A Real Durwan

E309716

"A Real Durwan" is a short story by Jhumpa Lahiri that portrays the life and mistreatment of an elderly stair-sweeper in a Calcutta apartment building, exploring themes of class, displacement, and human dignity.

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Label Occurrences
A Real Durwan canonical 1

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf literary work
short story
author Jhumpa Lahiri
awardedCollection Interpreter of Maladies
surface form: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (for Interpreter of Maladies)
centralTheme class
communal cruelty
displacement
human dignity
marginalization
memory and nostalgia
social inequality
characterFocus Boori Ma’s past as a refugee
climax expulsion of Boori Ma from the building
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
criticalReception widely studied for its depiction of class and displacement
educationalUse text for teaching postcolonial themes
explores prejudice based on class
treatment of the poor in urban India
vulnerability of the elderly
featuresCharacterType displaced refugee
urban lower-class residents
firstPublicationCollection Interpreter of Maladies
genre fiction
short fiction
includedIn school and university syllabi on South Asian literature
language English
literaryCollectionTheme Indian diaspora and Indian life
literaryStyle minimalist prose
realism
mainCharacter Boori Ma
motif keys and thresholds
storytelling and exaggeration
narrativePerspective third-person narration
plotElement false accusation against Boori Ma
installation of a new basin in the building
primarySetting apartment building stairwell
protagonistOccupation stair-sweeper
protagonistRole durwan
publisherOfCollection Houghton Mifflin
relatedWorkByAuthor Interpreter of Maladies
surface form: Interpreter of Maladies (collection)

The Namesake
Unaccustomed Earth
settingCountry India
settingLocation Calcutta
symbol basin
broom
stairwell
themeContrast appearance versus reality in personal histories
timePeriodSetting late 20th century

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Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Interpreter of Maladies containsStory A Real Durwan