Characterization of the narrator

Outer characterization

The main character of the short story “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri is the unnamed narrator. He comes from Calcutta, India (p. 1, l. 1). The narrator has an older brother (p. 6, l. 13), and his father died when he was 16 (p. 11, ll. 18-19). 

In 1969, when the main events take place, the narrator is 36 years old (p. 1, l. 18), and he marries a young woman named Mala in an arranged marriage (p. 6, ll. 13-14). When he leaves India, he has a “certificate in commerce” (p. 1, l. 1), but he also studies at the London School of Economics later on (p. 1, l. 8). In America, he works in the processing department of a library at M.I.T.

The narrator moves to different continents in different stages of his life. He lives in his native country India all his youth, and then he moves to London to study and work for five ...