I am not really sure what exactly to take away from this story. On one hand I could take it face value and just realize that it is a story about two Indian people that got married, and the wife is overpowering. Twinkle seemed to find all of these items, Christian memorabilia, and kept on displaying them. If she is Hindu then she should not be having anything to do with that stuff. I definitely would stay away from anything that is not Christian. It is as if taking all respect for her religion and throwing it out the window.
As for Sanjeev, and the respect that he should have required from twinkle, he did whatever twinkle told him to do. Sure she didn’t outright tell him what to do, but she manipulated him to do what she wanted him to do. From the first time that she found the small figurine next to the malt vinegar, to the time that she found the Virgin Mary outdoors statue, and then finally the end when he walked down stairs with the Jesus bust; he did her bidding. If I were in his shoes I would have talked about it with her and got her to realize what she was doing and how it was sacrilegious.
If I were to look at the story and try to take something out of it, I do not know that I would. I usually have trouble looking for underlining tones, but I did not see anything. It is a story about a marriage gone wrong, and a marriage where the husband did not love his wife truly and a wife that did not submit to her husband. This story, like the others about love, was negative and gave a bad view on love. Not all love and marriage is bad. I have but one question to ask. When will we read something that truly does show love? All that I get is a bad view of love. Too much of this could lead to depression I feel like.
I have a few questions.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that this is a "marriage gone bad"? It seems like a pretty average marriage to me. And you say that "the wife is overpowering," but doesn't the husband try to tell her what she can and cannot do? Does she ever try to tell him what to do?
You ask, "When will we read something that truly does show love?" But how would you recognize it if you saw it? For instance, how do you know that this story doesn't show any love?
If you are depressed by reading stories that ruin your "happily-ever-after" ideas about love and marriage, it is probably not the stories fault but the "happily-ever-after" ideas that are to blame.
Stories like "This Blessed House" might be useful for becoming a better person because they help us to sort through the complexities involved in an actual relationship. But stories that end with "and they lived happily-ever-after" are damaging because they do exactly the opposite.