Sexy by Jhumpa Lahiri | Characters, Summary, Analysis

 

Sexy by Jhumpa Lahiri | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Sexy’ is the title of the fifth short story by Jhumpa Lahiri from her short-story collection Interpreter of Maladies, published in 1999. The story collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000. The story is about an American girl Miranda and her growth as she emotionally matures from an impressionable naivete to a more adult and insightful woman. The story also touches on the issue of gender tropes and how exoticism and cultural differences may cause confusion and attraction. The story also highlights marital infidelity and male control. The story is told from a third-person limited omniscient point of view, focusing on the experiences of Miranda.

Characters of Sexy:

Miranda is the main character of the story. She is a 22-year-old girl who just completed college. She recently shifted from Michigan to Boston alone to live in a place where no one knows her. During her childhood, she lived in an Indian neighborhood and was fearful of an idol of Maa Kali that she saw in her neighbor’s home. As an adult, she finds the exoticism of Indians attractive. She meets Dev, a much older, married Indian man, and begins an affair with him, hoping to feel more like a mature woman. However, soon she realizes that the affair isn’t probable as Dev holds all the power and decides how much he can give to her while he begins appearing to be the most important person in her life. Laxmi is an Indian-American young woman, friend, and colleague of Miranda working at a public radio station. Laxmi is married and settled despite being only a few years older than Miranda. She informs Miranda about her cousin whose husband is having multiple affairs and how it is affecting her cousin’s and her son’s life. Dev is an elegant, smooth, and masculine Indian American. He impresses Miranda with his smooth talk and maturity. He is married but finds nothing wrong in having an extra-marital affair with Miranda as his mistress. However, he condescends and doesn’t think of her as anything more than a mistress. Rohin is the son of Laxmi’s cousin. He is a child with little knowledge of the adult world but a keen mind.  He is smart and precocious, and he insists on getting his way. He has watched his mother's sadness and anger following his father's departure, and his observations about love appear wise to Miranda.

Summary of Sexy:

The story begins as Laxmi confides her cousin’s troubles to Miranda, her friend and colleague working at a local radio station. Laxmi and Miranda have their working cubicles next to each other. Lakshmi tells her that her cousin is distraught because her husband is having an extra-marital affair and has left their home. Laxmi is worried that while her cousin is depressed, she will find it difficult to take care of her son, Rohin. Laxmi informs how her cousin’s husband met an English girl, half his age during his flight from Delhi to Montreal and decided to get off the plane in London. He is staying in London with that girl while her cousin is helpless. Laxmi worries that her nephew is unable to attend school while her cousin is ill. However, she claims that everything will be fine as her nephew is quite intelligent.

Miranda listens to her and sympathizes with her cousin’s situation. However, she contemplates, she is also having an affair with a married man, twice her age. His name is Dev and he too is of Indian descent. Like Laxmi, Dev is also a Bengali. Miranda used to believe that Bengali is a religion but one day, Dev mentioned that it is a region in India while pointing out the map of West Bengal in a copy of The Economist that he brought with him.

She remembers the first time she met Dev at a makeup counter in a department store in Boston. She was testing some fragrance cards while he was buying toiletries for a woman. He must be twice her age, in her forties, she guessed. He appeared rich, suave, and attractive. Dev too noticed her. They met again at the exit door and Dev introduced himself, commenting that part of her name is Indian (“Mira”). Miranda asked him about the creams he had purchased. He answered that those toiletries are for his wife who will be leaving for India for a few weeks. Dev informed her that he works in investment banking, and lives in the suburbs.

In his wife’s absence, Dev continued to meet Miranda and was attentive. He stayed in Miranda’s apartment every night and returned to his home in the early hours, in time for his wife’s morning calls from India. Miranda found that Dev was way different from the boys she had dated before. Dev is the first man she has dated who is thoughtful, romantic, and chivalrous. His maturity and sense of authority attracted her. Dev told Miranda that he admires her for moving to Boston and away from everything familiar in her life, he said he knows what it’s like to be lonely, and Miranda felt that Dev understands her. 

Dev continued to lavish Miranda with attention and affection. She began romanticizing him and wished to put her and Dev’s picture in her working cubicle just like Laxmi has of herself and her husband at the Taj Mahal. She wished to tell about Dev to Laxmi, her only friend in Boston but couldn’t because Laxmi was already preoccupied by the troubles of her cousin. Dev takes Miranda to his favorite places in Boston, including the Mapparium – a domed building with a room that looks like you are standing inside a globe, with glowing stained glass panels that look like the outside of a globe. Miranda notices London on the maps (where Laxmi’s cousin’s husband is) and wonders which city in India Dev’s wife is in. Dev’s voice echoes alluringly as he shows her details of the world. The acoustics make each sound feel as if a whisper in her ear. He stands across the room from her and whispers into the corner of a wall. She feels his voice under her skin. She says “Hi,” and he responds, “You’re sexy.”

That was the first time someone told she was sexy. It was alluring and exhilarating. Miranda found herself living in a fantasy. She went to the same departmental store where she first met Dev and bought clothes she thought a mistress should have – seamed stockings, black heels, a black slip, and a silver cocktail dress. She accepted herself as the mistress of Dev.

At work, Laxmi tells Miranda that Laxmi’s cousin’s husband has been unfaithful before. Laxmi’s cousin is willing to take her husband back if he returns to keep her family together for the sake of her son. Laxmi says that she would have a different reaction if she were in a similar position: “Not me. If my husband so much as looked at another woman I’d change the locks.” Miranda just nods in agreement, thinking that Dev’s wife is coming home tomorrow. The same day, Miranda had to have dinner with Dev. She decides to wear the same dress she recently bought from the Departmental store. But Dev appeared at Miranda’s flat in gym clothes, having told his wife he was out running. The lingerie remained unworn at the back of her drawer. Miranda began noticing that now Dev had little time for her. The affair continued, but only on Sundays.

Miranda remembers the Dixits, an Indian family who moved into her neighborhood when she was a child. Her peers would make fun of their names and frown upon their differences. Once, the Dixits invited Miranda to celebrate their daughter’s birthday. Miranda went over to their house and was so frightened by a painting of the fierce goddess Kali, that she never returned. Now, Miranda is ashamed of her behavior. She tries to learn more about Bengalis. Once she asked Dev about his wife, and what she looked like? Dev answered that she looks like an actress, Madhuri Dixit. Miranda felt a pang of jealousy. She didn’t know who Madhuri Dixit was. She tried to be more Indian than she could, to impress Dev. Once she tried to taste the snack Laxmi often does but the grocer told her it’s too spicy for her. In between Sundays, Miranda misses Dev and spends a lot of time thinking about him and preparing for his visits.

Laxmi’s cousin is asked for a divorce by her husband. In response, Laxmi invites the cousin and her young son to visit for the weekend. Laxmi and her cousin drop the little boy at Miranda’s apartment on Saturday morning so that Miranda can watch him while Laxmi and her cousin have a spa day. Miranda notices that the little boy is disturbed and sad. His name is Rohin.
Rohin asks her to quiz him on world capitals, as he is having a competition with another student to memorize them all. He announces he will win. Rohin reveals that he knows that his mother is sad and that his father left because he fell in love with another woman. Rohin notices the dress of the mistress Miranda bought for herself and insists Miranda put on the dress. Miranda never got a chance to wear the dress since Dev had no time for her, except Sundays. She decided to wear the dress. When Rohin sees her in that dress, he tells her, “You’re sexy.” Miranda asks him to tell her what he thinks the word “sexy” means, and Rohin tells her that it means “loving someone you don’t know.” His answer strikes Miranda. Rohin sleeps after a while and Miranda cries, thinking of the boy’s mother and her own affair.

When Rohin wakes up, he sees the issue of the Economist. He asks who Devjit Mitra is. Miranda doesn’t know what to say. The next time Dev calls, she tells him not to come. She asks him what he said to her in the Mapparium, but he answers incorrectly.  Miranda understands that she is drawn to Dev for his surface value and also that Dev does not love Miranda for who she is. Even without the dress, she is simply a mistress – not a woman. That Dev can’t remember what he told her at the Mapparium is the death knell for the affair. The following Sunday, it snows. Gradually, the affair ends. Miranda walks into the city to visit the places that they went to together. The Mapparium is closed, however, so she sits on a bench by herself and gazes at the sky.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!