I think “Sexy” by Jhumpa Lahiri is one big portrait of Loneliness. Throughout the piece we follow Miranda through her lonely life as a cubicle worker in a somewhat new city. Her only friend at the beginning appears to be Laxmi, who seems to be the kind of person who talks but never listens, so not a true friend at all. We also hear mention of Dev, who we find out later is not so much a friend as a lover.
During the almost montage-like flashback scene of their fling, Lahiri presents them as almost the perfect pair. Everything is going right for Miranda while Dev’s wife is away, except for perhaps the constant, if blind, reminders from Laxmi that cheating on a spouse is wicked. How could Miranda possibly be lonely with such a perfect pairing? Dev’s wife comes back, and Miranda finds herself pining away for Dev all week until Sunday arrives. For a while this seems to satisfy her, although Dev is not the lover she wishes he was. Her resentment is clear in her reactions to his showing up in sweatpants and her knowing he will wash his hair of her scent. The reader realizes that all is not happily ever after, probably before Miranda herself can realize it. She finds herself at places that remind her of Dev, like the Indian grocery store. Clearly she needs more of him than she can get for an hour or so once a week.
When Rohin astutely remarks that “sexy” is “loving people you don’t know,” that’s when it all clicks for Miranda. She was lonely in Michigan, surrounded by people she didn’t want to be around any more, so she moved to Boston, a city full of people she didn’t know. Laxmi isn’t so much of a friend as an annoyance Miranda has come to terms with, and Dev is a new lover, and the only time it seems they really connected was on the basis of both knowing loneliness. The truth is, they don’t really know each other yet, which is why he called her sexy. He hasn’t become emotional support in the way Miranda needs. She needs someone who will listen to her, but in the story it seems she hardly ever speaks to Dev, their interactions tending to fall on the more physical side, and when they do talk, it seems like Dev commands the conversation.
The closest Miranda gets to having a friend in this story is her single night watching Rohin. We have more direct quotations from Miranda in this short night than we get from her the entire rest of the story combined. Obviously she and Rohin connect quite a bit, but he notes that they’ll probably never see each other again, and the reader can see that this affects Miranda quite a bit, probably more than it should for a child she had just met.
I think at the end of the story, however, Miranda has come to terms with at least the idea that Dev isn’t going to fix her problems. She knows it’s unfair not only to his wife, but also to herself. She realizes that if she stays on with Dev, she can’t move on in her own life. The final image we are left with is a Miranda on a cold winter day, content to be on her own, hopefully a Miranda who is less lonely now she understands herself more.
(Featured image photographed by me. The tree reminds me of Miranda’s isolation, and the winter weather not only matches the season at the end of the story, but also the somber mood maintained throughout. However, this somber mood is offset by the gentle colors and lightness of the sky in the background, leaving the viewer with a glimmer of hope that warmer times are coming, just as the story leaves with that same glimmer of hope for Miranda’s life.)
