A Wife's Story

Right off the bat I thought this story, "A Wife's Story" by Bharah Muklurjer was going to be interesting because it immediately tied in another piece of literature we have read this semester, Glengarry Glen Ross by Mamet. This woman is offended by this play, however...which I can see how it would be difficult to watch in a theatre, but she did slightly overreact.

Even after finishing this story, I can't seem to get over the uniquness of her situation. She is living in New York City getting her Ph.D. in special education (a 2 year program) where she has left her husband in India to live without her. I don't know it just seemed quite interesting to me that she would be willing to leave her husband to live in a foreign country for so long...granted her marriage was arranged, but still he was her husband. The narrator of the story does mention how, "I've broadened my horizons" (page 31) and how she really does enjoy living there. Even while I was reading I was excited that she was willing to step out and fulfill her dreams. I think that so many times we get scared of what might happen if we reach for the stars (cliche i know). That we may be uncomfortable for a little while (this is probably true), that we might fail (it could happen), or we simply don't have the courage and strength to get through. But I believe this narrator shows us that if you're willing to step out of your comfort zone, good things do come. The ending is rather open ended though, so I don't even know if I can validly say that good things are going to happen to her because she's pursuing her dreams, but I d o think that she is doing the right thing by trying.

Another few quotes the narrator said that struck me were first on page 27 she says, "It's not my fault; its the situation." The reason I was truck by this is because how many times have I claimed this in life? It's not my fault, it's what's going on around me. And to some extent this is true, we definitely cannot control our circumstances but I do know that we can control the way we act in them. Also on page 36 she says, "I've been trained to adapt; what else can I say?" Goodness, how true is this! We're trained, as humans, to adapt to the situation we're in..and to be truthful those who adapt the most fit in the most. There's an entire branch of education devoted to this adaptation, it's called Sociology. There's an unspoken (and sometimes spoken when it comes to laws and such) social order that people have to follow to fit into society. It's almost a sad thought that as a society, we change people/outsiders to adapt to how we want them rather than letting them act as they would naturally. What a shame.