How Jhumpa Lahiri expresses the unmet needs of the characters through her short story, "Intepreter of Maladies"

In the short story, “Interpreter of Maladies”, Jhumpa Lahiri uses the minor action and subtle details to express the unmet needs through Mrs. Das, Tina, and Mr. Kapasi. Mrs. Das married at an early age not able to enjoy her young life. She had a baby in her early twenties and while her friends were out playing, she would be testing the milk on her hands to see if it was warm for her baby. She met her husband, Mr. Das in high school and married him after college. By doing so, she was not able to enjoy her love life with other men. She felt as if she was unloved, unappreciated, and jealous of those who did not have children. Mrs. Das did not feel love from her husband because he was always busy at work and never had the time to give his all to her. She felt unappreciated because she was always at home, taking care of Ronny and no one acknowledged it. This lead to her cheating on her husband, although it was completely wrong to do, it allowed her to have some fun and feel wanted for once in her life. Tina, Mrs. Das’s daughter also has unmet needs. She always wants love and attention from her mom, which she never gets. Tina tries hard to me like her mother, but Mrs. Das never realizes. In the short story, Tina has a white American doll she always carries around. She plays with that doll because she does not get attention from her mom. The doll symbolizes her mother, the short hair, the American heritage, and the clothes. Because she cannot get the love and appreciation from her own mom, she puts out her anger towards the doll. She throws it around and abuses it, showing to respect for it at all. She shows the opposite reaction to her mom, showing her kind side while hiding the other and expresses through her doll. Besides Mrs. Das and Tina, Mr. Kapasi too has unmet needs. His wife shows no appreciation towards his job and life, which leads him to lose interest in her and starts to have feelings towards Mrs. Das. She was the only woman who ever acknowledged his job and appreciated what he did. The unmet needs in “Interpreter of Maladies” makes this short story a bit more interesting, not only does it hype up the scene and make you wonder what’s going to happen next, it also leads you to make your own endings and have your own little short story towards the end.