Short Stories - The Third and Final Continent analysis

The third and final continent was written by Jhumpa Lahiri in 1999. It is about an Indian man who lived in Europe and then moved to America. The author is Indian and was born on July 11, 1967.

The narrator was first living in India, but he doesn’t tell us a lot about his life there. He then left India and sailed 3 weeks on the SS Roma. He ended up in England and then lived in North London, in Finsbury Park, and he had to share his room with three or four other people. Then he moved to America, Boston, because he was offered a full time job. There, he first spent some nights in the YMCA in Central Square, Cambridge. Then he moved to a house for eight dollars per week. He shared this house with an old lady. Then the narrator’s wife came and they moved into an own apartment for forty dollars a week.

The narrator is an Indian man from Bengali. He had no high demands and got used to new places very fast. He can act like a gentleman and seems to be really nice. He often thinks about his mother who died a long time ago. Then there is his wife, Mala. He married her, but has never seen her before. She later joins him in America. For some time, they are like strangers to each other. She doesn’t get used to America very fast. Then there is the old (103 years old) woman Mrs. Croft. She was a bit crazy, because she always repeated the same scene each evening, and she couldn’t move very well. She used to play the piano once, but now her fingers were really bad. And she couldn’t get used to the new century. It meant a lot to her, that there was a flag on the moon. Then there is Mrs Croft’s daughter, Helen. She is 68, but is still treated by her mother as if she was a little child. Helen visits her mother once a week and brings her soup. 

The story starts with the narrator leaving India. He comes to England by ship and he lives there for quite a while. He was really poor at the start. Then he got married(arranged marriage) with a woman from Calcutta. About at the same time, he was offered a full time job in America. So right after the wedding, he moved to America, but without his wife. In America, he soon lives in a house with an old woman, Mrs Croft. This woman is really happy about the flag on the moon and tells the narrator every evening, that this was really ‘splendid’. Helen visited Mrs Croft to give her food. Later, the narrator’s wife arrives, and so he moves to a new apartment. They behave like strangers, but that is understandable, because apart from the wedding, they have never met. She has some difficulties getting used to America. Then they visit Mrs Croft, and she says that the narrator’s wife was right for the narrator. The evening at Mrs Croft, made the couple laugh together and for the first time the distance between them got smaller. Later, Mrs Croft dies, which effects the narrator, because she was important to his life. He saw his dead mother in her. Even years later, he often drove past her house and remembered the time with Mrs Croft.

The story is a lot about Indian traditions. We learn that the Indians get married even if the couple don't even know each other. 

The main idea of the story is different cultures and moving. It describes America as something new and different. And then the narrator says some differences. Also comparisons with England are there. The narrator has lived through a lot and shows us his experience. First Asia, then Europe and in the end living in America isn’t a life everybody goes through, especially when you are so poor. Then the story is also a lot about changes. Changes, because of the move, but also changes like Mrs Croft has lived through in her century of life.