shattered when he realized that Mrs. Das only “thought of him as a parent.” (27) Not only Mr. Kapasi misunderstood, it also revealed his motive that he was unsatisfied with his own marriage, and unlike his wife, Mrs. Das was intrigued by his job. He thought that there was a connection between them since they are both troubled in marriage, but it was only in his cloudy mind.
The story would have taken a different turn if it was from another character’s perspective. If it was from Mrs. Das’ perspective, the readers would not have misunderstood their intentions, rather it would focus on the troubles going on in her mind.

I agree with your statements about Mr. Kapasi - based on the select details he was providing in addition to his own interpretations of them, the reader was inclined to believe that Mrs. Das was interested, when she really only saw Mr. Kapasi as a father figure. 

[Elia Wong]

Mar 23, 2022 9:24:55 GMT -8 Ryan Kuo said:

The three main takeaways from the college board video is to consider how some of the information the narrator chooses to omit or include may affect our perception of the narration and the event, how our preexisting bias may affect our views of the characters as well as the situations, and what limitations are there from the narrator such as what kind of information are they not able to know and share. The narrative point of view influences our interpretation of the story by making us see things only from Mr. Kapasi’s point of view and his interpretation of what is happening which is why we though Mrs. Das was interested in him when she wasn’t. The narrator includes the outside in view of the Das family and its relationship while leaving out the inner workings of the relationship and how it became that way. Mr. Kapasi has a bias towards the Das family since the beginning of the story where is mentions that Mr. and Mrs. are more like older siblings than parents and this leads him to think that Mrs. Das is like him, that he doesn’t like his spouse and wants new experiences. If the story was told by Mrs. Kapasi however it would be very different as we would know that she is trying to find someone that she can confide in and receive pity from without having to worry about being judged by someone she knows. This however is not the case which is why Mr. Kapsi’s goal is to court Mrs. Das due to his misunderstanding.

Yes, I agree! Mr. Kapasi essentially projected himself - his insecurities about his own marriage and his dissatisfaction with his life - onto Mrs. Das, which caused the reader to assume she was into him. 

[Emily Willett]

After watching the video in college board, three takeaways I got were that there is always bias in a narrative point of view, the narrator only chooses certain information to present which creates that bias, and that to eliminate this bias we need to look at the text as if through another character’s eyes. In the short story “interpreter of Maladies” there is a narrative point of view that is centered around Mr. Kapasi’s thoughts and feelings. There is inherent bias in the narrator’s presentation of the Das family’s vacation. One example of this bias is when Mr. Kapasi led the Das family through the statues of naked people outside the temple. Mr. Kapasi’s lense is focused much on Mrs. Das and even a little bit of the kids’ reaction to these statues, however he omits any information on Mr. Das’s reaction. The narrator says “The children ran ahead, pointing to figures of naked people, intrigued in particular by the Nagamithunas, the half-human, hatf-serpentine couples who were said, Mr. Kapasi told thbm, to live in the deepest waters of the sea. Mr. Kapasi was pleased that they liked the temple, pleased especially that it appealed to Mrs. Das”. Here, he is focused on Mrs. Das, whom he has taken an interest in, and how she reacts to these statues around the temple that mean so much to him. He also observes Mrs. Das’s children as he knows they are a huge part of Mrs. Das’s life and would always be. We know that Mr. Das is present in this scene and he must also be observing the same statues, yet the narrator says nothing about how Mr. Das reacts and whether he even enjoys this scene. This shows that Mr. Kapasi is biased towards favoring Mrs. Das because he is motivated by his interest in her. His understanding of how the family is enjoying their vacation is more based on how Mrs. Das and her kids (a part of Mrs. Das) enjoy the vacation. The story would be different if it was told from Mr. Das’ perspective because he would include more information on what he thinks of the temple and might see Mr. Das in a lesser way, as before he wasn’ very interested in what he believed Mr. Das’ low level unimportant job was.

[Emily Willett]

Mar 23, 2022 7:17:53 GMT -8 Christine Gu .-. said:

College Board video 7.4 4D, Explain the functions of the narrator/speaker, shows how a narrator’s perspective of what they choose to include or not include reveals about their biases, motive, and understanding of the situation. The narrator essentially shapes which details are shared, which influences the readers’ understanding of the characters and situations while providing details others cannot.
In the “Interpreter of Maladies,” the story is seen through Mr. Kapsi’s perspective. The build up tension from the couple’s arguments fed to the misunderstanding of the relationship between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapsi, because of the details Mr. Kapasi chose to include. This feeds into the misunderstanding of how Mr. Kapasi views Mrs. Das, especially when they arrived at the Sun Temple since it had carved statues “erotic in nature” (22) and from Mr. Kapsi’s perspective, the power of the situation influenced how he perceived that “Mrs. Das has taken an interest in him” (22). Through the trip, Mrs. Das has shared numerous stories about her life to Mr. Kapasi, even how Bobby was not actually Mr. Das’s. These details that he choose to include also mislead the readers to think an affair was going to happen, only to be shattered when he realized that Mrs. Das only “thought of him as a parent.” (27) Not only Mr. Kapasi misunderstood, it also revealed his motive that he was unsatisfied with his own marriage, and unlike his wife, Mrs. Das was intrigued by his job. He thought that there was a connection between them since they are both troubled in marriage, but it was only in his cloudy mind.
The story would have taken a different turn if it was from another character’s perspective. If it was from Mrs. Das’ perspective, the readers would not have misunderstood their intentions, rather it would focus on the troubles going on in her mind.

I agree that Mrs. Das’ perspective shows a focus on her own problems. I think that Mrs. Das’ perspective would show her being a lot less interested in Mr. Kapasi than he thinks. Mrs. Das might be a little bit interested in Mr. Kapasi, but I think that she would be thinking more about her husband and why she might not be satisfied with him anymore. She might be feeling guilty and would focus more on how she wants to get away from husband and wants a distraction.

[Andrew Collard]

Based on the CB videos, the narrator impacts the story through the bias they hold on it, it affects the meaning of the story as a whole, and the reader is hindered from seeing the events and actions that occur from a possible other perspective or an unbiased one. The reader is forced to interpret the story from the narrator’s personal motives and the details in which they choose to or not to provide as an account of “their” story.
If we were only to see the story “Interpreter of Maladies” through Mrs. Das’ point of view, the reader would only be able to view her thoughts behind pursuing Mr. kapasi. She says "Mr. Kapasi, wait. There’s room here,". She gathered Tina onto her lap, insisting that he accompany them.” In her case, the reader would see many details about Tina and Mr. Das being removed because of her immediate interest in Mr. Kapasi, limiting us from an omniscient view to only what thoughts are occurring in her mind. However, a story from just Mrs. Das’s perspective would enhance and almost exaggerate the feelings she displays when talking to Mr. Kapasi alone in the car, she “who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life.” This would enhance the feeling of dissatisfaction with her life, but we would be blocked from seeing Mr. Kapasi view as her confession “depressed him all the more when he thought of Mr. Das,” showing a level of empathy that would be unclear.

[Andrew Collard]

Mar 23, 2022 7:17:53 GMT -8 Christine Gu .-. said:

College Board video 7.4 4D, Explain the functions of the narrator/speaker, shows how a narrator’s perspective of what they choose to include or not include reveals about their biases, motive, and understanding of the situation. The narrator essentially shapes which details are shared, which influences the readers’ understanding of the characters and situations while providing details others cannot.
In the “Interpreter of Maladies,” the story is seen through Mr. Kapsi’s perspective. The build up tension from the couple’s arguments fed to the misunderstanding of the relationship between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapsi, because of the details Mr. Kapasi chose to include. This feeds into the misunderstanding of how Mr. Kapasi views Mrs. Das, especially when they arrived at the Sun Temple since it had carved statues “erotic in nature” (22) and from Mr. Kapsi’s perspective, the power of the situation influenced how he perceived that “Mrs. Das has taken an interest in him” (22). Through the trip, Mrs. Das has shared numerous stories about her life to Mr. Kapasi, even how Bobby was not actually Mr. Das’s. These details that he choose to include also mislead the readers to think an affair was going to happen, only to be shattered when he realized that Mrs. Das only “thought of him as a parent.” (27) Not only Mr. Kapasi misunderstood, it also revealed his motive that he was unsatisfied with his own marriage, and unlike his wife, Mrs. Das was intrigued by his job. He thought that there was a connection between them since they are both troubled in marriage, but it was only in his cloudy mind.
The story would have taken a different turn if it was from another character’s perspective. If it was from Mrs. Das’ perspective, the readers would not have misunderstood their intentions, rather it would focus on the troubles going on in her mind.

Yes, something that is highlighted because of this perspective is Mr. Das's nonchalant nature, but because we see it from Mr. Kapasi's eyes we cannot certify that as true, which is just another limitation to a narrator's view.

[Flora Xiao]

Within "interpretation of Maladies", Lahiri utilizes third person perspective to reveal understandings of a character's motives. Through the narrator, we see instances of biases and motivations which gives the reader a deeper understanding on certain details and information that others do not or cannot provide. For instance, from Mr. Kapasi's perspective, he analyzed Mr. And Mrs. Das's relationship as one that this like a sibling dynamic, where they "behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents..." (Lahiri). Mr. Kapasi furthers his bias or understanding through instances of Mr. And Mrs. Das at the temple and on the car ride to the temple. He intentionally cherry picks what to tell the reader and leaves out details in order to serve his bias. Furthermore, because he sees the cracks within the Das's relationship, and takes advantage of this opportunity, causing Mrs. Das to open up about Bobby. Mrs. Das confides in Mr. Kapasi that Bobby is not truly Mr. Das's. Specific information has been tightly withheld by Mrs. Das for "eight years" and finally confirms that she no longer is in love with Mr. Das. Therefore, with Mr. Kapasi's narration, the reader is able to gain further insight on other characters and their motivations.

[Flora Xiao]

Mar 23, 2022 9:38:33 GMT -8 Anuthmi Waas said:

In the College Board Video about Narration, 7B video 1, some takeaways I was able to understand were that there is a lot that can be conveyed in a story just through word choice, that the narrator is limited by their perspective, and that biases are extended through the narration. The narrator’s biases may affect what information is revealed and it can distort the story, as narration will usually be limited as we do ot have all sides of the story, and rather only one perspective. An example of this in “The Interpreter of Maladies” is MR. Kapaski. In this story, the point of view is third person objective, with the narrator being Mr. Kapaski. This may affect how we see the story as Mr. Kapaski views Mrs. Das as someone who is interested in him: “Mrs. Das has taken an interest in him. But when Mrs. Das is confiding in Mr. Kapaski exclaims that he is like a father figure. Moreover, as Mr. Kapaski has the biases of his upbringing, he may be biased in how he views the family, as the Das family is representative of a Western family, not a SOuth Asian family. Mr. Kapaski sees the parents, Mr and Mrs Das, as more of siblings rather than parents as they are irresponsible. Mr Kapaski’s view of Mrs. Das and Mr Das’ parenting may be tainted as often in South Asian culture, families are incredibly overbearing onto children, versus Western cultures, where children are usually given much more freedom and independence.

I agree that a narrator's bias can often show bits and pieces of a situation to fit their perspectives and that is what limits the reader from viewing the multiple perspectives. I also liked how you brought in the cultural lens of the South Asian culture. 

[Ryan Huynh]

Three takeaways I got from the video are that the narrator controls which details are present in the story and how they are presented, the first-person narrators have a more limited perspective, meaning they show things in a way they think it should be shown, which means bias, and a third-person view allows the narrator to show everyone, yet can't be too in depth on people's experiences and thoughts. The narrative point of view impacts the narrative by introducing bias and a restricted view point because the narrator can really only present the story from their perspective, which means bias is bound to present itself. When looking at IoM, we see it from a third-person point of view, but with an emphasis on Mr. Kapasi. So, the narrator is unable to include the thoughts of Mr. Das, the kids, and Mrs. Das clearly. Mr. Kapasi, who is unhappy about his marriage, looks at Mrs. Das and is enchanted by her, showing his bias and motivation. Also, being an expert on the tour shows his understanding of what the family wants. If the story was told from Mrs. Das' eyes, Mr. Das would look much less appealing and Mr. Kapasi would be much more appealing. Also, Mrs. Das' pain would be mentioned a lot. In IoM, Mr. Kapasi mentions that "“She did not behave in a romantic way toward her husband, and yet she had used the word to describe him,”. This shows Mr. Kapasi's bias because he his clearly focusing on the romantic part when it could have occurred much differently or much less romantic as he presents it as.

[Ryan Huynh]

Mar 23, 2022 18:16:07 GMT -8 Andrew Collard said:

Based on the CB videos, the narrator impacts the story through the bias they hold on it, it affects the meaning of the story as a whole, and the reader is hindered from seeing the events and actions that occur from a possible other perspective or an unbiased one. The reader is forced to interpret the story from the narrator’s personal motives and the details in which they choose to or not to provide as an account of “their” story.
If we were only to see the story “Interpreter of Maladies” through Mrs. Das’ point of view, the reader would only be able to view her thoughts behind pursuing Mr. kapasi. She says "Mr. Kapasi, wait. There’s room here,". She gathered Tina onto her lap, insisting that he accompany them.” In her case, the reader would see many details about Tina and Mr. Das being removed because of her immediate interest in Mr. Kapasi, limiting us from an omniscient view to only what thoughts are occurring in her mind. However, a story from just Mrs. Das’s perspective would enhance and almost exaggerate the feelings she displays when talking to Mr. Kapasi alone in the car, she “who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life.” This would enhance the feeling of dissatisfaction with her life, but we would be blocked from seeing Mr. Kapasi view as her confession “depressed him all the more when he thought of Mr. Das,” showing a level of empathy that would be unclear.

I completely agree that having Mrs. Das be the narrator would almost enforce the romantic-like relationship Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das are subtly hinting at throughout the story. We would hear a lot more negative things about the family and see Mr. Kapasi in a gleaming light.

[Kyle Cantiller]

The CB video helped me realize how biased narration can be depending on who is narrating. For instance, if the narrator is a character who hates someone else, obviously everything about this hated character will be about hate. Omniscient narrators who don’t have any feelings towards the characters will be less biased. For instance, the narrator in “Interpreter of Maladies” is Mr. Kapasi. This means that we are looking throughout the lens of Mr. Kapasi: we understand his feelings, his biases, his insight, etc. We understand that when he’s narrating Mrs. Das, he will talk in a way that shows a lot of affection and physical attraction, when in reality Mrs. Das might not feel that way. It provides further insight into who he is as a character, but it takes away the unbiased factor when reading.

[Kyle Cantiller]

Mar 23, 2022 18:52:02 GMT -8 Ryan Huynh said:

Three takeaways I got from the video are that the narrator controls which details are present in the story and how they are presented, the first-person narrators have a more limited perspective, meaning they show things in a way they think it should be shown, which means bias, and a third-person view allows the narrator to show everyone, yet can't be too in depth on people's experiences and thoughts. The narrative point of view impacts the narrative by introducing bias and a restricted view point because the narrator can really only present the story from their perspective, which means bias is bound to present itself. When looking at IoM, we see it from a third-person point of view, but with an emphasis on Mr. Kapasi. So, the narrator is unable to include the thoughts of Mr. Das, the kids, and Mrs. Das clearly. Mr. Kapasi, who is unhappy about his marriage, looks at Mrs. Das and is enchanted by her, showing his bias and motivation. Also, being an expert on the tour shows his understanding of what the family wants. If the story was told from Mrs. Das' eyes, Mr. Das would look much less appealing and Mr. Kapasi would be much more appealing. Also, Mrs. Das' pain would be mentioned a lot. In IoM, Mr. Kapasi mentions that "“She did not behave in a romantic way toward her husband, and yet she had used the word to describe him,”. This shows Mr. Kapasi's bias because he his clearly focusing on the romantic part when it could have occurred much differently or much less romantic as he presents it as.

I enjoyed reading the other viewpoints of Mr. Kapasi, and I do agree that each type of narration has its own drawbacks as well.

[Hilary Chen]

From the video my main takeaways were that it matters whether information is revealed or not revealed by the narrator, different perspectives may reveal biases, motivations, or understandings, and perspectives are limited by being in first person, multiple perspectives may offer more of an accurate look into the events of the story.
In the short story, “Interpreter of Maladies”, it is told in the first person view of a tour guide, named Mr. Kapasi. He first shows pure hospitality and professionalism of his work by being friendly with the Das family he is showing around an area in India. His motivations though, become more sinister in nature as he leans towards possibly having an affair with Mrs. Das. His feelings are really shown at the end, when his address written on a slip of paper falls out of Mrs. Das’s purse, and he is the only one who noticed. This reveals that Mr. Kapasi truly believed in his chance of having some form of an intimate relationship with her. From his perspective he also at the same time only describes Mr. Das and the kids maybe once, and just on what they wore, and repeatedly through the progression of the short story becomes more personal of his own opinion on the appearance of Mrs. Das. For example he first starts with her appearance, then all of her actions then to all the way of describing how the way she walked was appealing to him, like when his stream of conscious said, “He had never admired the backs of his wife’s legs the way he now admired those of Mrs. Das, walking as if for his benefit alone”. Mr. Kapasi even brings up the subject ofhis own wife, and how she isn’t as appealing as a stranger he just met.

[Grace Su]

The main takeaways I had from the video was that a narrator’s perspective changes the entire story, by introducing biases, details, different perspectives, different motives and understandings. A third-person narrator is the most objective, and therefore the most reliable because they have no biases and do not tell the story from their point of view, rather more like someone telling a story about people. Looking through the lens of a first-person narrator, we can see what the individual is able to see, and other perspectives as well as the audience can compare and contrast the differences between the two. These perspectives are especially significant because what characters reveal can indicate much about the story or render their character unreliable, as they may have several limitations. Omitting details also shows much about the reliability of the narrator and characters. From the short story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” the main narrator is Mr. Kapasi, who tells his story about the Das family vacation to India. He reveals details about his family, his wife, his jobs, and even his childhood growing up. THe audience learns that Mr. Kapsi loves to learn languages and once wanted to become an interpreter for different countries, however if now working as an interpreter for a doctor, and a tour guide. Over the course of the story, he starts to view the Mrs. Das differently, comparing his relationship with his wife to that of Mr. Das and Mrs. Das. The story would be consideringly different if one of the other characters were the narrator: for example, if it were told through the perspectives of one of the children, the story would not focus on the mature themes of duty, happiness, and marital relationships. The story would be limited because it would only include what the characters know, and the perspectives of the Das children would be on the monkeys, and the sightseeing rather than the relationship between Mr and Mrs. Das. However, since the story was told through the perspective of Mr. Kapasi, the author is able to convey these themes effectively, and subtly throughout the text.

[srinidhimuralidhar]

The narrative point of view is very important in this story because it is the lens through which we see all the main characters of the story. The narrative point of view is subject to all the biases and beliefs of Mr. Kapasi who ends up being changed by his encounter with the Das Family. Mr. Kapasi is an individual who has seen many different kinds of people during his career as a tour guide. He is an individual with a lot of experience with other people so his perspective is seasoned with past encounters and his takeaways from those experiences. This is why much of Mr. Kapasi's past' is avoided and we get more of an understanding about him from the way he acts when he is with the Das family. This story is a clear example of what the college board video says when it says that the narrator shapes how the story is told. Mr. Kapasi's experience impacts the way that he describes and personifies the Das family throughout the story, so we get a neutral view of them. It is only Mrs. Das that causes Mr. Kapasi's emotional dissonance because he had never seen someone like her before in his life.