Obviously most, if not all, people disapprove of Moushumi's affair with Dimitri. However, I have several issues with her actions in addition to the fact that she completely betrayed Gogol. First of all, her attraction to Dimitri totally bewilders me. When they met on a bus the way to Washington D.C., Dimitri, twenty-seven years old and Moushumi still in high school, sat next to this innocent girl and "slowly, began to unbutton [her] skirt" (258). Moushumi recalls her first meeting with Dimitri with a wistful tone. I just find the whole situation quite creepy. A strange man, ten years her senior, came pretty close to molesting her on a bus. Then Dimitri goes gallivanting across Europe with a another girl yet continues to send Moushumi letters and books even though he really does not know he very well. The fact that he continues to pursue her from thousands of miles away seems strange. Eventually the two lost contact, but, due to the death of a coworker, Moushumi happens upon a letter containing his resume. The circumstances leading to her rediscovery of Dimitri are not the most romantic. However, I can understand why she would want to get in touch. She had her first serious crush on Dimitri and I find no fault in her having lunch or coffee with him. Yet the fact that she purposefully hid her chance discovery from Gogol tells me that she never planned on having just lunch. So when she arrives at their meeting and finds a "small, balding, unemployed man," why does she not stop right there (266)? The negative diction, such as "unemployed," leads to a critical tone which indirectly characterizes Dimitri as pathetic. Moushumi cheats on Gogol with a man living in an apartment with all his belongings in cardboard boxes and he uses inheritance money from his grandparents to pay the rent, rather than getting a job. This man has even more issues with growing up than Moushumi does. Gogol, on the other hand, has a steady job and from the narrator’s descriptions the reader can guess he is a least somewhat attractive. So, Moushumi destroys her marriage to a respectable man in pursuit of a pathetic man. Moushumi’s actions, to me, say that she does not care who she has an affair with, she just wanted any escape from her marriage.
Katie! I agree with you completely. I wrote a blog post on my suspicions of Moushumi's clinical depression, and the situational irony of her stupid actions with Dimitri, a creepy, older man whom she hardly knows, enhance my doubts of her sanity. I think she would do anything to escape her marriage, because she will never seem satisfied with what she has, no matter what.
ReplyDeleteHello Katie! I totally agree with your anger at Moushumi. Dimitri seems like a ridiculous man and, after reading this, I began to think about why she would feel the need to choose him over Gogol. She admitted that part of her relates Gogol to the traditional life she tried so hard to escape. In a way I pity the desperation she must feel and the unsatisfying life she must lead, but neither of these excuse her behavior, and I also feel very negatively towards her.
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