The Third and Final Continent- by Lahiri

The Third and Final Continent By Jhumpa Lahiri

This story by Lahiri is about one man's journey from India to London and to America. As he travels to new places he has to transition to get used to life in a new country. This story is one about change and all of its forms. The man changes as he travels from India to London to be on his own, studying at university and living with many bachelors with very little money. He then is offered a good job in America and travels first to India to marry and then goes to Boston. 

Every time that that he goes somewhere new, he tries his best to observe and learn how to survive in the foreign city. After arriving in Boston the narrator starts to feel more comfortable there. " In a week or so I adjusted, more or less." He stays first at the YMCA and then with an older widow in a quieter neighborhood. Each time he comes home, he goes through a ritual with the woman, which involves her telling him that there is a flag on the moon, and he replies with "Splenid!". The narrator respects the old woman, and when he hands in his first week's rent, he hands it to her personally. She calls him a true gentleman. Once he finds out that she is over 100 years old, he begins to worry about her, and he almost watches over her.

The narrator and his wife Mala have been married for some time, and once she has received her green card they live together permanently in an apartment. It takes time, but eventually they go out and the narrator takes her to see the old woman. Once there, the woman tells the narrator she has broken her hip, and he replies with "Splendid!", which makes Mala laugh. The narrator is caught off guard by her laugh and genuine smile, which is something he has never seen or heard before. The old woman describes Mala saying "She is a perfect lady!", which makes the narrator laugh and smile. That moment between the husband and wife was a starting point for their love. The couple come across the old woman's obituary a couple months after their visit with her, and Mala comforts the narrator as he mourns his first death in America.

I loved this story because it shows how people who come from other countries have to adjust and transition when they move somewhere different. Everything is new and strange and different, and it takes time for things to feel as they should. This story also highlights change in human character, seen in the narrator as he goes from being on his own as a bachelor, to being a caretaker of his mother and the old woman, to being a husband, and to being a father. It also showcases change in love and how little things can really create a connection between people and spark something bigger. The old woman had seen and experienced so much change in her long life, and she had helped change the lives of others for the better. This story goes to show that life is ever-changing.

Picture Bride by Cathy Song

The Picture Bride

The Picture Bride is a poem in which a young woman tries to empathize with her grandmother and her experiences. When her grandmother was a year younger than she was, she left her home in Korea to move to an island she had never been to before. There waited an older man, her newly arranged husband, with nothing but a picture to show him what she looked like. She wonders what belongings her grandmother took with her, and how she left her family in Korea. She wishes to know how her grandmother reacted when meeting her strange new husband. " And when she arrived to look into the face of the stranger who was her husband, thirteen years older than she, did she politely untie the silk bow of her jacket, her tent-shaped dress filling with the dry wind that blew from the surrounding fields where the men were burning the cane?" I think the narrator wonders if her grandmother untied the silk tie on her dress to welcome the wind of the her new home.

The narrator of the story tries to put herself in the shoes of her grandmother to see what her perspective would've been like. I think this poem is an attempt for the narrator to connect with her grandmother and the way she may have felt at that time in her life. It also compares the two women and the way that their lives are similar or different. We do not know how the narrators life differs, but she is making an effort to try and understand the way her grandmother lived.