The Road to Happiness is Not Paved in Gold
When destitution, poverty, and loss plague the life of the characters in Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve one would expect money to be the biggest source of stability and happiness. However, if that path of thinking is followed, a re-reading of this book is recommended. Rukmani and the people around her have all struggled throughout their lives, yet they have all made a major contribution to her happiness and stability. The factors that have kept Rukmani grounded and sane are the same factors that bring out the best in people no matter what background, time period or location. The question of why Markandaya never assigned a time period or place to Nectar in a Sieve plays a significant role in how
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When it is all said and done, money, while it may not be a defining factor in Rukmani’s happiness and stability, helps the family survive and allows them to flourish. It is because of their lack of funds that their son Kuti starves to death, as well as the fact that if they had money they could have stayed in the village and paid the landowner. When Old Granny dies Rukmani blames herself for taking her last ruppe that possibly could have fed her and kept her alive, Rukmani blames herself and her desire for money for the death of Old Granny. When Rukmani and Nathan move to the city they intrust Puli with all of their money and Puli is also the one who gets them jobs. One day after work Rukmani and Puli are walking home and they see a cart with food and a toy. Later in the day Rukmani feels guilty for spending the money, “I don’t know what came over me,” (180) Money makes life easier but it does not insure happiness and …show more content…
Nectar in a Sieve proposes a multitude of situations and circumstances that challenge Rukmani and the people around her, however she and her family always pull through. Rukmani’s life is no fairytale, and by no means is it without hardship. However when you pull the lense back this is a story about a woman who is creating a path for herself and her children to follow. In Rukmani’s case this path is not lined with riches and it may be covered with rocks and soaked in rain, but it is a path
The story’s main character, Jurgis Rudkus, goes through a great deal of hardship in this story. His family moves from Lithuania in hopes of chasing “the American Dream”. Instead they find that the higher wages they earn are offset by the much higher cost of living. Everyone in the family has
Price is overly consumed and unrelenting in his attempt to baptize the villagers. Mama Tituba, the Price family’s help becomes enraged as she communicates to Price why the villagers are so fearful of being baptized...
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
For the families in Nectar in a Sieve, “there is no margin for misfortune” (Makandaya 136) because they live subsistent lifestyles. The low class families rely on their crops and if the crop fails they could starve. The landowner lives a lavish lifestyle and the majority of the population lives day to day. Families will pay a dowry in order for their daughters to be married and if they are a poor family their daughter will marry poor. The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor in most cases. In In the Time of the Butterflies the rich would go to school and the poor would work on the farms. Most of the citizens in their town were poor farmers who didn’t know how to read so unless you were a lucky farmer who made a lot of money it was likely that you and your family would remain poor and uneducated. "In the last few years, Papá had made a lot of money from his farm. Now we had class. And, Mamá argued, we needed the education to go along with our cash.” (Alvarez 12) is an example of the classes set by society. In both books the lower class stayed poor and the upper class stayed
Money was tough for people to come by. As Dobie says, “Money sure can buy nice stuff can’t it? Boy, if you had the dough you sure could fix up a swell house. (Bell, 309) Money could do so much for person. Often times there was not enough money to buy meat or pay the bills. Money would come in on paydays and often that would be the only day when the family had money. Like when Francka sar...
He meets Natalia who is a middle aged epileptic who expresses to him a story of anguish that starts in her childhood, when she was hurt by a poisonous tick, and then takes its descending turn after a wicked gypsy woman traps and possibly even kills her husband. Natalia exclaims that it is her epilepsy that is causing her to poor. Her children are no longer with her and were taken from her, or have possibly died, and or have been deserted. Natalia has trouble realizing what her illness is and is not capable to effectively clarify her illness to others. The meaning of poor as well as in other situations in life is because of the absence of guidance. Individuals should be able to recognize their own surroundings, and be capable to change their lifestyle on what will make them happy. Some people consider themselves rich even though they do not have much, and other poor when they have everything. People for the most part live life beyond their needs. It is unfortunate how people will get depressed for the smallest reasons, and others who are more financially restricted wish they could have their problems instead of their
Our first introduction to these competing sets of values begins when we meet Sylvia. She is a young girl from a crowded manufacturing town who has recently come to stay with her grandmother on a farm. We see Sylvia's move from the industrial world to a rural one as a beneficial change for the girl, especially from the passage, "Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at the all before she came to live at the farm"(133). The new values that are central to Sylvia's feelings of life are her opportunities to plays games with the cow. Most visibly, Sylvia becomes so alive in the rural world that she begins to think compassionately about her neighbor's geraniums (133). We begin to see that Sylvia values are strikingly different from the industrial and materialistic notions of controlling nature. Additionally, Sylvia is alive in nature because she learns to respect the natural forces of this l...
Money is one of these prides that Walter holds dear to himself, noting that this is very important to his personal aspirations within outrageous business deals. His development is shown through the text as continuing events and pressure force change within Walter. These characteristics shape the entire theme of Walter’s understanding of money and his purpose towards the family.
The world in which Lily grows up in is one where money is the standard by which everyone is judged. In a setting like this, “money stands for all kinds of things- its purchasing quality isn’t limited to diamonds and motor cars” (Wharton 66). Therefore, even small things such as the way a person dresses or the places someone frequents become of high importance as they are representative of how much money a person possesses. This materialistic tendency ...
...urther thinks, “people’s troubled relationship represents the effect of capitalism brought by industrialization in the town. I believe people care more about improving their financial status without caring about its effects on other people. For example, my father does not care about what I am going through provided he made money for the family”. Samsa finally supposes that his father’s hostility towards him show lack of appreciation for his money.
And readers are thus exposed to the exploitation and extortion that goes on in this cycle of sympathizers. While the gathering of the women is supposed to be a period of preparing the widows for their confinement, it turns to a period of financial exploitation of the widows. Ramatoulaye succinctly expresses her displeasure,
The book Monique and the Mango Rains is written on the backdrop of one of the poorest countries in the world where people are uneducated but they have their own culture and customs which they follow ardently. However the practices somehow match with the current world of hypocrite people but unknowingly they are present in the small village Nampossela of Mali where author interacted with Monique the central character of the
Innocence ripped away and replaced by premature struggling through life is what outlines Sold by Patricia McCormick. This historical fiction novel follows the story of Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl living in Nepal. Desperately poor, Lakshmi can only enjoy simple pleasures, such as raising her speckled goat named Tali, and having her mother Ama brush and braid her hair. When the violent Himalayan rains tear away all that remains of their cucumber crops, Lakshmi’s maimed stepfather says she must take up a job, for he cannot get work. Lakshmi is introduced to the charming Bajai Sita who promises her a job as a maid in a wealthy area of India. Excited and full of hope to help her family, Lakshmi endures the long trek to India where her journey ends at the “Happiness House.” Soon she learns the frightening truth: she has been sold into prostitution. She is betrayed, broken, and yet still manages to come through her ordeal with her soul intact. Sold depicts a story meant to teach and inspire, making the novel a piece that is highly important for all to see and read.
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.
So goes this story and tells us how the poor Rukumani suffers to hide her love from her parents, how she suffers to get away from the arranged marriage her parents are planning for her, how she suffers without seeing her lover Devanayagam and worst of all what happens when she finally tells her parents about her love.