Mrs. Sen’s

by

Jhumpa Lahiri

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Food and Cooking Symbol Analysis

Food and Cooking Symbol Icon

For Mrs. Sen, the act of cooking traditional Indian food represents her homesickness and her inability to assimilate into American culture. Mrs. Sen is constantly cooking while she babysits Eliot: she cuts vegetables for dinner, makes snacks for Eliot, and insists that Eliot’s mother eat when she comes to pick him up (despite her reluctance to eat foreign food). Mrs. Sen puts a lot of effort into preparing traditional Indian meals, because it’s important to her to keep this connection to her home country and the extended family she left behind when she and Mr. Sen immigrated to the U.S. She tells Eliot that whenever there’s a celebration in her neighborhood in India, her “mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bring blades just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the night.” For Mrs. Sen, cooking is a symbolic connection to this community- and family-oriented culture that she misses.

The food that Mrs. Sen cooks sets her apart from the Americans around her and represents her reluctance to assimilate. While her food is as fascinating as it is alien to Eliot, it makes others (like his mother) uncomfortable. Eliot’s mother doesn’t like the Indian food that Mrs. Sen insists she eat (“a glass of bright pink yogurt with rose syrup, breaded mincemeat with raisins, a bowl of semolina halvah”). Her dislike of the food belies a discomfort with Mrs. Sen’s foreignness in general: when she picks Eliot up in the evenings, she hovers outside the Sens’ apartment, trying to avoid entering. Another time, a woman on the bus complains about the smell of the fish that Mrs. Sen and Eliot are bring home from the market, which makes Mrs. Sen feel ashamed. The foreign food that Mrs. Sen prepares symbolizes of her cultural difference—and her struggle to make Indian food in America (as well as the negative reactions that Americans have to it) represents her inability to assimilate into her new cultural environment.

Food and Cooking Quotes in Mrs. Sen’s

The Mrs. Sen’s quotes below all refer to the symbol of Food and Cooking. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
).
Mrs. Sen’s Quotes

“Whenever there is a wedding in the family,” she told Eliot one day, “or a large celebration of any kind, my mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bring blades just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the night.” […] "It is impossible to fall asleep those nights, listening to their chatter.” She paused to look at a pine tree framed by the living room window. “Here, in this place where Mr. Sen has brought me, I cannot some­ times sleep in so much silence.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Sen (speaker), Eliot, Eliot’s Mother, Mr. Sen
Related Symbols: Food and Cooking, Driving
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:

It gave [Eliot] a little shock to see his mother all of a sudden, in the transparent stockings and shoulder-padded suits she wore to her job, peering into the corners of Mrs. Sen’s apartment. She tended to hover on the far side of the door frame, calling to Eliot to put on his sneakers and gather his things, but Mrs. Sen would not allow it. Each evening she insisted that his mother sit on the sofa, where she was served something to eat: a glass of bright pink yogurt with rose syrup, breaded mincemeat with raisins, a bowl of semolina halvah.

"Really, Mrs. Sen. I take a late lunch. You shouldn’t go to so much trouble.”

Related Characters: Eliot’s Mother (speaker), Eliot, Mrs. Sen
Related Symbols: Food and Cooking
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:

‘“Send pictures,’ they write. ‘Send pictures of your new life.’ What picture can I send?” She sat, exhausted, on the edge of the bed, where there was now barely room for her. “They think I live the life of a queen, Eliot.” She looked around the blank walls of the room. “They think I press buttons and the house is clean. They think I live in a palace.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Sen (speaker), Eliot, Mr. Sen
Related Symbols: Food and Cooking
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:

In November came a series of days when Mrs. Sen refused to practice driving. The blade never emerged from the cupboard, newspapers were not spread on the floor. She did not call the fish store, nor did she thaw chicken.

Related Characters: Eliot, Mrs. Sen, Eliot’s Mother, Mr. Sen
Related Symbols: Driving, Food and Cooking
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:

"Eliot,” Mrs. Sen asked him while they were sitting on the bus, "will you put your mother in a nursing home when she is old?”

“Maybe,” he said. "But I would visit every day.”

“You say that now, but you will see, when you are a man your life will be in places you cannot know now.” She counted on her fingers: "You will have a wife, and children of your own, and they will want to be driven to different places at the same time. No matter how kind they are, one day they will complain about visiting your mother, and you will get tired of it too, Eliot. You will miss one day, and another, and then she will have to drag herself onto a bus just to get herself a bag of lozenges.”

Related Characters: Eliot (speaker), Mrs. Sen (speaker), Eliot’s Mother, Mr. Sen
Related Symbols: Driving, Food and Cooking
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:

After taking off her slippers and putting them on the book­ case, Mrs. Sen put away the blade that was still on the living room floor and threw the eggplant pieces and the newspapers into the garbage pail. […] Then she went into her bedroom and shut the door.

Related Characters: Eliot, Mrs. Sen
Related Symbols: Food and Cooking, Driving
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Mrs. Sen’s LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mrs. Sen’s PDF

Food and Cooking Symbol Timeline in Mrs. Sen’s

The timeline below shows where the symbol Food and Cooking appears in Mrs. Sen’s. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Mrs. Sen’s
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture Theme Icon
Mrs. Sen repeatedly offers Eliot’s mother some biscuits, but she refuses each time. She asks Mrs. Sen questions about her babysitting experience and... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
...with. The Sens’ apartment, in contrast, is warm. Eliot likes watching Mrs. Sen chop up vegetables for dinner each evening, but she never lets him help. She uses a traditional Indian... (full context)
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture Theme Icon
Mrs. Sen always hides all the evidence of her food preparation before Eliot’s mother comes to pick him up, which makes Eliot feel like they... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture Theme Icon
...Eliot at the bus stop—she seems to arrive early, and she always brings Eliot a snack. Mrs. Sen then practices driving with Eliot in the car for 20 minutes. She says... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture Theme Icon
The second thing that makes Mrs. Sen happy is a whole fish from the seaside. One evening, she tells Eliot’s mother that she finds it hard to... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture Theme Icon
One day, Mr. Sen tells Mrs. Sen that he can’t go to get the fish anymore because he needs to hold office hours for his students. Mrs. Sen cooks chicken... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Femininity, Gender Roles, and Culture Theme Icon
...Eventually, Mr. Sen calls back and agrees to take Mrs. Sen and Eliot to the fish market; he tries to get Mrs. Sen to drive there, but she refuses. (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
...but the usual route seems unfamiliar in the Sens’ car. When they arrive at the fish market, Mr. Sen waits in the car and tells Mrs. Sen and Eliot to hurry.... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
In November, Mrs. Sen refuses to cook or practice driving for several days. She silently prepares Eliot peanut butter on crackers and... (full context)
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Mrs. Sen starts cooking again a week later. One evening, as she’s preparing dinner, Mr. Sen calls and takes... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Mrs. Sen stops driving after this—when she wants fish, she avoids calling Mr. Sen and takes the bus instead. The bus stops at the... (full context)
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
Mrs. Sen and Eliot ride the bus to the market, pick up fish, and then take the bus home. A woman on the bus complains to the bus... (full context)
Isolation and Loneliness Theme Icon
Assimilation and Foreignness Theme Icon
The next time the fish market calls, Mrs. Sen calls Mr. Sen to ask him to drive them to the... (full context)