The Thousand Faces of Night is not just a womanish novel but it is a definite feminist writing in which myths are revisioned, rewrote and retold from a female point of view. The focus of this novel is on the inner lives of women, the inner spaces are reflected detail. We have great Saints, Rishis in our land who taught their people the art of living. We have produced great epics of the world that is Ramayana and Mahabharata which invariable preach the principles of life to the people. In classical Greek ‘Mythos’ signified any story or plot, whether true or invented. According to M.H.Abrams:
“A myth is one story in a mythology a system of hereditary stories which were once believed to be true by a particular cultural group and which served to
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Once this happens, the perception about the world around is to a great extent based on these truths when we believe that something is true we are accepting it as real.
Thus, the journey from myth to reality is completed. In other words, the probability becomes authentic fact and reality. Thus, there is no reality but only different representations of reality. And these representations are ideologically constructed. The Thousand Faces of Night articulates the problems of women on the basis of Indian mythology. Hariharan links the plight of her women characters with the Indian myths as Mahabharata to the gods, goddesses and legendary heroines in the epics of India. The well known anthropologist Malinowski has to say about myth. In his opinion: “Myth is vital ingredient of human civilization; it is not an idle tale, but a hard worked active force; it is not an individual explanation or artistic imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith and moral wisdom ……These stories do not live by idle interest; they are not narrated as historical accounts of ordinary facts. They are to the natives a statement of higher and more important truth of a primeval reality which is still regarded as the foundation of present day
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The author makes a useful distinction between normative myth and subversive myth. She defines the normative myth as one which tells you what sort of wife you should be, what sort of daughter-in-law and so forth. An acknowledgement of this presents the possibility of alternatives as notion of the subversive myth is described as the survival teaching myth. The consequence of the stories was so great that Devi created her fantasy world where she imagined herself as; “an incarnation of Durga, walking the earth to purge it of jowled slimy tailed greed” (Hariharan 43). One day while playing in the house Devi found her mother’s photograph holding a veena in her hands. The grandmother told Devi Sita was a very good veena player and she also told the reason why Sita stopped playing it. But before telling the reason she told her the story of Gandhari from the great epic the Mahabharata. After finding the lie about the blindness of her husband in her fury she made a vow and tore off a piece of cloth and tied it over her eyes for the whole life. In her appraisal “Gandhari was not just another willful, proud woman, she embraced her destiny a blind husband, with a self sacrifice worthy of her royal blood” (Hariharan 29). The grandmother makes comparison between Gandhari and Sita as both became dutiful wives. Similarly Sita pulled
In chapter eight of Night, Elie’s father, Shlomo, struggled with inhuman treatment more than once. He became ill and was unable to control where and when he relieved himself. Shlomo had gotten dysentery from drinking the polluted water. The other sick prisoners he was housing with were so displeased, they beat him. “Eliezer… Eliezer… tell them not to beat me… I haven’t done anything… Why are the beating me?”
This book was first published in 1989 by Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel is a jewish writer who was born in 1928 in Sighetu Marmației, Transylvania, which is apart of Romania. Him and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz in which him and his two older sisters survived. At first I was selecting a book to get it over with, but after I’ve read the story I started to take interest in it.
(Baigell, 3) The clashes between Natives and settlers and enormous consequences, including bloodshed, the forced removal of Natives from their lands, and the establishment of settler dominance. (John P, 6) This exploring of history in a made-up story gave good understanding of how things that happened and the relationships between the groups changed what each group thought over many years. By following the stories of specific people across many generations, readers could really understand in a deep and human way the difficult, long-going conflict that lasted for centuries.
Shahana lives in a region that is currently in the midst of a war between India and Pakistan. Despite the constant violence that she faces, Shahana is a courageous and compassionate person who is always willing to help others. One example of Shahana's courage is her willingness to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of her brother. When Tanveer, her younger brother, is arrested by the Indian authorities, Shahana agrees to marry Mr. Nadir, a wealthy and powerful man, in exchange for Tanveer's release. This is a difficult decision for Shahana, as she does not love Mr. Nadir and knows that she will be giving up her freedom and independence.
Storytelling in history plays a crucial role in stopping repetition and suffering, as experiences are passed down from one generation to the next. In all three of these books, loss of freedom,
We grow on stories. Stories we tell, stories we hear. The private and the public one just like our stories and the others’. As social animals, these stories we hear and tell link us. Thomas King’s book, The Truth About Stories: A Native narrative, tells us all kind of stories.
In Thomas King 's autobiographical novel, The Truth About Stories takes a narrative approach in telling the story of the Native American, as well as Thomas King 's. The stories within the book root from the obstacles that the Thomas King had to face during his years in high school and his post-university life. These stories are told in a matter that uses rhetorical devices such as personal anecdotes & comparisons. "You 'll Never Believe What Happened" Is Always a Great Way to Start is about the importance, potential, and dangers of stories, specifically those of creation stories and how they can shape a culture, with the aim to share King 's urgency for social change with his readers King 's informal tone, lighthearted jokes, and effort to make his writing follow the style of native oral tradition as closely as possible, all help the reader understand the type of narrative he believes would be most beneficial for the foundation of a society. His unique style allows for the use of personal anecdotes and requires that he breaks the proverbial fourth wall to communicate with the reader directly, to create the conversational feel of the oral tradition.
“The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name” (Wiesel 42). 1. Wiesel describes to the reader how he is tattooed with an identification number by the “veteran” prisoners the morning after he and his father have arrived at their new camp: Auschwitz. 2.
“At home, after Sunday School, Kiam always demanded to know: ‘How can anyone walk on water? How can so few baskets of bread and fish feed hundreds?’ And Santa Claus never once visited our house” (Choy 23). Everyone is familiar with myths and legends.
As Sukarno once said, “The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a human being is isolation.” In Night by Elie Wiesel, Anna Karenina, and The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso, the protagonists all struggle with isolation. Elie, Anna, and the old man are isolated from society because they are different than everybody else and unworthy of being included, which results in depression, death, and misery. Elie Wiesel, a Jew removed from his home and relocated to Auschwitz, is an outcast and is isolated from the rest of society because he is considered different. When Elie first arrives to the death camp, he describes his surroundings as “empty and dead” (Wiesel 47).
Myths are traditional stories that explain some natural or social phenomenon, typically involving super natural begins or events. When Grizzlies Walked Upright and Crow the Daylight are great myths with similarities like earthly elements, human character, and great results. The myths both have some earthly elements. In When Grizzlies Walked Upright they were on Mount Shasta which had snow, ice, and trees. For example “Wherever his finger touched, a tree grew.
Greek Mythology and its Influences on Modern Society By Jenna Marie A. Macalawa, Lyceum of the Philippines University – Cavite Campus 2014 Myths are not dissimilar to fairy tales, legends, and sagas, but its period is distinctly different from usual existential time. It is considered as an expression of childhood experiences, and it also explains the origin and meaning of the world. According to Long (1994), “The term mythology may describe a certain body of myths, for example, Greek, African, or Scandinavian, or it may refer to the study of myths” (p.694). These collections of narratives are superior when it comes to influencing different areas of knowledge. There are numerous types of mythology, but Ancient Greece is the one that has given an immense influence on modern society.
When we think of the American West, we always envision a land of rugged mountains and vast prairie, on which cowboys ride on horseback and chase after the Indians. This is the definition of the American West as presented on big screens in cinema, where most Americans’ perception of the myth of the American West comes from. Myth is a story that represents a culture's values and helps to define the individuals that comprise it. All cultures are based on myths.
The most important way to think about myths is that they are symbolic stories that attempt to answer difficult human questions about the universe. For instance, where did we and the world come from? And what is the meaning of life?. “We all want to know where we came from, but because our earliest beginnings are lost in the mists of prehistory, we have created myths about our forefathers that are not historical but help to explain current attitudes about our environment, neighbors and customs” (6). Myth functions as a guidance that explains everything that we come into contact with in the universe.
They represent the plight which the Afghan women have been facing since ages. These characters give hope to the countless women who still suffer the dominance and hardships of the Afghan society. The actions of these characters symbolize their strength to endure things as they join together and retaliate against the man, and in turn the society, who has taken away their rights to live their lives according to their own choices. The ‘thousand splendid suns’ represent the thousands of Afghan women with immense potentialities who are still under the clutches of patriarchal domination and are forced to hide behind the walls. Khaled Hosseini has beautifully portrayed the cruel realities of the lives of Afghan women through Mariam and Laila and this is what separates A Thousand Splendid Suns from literary works that deal with Afghan women.