A Temporary Matter and Earth and Ashes

Living in this world, there is this unique and undying bond between parents and children which is undeniable. Parents raise and provide everything from food to shelter for their children when they were young while children have to bear the responsibilities of taking care of their parents when they are old. It is an unbreakable chain. In Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi, parents and children give each other a significant sense of place, purpose and identity. In A Temporary Matter from the Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, although Shukumar and Shoba are married couple, their relationship is rather similar to the relationship of parents and children. At first, it is Shoba who takes care of Shukumar while then Shukumar takes over the role and starts to pick up his responsibilities. Therefore, this essay is going to prove that not only parents and children give each other a sense of place, purpose and identity, husband and wife too give each other sense of belonging, purpose and role.

In both A Temporary Matter and Earth and Ashes, there are times when the characters give each other a sense of place and belonging. For instance, Shoba and Shukumar have been living together for three years. Shoba once threw Shukumar a surprise birthday party, one hundred and twenty people showed up, Shoba kept Shukumar's long fingers linked with hers as they walked among the guests throughout the night. This shows that Shoba's love towards Shukumar was proudly displayed among their friends depicting that they belong to each other. As for Shukumar, he kept the secret about him had held their son. He had done his best to block it from his mind so he would never tell Shoba because he still loved her and it was the only thing in her life that she had wanted to be a surprise. They loved each other and they were so thrilled to be married, to be living together in the same house. The death of their unborn baby has changed their way of giving each other sense of place because grief has taken over. However, they still make the effort to maintain their relationship during the period when electricity was cut off. Shoba had suggested the game of sharing secrets while Shukumar prepared fantastic dinners for Shoba. This story ends with both of them weeping together for the things they now knew which may be interpreted as a new beginning or an end to all the grieves that had been haunting them. In Earth and Ashes, Murad and Dastaguir were coherently portrayed

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