Yes, I agree with EM Forster that A Passage to India is not a political novel. Instead, it explores the vastness of infinity and seems (at first) to portray nothing. In those two words alone, `infinity', and `nothing', is the allusion of wondering, and wandering spirits. The title, A Passage to India, evokes a sense of journey and destination. When we string these two ideas together the novel begins to reveal itself as a garland worn in humble tribute to India. With this garland around his neck, Forster also pays homage to the Shri Krishna consciuousness as expressed through the Hindu religion. The clumsy attempts of the two great religions of Christianity and Islam to understand India represent forster's own efforts, and the journey he makes to India is tracked throughout the novel.
The characters in the novel hold a relationship with the title. They each make a journey towards self-realization and for some (Adela, Mrs Moore, Aziz) the price of passage proves painful and disturbing. The culmination of their despair is highlighted by the expedition to the Marabar caves. The Marabar caves are significant as a destination. What they are destined for proves to be nothing or so it seems to Mrs Moore and Adela. If Nothing, nothing attaches to them, and their reputation for they have one - does not depend on human speech [chapter 12], then, according to the Brahman (Hindu transcendent) Dr.Narayan Godbole, there is something there - there is a presence. In his conversation with Fielding in chapter 19, after the arrest of Dr. Aziz, Godbole explains how absence implies presence. The reference to `nothing' is found again in chapter 12 where; `nothing' would be added to the sum of good and evil, and again in chapter 14 where...
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...ot; to the voice of the novel which speaks of the presence and "the universe (which) offered no repose to (Mrs Moore's) soul"[chpt.14] The Brahman meets Mrs Moore on her passage. Perhaps she will reincarnate and begin the cycle again. Aziz feels the `cycle' when he meets Ralph who reminds him strongly of Mrs Moore. The Hindu voice reminds us that the dead (Mrs Moore) as well as the living (Aziz and Fielding) are making their passage, and one day their souls will be accepted by the Supreme Godhead and they will not have to return to the earth and its miserable cycle. In he meantime, all must make their own passage to India. The om echoes in the last line of the novel, "...the earth didn't want it...the temples...the birds...the guest house...they said in their hundred voices, "no, not yet", and the sky said, "No, not there".
Zero’s voice serves to explain a variety of aspects of his existence, including assertions of his own innocence, criticisms of Susan Smith, explorations of his paradoxical nature, and social commentary regarding the notions of free will versus powerful exterior forces.
The first thing that is apparent about this quote is the use of “we”. The word we use throughout the book is in place of I. This is directly related to the society in the novel that completely takes away individualism. The citizens of the setting do not have names and are not allowed to choose their jobs, friends, or even spouses. The character says “There is nothing left around us” which is directly related to the main character feeling alone.
George MacDonald the narrator/teacher, from whom Lewis found inspiration for his book, is the guide in the journey through the gates of heaven. This provides great wisdom throughout the book which is not understood without reflection. MacDonald in essence presents Lewis with a choice while journeying in the gates of heaven. The stories of lost ghosts in the heavenly gates only provide reflection for Lewis’ own choice. This choice is not revealed by Lewis, rather it is up to the reader to make his/her own choice. MacDonald gives guidance towards our choice, “The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words, ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they prefer to joy....” (71).
Humans look for some key equation through which they might tie all of the experiences of life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness of which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. However, humans may never find some great pure meaning beyond their mundane existences, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. Humans seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade every thought, every deed, with the coldness of reality as seen by an unemotional eye. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is nothing more than an empty void. Man’s search for meaning is depicted in John Gardner’s Grendel, as Grendel’s perspective and philosophy
To conclude, I believe that this novel gives a warning to the reader. I believe that it is telling us not to push the boundaries of reality and not to tamper with things that would perhaps be better left alone, because the consequences are unknown, unpredictable and unnatural. It tells us that death and birth are things that in the modern world we just have to accept, and that we should not even attempt to exceed mortal limitations: Playing God should be left to God.
“We paused before a House that seems” (line17 Dickinson). In the third stand, the speaker “passed” (lines 9,11,12) her lifetime on the trip, but the speaker and the death “paused” before an architecture now. The speed of the trip is slow down, and the speaker sees her destination. “A Swelling of the Ground/The roof was scarcely-/The cornice in the ground-”(lines 18-20 Dickinson). According to this description, it is easy to infer that the architecture is a cemetery, which is the destination of the speaker and her new house after she dead. “Since then-/Centuries-and yet/Feels shorter than the day” (Lines 21-22 Dickinson). To the speaker, it makes no difference, whether it is only one day or a thousand years because her body was dead and cannot leave the cemetery forever, but the speaker’s soul is get rid of the limitation of the body and has the eternal life. Compared with the immortality after death, the speaker feels the lifetime is shorter than a day and time is meaningless to her. “I first surmised the Horses’ Heads/Were toward Eternity-” (lines 23-24 Dickinson). The speaker starts to suspect that the destination of the trip is not the “House”, but immortality. Although, the body of the speaker was buried in the cemetery and stay there forever, her soul can continue the trip, and the direction of the horses’ head is the
...2, when it says “tis Centuries- and yet Feels shorter than the day.” By the last line ending with “Eternity” this shows that the speaker has reached her goal of eternity, and here the reader is able to see that there is an afterlife after death.
“Poor turlygod! Poor Tom! That’s something yet! Edgar I nothing am” (2.3.20-22). Similar to Lear, Edgar realizes that he can no longer hold the power or influence that he once had. But rather than going mad and losing even more than he already has, Edgar decides to channel his loss into something greater. He risks his life and his identity to look out for his father, which effectively gives meaning to the nothingness. Edgar’s embrace of his reduction to destitution shows how such a state of nothingness, ironically tends to make people more whole and
Humanity is a part of nature (not apart from it) and everything returns to the earth in the end. In what is my favorite sequence of the film, Baraka takes us to the Ganges River in India. We see the masses gathered at the river bank engaged in various rituals; some bathe, others worship. The Ganges is sacred in Hinduism, a religion centered on the idea of birth and rebirth. A bath in the river is spiritually cleansing, and can even help you escape the endless cycle of birth and rebirth. It is here, in the Ganges, that the story comes full circle. There is life in the river (bathers, worshippers), and there is death (cremations, funeral rituals). Tellingly, Baraka revisits the scenes of religion from the beginning of the film at this point. We see scenes of followers of Abrahamic religions gathered in worship, followed by images of empty temples and mausoleums, and concluded with an image of a single floating candle on the Ganges (a funeral ritual). Religion is not exempt from the cycle of life and death. Of course, death is not the end. There is always rebirth, and the film ends with time-lapsed shots of structures and landscapes imbued with a sense of awe, concluding with an image of the starry night
The author’s full name in Agatha Christie. The title of the novel I was reading is And Then There Were None. The theme of the work is fictional. The setting , tone, mood shows the them of this novel.
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.
The dramatic personae move within the framework of a plot that is like a slow train to India: there is the noise and confusion of the departure, and the fatigue of a midnight arrival, all of which provide the illusion of a think is what Jhabvala is trying to tell us: we are all travelers on a train going nowhere. We come, we go and only India remains.(Aruna P 199)
…….…, “Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and the Blurring of National Boundaries”. Conference issue of South Asian Review 25.3; 2004.
Sharpe, Jenny. “A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. James P Draper, Jennifer Brostrom, and Jennifer Gariepy. Vol. 77. Detroit: Gale, 1993. 253-57. Rpt. of “The Unspeakable Limits of Rape: Colonial Violence and Counter-Insurgency.” Genders 10 (1991): 25-46. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. .
In Forster's A Passage to India we recognize certain elements that can be seen as Orientalist. According to Edward Said's definitions of Orientalism I tried to point out some of these Orientalist elements. However, there are many more examples in the novel which would also fit in the Orientalist frames set by Said.