“The Third and Final Continent”: America as a Land of Opportunity, As a Land “Beyond Imagination”

The famous maxim that we as American citizens (and even people worldwide) have known is that United States is the land of opportunity. And this is true in the story “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri. Travelling from Calcutta, India, to England, and “finally” to America in the 1960s, the narrator tells the inspiring, optimistic and significant story of his personal journey, assimilation and achievements gained in America. He came to America for a job opportunity to work in the Dewey library at MIT.  At first, the narrator finds himself disorientated, barely understanding how to cope with the cultural changes put in front of him when he arrives to the U.S. in Boston in comparison to his life in London. Although after a while of adapting and accustoming himself to the different changes such as eating cornflakes and milk as consistent meals, he finds himself renting out a room from an elderly woman who lives in a house by herself named Mrs. Croft, who plays a symbolic role in the context of the story.

Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) on the moon in July 1969.
He once said, "This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

Mrs. Croft can be said to represent a more traditional person in the sense of character, language, wardrobe and culture. But Mrs. Croft as a person represents something much more profound and timeless, which the narrator realizes later on in the story. Mrs. Croft would have the narrator sit down next to her and would comment on how amazing, or better yet, “splendid” it was that an American astronaut made it to the moon, making the narrator reply on how splendid it was as well. From their first interaction, this conversation between Mrs. Croft and the narrator would then become a ritualistic habit in which the narrator will endure out of respect at first but learn to enjoy later on throughout the weeks of living amongst each other.

At the beginning, even since his arrival to America on the plane, the narrator noticed the nationalistic and patriotic sentiment people had when the news was made public that two American astronauts landed on the moon and planted its flag there: as “[s]everal passengers cheered…’God bless America!’” (p. 174). But the narrator didn’t make much of it. From a historical perspective, which the author doesn’t elaborate much on, the Space Race during this time was very significant for citizens of the U.S. in the battling against the Soviet Union and against communism in the Cold War. However, from a more humanistic view, as reflected by Mrs. Croft, this event represents the possibilities of how far humanity can go.

Mrs. Croft was born in 1866, a time when the most deadly war of all times in American history had just ended.  Historian Drew Gilpin Faust shows how the death toll and the gruesome reality of the American Civil War left many Americans devastated by loss and how atrocious the war was, making it difficult for Americans to cope with the aftermath of the war and how to redefine them as a people and America as a nation. And so this was a historic event of human beings “doing the impossible” by landing on the moon in a positive way in comparison to a time when approximately 620,000 men (about two percent or six million dead in the United States population as of 2008) had died (many who not only died from disease but from killing each other in a mechanized, uncompassionate manner). This shows how people can change and how there is no obstacles humanity can’t overcome or limits to how far humanity can go. To paraphrase Dr. Zamora: Mrs. Croft is a “relic” from the past that teaches us  about the present and even shows how far we can go in the future. And the narrator is an embodiment of this relic that is Mrs. Croft.  

A Land of Ethnic Diversity

Meanwhile, the narrator is also awaiting his wife, Mala, to come from India. It was an arranged marriage and although he was aloof to the idea of an arranged marriage he warmed up to her as she did to him, oddly enough through Mrs. Croft. When the narrator introduces his wife to Mrs. Croft she said that Mala “’is a perfect lady!’” (p. 195). This is symbolic in the fact that here is a woman who grew up in the late-nineteenth century with traditional values, and rather than being prejudice (as one may think), she was actually quite open to Mala. And this reflects what the author depicts America as a country: as a land of acceptance. That America does not discriminate. It accepts anyone from any ethnic background and gives them the opportunity to make a better life for themselves: this is indeed a country founded upon immigrants and has, and continues to be, a country made up of people from all sorts of people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Mrs. Croft (as America), in the author’s views, also represents independence. Mrs. Croft had been living by herself and taking care of herself on her own. And the narrator and his family were able to have that experience of independence as well.

Interestingly enough, out of all continents all, the narrator decided to make his home in America. He came to America for an opportunity and made the rest of his life here. He did not grow up in a wealthy lifestyle in Indian (especially after the passing of his father), nor did he live a prosperous life in England, nor did he when he first came to America. But his experience through his travels across the three continents taught the narrator the important lesson to not give up, and overcome any obstacle that got in his way, just like the astronauts did by landing on the moon. Therefore when his son was “discouraged” the narrator told him that “if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer” (pp. 197-8).  

America gave him a solid job opportunity, helped him connect with his wife, in which he would gain much admiration and love for. It let him keep and embrace his Indian culture while also letting him assimilate in an entirely new one. It gave him his first home, and a son who attends an Ivy League school. America gave him and his family a better life that he couldn’t find elsewhere. While America is not perfect, and while we as American have critiques on the way this country has done things in the past and in the present, ordinary people from all over the world come to America to make a better life for themselves, making their own personal story extraordinary. It is something in the air within mainstream culture that can’t help but depict this country as a “land of opportunity.” And in my opinion, I think there is some truth to that.

Further Readings:

Read on the author's personal life in "Jhumpa Lahiri's Struggle To Feel American," NPR Books, November 25, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97418330

Interested in the time Mrs. Croft grew up in? Read Drew Gilpin Faust, The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, New York: Random House, 2008.