Flashbacks

In the interpreter of Maladies, Mr. Kapasis's experience with his son dying forced him to realize what his true passion was. He and his wife's son died of a disease at a very young age. The reader knows this through the author's use of a flashback within the text. This shows importance becasue if his son would not have died, then he would not have had the passion to be the intrepreter at the doctor's office that he is. Before he was an interpreter, he was an english teacher that aspired to be an ambassador for a foreign nation. But after the experience with his son, he realized that he must stand up for those who did not have a voice. He realized he would have to be the voice for those who did not have one. In other words he would interpret the words of the patients to the doctor.