refugee that is the subject of Lahiri’s fiction. Lahiri’s stories explore natural-
ization not just as a formal process by which citizenship is acquired but also
as a social process that extends beyond the conferral of formal citizenship
and follows multiple, unpredictable pathways. (598–99)Applying this framework to “The Third and Final Continent,” Koshy
makes three related points: (1) Lahiri uses the arranged marriage (rather than
the more common choice of romantic love) as a metaphor for immigration
and naturalization, thereby highlighting the difficulties of each. (2) Lahiri uses
the turning point scene as an allegory for naturalization. The character nar-
rator and Mrs. Croft develop mutual respect within an awareness of differ-
ence, and when they both extend that respect to Mala, they make possible the
acceptance necessary for the successful marriage; a similar respect within the
recognition of difference is necessary for naturalization. (3) Lahiri uses small
events and “ordinary affects” as ways to mediate between individual subjectiv-
ity and larger social structures. Classifying “The Third and Final Continent”
as an epic short story, in which the unnamed character narrator stands in for
a whole generation of male Indian immigrants, Koshy notes that Lahiri never-
theless focuses on “quirky encounters and thick quotidian details to create the
eventfulness of this journey” (604). As a result, the story “brings into view the
dislocations produced by migration and globalization, but from a perspective
far removed from macrostructural causes” (605).
From the perspective of rhetorical poetics, I find that Jackson and Koshy
impressively elucidate key aspects of Lahiri’s exploration of immigration and
naturalization. I also note that their analyses proceed in the now time-hon-
ored fashion of politically oriented criticism: they use relevant concepts from
cultural and political theory to thematize the characters and events of the
story. While this method has amply proven its utility, it also leaves room for
two rhetorically oriented questions: How does Lahiri use additional resources
of narrative to contribute to her exploration of the immigrant experience?
And how might Lahiri’s practice feed back into our theoretical understanding
of those resources? The first question is especially pertinent in light of Koshy’s
point that Lahiri provides “a perspective [on the dislocations of immigration]
far removed from macrostructural causes.” What better way to get further
inside Lahiri’s perspective than by analyzing how it develops through her care-
ful crafting of multiple narrative elements of “Final Continent”? And such an
analysis leads naturally to a consideration of the second question. For these
reasons, I shall home in on Lahiri’s handling of reliable narration, character-
character dialogue, and the interaction of textual and readerly dynamics to
generate a crossover effect at the story’s turning point. My goals are to show
RELIABILITY, DIALOgUE, AND CROSSOVER EFFECTS • 217