Critical Lens Essay
In “The Real Durwan,” Jhumpa Lahiri is able to show us how a building full of people can become greedy and spiteful in a matter of weeks. When the Dalas present the other people living in the house with a sink they can use, instead of being grateful, they become angry that they have to share when the Dalals get a sink all to themselves. The Dalals presented the sink with generosity and the other families display their greed by starting rumors and talking about the Dalals behind their backs. The sink isn’t enough; they want more. They complain that if the Dalals can improve their state, they should too. Their greed for more leads them to make improvements to their home. When the house is robbed after the tenants make the renovations, everyone blames the lowly durwan, Boori Ma, that their new richer looking home was robbed. Their greed for more than a new sink doesn’t lead to a more beautiful house, but instead to abuse of a devoted servant and desecration of their home.
In “The Foster Portfolio,” by Kurt Vonnegut, we can see how the narrator exhibits greed. In the beginning of the story, as the man is approaching and enters Foster’s house, he does not regard him as a worthy client. He thinks that Foster is poor and will not earn him much money. Instead of being happy that he has a client and a means of earning a living, all he thinks about is how much money he will earn. When he actually finds out how wealthy Foster really is, he dedicates all his time to working on his portfolio, and building it up to the greatest amount of money he can. He pushes Foster to take his money so he can get his cut, but Foster refuses and this makes the narrator frustrated. His greed is expressed even more strongly when he hunts Foster at his Sunday job to talk to him about his portfolio. He exhibits his greed by spending an inordinate amount of time on one portfolio instead of on other work which might not be as lucrative. Doing only what he was hired for will not earn him as much as he wants. He chooses to act in a greedy manner, only to be met by frustration when he can’t collect the amount of money he would like.
In both “The Real Durwan” and “The Foster Portfolio,” we can clearly see how greed is incorporated into the lives of the tenants of the home and the portfolio manager. In “The Real Durwan,” the tenants turn the gift into a curse when they fight about the sink Instead of enjoying the sink, their greed causes them to want even more, leading them to renovate their home. However this greed ultimately results in having a less comfortable and beautiful home after the robbery. In “The Foster Portfolio” we can see that all the narrator cared about is money when we compare his reactions before and after he knows that Foster is rich. He endeavors to improve Foster’s portfolio only because of greed and is met with frustration when Foster refuses to satisfy his greed. Wetering said that greed cannot be contained and someone who is greedy always requires more. These stories truly reflect how people can show this quality.
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