Comparing the Work of Arundhati Roy and Seamus Heaney
Arundhati Roy writes a provocative story of growing up in India in his book entitled, The God of Small Things. The novel is placed in two different time periods about 23 years apart and moves smoothly from one time period to another. Roy’s predominate story is of Estha and Rahel who are “two-egg twins…born from separate but simultaneously fertilized eggs” (Roy 4), but along with their story are several other stories that spotlight members of immediate Ipe family members and persons living nearby. Woven into Roy’s novel are his views of life in India. Also examined here is Seamus Heaney’s book of selected poems, Opened Ground. The poet laureate of Ireland portrays in his writings his views Ireland, from his life as a child to the troubles Northern Ireland has faced because of England in the last century. These two countries are different in cultures and traditions and are located at opposite ends of the global yardstick. But common to both are problems of unrest; in India those associated with English influence and domination; in Northern Ireland problems concerning English sympathizers and those opposed to English rule. These similarities and differences will be examined here.
Roy begins by speaking in the present time focusing on Rahel return to India after a long absence. The author includes a careful description of the desolateness that currently envelopes the once active house, a house filled with activity but little happiness. After Ammu, the twin’s mother, is divorced, she returns to the house and fills it with her young and active twins. Rahel and Estha lived guarded lives as children, finding happiness for the most part only in their relationship with a neighbor of a lesser class, Velutha, a carpenter who became involved romantically with Ammu. Eventually, Estha was separated from his twin and sent to live with his father. In years past, her grandmother, Mammachi, spent unnamed hours on the front veranda, fleeing from her brutal husband, the Reverend Ipe and playing her violin. When Sophie Mol, Chacko’s daughter arrives from England for a visit, she is received on the veranda and served cake. And the property near the house also once held a factory of Mammachi’s named “Paradise Pickles and Preserves” and employed several people. The house held a bustle of activity.
But when Rahel returns, all the activity that occurs outside involves rodents running in overgrown gardens and frogs swimming in scummy ponds.
Lily’s idea of home is having loving parent/mother figures who can help guide her in life. Because of this desire, she leaves T. Ray and begins to search for her true identity. This quest for acceptance leads her to meet the Calendar Sisters. This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel.
Included within the anthology The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction,1[1] are the works of great Irish authors written from around three hundred years ago, until as recently as the last decade. Since one might expect to find in an anthology such as this only expressions and interpretations of Irish or European places, events or peoples, some included material could be quite surprising in its contrasting content. One such inclusion comes from the novel Black Robe,2[2] by Irish-born author Brian Moore. Leaving Ireland as a young man afforded Moore a chance to see a great deal of the world and in reflection afforded him a great diversity of setting and theme in his writings. And while his Black Robe may express little of Ireland itself, it expresses much of Moore in his exploration into evolving concepts of morality, faith, righteousness and the ever-changing human heart.
Today, the definition of the term “liberal” is relatively uncontested, and its content is relatively well defined. A liberal today is someone who advocates for governmental solutions to various problems, not for unaided individual freedom. Liberals today trust and call for governmental action, not for the type of self-determination supported by Hoover. Contemporary liberals believe in individual freedom, but they typically advocate f...
over by a car. The main part of the poem is set in the family home,
The House on Mango Street is the tale about a young girl named Esperanza who is maturing throughout the text. In it Esperanza documents the events and people who make up Mango Street. It is through this community that Esperanza’s ideas and concepts of the relationships between men and women are shaped. She provides detailed accounts about the oppression of women at not only the hands of men who make up Mango Street but also how the community contributes to this oppression. As the young girls and women of Mango Street try to navigate the world they must deal with a patriarchal society that seeks to keep them confined. By growing up in this environment where women are confined Esperanza seeks desperately to depart from Mango Street for fear
Metaphysical Premises And Types Of Liberal Ideology: Liberalism As The End And Liberalism As The Way
Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. It’s produced in cells called melanocytes which produce pigment in your skin. Melanoma can be formed or resemble a mole. It can also be caused from too much sun exposure that you can acquire from tanning beds. If melanoma is diagnosed and treated at an early stage, it can almost always be cured. But if it’s not, the cancer can advance and spread throughout the body where it can be hard to treat and be fatal. I witnessed one of my friend’s,mother fight first hand. I was in 3rd grade, she was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. With being so young, it was hard for my friend to understand the possibilities of the dangerous cancer. She fought for two hard and exhausting years. The doctors did the best
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
Cuddon, J.A., Revised by C.E. Preston. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 4th ed. London /GB: Penguin Books Ltd, 2000. N. pag. Print.
Liberalism is an ideology and due to the changing views of historical persons, who have each viewed themselves to be Liberals, is difficult to define precisely. There are five agreed defining tenants of Liberalism. The most important of these, percolating through the ideology, is the ‘Importance of the Individual’, and closely interlinked with this is ‘Freedom’, which leads on to the concept of ‘Individual Freedom or liberty’. Liberals believe that humankind is a rational species, and thus ‘Reason’ is a third tenant. Furthermore Liberalism advocates that the principle of ‘Justice’ and Toleration’ are fundamental in the well being of society and each of these aspects relates directly back to the quintessential first tenant. Liberalism, according to Habermas “emphasizes individual freedom from restraint and is usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard; c: a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties.” As an individualist, rather than a collectivist ideology the individual is placed as the building block of society. J. S. Mill says ...
It seems that the liberalism and conservatism ideologies are like two bulls pulling on opposite sides of a cart going now where. Both groups have the same goal of changing things for the better but different ways of doing so. If you were to watch the news you would see that there are still sick, homeless, and people with to much money. There needs to be a happy medium between the two plans. Instead of giving handouts such as welfare, which creates the problem people abusing the program, but instead providing training programs. This would give the people the chance to make the choice to make the decision and then act upon it themselves. There needs to be a balance between the two ideologies, a little tough love with a little foresight. We as a country need to be proud of the opportunities we have created and not shut out the world around us, but not be so naive about the treats that our country does face. We need to not allow ourselves to sink down to a third world country status, but instead show the third world an example to
Liberalism, formed in the latter part of the 18th Century from opposition to existing political monarchies in Europe, was based on rights of individuals and the responsibility of government to protect those rights. Conservative philosophy was born as a reaction to dangerous tendencies detected within the liberal movement toward excessive governmental control. While conservatives form the base of their beliefs on traditional values, respect for authority, and maintaining custom, liberals fought government tendencies to diminish, ignore, or abuse individual human rights. Both beliefs balanced each other until liberalism shifted its emphasis from protecting individual rights from government to using government as a source for supplying basic life necessities. The modern liberal agenda began as President Johnson's Great Society to wipe out poverty and enhance the quality of life for all Americans.
Throughout ‘To the Welsh Critic Who Doesn’t Find Me Identifiably Indian’, Arundhati Subramaniam argues that the “the business of language”, or the language that one speaks, should not dictate one’s identity. This becomes crucial in her poem as she uses this argument in response to a Welsh Critic, who does not identify her as being Indian. The poem substantiates her perspective of language through various techniques. For instance: Subramaniam reinforces the critic’s cultural assumptions in a defiant tone; she questions him, repeatedly, about language and eventually she challenges him, insisting he should explain to her how he would receive her as “Identifiably Indian”.
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women of Greek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
Gerard Genette focuses on the narration of the novel by analysing focalisation, the narrative mode, the use of intrusive authors and the way time is handled in a text. Each of these contributes to a readers understanding and appreciation of a text. Focalisation is one of the key features in Narratology effectively facilitates readers to comprehend the text. Bronte adopts the literary technique dual narration in Wuthering Heights; this is when two characters narrate. The two characters that narrate, via internal focalisation in the novel, are Lockwood and Nelly. Internal focalisation is when a narrator has ‘witnessed...learned about, or even participated in the events they tell.’ (Barry, 2009, pp. 225-226) This is imperative to understanding literature; an example of this in the novel is when Nelly says ‘a ...