RESPONSE FOR 3/25

RESPONSE FOR 3/25

I thoroughly enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri’s story, “Once in a Lifetime.” Based on the descriptions in Elissa Schappell’s “Endings: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow,” I think that “Once in a Lifetime” had an epilogue ending. The turning point for Hema seems to be when she breaks down in front of Kaushik, after trying to avoid and at the same time be accepted by him, she shows her most vulnerable, and as she puts it, ugly self on page 508 in response to learning that his mother is dying of cancer. This fact satisfies many of the reader’s questions, why his family moved back to America, why they are so picky about a house, why they are seemingly frivolously spending money. However, Lahiri continues to summarize what happened for the next two years in the next paragraph, leaving no room for speculation. I thought it to be pretty successful; as a reader, I was mostly satisfied. I never found out why Kaushik had such a lasting effect on the narrator. I expected there to be some large, complicated event that changed the narrator in some big way, but that’s not what happened.

I also think “Once in a Lifetime” has a bit of a symmetrical ending. The narrator begins with describing how she lost Kaushik for the first time, when he and his family moved back to India. In the last paragraph of the story on page 509, she describes how their families drifted apart, how they became only acquaintances. This is the type of ending I find myself using almost every time. I like the cyclical aspect to it, almost like your story has come full circle. However, I want to branch out and try the “Make-the-Reader-Wait-for-It Ending” that Schappell describes on page 233. I often find myself just wanting to finish the story and be done, so in addition to making the reader wait, it would also help me to slow down and focus more on my ending.