This paper aims to study one of the many Indian authors who write in English and write on Indian society but from a satellite eye of the West. Rohinton Mistry is one such seminal writer of the post modern era, under consideration, whose fiction has won various accolades across the world. This paper shall dive into a deep study of two of his major works – “Family Matters” and “A Fine Balance”, to study the nuances of Indianness and also its anxieties as put forward by Meenakshi Mukherjee in her essay, ‘The Anxiety of Indianness’. In these two texts of Mistry, this paper shall seek to decode questions of identity, place, language, culture and nation. While “A Fine Balance” is set amidst the times of Emergency in India, “Family Matters” is embedded …show more content…
Meena Pillai and Anjali Roy have termed it the ‘Migrant Sublime’ in reference to Edmund Burke who said that pain was the strongest emotion which our mind was capable of feeling. According to them, there is a profound sense of the ‘Migrant Sublime’ found in the writings of Rohinton Mistry because of his acquisition of double vision – partly through his Canadian sojourn and partly from his location in India. This outsider status works both ways in an advantageous manner and which is evident in the vivid sense of place in his writings. Another dialect that comes into question while dealing with the writings of Rohinton Mistry is regarding the status of the Parsi community in India. They seem to have always been outsider in India even when they have lived peacefully with other Indian ethnicities for centuries. In an interview with Nermeen Shaikh of Asia Society, he articulates the gap between the real and the …show more content…
The idea is to construct the image of the ‘Oriental Other’. The deconstruction of the society which the writer inhabits is way beyond his powers and all that is left to write about is what they leave behind. Be it Bharathi Mukherjee or Jhumpa Lahiri or even the writer under consideration – Rohinton Mistry, they all write about darker continents and when they do write about their place of immigration, it is always from the perspective of the ‘Other’. Like for instance in Family Matters the victim at the end of the novel is Hussain, a Muslim who loses his family at the time of the Babri Mosque incident when fanatical Hindus torch his family. Still the Shiv Sena group turns out to be less evil than they are thought to be. The fact that these flaws have not been looked upon, prove that Mistry’s readership was widely Western, substantially in North America and he continues to serve their interests even without actually writing about them or their culture. The idea is that the West approves of a particular image of the East, an exotic India and a construction of the ‘Other’ and that is what Mistry offers in his
In life you have many choices. One of which is deciding whether or not you are going to succeed or fail in life. In other words, choosing to stay hopeful or not. In the “Absolute True Diary of a Part- Time Indian” Junior goes through many situations where hope is needed. The author Sherman Alexie puts Junior as well as other characters in situations to make those hard decisions.
Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel Richter is--without question--one of the most effective studies of Native American history. Richter’s previous book, The Ordeal of the Longhouse, which viewed the European invasion of northeastern America from the perspective of the Iroquois peoples of modern New York a similar awareness of early American history. Facing East challenges the instilled perspective of westward expansion from the early sixteenth century well into the nineteenth. By viewing the early European-Indian encounter through the eyes of the Native Americans, this revolutionary examination intends to “turn familiar tales inside out, to show how old documents might be read in fresh ways...and to outline stories of North America”
Through not only his own, but others’ personal stories, Ansari appeals to emotion and strengthens his argument. Lastly, with the use of data he effectively informs the audience that Muslim Americans should not be considered
To Scott Russell Sanders, the minds of individuals are slowly destroying our planet. Sanders contradicts with Rushdie’s positive outlook on “people who root themselves in ideas rather than places.” As Rushdie sees nothing but hope, Sanders sees nothing but fear and doubt. Scott Russell Sanders utilized various forms of strategy to effectively address his response to Salman Rushdie’s essay and the reasoning behind his stance.
Splendid but Sorrowful Indian Land: Navajo Nation Have you ever visit Native Indian territory? On last April, my family and I traveled at Navajo Indian Reservation. It is the largest Native American territory, occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico in the United States. In that territory, there are two spectacular sightseeing points, Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon.
Prejudice means on how people judge somebody because of race or religion, an example From the book itself "The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian," whites were prejudiced to Indians and even the Indians were prejudiced toward the main character, Arnold for switching to a white school. An example to provide that there was prejudice in the novel like when Roger and Penelope thought that people in Arnold 's reservation were rich because there were a lot of casinos in his area, but the truth was that everyone in Arnold 's reservation were alcoholics that lived in poverty. For example, like Arnold 's father, he was an alcoholic and so tired, they wouldn 't have any food to eat for dinner, and they would starve for nearly every night. And going on this, Arnold didn 't tell anybody that he was poor so he would say he was rich and it was released out when he was at the dance and he was asked if he was poor and he responded saying
Karlie Bishop HIST 2055 February 14, 2023 Soul of an Indian: What is an Indian? Since the arrival of Europeans on the American continent, there has been a cultural collision between Native American and European American belief systems. The stark contrast of values, beliefs, and practices between these two groups has had an enduring impact on American society.
ANELISWA NALA 2015317601 ENGL1624 DUE: 28 OCTOBER 2016 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has one mutual theme that associates all the other themes in the novel together. In the chapter titled; “Valentine Heart,” we encompass the most prominent and most cognisant theme of them all- grief. This chapter conveys the most detectable attributes of grief that functions as both an individual and collective process of dealing with loss. Argumentatively one could say that grieving has its fair share of adversities.
Everyone has their own culture some different from others and some don 't really know their full culture. Some of us may not have similar things in common but we are all alike. In an Indian father 's plea, Legal alien, and Multiculturalism explained in one word. They show perfect examples on how culture influences the way people view others and the world around them. “Wind-wolf asks why other kids in school are not taught about the power, beauty and the essence of nature or have the opportunity to experience it for themselves.”
In “The Foreign Travels of Sir John Mandeville,” John Mandeville provides an account of his travels by creating an imaginative geography of the people and places he visits. Through this imaginative geography the idea of the Western “self” is explored by highlighting the differences between “self,” and the “other” – the peoples of civilizations Mandeville visits. It is in this way that the Western identity is formed – it is not concerned with what Western civilization is but more, what it is not. This dichotomy between self and other is explored in Mandeville’s writing in several capacities, specifically: the civilized human and the savage animals, the pious Christians and the uncivilized pagans, and the good and the evil.
In his book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie portrays a teenage boy, Arnold Spirit (junior) living in white man’s world, and he must struggle to overcome racism and stereotypes if he must achieve his dreams. In the book, Junior faces a myriad of misfortunes at his former school in ‘the rez’ (reservation), which occurs as he struggles to escape from racial and stereotypical expectations about Indians. For Junior he must weigh between accepting what is expected of him as an Indian or fight against those forces and proof his peers and teachers wrong. Therefore, from the time Junior is in school at reservation up to the time he decides to attend a neighboring school in Rearden, we see a teenager who is facing tough consequences for attempting to go against the racial stereotypes.
Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11).
There are main themes in every novel some may be obvious while some require research and analysis to find. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, there are many themes such as bullying, racism, drug abuse and alcoholism. Though only a few of those apply directly to Junior, the protagonist, there is one that he is affected by more than any other. This one is isolation.
People are limiting themselves to one view of the world that comes from somewhere else. at’s something that we have to battle with as we go along” (Achebe Interview Question 6) which showed readers that he was not going to let this view dictate what he truly saw. Achebe and Ezinma both stood out from the norm, and did not settle for
The boundless grief of mother India for her heroic sons, who were killed in alien lands, is poignantly expressed in the poem. The brave sons of India were killed in different climate and in strange lands. Their bodies were burnt in “alien graves’ without any concern or love or a tear. They attained martyrdom in the World War