30 pages • 1 hour read
Jhumpa LahiriA Temporary Matter
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Food
Food symbolizes a connection to a cultural past, and this is exactly the case with Shoba in particular. When Shukumar cooks, he is using family recipes that Shoba improved. This shows the way in which second-generation Indian American immigrants have retained elements of their past while assimilating to their new culture. Additionally, Shukumar’s cooking during the outages is a motif that supports the themes of Intimacy and Marriage as well as Deception. A home-cooked meal can be an incredibly intimate thing, as it is a clear reflection of love and effort manifested in a nourishing outcome that is often shared. While Shukumar laments the gift of a sweater vest for his third wedding anniversary, he fondly recalls that Shoba had cooked him a 10-course dinner for their first anniversary. As Shukumar takes up the daily cooking for the couple, he feels uninspired to continue cooking but does it anyway. This mentality toward preparing the food mirrors the attitude he has toward his marriage: He will continue it for the sake of ease, but it is not something he is invested in.
Light and Dark
Light is a universal symbol for knowledge and hope. The planned power outages result in known darkness, which is in itself oxymoronic. Shoba and Shukumar combat this darkness by providing their own “light” (knowledge) in the form of revealing secrets they have kept from the other. Some of these are not as heavy as others, such as Shukumar cheating on a college exam or Shoba skipping a family dinner to have a martini with a coworker, but they all work to further enlighten the other about the complete personhood of their spouse. However, the couple is only able to be open and honest with each other in the comfort of darkness.
At the end of the story, Shoba and Shukumar find out that they will not have a power outage to hide behind on the final night, so they intentionally turn out the lights to try to keep their game alive. Before Shoba breaks the news that she is moving out, she turns the light back on. Her actions—like the motif of light and dark—support the theme of Deception and indicate that she no longer wants to continue this charade in the darkness.
Travel
The motif of travel represents trauma and develops the theme of Loss and Grief. Shukumar traveled to Baltimore for an academic conference when Shoba was three weeks from her due date at her urging. However, Shoba believes that Shukumar missed her traumatic delivery and the death of their baby. In another example, Shukumar traveled to Calcutta as a child and nearly died from amoebic dysentery. As a result, Shukumar never returned to India, and he was denied a rich cultural childhood like Shoba. In these two instances, Shukumar’s travels resulted in traumatic pain. Now, he is bound to his house, hardly even wanting to leave to get groceries from the corner store.
When Shukumar’s mother visited the couple, she sought solace as she continually grieved for her long-deceased husband. Conversely, Shoba’s mother traveled from Arizona to Boston after the stillbirth. She stayed with Shoba and Shukumar out of a familial obligation to support her daughter. Through travel, Lahiri demonstrates the different ways first- and second-generation immigrants grieve. Like his mother, Shukumar is unable to move forward and isolates himself instead of coping with his loss. Shoba reflects her mother’s pragmatism and emotional detachment, as evidenced in her carefully executed plan to move out.
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