The Padma Shri awardee, writer and anthropologist, Amitav Ghosh has widely written in English language and has taught in various Indian as well as American universities. His writing corpus includes novels, travel essays and other forms of literary and historical writings. Among his ten major publications six are novels: The circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995), The Glass Palace (2000), The Hungry Tide (2004) and Sea of Poppies (2008). Bengali by birth, Ghosh depicts Bengali way of life, history, behaviour and social consciousness alongwith concerns of humanity in general as Murari Prasad opines:
Amitav Ghosh stands out among his peers for the admirable directness and lucidity of his prose as well
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Mayadebi with her husband goes on visiting different countries of the world. Similarly her sons also go on crossing the borders of nation state. Her another son Jatin-Kaku who “[i]s always away too, somewhere in Africa or South-East Asia, with his wife and his daughter Ila.” (6)
The second part entitled “Coming Home” deals with coming back to India. For Tha’mma, India after partition has become her home so she wants her uncle Jethamoshai to come home for the rest of his life. The novel goes on shifting from individual to the public and from public to the individual. The episode of dividing the house between two brothers who were united in the earlier times portrays the division of the large country into two parts.
Ghosh has very technically structured the novel to move between past, present and future. The author has tried to show that our understanding of the present is based on our earlier perceptions that is why the narrator tries to link every present movement with its past. The novel The Shadow Lines portrays history of Partition of India (1947), riots in Calcutta and Dhaka (1963-64), world war (1939), economic crisis and other events from history. It is a commentary on how British policy of ‘divide and rule’ exploited the uneducated and superstitious people as well as the discourse of communalism and violence overtook the feeling of humanity. Prasad avers,
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Most of the subcontinent’s subjects, born as free citizens of their nation do not find something tragic about what happened in the year 1947. Those who have experienced it call it partition and those who find it just in history books call it the moment of independence. The event has different connotations for different people. The idea of partition has been overcome by the romantic idea of freedom. No doubt it is something to celebrate liberty from the clutches of British colonialism but its basis is the partition of a nation geographically as well as
Not experiencing war is a luxury many people unfortunately do not get; however, Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone, lives and survives the war, though not without heartache. With war there is always fear, death, and hell. Ishmael Beah proves war is hell through the killing of civilians, the distrust, and the after effects of the war. Ishmael proves war is hell through the killing of civilians. Many innocent bystanders of the war are forced out of their homes, made to run for their lives.
Throughout the story “In the silence” by Peggy S. Curry the protagonist; Jimmy is on a rollercoaster of emotions. At the beginning of the story, Jimmy is depressed and homesick because of his interactions with Angus Duncan. Although as he would finger is brooch he would remember home, this made him happier. When Angus sent Jimmy into “the silence” he was scared, scared of all the dangers around him. After a few nights “in the silence” he had already lost two of his sheep, one was killed when trampled by a horse, and another was dropped and killed by a sheep, he was worried about what Angus’ reaction would be along with the sheep’s safety in jeopardy.
Death is something that will eventually happen to everyone, but there are so many different ways of people that deal with death around them. There are some people who don’t deal with death well, so they become mentally and emotionally unstable for their entire life. On the other hand, there are people who accept death for what it is and take the necessary steps to become more tolerant to it. In Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, he speaks about the various aspects (such as the cost of taking care of elderly people) that surround death that people often neglect. Death can be a very taxing area of discussion, but once people accept its cruel nature they can overcome the burden it brings.
The human condition is full of paradoxes and double meanings. We can commit the most shocking and terrible acts, but we can complete the most virtuous and honorable feats. Ishmael Beah describes the appalling and violent behavior he and other children exhibited toward the human life during his time in the Sierra Leonean civil war in his memoir, A Long Way Gone. Beah also details the forgiveness and kindness of complete strangers that helped him become the man that fate meant him to be. Homo sapiens are complex creatures brimming with irony and surprises.
When Amarika’s mother returned, she experienced the return of her protective figure. The symptom she started to experience after the dramatic event became better with the return of her mother. Makisha’s return also benefited Amarika’s social environment. As Makisha recovered, the family continued to cope with the stressful events. As the families coping improved, the household went from a distressed environment to a stable environment, much to the benefit of Amarika.
Character analysis essay of the short story “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin James Baldwin is considered as the most well-known writer of the 20th century. His writings were mainly concerned by the problem of racism in America since he was one of the figures of the civil rights movement. “Sonny’s blues” is one of his greatest literary works, where we will notice how the persistent racism the writer experienced has had a great impact on his devoted writings. “Sonny’s blues” takes place in Harlem, an Afro-American neighborhood in New York City. Harlem plays a crucial role in this short story, because it is depicted as place where the narrator and his brother must struggle to escape the hustle and bustle of their own reality.
India, one of the many colonies England controlled in the past was the “Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire. Although in the beginning, it was controlled by the British East India Company as a source of cotton, tea, and indigo. The British had indirect control of India until the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. Although Britain created India’s government and military, improved trade, protected land, claimed to improve education, and increased minority safety, however the government and military controlled and excluded Indians, trade only benefitted the British, statistics show education was better after Indian Independence, valuable land was degraded and minorities still felt fear and insecurity.
In “Longing to Belong”, Saira Shah gives you a look into the life of a 17 year old girl longing to understand her parents heritage and trying to fit into a culture that is so much different from what she knows. Having a father who originates from Afghanistan and a mother who originates from India. Saira wants to learn the culture of her father’s afghan routes. The author feels the only way in to learning is by being betrothed into an arranged marriage. The author states that her uncle in seeing “two unmarried” daughters in the company of a chaperone visiting his home, concludes that they were sent to be married.
The novel, Something Wicked, by Alan Gratz takes place on Birnam Mountain near Knoxville, Tennessee. The author, Alan Gratz, actually grew up in Knoxville Tennessee. During this time, there is a Scottish Highland Fair going on along with the Highland Games. The characters are linked to the setting because they all have Scottish backgrounds. The setting of the story influences the events in the novel with its historic background.
In the novel, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, nine distinct stories are told that depict families or people of Indian descent who experience different situations and circumstances that affect their lives. Many themes arise throughout the stories, but one that is prevalent through two specific stories, Mrs.Sen’s and Interpreter of Maladies, is the idea of cultural assimilation. Mrs.Sen’s and Interpreter of Maladies both portray the idea of cultural assimilation, but in different ways. Mrs.Sen’s is an example of a woman who resisted cultural assimilation in order to preserve her Indian heritage, while Interpreter of Maladies is a story that depicts a family who have fallen victim to cultural assimilation, thus losing a sense of connection to their Indian roots and being conformed into American culture. Lahiri uses the recurring motif of physical objects and actions to illustrate the various effects cultural assimilation has on certain people.
Instead of a simple coming-of-age story, Satrapi outlines the social and economic conditions that shaped her childhood and adolescence. The simplicity of a child’s mind and her confusion at adult notions is a constant theme in the book. This is brought forth in Marji’s childlike understanding of the
Sudipta Kaviraj can be discussed while we try to contextualise the concept of nation with respect to India. He says that a distinction can be made
Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan recounts the event of the Partition of India, which happened in 1947. Set in a fictional village of Mano Majra, the novel aims to depict the cultural and political clash between the Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims and, by following the development of the characters, unveil the moral of humanity. Throughout the novel, Singh portrays the experience of conflict that each character, including Juggut Singh, Iqbal Singh, and Hukum Chand, has to deal with. Based on the characters’ development, Singh’s goal is to present the idea that love always conquers the power of violence and ethnic antagonism. Singh starts off with a description of the Partition and of Mano Majra, a habitat for Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims.
The ‘rootlessness’ which is central to an immigrant consciousness also connotes an underlying phenomenon of ‘give-and-take identity politics’ of a pre-defined identity along with the coterie of religious, cultural, racial, social values and norms thus become a site of hope, of a new beginning. All these issues come up in a unique fashion in One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This is unique from the perspective that unlike her other works where India is mostly viewed through the eyes of Indian natives, here in this novel there are some non- native characters who aspire to settle nowhere but in India with the hope of fulfilling their dreams which were otherwise lost in the materialistic soil of America. In One Amazing Thing, there are only nine characters and the plot is neatly developed around there lives and individual experiences.
The novel is somewhat of a memoir of his journey to finding his freedom in India’s modern day capitalist society. The book shows how it can create economic division. In India there are not social classes, there are social