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Mrs. Croft
Mala is the arranged Indian wife of the narrator. She is younger than her husband by nine years. Mala knows how to cook, knit, embroider, sketch, and recite poetry, but she is not conventionally beautiful, and her family feared she might never get married. Her laugh is described as full of kindness, her eyes bright—but during the brief time she and the narrator spend together in Calcutta before his immigration to Boston, she weeps nightly, missing her parents. As she waits for her green card to be ready, she writes a letter to the narrator. She writes in English in “preparation” for her new life but also expresses loneliness and worries about Boston’s cold weather. She follows the traditions of a new bride: wearing decorative dye, a bindi on her forehead, and draping her sari over her head to indicate bridal modesty. The narrator worries about her naiveté and emotional vulnerability, sometimes worrying she might be like his emotionally fragile mother. Yet Mala proves herself generous—bringing her new husband homemade gifts like knitted sweaters—and polite, complimenting the apartment and the egg curry he has made. She is dedicated to creating a more comfortable and clean home. adding traditional Indian touches, but also listens to the narrator’s preferences, even if they might be strange to him. It is when Mala is being regarded by Mrs. Croft that the narrator is able to connect his own feelings of alienation and awkwardness as an immigrant with what his new wife must be feeling, and this begins to lower the barriers between them, a fact indicated by the smile they share after Mrs. Croft announces that Mala is “a perfect lady.” Over the ensuing years, she and the narrator grow closer and she becomes more comfortable in America. Eventually, she becomes an American citizen, and no longer drapes her sari or weeps for her parents. She does worry about her son and tries to keep alive some Indian traditions within him, and she can’t remember a time when she and her husband were strangers. At the end of the story, she is “happy and strong.”
Mala Quotes in The Third and Final Continent
The The Third and Final Continent quotes below are all either spoken by Mala or refer to Mala. 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:
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The Third and Final Continent Quotes
Apart from our jobs we had few responsibilities. On weekends we lounged barefoot in drawstring pajamas, drinking tea and smoking Rothmans, or set out to watch cricket at Lord’s. Some weekends the house was crammed with still more Bengalis . . . and we made yet more egg curry, and played Mukhesh on a Grundig reel-to-reel, and soaked our dirty dishes in the bathtub.
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My wife’s name was Mala. The marriage had been arranged by my older brother and his wife. I regarded the proposition with neither objection nor enthusiasm. It was a duty expected of me, as it was expected of every man.
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…a week later we were still strangers. I still was not used to coming home to an apartment that smelled of steamed rice, and finding that the basin in the bathroom was always wiped clean, our two toothbrushes lying side by side, a cake of Pears soap from India resting in the soap dish.
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Mala rose to her feet, adjusting the end of her sari over her head and holding it to her chest, and, for the first time since her arrival, I felt sympathy. I remembered my first days in London . . . Like me, Mala had traveled far from home, not knowing where she was going, or what she would find, for no reason other than to be my wife. As strange as it seemed, I knew in my heart that one day her death would affect me, and stranger still, that mine would affect her.
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At night we kissed, shy at first but quickly bold, and discovered pleasure and solace in each other’s arms. I told her about my voyage on the SS Roma, and about Finsbury Park and the YMCA, and my evenings on the bench with Mrs. Croft. When I told her stories about my mother, she wept. It was Mala who consoled me when, reading the Globe one evening, I came across Mrs. Croft’s obituary.
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While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary . . . Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.
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Mala Character Timeline in The Third and Final Continent
The timeline below shows where the character Mala appears in The Third and Final Continent. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Third and Final Continent
The narrator’s wife’s name is Mala. Their marriage was arranged, and the narrator has neither “objection nor enthusiasm” for it—it’s simply...
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At the end of August, just before Mala is set to arrive, the narrator receives a letter from her. It doesn’t have a...
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...briefly bites the sari, and the narrator suddenly realizes that it’s his “duty” to protect Mala from this kind of thing—to welcome her, care for her, and protect her. Irritated, he...
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...narrator is used to America by now: his cornflakes and his evenings with Mrs. Croft. Mala will be the only thing that’s unfamiliar, but he nonetheless rents a bigger apartment before...
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At the airport, Mala is dressed in the way customary for brides. Instead of touching her, the narrator asks...
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On Friday, the narrator suggests they go out. Mala dresses up as though they’re going to a party. This makes him regretful, as he...
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...the bell, Helen opens the door, explaining that Mrs. Croft has been hurt. He and Mala go to the parlor where she is lying down, and Mrs. Croft treats the narrator...
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Glaring at Mala, who has settled on the piano bench, Mrs. Croft asks who she is, and the...
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...seen a woman in a sari before. He assumes Mrs. Croft will find fault in Mala, but instead the old woman declares with delight that Mala is a “perfect lady.” The...
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This moment in Mrs. Croft’s parlor is when the “distance” between the narrator and Mala “began to lessen.” Afterwards, they explore the city together, make friends with other Bengalis, take...
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Mala also who consoles him when he learns in the newspaper that Mrs. Croft has died....
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In the thirty years since the narrator arrived in Boston, the narrator and Mala have become American citizens. They own a house on a tree-lined street like Mrs. Croft’s....
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...Croft’s house and is transported back to that summer of 1969, amazed that he and Mala were ever strangers. Whenever he worries about his son’s future after he and Mala have...
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