A Wife's Story

Well it's been a while since I blogged. We'll see how spring break affects my writing skills. I'm writing now about the short story, "A Wife's Story," by Bharati Mukherjee.

First off, I'll go ahead and list a few words that I looked to help clarify some things in the story. The first word, Magyar, is a word for a member of an ethnic group coming from Hungary. Next, zamindar is a landlord required to pay a land tax to the government. Finally, flautist it turns out, is just another word for flutist.

So, A Wife's Story is in fact a story about a wife. The wife, a lady from India, starts off her story by commenting how she wishes to write David Mamet. The speaker and a fried of hers, Imre, are watching the play Glengarry Glen Ross, and she becomes infuriated at the crass nature Mamet gives to minorities. The short story, which is all about the clashing and blending of different cultures, shows that the minorities do in fact have feelings and thoughts separate from the general American stereotype. I really liked when the speaker says "I don't hate Mamet. It's the tyranny of the American dream that scares me. First, you don't exist. Then you're invisible. Then you're funny. Then you're disgusting" (page 26).

This quote really stood out to me as important. Generally, it is fairly true of how Americans more or less treat minorities. The author does a good job of summing up this harsh treatment of minorities in one succinct statement there.

Imre, though, tells her she needs to "let go a bit" on page 28. Perhaps he has a point, since there are many successful people who are minorities in America today. Everyone gets made fun of to some extent, so maybe people need to just simmer down and not take insults and generalizations personally.

The rest of the story really showed the stark contrast between different cultures. Examples of the cultural shift between America and other countries are abundant, including Charity. "Here, she's a model with high ambitions. In India, she'd be a flat chested old maid" (page 30).

I also found it humorous when the speaker's husband visits her in America and explores the various eateries and entrees that America has for him to satisfy his tastes. Everything comes off as rather bland, though, so he carries around a bottle of red peppers.

The speaker also becomes much more guilty feeling when he comes to town. In America she gets the sense of free love being given and received, while in India things seem much more formal. When her husband comes to visit, she takes on a bit of the formalness again and begins to feel more guilt concerning her infidelity.