Final Project: A. Background of The Author

Name : Youvinte Ucce Dyafuci
NIM / Offering : 160221601820 / DE

Course : Basic Analysis of Prose
Final Project
a. Background of the author
Jhumpa Lahiri is a writer from India and she is American. She was born in India,
11st of July 1967. She has written a lot of stories and novels. Her first work is Interpreter
from Maladies (a short story in 1999) and The Namesake (her first novel written in 2000).
Her name is actually Nilanjana Sudhesna, but she prefers to be called as Jhumpa. She also
wrote the story entitled “The Boundary”. I think this is the most important that I should
write here. After finishing her first novel, Interpreter of Maladies, she announced that she
wanted to move to Italia. She did not only move to Italia, but she wrote almost her work
in Italian form when she was there. The Boundary is one of them. This, of course, makes
some of her fans felt sad. But Jhumpa is a fine writer, she tried to translate her story, The
Boundary, in English form based on her own work. This has restored the sense of
equilibrium. This will make the readers easier to understand the story by using English
form rather than Italian form. She translates this story by using easy language so the
readers will be easier to interpret it. I also one of the readers of “The Boundary”. This
story is highly recommended to read, easy to understand, and this story is about the daily
life of us.
b. Summary of The Boundary
A first person by a teenaged girl, The Boundary opens with the coming of the
new family. It began when the family came to her house to have a vacation. She
welcomed the family and tried to show them around. About how to do in the house
such as killing the flies before going bed, showing each room of the house, how to get
the supermarket, how to operate the washing machine, and so on. This story is about
the life of two families, the vacationer’s and the narrator’s family, who have
constrasting features between them. The story here is more focusing on the teenaged
girl as the main characters, and the story is hers. After she guided the vacationing
family, she did housework. The situation here shows that there is a characteristic of
humanity, envy, in which the narrator felt worried, envy, and depressing about how
happy they are. It can be seen at this sentence “I pretend not to watch them, to be
discreet. I do the housework and water the garden, but I can’t help noticing how
happy and excited they are.” (Paragraph 9). The family showed their happiness.
When the family was taking a rest, the narrator heard the conversation. It was like a
happy conversation that is done by a happy family. Then the father and his two
daughters who were seven and nine years old enjoying the beauty of the sea. The girls
playing around, running and catching each other, catching crickets and even turn them
into pets. While the father asked the narrator about the forecast for that week, and did
some photographs from his cellphone. The father also invited his daughters to go to
the plum tree, olives, and fig tree. But not for the mother, she preferred to stay at
home, putting on her bathing suit to get some sun, stretching her body out on one the
lounge chair, and writing notes about the whole things that she had done in her little
book. I think this is an irony. It shows the distinct characteristic of the family in
which the visiting family was happy to enjoy the time, while the narrator felt envy to
the visiting family. It may be that the narrator was disconnected from her family. Her
mother was spending the summer in a nearby town, while her father was a self-
conscious and introvert “My father and I eat inside, in silence. He doesn’t look up
when he eats. With my mother away, there’s no conversation during dinner. She’s the
one who talks at meals.”(Paragraph 26).
The activities were done repeatedly like a predictable routine because the
visiting family was used to live in this country. The father started to know about the
road (after studying about the road map), and the mother did what the narrator did like
sweeping the floor, cooks, washes dishes, and stretching again while writing the
notes. One night, the more family arrived along with their children. the narrator heard
the laughter and chatters were louder at that time. I think this situation make the
narrator more depressed, it can be seen in this sentence “At the same time I wonder
what they know about the loneliness here. What do they know about the days, always
the same, in our dilapidated cottage? The nights when the wind blows so hard the
earth seems to shake, or when the sound of rain keeps me awake?” (paragraph 41).
When a cake came out, the narrator realized that it was the father’s birthday. The
mother said that the cake came from the bakery in their neighborhood while
mentioning the name of the bakery, Piazza. When the mother mentioned the name of
the bakery, the narrator started to tell about what happened when they were in urban
areas like her father had no teeth and had a problem in speak up because of the bad
incident that three drunk men did to her father. However, her father struggled to speak
up although he was hard to mind his words. But the words that had a deep meaning to
his daughter (the narrator) was to study and finish school, go to college, and then go
far away from them. It is repeatedly spoken when he drove her to school.
c. Plot of The Boundary

1. Exposition
The family on vacation came to the small cottege, it was the narrator’s cottege.
The family consisted of parents and two daughters. The narrator welcomed them
and guided them about how to do in this house
2. Rising Action
After the narrator guided the visiting family, she did housework and pretended
not to see them, but she could not help looking how happy and excited they are.
3. Climax
The narrator felt that her family was not as happy as the visiting family. She
was wondering about her life about how the visiting family was really happy in
this loneliness country while she felt there was no special in this country. only
loneliness, tranquility, and whirling wind here.
d. Setting of The Boundary

1. Time, in the morning, in the sunset, winter, and spring, July, October
2. Place, in the country, in the house, at the sea, on the shaded patio
3. Atmosphere, cold, envy, worries, farewell, touching.
e. Characterization of The Boundary

1. The narrator, a teenaged girl
Envy, kind, and diligent. She felt envy with the visiting family because
they were so happy enjoying that country. She looked after the small cottege,
do housework, and schooling.
2. The narrator’s father
Kind, self-conscious (becuase of the incident), and loving person. We
can know it when he was eating with his daughter in silence, no conversation
at all. But he struggled to speak up to her daughter and ask her to finish the
school and college well as well as go far away from them (indicate that he had
not become a good father yet because the lack of communication)
3. The mother of visiting family
Kind, diligent, and lovely person. She wrote the notes not only for her
family, but also she wrote it for them (both her family and the narrator family),
means, that (only) she noticed them and understand the narrator’s condition.
She also helped the narrator doing housework.
4. The father of visiting family

Kind, diligent, love his family. The father asked the narrator about the
way to beach, and he studied a road map. The father also invited her daughter
playing on the beach, went to the plum, fig, and olive trees, and educate them
about the nature “He says fruit picked straight from the tree tastes different
because it smells of the sun, the countryside.”
f. Point of view The Boundary

The point of view of the story uses first person point of view because the
writer uses “I, me, my” in the story. It emphasizes that the character within the story
tell their own experiences and thoughts.

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Name : Youvinte Ucce Dyafuci

NIM / Offering : 160221601820 / DE

b. Summary of The Boundary

c. Plot of The Boundary

d. Setting of The Boundary

e. Characterization of The Boundary

4. The father of visiting family

f. Point of view The Boundary

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