After reading, "This Blessed House" the thought of marriage popped up in my mind. Don't worry, Not the idea of how I want to get married, but the idea of who I should marry. My father always talks about how you need to marry your best friend. In fact, my stepmother and him just changed their "song" to Best Friend by Jason Mraz and Colbie. This song talks about how they are so lucky to be in love with their best friend. Now, when I think of a best friend, I figure they have similar tastes such as, favorite restaurant, music and hobbies. In this short story, Twinkle and Sanjeev have nothing in common.
Throughout the story we put Sanjeevs puzzle pieces together to realize he is a very organized person, almost to the fact of OCD. For example on page 1 the narrator talks about how Sanjeev is "organizing his texts from MIT in alphabetical order on a bookshelf." This shows that Sanjeev always needs to be in control of everything, which Twinkle is does not feel this way.
Twinkle is a free spirit. She loves to explore and be spontaneous. When she finds the vinegar she tells Sanjeev about how she is going to use it to make something for dinner. After preparing the meal, Sanjeev asks if she wrote the recipe down, and she explains how she made it up and will remember it. This drives Sanjeev crazy. In a way, Twinkle is something he cannot control and he hates it. This idea of control could start to seperate the relationship and cause problems.
In conclusion, after reading this short story, I have decided that two TOTALLY differnet personalities do not work. You need a mixture. Although Sanjeev does balance out the free spirit of Twinkle, it still causes problems in Sanjeev which makes him a little more control crazy. I think both of them would be well off marrying someone who is more like them.
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4 comments:
Laura,
I agree with the statement that different personalities do not produce an effective relationship. I believe that opposites do not attract. I do not think that Sanjeev and Twinkle even got to know each other before they married because they are discovering their personalities throughout the story. It would just make sense that before getting married, it might be wise to spend more than two months together.
I also agree that Sanjeev and Twinkle should have spent more time together getting to know each other before they got married. Sanjeev would have seen more into Twinkle's character and known ahead of time the things that bothered him.
Laura,
I definitely agree that Sanjeev has control issues. And frankly, it terrifies me that people would not know each other enough before marriage to this extend. I mean, these are completely different people (which I think can work) but how little did they know of each other before getting married? This makes me think that Sanjeev married Twinkle for reasons other than love. Maybe he admired her and thought that if he married her, she would "run off" on him a little? Or maybe he married her because she was a good catch? Either way, I appears something is seriously lacking in this marriage....
Laura, I thought it was interesting that you brought up the vinegar.... I feel like Lahiri's use of vinegar in the story was more deliberate than what most readers give credit... Vinegar is quite acidic in its make-up, and cider vinegar (just a type of vinegar) is dangerous to one's health in excessive amounts... I feel like this comes full circle with you're idea of opposites. Opposite attractions can be could in small doses, but too much of a difference can be fatal to the relationship.
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