The Ordinary and Extraordinary
Over the course of “The Third and Final Continent,” the narrator comes to see that much of the ordinary world is, in fact, extraordinary. At first, the narrator is notable in part because he is unimpressed with events others find amazing, including the 1969 moon landing, to which he reacts with indifference. Much of his life is centered on the logical and the routine. However, once he meets his landlady Mrs. Croft, his…
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Immigration
The story’s narrator grows up in India and attends school in England, living there as an immigrant with several other Bengali bachelors. When he gets a job in Boston, North America becomes the third continent on which he lives. As the story depicts the narrator’s journey from India to England and then his transition to America, it naturally portrays his experiences as an immigrant, and of his efforts to acclimate to his new home and…
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Isolation and Connection
As the Indian narrator of “The Third and Final Continent” begins a new job in Boston in 1969, he seems profoundly isolated. Both of his parents are dead and he’s lived away from his older brother for several years. His marriage has been arranged and his wife Mala, a decade younger, is literally and emotionally a stranger. As Mala stays in India waiting for her green card, he initially immigrates to America alone. Mrs.…
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Fragility and Resilience
In “The Third and Final Continent,” the Indian narrator’s encounters with his elderly landlady, Mrs. Croft, allow him to believe in the human capacity for tenacity and resilience in the face of life’s challenges. As a young man in Calcutta, the narrator takes care of his mother after she suffers an emotional and mental breakdown in the wake of his father’s death. His mother’s helplessness at navigating the hardships of her life makes…
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