The theme idealism is portrayed very well in the short
story “Interpreter of Maladies”, by Jhumpa Lahiri and “Hills Like White
Elephants”, by Ernest Hemingway. Idealism is the pursuit of something
unrealistically unattainable and these two literary works are perfect examples.
A very recent example from present day society would be the rioting occurring
in Baltimore, Maryland due to the unexpected death of an African American man.
Mr. Kapasi, the taxi driver realizes that he had no chance with the unhappily
married lady, Mrs. Das from America. The wife in the couple from “Hills like
White Elephants” tries to change herself and make actions such as abortion to
make her husband happy but their happiness is no longer attainable. In Maryland,
hundreds of people rioted the streets, destroying the city for unattainable
revenge on the police force for the death of the African American man. Mr.
Kapasi, the couple, and the violent rioters of Baltimore all have something in
common, and that is the pursuit of an unattainable product.
Firstly, in the short story Interpreter of Maladies, Mr.
Kapasi grows a passion for the unhappily married mother of three, Mrs. Das.
While driving the family and having a conversation, he noticed that Mrs. Das
had some sort of an interest in him because of his other job translating for a
doctor. He believed that her interest in him would lead up to more than just a
friendship eventually to escape from his current wife. Mr. Kapasi thought this
was possible event though he was old enough to be her father. Another obvious
clue that made him think this was the lack of interest Mrs. Ds showed for her
husband. At one stop through a detour of their trip Mrs. Das stayed in the car
with Mr. Kapasi and waited while her husband and children went for a walk. She
opened up to him during this time explaining why she showed such a lack of
interest for her family. After she confessed to him about cheating on her
husband with his best friend and how her youngest son was of that man, she
turned to Mr. Kapasi for an opinion considering he would know what to tell her.
Lahiri then stated, “She opened her mouth to say something, but as she glared
at Mr. Kapasi some certain knowledge seemed to pass before her eyes and she
stopped. It crushed him; he knew that at that moment he was not even important
enough to be properly insulted”(351). It was at this moment that Mr. Kapasi
realized that whom he thought he possibly had a chance with in the long run was
just and unattainable goal.
To continue, another
literary work that is similar and in common with Interpreter of Maladies
referring to the theme idealism is the short story Hills like White elephants. This
story involves a couple, in which the husband wants his wife to get an abortion
so that they can continue their fun, world traveling life. As per the previous
paragraph, idealism is the pursuit of something unattainable. That unattainable
object was this couple’s happiness. The wife attempts to do what she can to
make him happy but she lost her love for him due to his mindset of wanting to
kill the baby they were expected to have. Abortion is something rough to go through
as a couple because one parent, usually the mother does not want to lose the
baby as opposed to the father who wants to go to bars and just enjoy himself. Abortions are usually always a time of
disagreement between couples and can change a relationship quickly. As opposed
to having a baby and enjoying life with him or her, the husband would rather
travel and do other things besides settling down. He states, “We can have the
whole world”, she then responded “No we cant. It isn’t ours anymore” (117).
That is her response while her husband was continuously trying to convince her
for an abortion. The love in this relationship has diminished due to the
realistically unattainable future that he wants.
Finally, another useful example of idealism would be the
present day riots that occurred on April 27th of 2015. This
occurrence in Baltimore, Maryland was due to the unexpected death of an African
American man while in police custody. The man died due to a severed spinal cord.
No one knows how this man’s spine was severed and there was no information
released by police. These riots were insane because they burnt stores, and
stole merchandise, and especially tried to harm and injure police officers. The
police eventually tamed everyone involved and took the necessary violators into
custody. This was all unnecessary and unrealistic actions made by these people
as an attempt to get revenge on the officers who had the man who died in
custody. This did nothing for the rioters because it got them into so much trouble
they did not need.
As a summation, attempting to do or get something
realistically unattainable done is known as idealism. By using the two short
stories, “Interpreter of Maladies” and “Hills like White Elephants”, non-fictional
yet realistic examples were provided and explained to clearly define the term.
Present day examples such as the Baltimore riot was used to show another
example of idealism just portrayed on the streets of Maryland. These three
sourced are valuable, useful, and rather easy to comprehend.
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