"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a short story based on the trip an Indian-American family takes to India. The story uses multiple examples of foreshadowing that I caught onto very easily in the short story. The first, and most important, example of foreshadowing is when Mr. Kapasi observes, "That this boy was slightly paler than the other children" (Lahiri, 151). The second I read this passage of the story, I knew there was a secret that was unknown to the reader. This statement just screamed "PAY ATTENTION!" to me. By making this observation, I started making assumptions and my own thoughts on how the story was going to end. Through creating these assumptions, the author was able to inadvertently build suspense on how what would happen next. It was almost dissapointing to find out that I was right, Mrs. Das had cheated on her husband. She was so caught up in the fact that her marriage was doing downhill that she allowed herself to make a careless mistake. Since I was able to predict that this is what had occurred, I did not find it to be a surprise when Mrs. Das made this confession to Mr. Kapasi.