Question:
What role does the tannery, in Rukmani’s city, have throughout the book? Explain. Also, be sure to discuss what effect it had on the people.
In almost every novel, there is at least one culprit or menace. He or she usually causes problems and in more exciting works, ends up murdering one of the protagonists. Hence, in the erratic novel Nectar in a Sieve, which is set in India during the early 1950’s, there has been a troublemaker, just hidden and extremely indirect in his actions. “What’s his name?” one might ask. The answer: the tannery. This corporation alone forces Rukmani and her husband Nathan off their land, takes away Rukmani’s sons, and ultimately, kills her husband. By being the culprit in the book, the tannery symbolizes many important things such as how the area is changing and those who can’t adapt will flounder such as what happens to Rukmani and Nathan. The tannery shows India’s economic situation as well. The more businesses, the faster India’s economic structure will form, resulting in more political power for the country, but deteriorating the crop life. Lastly, the tannery depicts how farm life in India is slowly fading away and those who can not find other skills will fade away too.
A major corporation opening in a small town is a sign that the tides are changing and if one can not keep up, he will drown. This is certainly the case in Nectar in a Sieve, being that the tannery opens up in Rukmani’s city. At the time, Rukmani and Nathan have no other skills than tilling the fields and when the tannery buys their land, they were left awestruck as to what their next move should be. Rukmani always had a hunch since the start of the book that the tannery would lead to their end. This quote shows that...
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...ry provides stable wages and hope for promotion. This is more secure than working in a farm because even if there is a drought or the crops go bad, workers still earn a constant rupee a day to support their family. The tannery opening up in Rukmani’s small city and the steady rush of workers depicts how farm life in India will decrease in the next century.
Rukmani overcame many hardships in the novel but her fight with the tannery is a loss. The tannery ultimately defeats her and takes away her husband. Alas, readers typically overlook the tannery as being the antagonist in the novel even though it frequently infuriated the lives of Rukmani and Nathan. Everybody has at least one tannery in their life, be it their boss, friend, coworker or even parent. Being able to overcome your mental tannery would grant you success in life, something Rukmani could never achieve.
Even with these faults, this society appreciates the hard work of farming compared to the easy way of living today. One point of Berry’s argument is that he believes that the land is falling more and more into the hands of speculators and professional people from the cities, who, in spite of all the scientific agricultural miracles, still have more money than farmers. Big technology and large economies have caused more abandonment of land in the country than ever before. Many of the great farmers are clearly becoming different because they lack manpower and money to maintain properly. The number of part-time farmers and ex-farmers increases every year due to the problems with money and resources.
In an article entitled, Exciting Tales of Exotic Dark India: Aravind Adiga 's The White Tiger, author Ana Cristina Mendes describes the many attributes of the poor proletariat class of India. Mendes shows how “dark India,”
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“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” - Masanobu Fukuoka. That’s something people don’t understand about agriculture in the past, the present, and the future. Farming and agriculture is more than just planting a field and harvesting it, it’s a way of life. Generations molded and lived their life around farming. It’s a way to live, a way to make money, and a way to eat. So when you wake up in the morning and pour your cereal or throw your bread in the toaster, thank a farmer. For today, I’m here to talk about the Agricultural Revolution and how it transformed the way of life and triggered the Industrial Revolution.
In the novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga the main character, is Balram, one of the children in the “darkness” of India. Adiga sheds a new light on the poor of India, by writing from the point of view of a man who was at one time in the “darkness” or the slums of India and came into the “light” or rich point of view in India. Balram’s job as a driver allows him to see both sides of the poverty line in India. He sees that the poor are used and thrown away, while the rich are well off and have no understanding of the problems the poor people must face. The servants are kept in a mental “Rooster Coop” by their masters. The government in India supposedly tries to help the poor, but if there is one thing Adiga proves in The White Tiger, it is that India’s government is corrupted. Despite the government promises in India designed to satisfy the poor, the extreme differences between the rich and the poor and the idea of the Rooster Coop cause the poor of India to remain in the slums.
Our nation was founded on agriculture, and for hundreds of years we were able to migrate across the nation bringing our farming tools and techniques with us. Technology has driven populations away from rural areas towards industrialized cities. With money now being pumped into cities, rural farmers are suffering the most. Farmers are taking out large loans in order to sustain their farms, leading to debt and in some cases suicide. Patel spoke about a farmer in India whose husband took his life because he was unable to live with the amount of debt from his struggling farm. This man left his wife and chi...
An adamant believer in the effects and validity of fear, Rukmani views this emotion as nonexistential and consuming of one’s mind. Various elements, such as the syntax and her overall characterization, portray Rukmani as selfless and possessing genuine concern for others. Her resulting internal strife confirms this when she deliberates, “the thought, imprisoned in the brain but inc...
When Arjun and Thambi decide to work at the tannery, conflicting with their parents’ plans of them assisting in farming the land, Rukmani quickly accepts their decision, rather than resisting futilely for a prolonged period of time, providing another source of income to help sustain the family. The positive effects are evident from the succeeding description of the changes resulting directly from the new source of income: “I [Rukmani] was especially pleased that I had not been forced to sell all the chillies, for those ar...
Although the story bounces between these two main "insinuations", it is never clear to me what or who the story is about and I found this to be an unfulfilling reading. In retrospect my previous readings of literature have been more of the atypical writing style. One that leaves you comfortable and secure and without guesswork "The Indian Uprising" avoids this style at all cost. The author's intent on writing in the style of a collage, although fascinating, is very confusing. I will be the first to admit I'm not the most avid of readers, but having to read a story two or even three times and still not fully perceiving its meaning made it an even more arduous read.
In Nectar and a Sieve, Rukmani is the main protagonist. Therefore, it can be argued Rukmani’s views are parallel to Markandaya’s because Markandaya has created this character from her own imagination. At the beginning of the book the tannery is built and Rukmani is angry because she believes it will bring changes she will not like. She says, “But the change that now came into my life, into all our lies, blasting its way into our village, seemed wrought in the twinkling of an eye” (Markandaya 25). Rukmani is resisting the tannery and the people who come with it because they are different. They are not familiar to Rukmani and this scares her. Other characters in the book such as Arjun and Nathan are more accepting of the change. Nathan tells Rukmani it is better to accept change because it can be beneficial (Markandaya 28). Eventually, Rukmani begins to take Nathan’s advice. By the end of the book Rukmani has begun to “bend like the grass” which is what Markandaya believes is best. While her and Nathan are in the city, Nathan is resistant to the change in scenery. He says, “Better to starve where we were bred than to live here “ (Markandaya 166). But Rukmani has accepted that they will probably be in the city for a little while. She does...
As a result of enclosure movement, many farmers moved into cities and became factory workers. During the agricultural revolution, wealthy landowners bought land that was formerly worked by village farmers and forced the farmers to give up farming and move into cities. These farmers faced many difficulties during their first year living in the city since jobs were hard to find. Factory owners hired them because they knew that they could pay low wages or reduce them if workers were late or their business was bad and fine or threaten to fire them if they were not paying attention to their work at all times (Doc A). This exam...
As agriculture has become more intensive, farmers have become capable of producing higher yields using less labour and less land. Growth of the agriculture has not, however, been an unmixed blessing. It, like every other thing, has its pros and cons. Topsoil depletion, groundwater contamination, the decline of family farms, continued neglect of the living and working conditions for farm labourers, increasing costs of production, and the disintegration of economic and social conditions in rural communities. These are the cons of the new improved agriculture.
...orn Brahmin—India’s highest Hindu caste. At the University of Madras, Markandaya studied history and worked as a journalist. In 1948, Markandaya moved to London, —where she wrote her novels—but made frequent trips to India (Glassman). The most popular literature work she created was her first novel Nectar in a Sieve (Glassman). American views of India aspired from her work (Glassman). In the 1980s Markandaya struggled to get her books published because “traditional realistic” type novels were not in demand anymore (Glassman). Both authors directly or indirectly have a connection with the oppression of Indians in India. Throughout the twentieth century, European imperialists took advantage of the Indian people. The novel of Kamala Markandaya and the poetry of Sarojini Naidu depict how the Indian people accepted their lives, even though they endured many hardships.
As you can see, farming is not a job one can do alone. Great help is needed to make the maximum yield possible. The money to pay for these helpers comes from the farmer’s own personal checkbook. The hired hands have a promised amount of money per hour in which they will receive, whereas the farmers do not.