"A Temporary Matter"

     In the short story, A Temporary Matter, Jhumpa Lahiri tells the story of husband and wife Shoba and Shukumar. The tone of this story is sad and dark. This is enhanced in the story by the power outages each day. The couple receives a notice that there will be times with no electricity. This dark setting is the backdrop for a dark story that ends sadly. The sad tone is seen in the diction, imagery, and details of the story. 

     Lahiri uses words with negative connotation such as "hauted" to describe how Shoba feels when she walks in to the room that would have been for the baby. Also, she refers to Shoba's face as "contorted" when she and Shukumar are talking about her moving out. These negative sounding words contribute to the sad tone. Lahiri also uses imagery in this short story When Shukumar describes the boy baby that dies, he refers to it's red skin and this makes Shoba even more grief stricken over the loss of the baby and contributes to their becoming more separated. The author also focuses a lot on the details of this couples life after their baby's death which are monotonous and contribute to the depressing nature of the story and the sad, dark tone.

     The tone contributes to the themes of the story. The author talks a lot about the death of the baby and how it affects Shoba and Shukumar. Their grief over the loss of their baby and their struggle to stay together afterwards is a theme of the story. At the end, Shoba says she is going to move out which is not necessarily "a temporary matter". This sad ending is reinforced by the sad tone throughout the story and the message that grief and loss divides people.