The Third and Final Continent

34

3. The Third and Final Continent

In this short story, the main character is remained unnamed. Anita George in her essay, Juggling Apple Pies and Samosas remarks that The Third and Final Continent is a partially fictionalized account of her parents’ lives in the late 1960s, during which they emigrated from India to Britain and then finally immigrated to America to settle permanently http:www.helium.comitems1131538-indian- american-immigration-literary-analysis-the-final-continent-jhumpa, accessed December 15, 2010. The main character in this short story is an Indian Bengali man who leaves India in 1964 with a certificate in commerce 173 and a great wish to achieve a better future in the new continent. He arrives in London, in a house occupied exclusively by penniless Bengali bachelors who all struggle to educate and establish themselves abroad 173. Even though he studies and works in a continent different from his homeland, he still practices his original customs, like cooking egg curry which he eats with his hands on a table covered with newspapers 173 and offering himself for an arranged-marriage 174. He also adapts with his new environment quickly, like drinking tea and smoking Rothmans 173, and watching cricket at Lord’s 174. Soon after he gets married, he moves to America as he is offered a full- time job with good salary in the processing department of a library at MIT. His wife is still in India and she will follow him to America if her passport and green card are ready. Therefore, he stays at YMCA in Cambridge, learns the American customs, such as trying milk and cornflakes as his daily breakfast menu 175 and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 35 converting ounces to grams 175 when he does his shopping. He moves from YMCA to Mrs. Croft’s, who only accepts students either from Harvard or Tech 177. Mrs. Croft is an old lady with a peculiar look and an old-fashioned manner. She wore a long black skirt that spread like a stiff tent to the floor, and a starched white shirt edged with the ruffles at the throat and cuffs. Her hands, folded together in her lap, had long pallid fingers, with swollen knuckles and tough yellow nails. Age had battered her features so that she almost resembled a man, with sharp, shrunken eyes and prominent creases on other side of her nose. Her lips, chapped and faded, had nearly disappeared, and her eyebrows were missing altogether 178. In their first encounter, he is surprised by the loud voice of Mrs. Croft who always demands him to do something, like to lock up the door, fasten the chain and firmly press the button on the knob 178, to be punctual in paying the rent 178 and to shout for American’s success to land on the moon. The women bellowed, “A flag on the moon, boy I heard it on the radio Isn’t that splendid?” “Yes, madame.” But she was not satisfied with my reply. Instead she commanded, “Say, ‘splendid’”…I said nothing. “Say splendid” the woman bellowed once again. “Splendid,” I murmured. I had to repeat the word a second time at the top of my lungs, so she could hear 179-180. This command becomes his ritual every time he meets Mrs. Croft every morning and afternoon in the living room after he decides to rent the room though he cannot bring his wife in since Mrs. Croft does not allow lady visitors. Yet, he is happy to have an access to kitchen for cooking curry. When he unexpectedly meet Mrs. Croft’s daughter, Helen, who comes once a week for bringing groceries for her mother, Mrs. Croft is at rage. “It is improper for a lady and gentleman who are not married to one another to hold a private conversation without a chaperone” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 36 Helen said she was sixty-eight years old, old enough to be my mother, but Mrs. Croft insisted that Helen and I speak to each other downstairs, in the parlor. She added that it was also improper for a lady of Helen’s station to reveal her age, and to wear a dress so high above the ankle 186. When the time of his wife’s arrival is getting near, he has to find a new place of residence for him and his wife, Mala. He moves to a furnished apartment a few blocks away, with a double bed and a private kitchen and bath 190. Mala is twenty-seven, and she can cook, knit, embroider, sketch landscape and recite poems by Tagore 181. Even though for the first time it feels strange for both of them to live together in one room, they live their daily life by speaking Bengali at home, eating Indian food as well as going to supermarket and having a picnic. Their connection as husband and wife is bought closer after their short visit to Mrs. Croft’s. When he reads Mrs. Croft’s obituary, he is stricken with grief, it is the first death he mourns in America 196. After thirty years of living his life in America with his wife and his only son, they continue passing the tradition to their son, like eating rice with hands and speaking in Bengali 197, things that they sometimes worry their son will no longer do after they die. They reside as American citizens, own a house with a garden and have social security. They have survived for three continents, as well as survived in the crossroads of cultures.

B. The Experience in Exile