Pardue 1

Gabrielle Pardue

Dr. Colon

English 38033

May 8, 2015

Why Objects Matter

In A Sense of Things, Bill Brown discusses how inanimate objects

and things allow human beings to “form and transform themselves”

(Brown 28). Brown goes on to discuss the influence and power of

material things, noting: “We use objects to make meaning, to make

or re-make ourselves, to organize our anxieties and affections,

to sublimate our fears and shape our fantasies” (Brown 4).

Objects play a critical role in literature and provide a new

medium through which the characters can materialize their

feelings and self worth. The things we collect are a living

testament to our actions, thoughts, and even feelings, because

objects provide a means through which we can express ourselves.

In Alice Munro’s The Love of a Good Woman and Jhumpa Lahiri’s

Interpreter of Maladies, the authors use everyday material things in

their stories to provide clarity, and to reveal more about their

characters. Through the objects we are able to uncover the deeper

allegorical significance that enshrouds the stories as a whole.

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The short stories often end in the middle of thought, and there

is not always closure or a fulfilled ending, as a result the

everyday items provide the readers clues into how the story might

unfold in the future. In Alice Munro’s The Love of a Good Woman and

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, the authors seamlessly

implement ordinary and everyday objects to allude to the inner

thoughts and feelings of the characters, because the objects

contain deeper allegorical significance that ultimately reveals a

greater understanding about the culture and the characters

themselves.

In The Love of a Good Woman, Munro implements archived

items and objects in a museum to illuminate the truth about a

covered up murder. In the short story “A Love of a Good Woman,”

we are presented with a “retinoscope” with a “flat face that is

made of glass and is a dark sort of mirror. Everything is black,

but that is only paint” (Munro 4). The opening pages of the story

leave the readers with a double entendre, that of a painted over

mirror on the retinoscope that lies archived in a museum. What

was once a reflective and revealing surface is now covered, and

now harbors a secret. The painted mirror sets up the rest of the

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story, because nothing is at it initially seems. Judith McCombs

explains that The Love of a Good Woman,“is a concealed murder mystery

whose luminous, disturbing power emanates in great part from her

transformation of Grimm’s Bluebeard tales, compounded with other

Grimm’s tales, Gothic romance and Bible myths” (McCombs 123).

Munro is able to manifest the symbolism and references to

Biblical, Gothic romance, and Grimm’s fairy tales through the

objects in her book, they are considered “luminous” because the

objects ultimately lead us to the truth. But, the retinoscope has

secrets that will be revealed, and “in some places…the paint has

disappeared and you can see a patch of shiny metal” (Munro 4).

McCombs illuminates that the retinoscope with the patches of

silver through the paint, “hints at the sexual rubbings that will

lead to murder and dark, cover-up paint. On the mythic and

Biblical mystery level, the same image intimates that out of

blackness and rubbing, shining patches of illumination will come,

when we learn to see not darkly but clearly” (McCombs 124). All

by a simple retinoscope with chipped off paint there is an

allusion to the cover up of the murder of Mr. Willens. The object

plays a pivotal role in the story as a whole, because from the

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beginning it tells a story that does not lie. People can lie and

hide the truth but inanimate objects provide the “shining patches

of illumination” to the readers. Also archived in the local

museum is a “red box, which has the letters D.M. Willens,

Optometrist printed on it” (Munro 3). Alice Munro hides her clues

in plain sight to the point where they are easily forgotten and

overlooked. McCombs tells that the red box “is the clue that will

solve the murder mystery: the red box that ‘escaped the

catastrophe’ and was anonymously ‘dispatched’ some twenty years

later” (McCombs 124). The red box is the only remaining evidence

of Mr. Willens murder; it has survived the test of time, and is

the only thing that is able to tell the story of the death. The

objects are left in the museum, because they are the relics that

testify to the murder and life of Mr. Willens. A museum is

supposed to preserve and reflect impressive cultural and personal

achievements, in this case, the objects left in the museum are

the witnesses of a covered up murder.

In “The Love of a Good Woman,” appearances are deceptive and

misleading, but the actions and objects of the characters uncover

the truth. Hallvard Dahlie explores the uncertainty in Munro’s

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short stories and notes, “the situations that are

characteristically depicted in her fiction frequently transcend

the literal bounds of our conscious realizations, and leave us

with a residual uncertainty, puzzlement, or even despair” (Dahlie

57). What we see is not always what we get. The actions and

thoughts of the characters are misleading and so we have to turn

to what cannot lie: the physical objects in the stories. Rupert

murders Mr. Willens because he got the “wrong idea” and thought

his wife was having an affair (Munro 59). Rupert is misled by the

actions of Mr. Willens and his wife and as a result he lashes out

and kills him. People can be deceived and tricked, but objects

are constant and cannot be transformed into something that they

are not. The characters are able to cover themselves with a

façade, but the material things provide an unbiased and clear

witness to the events that transpire. Mrs. Quinn tells Enid: “I

could tell you something and you wouldn’t believe. Lies…I bet it

it’s all lies” (Munro 56). Mrs. Quinn tells Enid in an encoded

message that appearances are unreliable, and you cannot trust

anyone. After the murder, the only living testament and shrine to

Mr. Willens after his sudden death are the relics left forgotten

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in the museum. Mrs. Quinn attempts to conceal the murder of Mr.

Willens, and uses “the brown paint left over when Rupert pained

the steps and she painted over the whole floor. That started her

throwing up…” (Munro 61). The paint is a clue into the mind of

Mrs. Quinn. Is she painting the floor out of guilt for her

husband killing Mr. Willens, or is she painting the floor out of

guilt for having had an affair? Nothing is explicitly stated, and

so the reader must interpret the scenes based on the evidence

from the characters themselves and the objects left behind. The

paint also references back to the “painted mirror” on the

retinoscope, everything and every action always leads back to the

objects archived in the museum. They are the only surviving

witnesses to what actually transpired in the murder of Mr.

Willens.

Because of the gaps and ambiguities present in The Love of a

Good Woman the objects and their meanings need to be interpreted

by the readers to find their ultimate role in the stories and

their significance. In Reading Texts, Linda Flower, Kathleen

McCormick and Gary Waller argue, “First, literary texts not only

seem ambiguous, but in fact they encourage multiple, different

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readings. Because literature is polyvalent, it can always mean more

than one thing, and its polyvalence makes it enjoyable to read”

(Flower, McCormick, Waller 8). A polyvalent reading not only

strengthens the text but also leads to more scholarly discussions

about the work, because there is room for various

interpretations. Polyvalent readings force readers to be

analytical and use discernment to arrive at what they believe to

be the best answer. For example, in the “The Love of a Good

Woman,” we are left with the three scenarios regarding Mrs. Quinn

and Mr. Willens. Catherine Ross in her essay elaborates on the

various possible scenarios, “In the first account Rupert

misinterprets behavior…in the second version, the grabbing is

redescribed as deliberate, habitual…in the third version, the

sexual encounter is planned in advance…” (Ross 789). Munro leaves

us with three entirely contrasting possible scenarios about

whether or not Mrs. Quinn is innocent or a culprit, concerning an

alleged affair with Mr. Willens. Munro never gives us a firm

answer; rather she leaves it up to the reader to decide for

ourselves what the truth is. The story does not end on a final

note, but rather can leave the reader feeling at unease. Ildiko

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Carrington in her article discusses how Alice Munro uses a

“metafictional, many-voiced narrative about narration, a story

that not only tells how and why stories are told or not told—or

retold and reinterpreted—but also compels its readers to

participate in the narrative, interpretive, and reinterpretive

process” (Carrington 34). Alice Munro never simply gives anything

away, rather the reader must participate in an active reading and

assume that all the objects left in the narrative play a key role

and hide a secret.

In order to better understand the intention and hidden

meanings in Alice Munro’s short stories, the focus must be placed

on the objects and things in the stories, because they cannot

lie. A polyvalent reading can lead to the problem of discerning

what makes a good interpretation, and what makes a bad

interpretation. Ross states, “Interpretive problems occur at

every level of the story, not just when we try to decide how we

should evaluate characters and events but also when we determine

just what those events are” (Ross 792). Because of the holes and

gaps present in most of the story lines it is difficult to piece

together what is meant to invoke a deeper meaning, and what is

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simply there as enrichment to the story. But because of the gaps

present the reader is invited to insert their own thoughts and

opinions to what transpired. John Gerlach in his article notes, “

The Love of a Good Woman poses unusual problems for the reader at its

conclusion—which is virtually no conclusion at all” (Gerlach

146). Gerlach views the lack of conclusion as a problem but it is

actually a benefit to the audience. The lack of a definitive

explanation leads to critical thinking and an attempt for a

deeper understanding of the short stories. So in the end a

polyvalent reading strengthens the work because it provides a way

for the reader to actively read the text to observe what the

author wants us to try and understand. Alice Munro specifically

inserts indirect objects to provide clues to the readers to help

discern how the story will end. Ross champions the idea that

Alice Munro implements everyday and ordinary objects to

ultimately help the reader’s reach clarity in an ambiguous and

polyvalent narrative. Ross notes, “An apprenticeship in reading

Munro teaches the importance of things that are off to the side,

just out of our line of vision, innocent objects that we normally

pass over” (Ross 786). Alice Munro does not simply give anything

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away, but she requires an active reading in order to realize and

catch the seemingly “innocent objects” that are typically

overlooked and forgotten. Munro always has an overarching enigma

present in her stories. The objects she places are just as

important to the characters actions, because through them we are

able to find the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Alice Munro writes seemingly disconnected and varied short

stories, but they are all connected by the common theme that

there is always a hidden secret that will surface from the

objects in the stories. In “Indirect Objects,” Barbara Croft

remarks, “These stories are like a flock of birds in flight.

Separate, often disparate-seeming, elements are swept along by

the energy of the narrator’s voice” (Croft 15). Although the

elements and narratives seem disparate they are coherent and

weave together a complete and intertwined narrative. The

uncertainty that covers all of the stories helps the readers

deduce what they believe to be fitting. Croft discusses how the

“impact of clarity” in a story will drastically shape the final

conclusions readers are able to draw from the story as a whole.

All of the stories contain ambiguities, the only way to reach

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clarity is to analyze the seemingly ordinary objects Alice Munro

has left in her stories as clues. In “Cortes Island” the Little

Bride and Mr. Gorrie form an intimate connection that reveals the

truth about a mysterious murder. The Little Bride is never given

a name in the story, and is considered inept and inferior to Mrs.

Gorrie. Mr. Gorrie is also considered to be virtually useless by

Mrs. Gorrie, but the Little Bride and Mr. Gorrie are the

overlooked characters who will begin to unravel the mystery of a

fire. The Little Bride takes care of the handicapped Mr. Gorrie

and she describes their pathway of speech: “I can only describe

these noises as grunts, snorts…mumbles. But by this time they

sounded to me almost like words” (Munro 133). The Little Bride

and Mr. Gorrie share an intimate and unspoken connection. Even

though Mr. Gorrie is incapable of speech, he is the one to reveal

the truth of a murder to the Little Bride. Mr. Gorrie uses the

connection he shares with the Little Bride to encourage her to

uncover an article that possibly incriminates Mr. and Mrs.

Gorries in a mysterious death. In the “Vancouver Sun April 17,

1923,” the Little Bride reads about a fire that killed a man in

which the Gorrie’s might have played a small role (Munro 136).

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The article itself is hidden away in a scrapbook that is sitting

in plain sight. Mr. Gorrie is sharing a secret from his past

through the medium of objects because that is the only way he is

physically able to communicate. Objects are able to communicate

and articulate the truth better than words ever could.

In Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri implements ordinary

events and household goods to reveal hidden secrets about the

culture, and the true feelings of her characters. In “A Temporary

Matter,” an event involving the electricity being turned off will

reveal the true thoughts and attitudes of a married couple.

Shukumar notes, “she used to do the shopping, the pantry was

always stocked with extra bottles of olive and corn oil…” (Lahiri

6). The pantry is a direct reflection of how Shoba feels. Before

her stillbirth the pantry was one filled to excess and always

stocked, and now like her it is empty and barren. Shukumar,

instead of caring for how Shoba feels focuses on the state of

their house, and how Shoba is no longer caring for it, or

herself. When the electricity turns off the couple decide to eat

in the dark and Shoba suggests that they tell “something we’ve

never told before” (Lahiri 13). Shoba proposes in a obscure way

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that the couple should begin to open up, and tell each other

secrets. Shoba implements a seemingly innocent game to ultimately

build up to her revealing a big secret to her husband. After the

loss of the baby, Shoba has closed herself off, and finally

enshrouded in darkenss is when feels comfortable enough to reveal

herself to Shukumar. It is ironic because she is concealing

herself physically in the dark, but she is opening up emotionally

behind the cover of darkness. The couple have never truly been

able to recover after the loss of their child but, “when the

house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again”

(Lahiri 19). The power turning off is a routine and normal event.

In reality, it signifies revealing their thoughts to one another.

Only when the lights are off is the couple finally able to

illuminate to one another what their secrets and true feelings

are. Shoba decides to tell Shukumar on the final night of the

power outage that she “had signed a lease that night before

coming home” for an apartment to spend time alone (Lahiri 21).

Shoba has used the pretense of a game to finally tell how unhappy

she is with her marriage. The game provided an outlet for Shoba

to express the emptiness and loneliness she now experiences with

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Shukumar. The game and the food were the tools the couple used to

express their own thoughts and feelings towards one another,

because they have lost sight with how to clearly communicate with

one another. The material things such as the pantry, and the

dinners in the dark are the channel that the couple use to

communicate with one another, and arrive at a conclusion of what

to do with their dying marriage.

In “Mrs. Sen’s,” the food present in the story plays a

pivotal piece in manifesting the true character and attitudes of

those in the story. Eliot’s mother when hiring a babysitter makes

the comment, “Eliot is eleven. He can feed and entertain himself,

I just want an adult in the house” (Lahiri 111). Eliot’s mother

appears to be apathetic and treats her son more like a nuisance

than a person. Just by her remarks about his eating capabilities

we see that his mother is depicted as an uncaring mother with

priorities other than taking care of her son. In stark contrast

to Eliot’s mom, is Mrs. Sen who goes above and beyond what is

necessary. In a description of the dinner prepared the narrator

tells us: “Brimming bowls and colanders lined the countertop,

spices and pastes were measured and blended…It was never a

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special occasion, nor was she ever expecting company. It was

merely dinner for herself and Mr. Sen” (Lahiri 117). Mrs. Sen

prides herself on always providing an extravagant traditional

home cooked meal. Even though she is only cooking for herself and

her husband Mrs. Sen expresses her love and feels connected to

her culture when she cooks. Food provides a medium for cultural

and personal expression, Mrs. Sen expresses her culture and her

dedication and for Eliot’s mom, feeding Eliot is not a priority.

The narrator comments on Eliot’s mom, “she wasn’t hungry for the

pizza they normally ordered for dinner…eventually she went to the

deck to smoke a cigarette, leaving Eliot to wrap up the

leftovers” (Lahiri 118). Eliot’s mother leaves him to fend for

himself, rather than cooking for him she orders a pizza and

leaves him to clean up. Eliot is more mature than his mother,

because she can barely take car of herself, let alone Eliot. In

her review, Jaime Harker explores the idea that the food is in

reality a “doppelganger” or an extension of the character

themselves. Food is distinctive and representative of a culture,

as a result, when we place food under a lens we are able to learn

more about the person who prepared it as well as the culture as a

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whole. Food is often overlooked and forgotten about, because it

appears to be an ordinary and everyday ritual. But we are able to

learn a significant amount from food, because it is an everyday

and ritualistic occurrence. Laura Williams explores the

“Gastronomic Theory of Literature” in her journal. In her article

she notes, “Food in great fictions opens the door to double and

triple meaning” (Willaims 69). Food and dishes are universal in

every culture, they are a way that we are all connected because

we are dependent on sustenance to live. Food provides a portal

through which political, personal, and cultural beliefs may be

expressed. Though food is seemingly ordinary and mundane, Jhumpa

Lahiri is able to transform it into something extraordinary that

is able to give us insight about the characters and the culture.

Eliot’s mother manifest a traditional American style of a fast

food culture, whereas Mrs. Sen implements her intricate and

delicate dishes to exhibit her own Indian culture.

Cooking and food are not only a means of expressing cultural

identity but also a way to preserve social and cultural identity

for the characters. Mrs. Sen brought a special “blade from India”

that she uses to prepare her food (Lahiri 115). The blade allows

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Mrs. Sen to prepare elaborate and beautiful dishes from India,

but it also represents how cooking was a communal and celebrated

affair back home. Mrs. Sen tells Eliot, “Whenever there is a

wedding… or large celebration of any kind, my mother send out

word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bring

blades just like this one…laughing and gossiping and slicing

fifty kilos of vegetables” (Lahiri 115). Mrs. Sen feels displaced

and alone in America, her knife is a piece of her culture and

memories from home. Eliot’s mother practices an impersonal method

of cooking, just ordering pizza. Mrs. Sen puts all her love and

dedication into cooking, because it is something that she can

dedicate herself to while reminding herself of home. Eileen Chung

in her article discusses how cooking is a means of preserving

identity and equates it to a term she calls, “immigrant

nostalgia” (Chung 225). Mrs. Sen is constantly telling Eliot of

all her memories of home, and they all tie back to food, and how

it was considered a communal event. Cooking represents not only

the culture, but the inner feelings of Mrs. Sen. Mrs. Sen resists

at all costs learning how to drive, which signifies her

resistance against modernization. “When Mrs. Sen refused to

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practice driving. The blade never emerged from the cupboard…”

(Lahiri 127). Mrs. Sen is distressed and feels out of place, as a

result she stops cooking because she does not understand or fit

into the American culture. Her knife is a testament to her

clinging to her old fashioned ways of living, because she would

rather take the time to cut everything herself rather than use a

machine. Cooking is the medium that Mrs. Sen uses to remain true

to herself and her culture, as well as defy the American culture

that she is thrown into. In “Sexy” and

“Mrs. Sen’s,” Miranda and Mrs. Sen use the domestic and material

products to symbolize and advertise their relationship statuses.

In “Sexy,” Miranda has an affair with the married Dev, and

decides “to buy herself things she thought a mistress should

have…black high heels…sheer stocking… a cocktail dress” (Lahiri

92). Miranda personifies what being a mistress is to her through

the things she buys. Rather than focusing on the affair itself,

she focuses on the technicalities of being a mistress, including

high heels and cocktail dresses. Miranda is naïve and

inexperienced and buys these things to justify her role as Dev’s

lover. Her objects that she has accumulated turn into her

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identity, and they become the focal point of the relationship. In

“Mrs. Sen’s” Mrs. Sen tells Eliot, “I must wear the powder

everyday…for the rest of the days that I am married” (Lahiri

117). Not only does the powder reflect Mrs. Sen’s culture, but

also her identity as a married woman. Mrs. Sen has to wear the

powder as long as she is married, for the women in the short

stories their identities are founded by their clothes and their

appearances. Vanita Reddy argues in her article "Jhumpa Lahiri's

Feminist Cosmopolitics and the Transnational Beauty Assemblage",

“Lahiri's stories, beauty operates as a deeply, if unevenly,

socializing force within moments of cross-cultural and

interracial encounter, generating affects such as estrangement,

identification, and desire, which open onto articulations of

citizenship and belonging” (39). Lahiri creates multifaceted

female characters that are able to express their thoughts and

feelings through their beauty standards and their food

preparation. Miranda attributes her role as a mistress to the

physical things that she must own in order to be successful in

her relationship, and Mrs. Sen exhibits her identity as a married

woman behind the powdered makeup she must wear. The women take

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what little control they have, and implement objects to express

where their place and role is in society.

Overall the objects present in Interpreter of Maladies and The Love

of a Good Woman, are the only ways that the reader can uncover the

truth about the characters and the stories. Branko Gorjup in his

article concludes that in Alice Munro’s stories, “there are no

major or minor points of orientation, no more or less significant

stories, confessions, or revelations. Ultimately, there are no

great epiphanies—only a mirage of insights” (Gorjup 61). Munro

provides these insights by leaving her stream of consciousness in

the objects themselves. The objects are critical, because their

role is just as significant as the characters, and the objects

will reveal more truth than the words and actions of the

characters ever could. Lahiri also uses objects to project the

inner feelings of the characters, but to also preserve their

cultural heritage. Both of the authors are able to seamlessly

implement ordinary and overlooked objects that have the power to

tell the truth. The material and physical things in the stories

replace the normal channel of communication, and instead form a

new medium of communication, one that cannot lie.

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Bibliography

Brown, Bill. A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literature.

Chicago: U of Chicago, 2003. Print.

Carrington, Ildiko. "Studies in Short Fiction." Don't Tell (on) Daddy":

Narrative Complexity in Alice Munro's "The Love of a Good Woman" 34 (1997):

n. pag. Questia. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Croft, Barbara. "Review:

Indirect Objects." The Women's Review of Books 16.4 (1999): 15-16.

JSTOR. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Dahlie, Hallvard. "The Fiction of Alice Munro." Ploughshares

4.3, Criticism (1978): 56-71. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

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Fung, Eileen Chia-Ching.

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Reddy, Vanita. "Jhumpa Lahiri's Feminist Cosmopolitics and the

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Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. "‘Too Many Things’: Reading Alice

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