Miscommunication
is present in everyday life and is often difficult to circumvent, especially
when it revolves around our lives. Theme is extremely imperative in any piece
of literature and truly defines the underlying details and meaning of the
literary piece. Hills like White
Elephants by Ernest Hemingway and Interpreter
of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri both convey superlative illustrations of an
evident theme known as miscommunication. Miscommunication throughout these two post-modern
stories transmits several different interpretations for the reader to construe
and can be seen in the medical field as well.
This recurring theme not only portrays miscommunication, but also
illustrates failure to converse, such by the fact that Mr. Das continuously is
reading a guidebook and Mrs. Das constantly hiding behind her sunglasses.Miscommunications
mentioned by these authors along with medicine are vital to the construction of
the stories and plays a paramount role in the execution of the authors’ aim.
This theme is also seen in medical practice and Shankur illustrates how it
could become a negative consequence as well.
Interpreter
of Maladies focuses on communication as one of the universal themes
throughout the story. Lahiri uses the theme of miscommunication to demonstrate
various ways of interpreting the underlying details of the characters’ lives. Mr. Kapasi, the interpreter of maladies,
has lost the ability to communicate with his wife, leaving him to drink tea
alone at night. Due to this fact, the Kapasi’s find themselves in a loveless
marriage. The narration depicts that Mr. Kapasi would pick up the newspaper at
night, read it, and enjoy tea served by his wife in silence, no communication
between the two whatsoever. Moreover, this relationship is also evident in the
Das family, in which they are unable to efficiently communicate because of a particular
barrier each has which prevents them from any form of contact; Mrs. Das hiding
behind her sunglasses and Mr. Das’ constant reading of a guide book. Because of
this, their children also behave in the same way and is seen when the children
ignore Mr. Kapasi’s warning of the monkeys. Mrs. Das says, “Mr Kapasi, Do
something, for God’s sake, do something!” (Lahiri 29). This is a result of the
monkeys attacking Mrs. Das’ son, Bobby, because of failure to communicate and
truly notify the Das family about the dangers of bringing food around the
monkeys. Due to the lack of communication between these families, when one is
trying to communicate with another, it ends with someone unintentionally being
hurt.
Hills like White Elephants also centers
on communication indifference as a preeminent theme in this short story. Hemingway
uses miscommunication to convey several ways of deducing the true meaning of
this story. This story illustrates a couple at a crisis point in their
relationship. They struggle, in public, to communicate their opposing views on
the course their relationship should take. Both the man and the woman talk, but
neither listens or comprehends the others point of view. It is at this point in
the story that the “operation” refers to the woman having an abortion, and the
man is continuously trying to convince her to get the procedure done. The girl is extremely indecisive and the man
keeps on telling her that everything will go back to normal if it happens. The
man continues to persist, and the woman begs him to stop talking. The man says,
“You’ve got to realize, that I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if
it means anything to you” (Hemingway 3). This, in a way, is conveying the man’s
manipulation toward the girl and how he just wants to make her happy, although
she doesn’t seem like she cares too much and isn’t involved as much as he is.
It is assumed by now that the man does actually want her to have the abortion,
but without saying it. The girl does want the baby and the man wants the
abortion, but the man just wants her to feel a sense of contentment. It takes the
girl the entire story to say to the man to please stop talking, instead of
communicating normally, and not going back and forth with unimportant context
such as, “But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to” (Hemingway
2). Due to this communication deficiency, both the man and the woman are unsure
of their decision along with the impact of the outcome. Hemingway leaves the
story open for interpretation and a cliffhanger when the couple is waiting at
the train station and the woman says, “I’m fine.”
Aside
from miscommunication in literature, this common theme is also present in
everyday life and a prime example of this is in medicine. Nirupama Shankar
argues that miscommunication is a problem in today’s medical field, and is
growing increasingly worse. Miscommunication is the failure to convey pertinent
medical information to key members in the medical team; resulting in minor to
major errors or even malpractice. In addition, it is very common for several
doctors to miscommunicate, thus leading to the patient being sent to numerous
different specialists. Generally, patients are referred to many, many,
specialists before a diagnosis is made, or even a solution is presented. All the patient is trying to do is to get the
best possible opinion but, during that time of “doctor shopping”, one doctor is
unaware that another doctor is even treating the patient, a result of miscommunication
(Shankar 1). On a more severe note, when a doctor is prescribing medicine to
the patient, it is also possible that the patient will take too much of a dose,
ultimately resulting in severe consequences including nausea, vomiting, bloody
stools, shallow breathing, or even a coma depending on the medication being
taken. The specialist should always make complete sure that he/she is
delivering the proper dose to the patient to ensure an apposite recovery.
In
summation, through the use of theme by Ernest Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, and medical miscommunication, these
authors, along with doctors, are able to emphasize the significance of the way
we interpret a given context. The Das family is at fault for misinterpreting each
other due to the lack of communication between them. If they actually conversed
with each other, they would realize the importance of Mr. Kapasi’s words when
he warned them about bringing food around the monkeys, which ultimately led to
their child Bobby becoming ravaged by the monkeys. Furthermore, instead of
straightforward answers between the man and the girl in Hills like White Elephants, the two decide to speak indirectly
about the abortion and never seem to come to a true conclusion, only with the inference
from the reader. Aside from literature, medical miscommunication is seen by the
result of doctors sending their patients to multiple specialists before coming
to a conclusion, and the doctors doing this unknowingly. Failure to assign the
patients the proper doses of medication is also prevalent as means of
miscommunication. The theme of
miscommunication is an intriguing one, and can be interpreted in various
different ways, but simultaneously can be ineffective and deterring to oneself.
All of the examples mentioned above ultimately depict how miscommunication can
result in negative experiences.
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