The Many Questions of Interpretation

One aspect I have found to be significant with the understanding of each short story, with a focus upon This Blessed House, is interpretation. I feel as though each story has given us a lot of freedom to interpret meaning and emotion through the use of vague words, sharp transition between ideas, and the careful style of the narrator. In This Blessed House, some may think that the narrator clearly emphasizes a broken house, distance between Twinkle and Sanjeev, and the difference in personalities of these two characters. With this emphasis, it seems as though some have automatically assumed that they don't love each other or the marriage is a bust. It is true that the differences and problems are there, but are they not a part of most marriages? Maybe this is what the author is implying? Can the "blessings" of the house still be found within the narrators story? Of course it is up to you- the interpreter!

Here are some examples of how the author uses style and word choice to push the reader to interpret and understand the characters: On page 155, the story jumps from Twinkle exclaiming, "My God I need a cigarette," to the exhaustion of Sanjeev. The closeness in ideas may lead a reader to find a relationship between them, probably negative. More importantly, the end of "This Blessed House" startles the reader, leads the reader to question Sanjeev's feelings and, perhaps, encourages the reader to interpret the story in a way that may be different than what they originally figured. Sanjeev reflects that,"the pang intensified... the same pang he used to feel before they were married..." As a reader, you must interpret what this pang is now, what it once was and the significance it has to the story while paying close attention to its placement within the story. 

It is interesting when authors give the reader the room to make of the stories and characters as they wish- but the next question is "Why would the author chose to do this?"