A Passage to India begins and ends by posing the question of whether it is possible for an Englishman and Indian to ever be friends, within the context of British colonialism. Forster uses the characters Fielding and Aziz to illustrate the paramount value of friendship even when it conflicts with group loyalty and certain value and beliefs.Throughout history social psychologists have studied the idea of cross- cultural friendships and it has been known that building friendships as an adult is based off moral and social reasoning. A study was performed between friendship relationships in cultural context. In order to test this, the psychologist tested the same age groups from childhood (7 and 9 years) to adolescence (12 and 15 years) and young …show more content…
The results were that both the Western and Chinese participants used prototypical stage-related arguments referring to “playing and sharing at the first level, helping and supporting at the second level, trust and intimacy at the third level, and autonomy and integration of friendship in a wider system of relationships at level four” (Keller 2). However, culture was a main influence in the developmental dynamics in the emergence of levels in different topics of situation-specific reasoning as well as in general ideas. Forster explores the general issue of Britain’s political control of India on a more personal level, through the friendship between Aziz and Fielding. In doing so, Fielding and Aziz defy these results and prove to be worthy individuals who connect through frankness, intelligence and good …show more content…
Ralph, for example, stands for the good-hearted but not entirely effective leader of a democratic state, a ruler who wants to rule by law derived from the common consent. Piggy is his adviser, someone who is unable to rule because of his own social and physical shortcomings, but who is able to offer sound advice to the democratic leader. Jack, on the other hand, represents a totalitarian dictator, a ruler who appeals to the emotional responses of his followers. He rules by charisma and hysteria. Roger, the boy who takes the most joy in the slaughter of the pigs and who hurls the rock that kills Piggy, represents the henchman necessary for such a totalitarian ruler to stay in
Several different literary elements work in tandem to produce the magic seen in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India. Because this novel was presented to the world less than a decade after World War I, the fantastic and exotic stories of India seized the attention of the relatively provincial society of the day, and the novel's detailed presentation of Hinduism certainly excited the imaginations of thousands of readers. Benita Parry supports this assertion when saying, "Hinduism takes its place at the core of the novel just as it lies at the heart of India" (164).
...wholeheartedly, making their match somewhat arranged but actually romantic and modern. The union between Balraj and Jaya proves to Darcy that the Indian practice of arranged marriage, especially its aspect of brief interaction between spouses, does not prevent the formation of romantic feeling; therefore, it is not inferior to the free and romantic marriage that Americans support, driving the idea of equality between traditions and modernity. The recognition, understanding, and respect Balraj has for Jaya and her culture has given rise to a marriage between England and India, and through this marriage, both England and India has found the way to engaging each other equally.
A woman that left India because her husband " had to many Indian colleagues" for her liking raised Daphne Manners and she still was offended when she saw her friends abused by prejudices. (Pg 90 Scott, Paul. The Jewel in the Crown. [1996.] Vol. 1 of the Raj Quartet. Rpt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.) While on the train Lili experienced a typical reaction from the English passengers they were riding with and Daphne Manners stated ' I get really angry about the kind of thing that happens over here." (Pg 94 Scott, Paul. The Jewel in the Crown. [1996.] Vol. 1 of the Raj Quartet. Rpt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.) In 1942, English colonists in India did not feel they needed to treat the native inhabitants with any form of humanity. Daphne Manners on the other hand knew that they deserve to be treated as humans. She said "Honestly Auntie, a lot of the with people in India don't know they're born." (Pg 90 Scott, Paul. The Jewel in the Crown. [1996.] Vol. 1 of the Raj Quartet. Rpt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.)
When Ralph blows the conch, Jack is introduced to the reader for the first time. He is represented as an audacious and selfish boy who likes to order others around when he says "I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy"(Goldberg p.22). It also confirms his hunger for power and wanting control over everything. His choleric and petulant personality can be seen when he says "Shut up, Fatty."(p.23), also revealing that he is rude and inconsiderate of others. Despite his obnoxious personality, his conscious of civilization keeps him from killing the first pig they see. He even recommends that the boys should have rules to keep things in order.
The reverberation of sound in the form of an echo is threaded throughout E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, and the link between the echo and the hollowness of the human spirit is depicted in the text. The echo is not heard in the beginning of the text when the English newcomers, Mrs. Moore and Ms. Quested, arrive in India; it is more clearly heard as their relationship with India gains complexity. The influence of the colonizers and the colonized on one another is inevitable; however, the usual assumption is that the colonists are the most successful in imposing their values and ideologies on the individuals whom they view as the "natives." In an introduction to a text depicting a portrait of the colonizer and the colonized, Jean-Paul Sartre states that in attempting to dehumanize colonized individuals, the colonist becomes dehumanized himself. "A relentless reciprocity binds the colonizer to the colonized-his product becomes his fate" (Sartre xxviii). While Forster's text possesses numerous instances of the English losing a humanistic perspective as they place the Indians in a submissive role and treat them as subjects, it can be argued that Sartre's observation of the dynamic existing between the colonizer and the colonized is somewhat manipulated in Forster's text-instead of being dehumanized from their exposure to the colonized, the colonizers gain greater insight into the essence of humanity. The English characters in the text are embraced by the mystery and spirituality of the Orient, which is the focus of their imperialism. As a result, the English join their Indian counterparts in looking inward and outward to discover that the void a...
Piggy represents democracy and Jack represents anarchy. Piggy is cautious and responsible. He believes having a leader and some sort of government is necessary to have a society run smoothly.
Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of the story, “The Third and Final Continent,” grew up being aware of conflicting expectations from two different countries. As Jhumpa mentioned, “I was expected to be Indian by Indians and Americans by Americans (Lahiri, pg 50).” The Third and Final Continent leaves the reader with a positive notion of the immigrant experience in America. The narrator recalls his school days in London, rooming with other foreign Bengalis, and trying to settle in this new world. He talks about how when he was 36 years old when his own marriage was arranged and he first flew to Calcutta, to attend his wedding. This statement is unique because it depicts the differences between an American culture and an Indian culture. At the time of marriage he is 36 years old and he didn’t pick who he wanted to get married to. Marriage in India is something that most parents set compared to other countries where they can marry someone of choice. Indians settle down by an arranged marriage ma...
The narrator’s family considers socializing as a principal habit in Indian society. They have only one neighbor behind the fence, they are surrounded by a government office and a high
Sidhwa’s representation of characters in Cracking India serves as the embodiment of suffrage that Partition caused to the people of India. Through Lenny, the reader envisions each character having his/her own experiences and reactions to the post-colonization, which expands the focus of the affects from one group to multicultural groups of citizens. She explains that “when you put yourself into the persona of a child, in a way you remove all those blurred images-- other people 's opinions, expectations about what life is teaching you and the stereotypes which come in” (Sidhwa “Interview” 519). Lenny’s perspective shows the unveiling of biases and discrimination in her imagined community that she encounters and observes. The individual traits and transformation of personalities and relationships between the protagonist and her circle of relatives and friends symbolize how
Ralph’s style of leadership, with its assigned duties and organized meetings, is thought of as a restriction by the other boys; Ralph plays the same role as the authority figures in their previous lives, causing them to eventually resent his ideology as opposed to Jack’s. His power was derived from chance: his discovery of the conch, and Piggy’s instructions on how to use it comprised his original popularity among the boys; he brings them together with it and its mystery causes him to be elected “chief.” The rules of Ralph’s c...
Jess, an Indian girl whose parents came to Britain in search for a better life, struggles to find mutual ground for cultural norms of her parents, and the cultural norms of the society she lives in. Her parents have adapted some cultural elements such as mobile phones, but those are all merely just a means to adapt to a modern culture they don't feel they belong to, or rather don't want to belong to. Because, when it comes down to moral values, they are not concerend with gadgets or such they have adapted from British culture, they rather feel the importance of belonging to their Indian community in Britain, rather than the British community. They are concerened only with what their Indian communi...
The third method again demonstrates the duality of the post-mutiny era but with more emphasis on reconciliation. Later novels such as Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901) or E. M. Forster's Passage to India (1924) attempt to remove either the Indian character from the confines of previous stereotype or the Anglo-Indian character from the confines of automatic moral superiority.
In the two books discussed above, and probably in much other English literature as well, we can still see that the cleavage between the English and other nations was not so big and impossible to bridge. Thanks to the amount of the people who believed in equal human rights and right to chose their own way, in the middle of the twentieth century the social and political beliefs started to change. English "masters" began to see that their "servants" have faces similar to their own, and behind those faces there is the whole world of new, fascinating culture to discover. I would like to end with words from E. M. Forster: ."..is a globe of men who are trying to reach one another (...) by help of goodwill plus culture and intelligence." (Ford: p. 27).
Ashis Nandy in his book “The intimate enemy” has tried to focus on the psychology of colonialism. I’ve observed that the book justifies its title very well as it sheds light on the fact that though Indians were protesting against colonial ideas as an enemy however, at the same time they were maintaining an intimacy with those colonial ideas.
... could certainly have treated the Indians more respectfully, and thus acted more harmoniously, without having been friends. Perhaps, Forster simply is commenting that we' as a human culture are not in that place yet, a place where we can develop and maintain successful cross-cultural relationships. Forster does suggest though that a combination of respect for people as individuals and a belief in the uniformity and unity of man may help us arrive at a place where there is openness and understandinga place in which we can be friends. Using his novel as his tool, Forster builds for us a model by which we can learn to see past the boundaries which divide us, preventing us from living in union and harmony. And he tells a story too.