American Sight

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American Sight The idea of American tourist being blind to cultures is not a new phenomenon. Authors have spent pages and pages trying to show the ways in which tourist view the outside world. Many argue that Americans have a tendency to view the world ethnocentrically. Assuming that all cultures fall under the same categories as American culture. By viewing other countries this way Americans have created a negative stereotype for overseas tourism. In Interpreter of Maladies Lahiri portrays Mr. Das sight through a camera lens, Mrs. Das sight through sunglasses, and the Das kids’ sight through visors in an effort to illustrate the distorted view of Americans on foreign cultures. It is through these various ways of seeing that the reader is able…show more content…
Das’s wears sunglasses throughout the majority of the story in order to create a faded distance between herself (the American) and the culture around her. While Mr. Das symbolizes the way that Americans view the distance between cultures, Mrs. Das symbolizes their faded views of cultures. She is described as wearing “large dark brown sunglasses with a pinkish tint” (Lahiri, 486) throughout the majority of the story, lowering them only a few times when directly speaking to another character. This results in her constantly seeing everything around her through this pinkish tint. Lahiri uses this symbol as a means to show the ways that Americans view the world. Quite literally Mrs. Das is viewing India through rose colored glasses. She sees the culture around her as better than it actually is. A prime example of this from the text, is Mrs. Das romanticizing of Mr. Kapasi’s job. In his culture his job is really just one that he works to make money to support his family. There is nothing particularly special about his job, and he even sees it as a waste of his potential. Due to the various languages spoken in India it is necessary for doctors’ offices to have translators, but Mrs. Das views it as “”so romantic””(Lahiri, 489). She is viewing all of the actions through this tainted lens that is ultimately skewing the reality of the situations. Furthering this idea is the image of the American tourist as someone who only sees what they want to see in other countries. Mrs. Das…show more content…
The reader is given very little information about the Das children, except that they are wearing “caps with translucent visors” (Lahiri, 484) again creating this image of a traditional tourist. However, Lahiri makes a point to describe them as translucent, giving this idea of a blurry image. Light can travel through the visors but detailed images cannot be seen. This is used to show the impressionability of American youth. At the moment of this vacation the children are able to see India with clear eyes, but with the visors being on their heads it is foreshadowed that soon their vision will too be impaired. The visors are even beginning to affect the ways in which these children can see, working as a filter for the light that gets through to them. Overbearing parents (something typical of the American) can also be seen as a filter that limits what a child experiences. The children in this piece are viewed as simply extensions of the parents, also working to create this negative stereotype of Americans abroad. The Das children visors play an important role in detailing the ways that American idealism is passed on through
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