The Mapparium Symbol Analysis

The Mapparium is both an enclosed space that represents a memorable moment in Miranda’s relationship with Dev and an image of the broader world that Miranda is exposed to through this relationship. Miranda and Dev visit the Mapparium—a three-story globe in the Christian Science Center—early in their relationship. During their visit, Miranda is awed by the inside-looking-out perspective of the earth. Dev, acting as global tour guide, points out various places on the map as Miranda reflects upon how limited her experience of the world has been. When they have the Mapparium to themselves, Dev uses the wonderful acoustics of the globe by whispering to Miranda from a distance, saying, “You’re sexy.” Miranda strongly associates the words both with Dev and their visit to the Mapparium in consequential ways. On one occasion, Miranda thinks about the Mapparium and Dev’s words to her while purchasing “sexy” clothing to wear for him. She then thinks of the Mapparium again near the end of the story while quizzing Rohin on nations’ capitals; she’s devasted by the memory of the Mapparium when Rohin later tells her she’s sexy when she puts on the cocktail dress. Her experience in the Mapparium, she realizes, was driven by a kind of illusion that “sexy” might mean she is someone special; Rohin’s surprising comment forces her to consider that the word, coming from a married man, means something very different. According to Rohin, it “means loving someone you don’t know.” Rohin’s words puncture the illusion of love as if the illusion of the Mapparium itself were punctured. In the last scene of the story, Miranda finds herself sitting on a bench across from the Mapparium, this time an outsider to the experience of wonder and awe that the building represents.