An Emo-scape of Jhumpa Lahiri's "A Temporary Matter"
“A Temporary Matter,” published by Jhumpa Lahiri (1998) in the New Yorker in 1998, follows Shoba and Shukumar’s marriage over a period of five days. The couple met in college and lived a happy, insulated existence in suburban America for several years. It all changed after the loss of a child — they grew apart and now live independent lives, albeit under the same roof. The author describes their disconnection through descriptions of them eating meals separately — one eats in front of his computer and the other on the couch whilst reading her papers — and through small glimpses of forced communication, for instance, “It was the one time in the day she sought him out, and yet he’d come to dread it” (para. 16).
The story appears to be set towards the end of the winter — the narrator mentions the last snowstorm which damaged power lines in the couple’s town — intensifying the gloom in their relationship. In order to repair the power cables, the city notifies its people, including Shoba and Shukumar, of an electricity shut down every night between 8pm and 9pm for five days — the duration of Lahiri’s 1998 story. Since the couple often eats dinner at around 8pm, their routines wearere disrupted. Shoba even complains that, “they should do this sort of thing during the day” (para. 3), when, people are at work and are less dependent on electricity for everything, from food to movement."It was the one time in the day she sought him out, and yet he'd come to dread it." (Lahiri, 1998, para. 16)
In the electricity's stead, Shoba and Shukumar turn to candles to illuminate the kitchen in the evening. Due to the limited coverage of candlelight, they are forced to sit at the table across from each other, and engage in a meal ritual they have not indulged in for a long time. Something about the darkness — perhaps its intimacy — along with the temporary disconnection from modern life, helps them communicate with each other again. They share secrets: stories they never told each other before. From Shukumar’s confession about cheating on an exam to Shoba’s admission of the fact that she avoided meeting her mother-in-law and went out for drinks instead, the stories bring about a range of emotions.
Analysis"Something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again." (Lahiri, 1998, para. 82)
The contrast between electricity and candlelight stands out to me. Power represents an “energy afterlife” — its omnipresence is a result of industrialisation and the extraction of coal and oil. On the contrary, the use of candlelight in modern society is rare; it feels like a resistance to energy in some way. For instance, Shoba and Shukumar could have bought battery-operated torches and gone about life as usual — separately. Instead, the story emphasises candlelight. Consequently, I see candlelight as an “anti-energy afterlife” of sorts. I pre-empt the criticism that candle wax is formed via petroleum and choose to consider the candlelight a symbolic “anti-energy afterlife.” Moreover, the instance in the story where Shukumar shops for a beeswax candle (Lahiri, 1998, para. 83), supports my thesis of candlelight as antithetical to energy — beeswax is a natural wax made by honey bees and is less extractive and more sustainable than paraffin wax.
A large part of the narration is about how candlelight forces Shoba and Shukumar out of their disconnection. It helps them process emotions and histories that they had become numb to, including the stillborn birth of their child. While the story ends — unexpectedly — in their mutual decision to separate, there is something mature and cathartic about their interactions over the five days. Especially the fact that it is not the traditional “fairytale” or “happy” ending; instead, it highlights their shared concession or acceptance of the end of their marriage.
I decided to graphically depict the waves of emotions the couple navigated, from their distance in the first paragraph to their mindful separation in the ninety-eighth. I used Gloria Wilcox’s Feeling Wheel to categorise the emotions. The wheel includes seven fundamental emotions — namely, Sad, Mad, Scared, Joyful, Powerful and Peaceful. The secondary and tertiary sub-layers in this model — which include emotions that are related to the primary seven — gave me a greater range of emotions to assign to the feelings in each sentence. For instance, the option to distinguish between being discouraged and being apathetic opened up. When a sentence conveyed multiple emotions simultaneously, I assigned it one data point tally if the emotions fell under the same broad category; or, two data point tallies if they fell under different categories such as "Sad" and "Scared."
Keeping the role of energy and emotion in the story in mind, I chose a streamgraph for my visualisation. First, it allowed me to showcase how multiple emotions, both positive and negative, could co-exist while people journeyed on the path of healing. Secondly, the visibility of intense peaks and lulls illuminated how healing is not linear and is a constant negotiation. Finally, the graphic provided insights into the Shoba and Shukumar’s life over the five days — for instance, the gradual increase in the prevalence of emotions in the "Powerful" category foreshadowed their separation. The "Powerful" sub-category includes feelings such as confidence and hope; thus, the increase in these emotions could explain how the couple finally found the courage to separate.
The black background in the visualisation symbolises the darkness against which Shoba and Shukumar’s story unfolds, and the text behind the streamgraph is the recipe to the culturally significant “Mutton Rogan Josh” (Tnn, 2017): the meal the couple enjoys on the first night. The colours in the streamgraph represent the colours of spices, some of which — like chilli powder and coriander — are mentioned in the recipe. In my experience, Mutton Rogan Josh is enjoyed by South Asians on occasions; perhaps Shukumar knew deep down — consciously or subconsciously — that the five days of candlelit meals was going to be special!
Bibliography"They wept together, for the first time in their lives, for the things they now knew." (Lahiri, 1998, para. 98)
France, T. (n.d.). "Machine-driven Literary Book Covers." Tiffany France. https://tiffanyfrance.com/ml-books/.
The Feeling Wheel. "The Feeling Wheel | by Gloria Willcox | All The Feelz." (n.d.). https://allthefeelz.app/feeling-wheel/.
Lahiri, J. (1998, April 13). “A Temporary Matter." The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/04/20/a-temporary-matter.
Tnn. (2017, June 5). "Shahi Rogan Josh Recipe: How to make Shahi Rogan Josh Recipe: Homemade Shahi Rogan Josh Recipe." Times Food. https://recipes.timesofindia.com/us/recipes/shahi-rogan-josh/rs58983691.cms.