One last note: The iceberg

In trying to look at the book from a psychoanalytical perspective, I noticed that by using en media res Kirchner has given ample opportunity for one to analyze the book as whole in terms of the questionable but still somewhat sensible iceberg theorem-- the id, the ego, and the superego. The conflicts of the characters can be viewed in this manner as well as large chunks of the plot.

It can be said that Nina is the superego of the iceberg system of characters. Not only does she try to keep all relations amicable (and it IS her 81st birthday during the current plot line of the story), but also, she tries to forge the relationships themselves. Nina's attempt to reconcile many of the characters could also make her an ego of sorts among several different conflicting ids and super egos.

However, better suited to the book in terms of psychoanalytical examination is the concept of anima versus animus. I saw this moment very close to the end of the book when the two sisters reunite while cooking. During this part, they reveal their frustrations with each and Sujata, usually a "tough woman," finally shows a sign of weakness through her "crumpled face" as she accidentally touches on a sensitive subject about her affair with Pranab, which could be viewed as the anima creeping out onto her animus or masculine exterior, as upon the sisters' return to Darjeeling suddenly Sujata seems to be the hardier one of the two.

Or perhaps the roles have been switched in terms of masculinity and feminineness among Aloka, Pranab, and Sujata.  Pranab's weakness and inability to defend for himself or help himself back in Darjeeling would most likely represent the anima, whereas Aloka and Sujata dominate over Pranab in his weakness (having overcome his duplicity of both of them, naturally) and shows what could be viewed as strength or masculinity, represented by the animus.

Defensive mechanisms also seem to have a role in the book. During their lives in North America, Sujata and Aloka seem to have undergone sublimation, transforming any pain they had into their work (Though this is mainly Sujata) and allowing them to release any hard feelings that they have against Pranab and eventually each other. Occasionally, however, Aloka will project her feelings of not being able to be a good wife to Pranab in her anger about their relationship (this is what I assume at least). But more importantly, the entire book is about the sublimation of the sisters as they are able to move onto bigger and better things.

Transcendentalism in Darjeeling

As I discussed in a post about Seva and may have implied in another post of Pranab, I sense strong hints of Transcendentalist ideas or morphisms of it in the book-- or at least, in revisiting Pranab's quote on page 294 when he describes himself to Sujata as a changed man who know looks at life objectively and through a different pair of eyes. He has accepted that being "ordinary" does not make him any less individual, and still let him become a part of something. In other words, he has found the balance between the Oversoul, and his own individual soul (which I forgot what it was called.) This is understandably connected to the fact that Transcendentalism, as I also mentioned in the first post (unless I didn't) is based off some ideas in Hinduism.

Emerson's belief that we should examine ourselves through nature is re-imagined through the power of food in the story, as the food cooked by Jahar brings out his soul-- he speaks through how he tweaks his food to his own liking. Also, food revives memories of the past for all the characters, allowing them to reflect back on their past and look at it with a new pair of eyes.The food gives the opportunity for the characters to ruminate, it indicates the passage of time as the characters grow, especially Aloka, Sujata, and Pranab. As they go on, the food change meaning along with them, signifying the flux of personal viewpoints within transcendentalism, which encourages personal growth and constant flux.

It should also be noted that, though this is definitely a bit much, that there are parts where the characters compare themselves or their situations to that of deity, namely Nina, who often prays to the gods and compares herself to them throughout he book, often asking them for forgiveness as she feels responsible for having torn apart the family, even though part of it was due to the anger of Bir, The Gupta sisters' now-deceased father. Then again, this could mainly be a more cultural aspect about religion and being able to atone for your sins, namely, that is, if you are Hindu, if you would like to seek out a better next life.

But back to transcendentalism. This could also go back into Jahar and Aloka's relationship, if Jahar is seen as a symbol for Aloka's heart or spirit. The fact that Aloka gradually comes to accept as she develops and matures as a characters demonstrates her inner growth in a more... well, human form. By rekindling a romance with Jahar, it seems like she is bonding even more closely with her inner spirit in order to get in better touch with herself, instead of pursuing aliases like Parveen and Seva.

Pranab the (not so) Tragic Hero.

It's hard to say if Pranab completely fits the criteria of being a tragic hero, because he seems like he's pretty happy by the end of the book. Oh, and he's not dead. Like Mreenal, he has been removed from the complicated web of Sujata, Aloka, and Nina, no longer to meddle in with their lives (this is symbolized by their inability to make it to the party)

Larger than life:
Pranab is an idealist. Though he starts from humble beginnings, he proves himself to be a prodigy in terms of term according to Aloka and Sujata's father, and is well rehearsed in Sanskirt and poetic language and customs, as well as music and dance, which attracts Aloka and Sujata to him. Pranab is also determined to become a greatleader as he eventually plans a worker's rebellion within Aloka and Sujata's family tea business in order to give better rights to the workers.

Tragic flaw:
Aside from hubris (Shown by Pranab's anger at the insolence of New Yorkers, and his increasing frustration with not being able to secure great, influential jobs in America), Pranab's greatest flaw is his own fear. He is unable to face difficulties and instead recedes into his shell once he has lost control. As stated by Aloka to Pranab:

"And, I must say, you were a very attractive man, even as recently as that time in Brooklyn when I saw you dancing. I saw then how powerful you still could be, and I told myself it wasn't that you lacked talent, energy, or intellect. It was just your self-pitying attitude, and if that could be corrected, I was sure you could make a go of it in New York. Then you'd hold no bitterness toward me or feel threatened by my strength and adaptability." (270) (Right after this Pranab has his moment of anagnorisis.)

Driven by an impossible dream:
One of Pranab's impossible dreams seems to be to regain as much control as he has over the workers in Darjeeling back in New York-- he has been disillusioned, perhaps, by the prospects of the American Dream (Gatsby, anyone?) Another impossible dream he has involves trying to relive the past. He really wants Sujata back, even though Sujata has long overcome what has happened before and can now rise above it.

Expects more than the world can give:
Well, this is also evidenced by Pranab's attitude in New York as well how he treats the sisters. Pranab wants Sujata all to herself, even though she has recently been pursuing Mreenal Bose, a sign of the times and how he has moved on. He expects to come into New York and be hailed as a hero of the tea industry, or a soon-to-be hero that will take New York by its rein with his profound knowledge of Sanskrit and music. He returns to Darjeeling expected to be treated as royally and as kindly as he did in the old days, unable to accept that time has passed.

Must fail:
IN one sense, Pranab has definitely failed in trying to repeat the past with Sujata as well as Aloka. And he has not necessarily gained the greatness and power that he had hoped for in the beginning. However, Pranab has managed to find serendipity as he learns to lower her priorities in order to make a compromise with the struggles of is surroundings, as he tells Sujata that he was learning to admire the simpler pleasures in life, in a way discussing that although his first dream may have failed he himself was not a failure and simply had to have a change of heart:

"'Maybe I reached too high, maybe we're not all capable of greatness. From now on, I'm going to concentrate on small activities, like getting some young boy excited about Sanskirt literature. Perhaps it's enough to influence one mind, not hundreds. As I get older, I am finding more satisfaction in simple pleasures. I guess I've finally acsepted being ordinary." (294)

The Monomyth

I never really thought of the Monomyth in terms of Darjeeling until now, really.
But I don't think, in the context of this story, you can really apply one whole monomyth to all the characters. Or rather, you can, it's simply that it is perceived differently by each character:

Loss/Lack: The beginning of the romantic triangle between Aloka, Sujata, and Pranab, where essentially the sisters' love for Pranab tears the foundations of the family apart. Essentially, when all three of these characters are either exiled or flee to North America, they have lost many connections with their home back at Darjeeling when they are forced to start a new life. This could very well be part of the journey however, since it takes a lot of setup to get to this "breakdown point."

If considering this stage of the monomyth to be a form of lack, then the "lack" the three characters go through is maturity or an ability to understand each other genuinely. Sujata is the black sheep, and lacks the respect and acknowledgement that her sister receives. Aloka's lack is her inability to understand her sister's struggles of always having to be in the shadow, and in a sense, she lacks indepence-- both sisters lack independence. Nina's journey for me is all about bringing Aloka and Sujata closer together, even though I find her, through all her mistakes, to be a static character. Even still, her lack would be, then, not being able to keep Aloka and Sujata together?

Journey:
Not including the exile and the immigration, which has a debatable position, the journey for Nina is trying to make amends for the tragedy of Aloka, Sujata, and Pranab's dissipated love triangle, which has also severed some of their relationships. Sujata's journey would be coping with life in Victoria then returning to Darjeeling to make her name known and to regain respect that she did not previously receive, and to be able to face Aloka, her sister and rival, after a long period of alienation. Aloka's journey is trying to overcome the shadow of the "ideal woman's glasses" as she blends into the world of New York but also faces divorce and being able to face her Indian relatives back at home. Pranab's journey is trying to figure out whether he should let go of the past and his status in order to achieve glory.

Test:
For Aloka and Sujata AND Nina, the test was probably the channer payesh  making scene. Period. Or, that could be expanded to Aloka's final confrontation with Pranab and Sujata's final meeting with Mreenal when they stand up to their men and tell them that they have or can move on and do not need a man bringing them down.When Aloka stands up to Pranab in the cafe Pranab receives his test of whether he is willing to pick himself up from an impossibly dark hole.

Return:
Aloka and Parnab both return separately to New York to continue or restart their lives refreshed and renew, their relationships fixed or resolved, likewise with Sujata, who has now returned home to take care of the family tea business.

Food as a bonding point.

YES. Last entry before the fun part-- the reflection entries! (Obviously, I'm not turning this line in)

Food is definitely a bonding point. As I pointed out in the title of the journal.
Firstly, many of the turning points happen over food. Not the negative events mainly, but food signifies a change of heart or the moment when two or more characters are brought closer together.

A very largely emphasized example would be the moment when Aloka and Sujata finally settle their differences and reconcile while making channer payesh a cheese and milk dessert that their Grandma likes-- as Sujata admits to Aloka:

"When she sneaked a look at Sujata, it shocked her to see the crumpled face. Sujata bit her lip, squeezed her hands, and flexed her feet inside her sandals, like she used to do as a child when she was upset. ALoka felt a surge of affection towards Sujata, the usually tough woman, suddenly so vulnerable.  'When Thakurma asked me if I'd help you in the kitchen, at first I had reservations. Then I thought if we spent some time together we could resolve our differences....' Sujata's voice trailed off." (287)

Another moment happens before this-- when Aloka finally defends Sujata against Pranab at a cafe while they are eating snacks, despite the fact that Sujata has had an affair with Pranab in the past. This moment signifies when Aloka is finally able to let go of her grudges as well as her bondage to Pranab, and stand up for her and her sister's dignity (In this scene they were waiting for or already drinking, I couldn't tell, coffee and scones):

"'Are you saying all this because you're angry at me, because I pay more attention to Sujata?'

'Quite the contrary. I have come to consider myself fortunate that you loved Sujata more. All that time I held on to you, playing the dutiful Hindu wife, cost me years of my life. But now, fortunately, I've outgrown all that. Had we remained married, you'd have dragged me down even more.'" (270)

Also, as mentioned earlier, Aloka and Jahar first bond over food, and Sujata's last day in Victoria is spent over dinner when her friends encourage her and give her advice in regards to her romantic problems back in Darjeeling.

(On a random note, I notice that Sujata is referred to as Suzy only in the chapters she narrates... probably because she is still Sujata to the rest of the family....)

Also, Aloka and Nina are able to get closer to each other in terms of a granddaughter-grandmother relationship over a very exquisite lunch, just as Sujata and Nina in the chapter before further reconcile while discussing tea. In regards to the former, this is the moment when Nina suggests to Aloka that she make the channer payesh with Sujata. Also, at these respective points Aloka and Sujata soon reveal that they have overcome many of their obstacles and have gotten over their love for Pranab. These are also the moments when they assert their independence.

Jahar as a Symbol

This is a quick one, mainly because Jahar's a minor character.

After reading through one of my journal entries where I discuss how Aloka asserts or brings down women's roles in the book, I began to see Jahar as almost a symbolic character, whether Kirchner intended him to be one or not.

The first reason I say this is because of Jahar's intimate connection with food- when he first tries to woo over Aloka at the Korean deli, he tries to persuade by promising a home-cooked meal-as Kirchner, a cookbook author, greatly values the importance of food, and Jahar is shown to cook with his heart, food represents the soul in this context:

"'I can tell you have many important things to do. But please I'm making a good Indian meal--sukhe aloo, gughni, and  pullao rice. It'd be an honor if you joined us. I'd very much like to talk to you."

This almost ties back to Aloka's search for her own cultural identity (which her counterpart Seva seems to know plenty about.) As she assimilates into life in New York, she adopts more of their dress and their tastes (when she returns to Darjeeling, she spends most of her time drinking coffee at a cafe that reminds her of New York) until she is considered to foreign to her own homeland:

"In the next few minutes Aloka confessed how in these past several days seh'd been visiting family and friends and making excursions to all her old haunts-- Birch Hill, Observatory Hill, the zoo...but no matter where she went or whom she met, she was aware that something vital had been lost forever. People sensed the difference and treated her with a certain reserve." (256)

On the outside, as Aloka no longer dons the dress and mannerisms of her home, it seems like Aloka has been fully absorbed into American culture. However, as her relationship with Jahar proves, she does not.

Jahar is uncomfortable in upscale social activities, much like the new immigrant would not be able to understand such activities. Furthermore, by writing to Seva he seems to be trying to reach to Aloka's "inner spirit," a spirit that is deeply rooted in her childhood's culture, despite her disinterest in tea. The fact that Aloka feels more comfortable and herself around Jahar also contributes to Jahar's symbolism as her spirit or even inner self.

Nina in a Feminist perspective

I honestly don't hear too much of Nina in all that I've read about her, except that (with fair exception that she is a grandmother) the classic traditionalist mother who wants to keep everything stable and just like the old days. Which is interesting, because this brings up two conflicting aspects of her which to this day leave me confused about whether she is to promote women as powerful or equal figures to men or if they are as always subservient.

She's the matriarch of the whole family, so it is in fact a woman that orchestrates everything that happens in the Gupta family (Okay, I know, it's bad logic. It's like saying that because a woman picked up a bag of money off the street, then it symbolizes that women are supposed to be in control of the money and thus economy... but that's beside the point.)

But then again she also has a role as the "nurturing mother," who raises the sisters by herself after their mother passes away and takes it upon herself to make sure both of the girls are happy and well raised as well as protected. This can, then again, go more into honoring family values and bonding.

However, one thing that Aloka points out earlier in the book is that Nina/Thakurma makes plenty of social commentary in regards to life in Darjeeling, and advocates teh growing influence of women in social, economical, and political matters:

"In my last letter I had mentioned how women in the village of Sonagunj were trying to get elected to their community council. As you well know I am all for them. It was our ancient poet Kalidasa who once said, 'Look for a land where women are in good spirits, for that is a prosperous country...'


Aloka smiled. Grandma's letters always began with a commentary on some aspect of social or political life-- she had been nicknamed All Indian Radio by her neighbors." (10)

Another thing that makes her represent the power that women have in society is when she herself defies social  boundaries and expectations put upon her, and as a result becomes a respected legend. In chapter 26 starting on page 160 there is a length flashback where Nina recounts to Aloka and Sujata, then children, about how her marriage with her husband and their grandfather came to be, even though they were of different social class. She describes the way that she was mistreated by her judgmental mother-in-law, up until the day she confronted her:

"I sprang up faster than a tigress leaps at her prey, threw off the veil, and took the pins out of my hair, alowing my tresses to cascade down my back and over my face. Mouths fell open. They'd never seen such long, shiny, locks, and certainly no one expected a young married woman to assert herself in this fashion. 'Choop karo,'  I said. Shut up. My mother-in-law nearly fainted, her old cousin breathed terribly hard, and the rest looked up at me in shocked silence. I felt glorious" (170)

Letting down you hair is according to the book impolite in Indian culture, so by breaking expectations of her as a wife that she couldn't meet, Nina in this scene has asserted her power and her independence in oen swish of her hair.