The rakshasis, interestingly, are short-haired and warrior-like, though not huge and grotesque of the ACK variety. Text and image here however, blend very well and become a coherent narrative within a clear narrative frame .. Like other graphic novels, the result here is that of a well-concerted joint effort, unlike the other book, in which the Patua artist first painted her scrolls and then handed it over to the writer to flesh it out.
A cheerful attitude of sacrifice and submission characterises Sita. Here, Sita’s story is less tragic and more inspiring, and thus the question of blame or critique hardly arises. She herself holds in check her radical qualities, as she repeatedly puts her duties as a queen before her rights as a wife. Interestingly,
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The format of the book is that of a speculative mythology thriller based in contemporary Ayodhya, Mithila and Lanka. It has been almost a decade since Sita has mysteriously disappeared from Ayodhya, leaving it an intolerably repressive kingdom, where dark secrets lie beneath the veneer of the glorious ‘Ayodhya Shining’. Peppered with many parallels to contemporary socio-political conditions in India, the book makes intelligent comments about vital issues like land dispossession, a biased media, the government-corporate nexus, terrorism, state surveillance, intolerance, manipulation of ‘history’ and of course, misogyny. Amidst all this, our unnamed narrator journalist develops an obsession for searching for Sita which becomes a metaphorical journey for hunting out the truth. Along the way, she comes across rebels and the misrepresented, like Kaikeyi, Shoorpanakha and Sam Boo Kha, who shed very different light on the official version of Ayodhya’s story, though we are also indirectly cautioned against taking all their words at face value. An elderly, decrepit Kaikeyi in the prologue to the novel remarks, “…me, Kausalya, Sita—all we’ll ever be are villains or footnotes in history textbooks” (19). To redeem such women, the novel carries the testimonies of several of them, forging an unlikely bond between them through a story that otherwise thrusts them apart. Thus, a feel-good story slowly unravels to reveal its cracks and fissures until a new one emerges, bitter but more
Race is a prevalent concept in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, A Princess of Mars. The two principal Martian races—Green and Red—are characterized by drastically different beliefs, abilities, and social organizations. Although differences in their ways of life can be misconstrued to suggest the presence of a racial hierarchy, Burroughs makes no specific delineations about one race being superior over another, thereby reinforcing the idea that the equally created races are simply divided by their respective cultures.
Aligning with Anna Comnena’s overall bias, the details in The Alexiad harbor a great deal of disdain for crusaders. The East versus West mentality is evident in the narrative through Comnena’s description of the Crusaders. She uses the names “Celt” and “Norman()” as derogatory describing the Crusaders as uncultured and “riotous().” With Byzantine bias she singles out the Normans especially with respect to Nicea where they “behaved the most cruelly to all (251).” Alexius, himself is written to fear their “unstable and mobile character (248)” which reiterates battles against Normans earlier in his life.
Red Queen is written with such passion, that it envelops the reader in the story, hung on each and every word. A beautiful tale of hardship, romance, and betrayal. Aveyard does an amazing job of making the reader feel as if they are right beside Mare Barrow on her journey, of becoming the Red Queen.
The words sacrifice and freedom transcend barriers of culture and religion. They are manifested differently to each people, but to each they pervade traditions, daily life, and moral problems. Both become a part of who we are and who we will be, a part of the very marrow of the human experience, they shape our thoughts and emotions. The Hindu text, The Bhagavad-Gita and the mythical work Till We Have Faces by Christian author C.S. Lewis are separated by an inconceivable amount of time and place. Yet, each hungrily delves into the themes of sacrifice and freedom, and in doing so, offers an answer to some of the most difficult questions about how (and why) to live.
The first poem that I chose was by the poet Julia Alvarez titled “Queens, 1963” this told the story of a family that has moved into in Queens, NY. The writer and narrator of this story is from the Dominican Republic. One year has passed for the family to finally settle into the neighborhood. This time an African American family has moved right across the street. The young girl notices how her neighbors have not treated this family with kindness and respect. More police have been seen patrolling through the neighborhood. When reading this poem my initial thoughts were that “Queens, 1963” describes the American people's behavior towards foreigners and their reactions. Alvarez states, “Mr. Scott, the retired plumber, and his plump Midwestern wife, considered moving back home, where white and black got along by staying where they belonged.” (Alvarez, pp 952) It will take another year and another family that will move into their neighborhood, than once the African American family settles in another family will be placed under the same scrutiny.
In most short stories the author writes a story about an experience they have had or something they have made up. In David Arnason’s, “A Girl’s Story,” the first thing that catches the eye is the title. David Arnason incorporates the readers in the story; he writes a story about the process of the author writing a romance novel. The story is entitled, “A Girl’s Story,” because the author tries to write a novel a female would write, or would want to read.
Hess, Linda. Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man's Cruel Treatment of His Ideal Wife. Vol. 67. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.
Grief Girl is a novel written by Erin Vincent about her and her sibling’s experience of losing both their mother and father. Vincent was only fourteen years old at the time of her parents’ death. The chapter goes into detail about the events of the night of Vincent’s parents’ death. Based on the chapter, I can conclude that Vincent definitely went through at least two of the stages of grief. The fact that the novel is nonfiction helps me connect with the emotions that Vincent felt that day. Her details are extremely vivid and it is recognizable that Vincent recalls the events from that day very well.
When Anna Close is first introduced in the novel, As We Are Now she is referred to as Mrs. Close. From what I gather, this was to represent a sort of formality between her and Caro because they were not yet acquainted. Not only this, but it also seems that it was Harriet and Rose's way of manipulating Caro to fear the worst out of Harriet's replacement. Caro knew better than to expect someone who would actually care for her, because of this she was surprised beyond belief when she met Anna.
In the article, “Killing and Letting Die” by Philippa Foot she argues that Thomson’s argument is invalid. Thomson argues that abortion is sometimes justified because no one has the right to another person’s body and therefore the mother can detach herself from the baby. To highlight on this analogy she presents an example with a violinist. The violinist is in critical condition and in order to be saved he must be attached to a random person. That person is then obligated to be attached to the violinist for if they detach the violinist will surely die. It is true that in both situation there is someone’s life at stake. On violinist case the violinist is simply let die while the abortion case the fetus is killed by the mother. Therefore, I will
Girish Karnad’s dramatic themes focus on the basic issues that concern the existential problem of an individual in the postcolonial modern Indian society. Gender and culture are two important social constructs that keep on modifying the existential space of an individual. These various class identities often identify the individual as a marginal ‘other’. This concept of the ‘other’ superficially seems to lie within the class constructs that are governed largely by the concepts of gender and culture. By deconstructing the class constructs we can identify and understand how gender and culture subjugate the individual and make him/her the ‘other’ thus creating subclasses within a class and locating the margin within the centre. Girish Karnad’s three plays Yayati, Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala focus on the gender narratives and their presentations through cultural perspectives that try to locate the individual within the constructs of class narratives as a marginalized other.
Presenting an authentic portrait of contemporary India during the Emergency era imposed by Indira Gandhi, India in the novel is bound with its timeless chain of caste exploitation, male chauvinism, linguistic strives and communal disharmony. Further the tyranny of the power - hungry politicians over the poor – hungry citizens is unveiled as Mistry depicts the humiliating condition of people living in Jhopadpattis, deaths on railway tracks, demolition of shacks on the pretext of beautification, deaths in police custody, lathi charges and murders in the pretext of enforcing Family Planning.
Ramamoorthy, P. “My Life is My Own: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Women” Feminism and Recent Fiction in English Ed. Sushila Singh. New Delhi: Prestige, 1991.
The novel Delhi penned by Khushwant Singh is a story that compasses both the loftiness and messiness of the city that it tries to reveal through an irrational sentiment. A city that has seen no less than seven rounds of complete decimation and amusement, Delhi, the capital of India, is a city of society and disaster, of pomposity and ability, of journalists and aggravations, of legislators and examples of piety. To catch the show and unmanifest appearances of Delhi obliges a canvas that delights and disgusts in equivalent measure. Maybe Khushwant Singh knew of this part of his dearest city, when he made a ribald, old, delinquent hero, in veneration with a hijra (enunch) prostitute, as the individual attempting to depict his friendship detest association with that whore and this city. While the important storyteller busies himself with curious sexual acts with his half-man, half-lady accomplice
... Pakistan to surrender during the Indo-Pakistani War helped the Bengalis establish a sovereign state for themselves. The distribution of the racist pamphlets against the minorities showed Shiv Sena's chauvinistic and fascist regime. Indira Gandhi's corrupt government, socialist regime and her controversial scandals such as giving her son's company government money and the 1971 Nagarwala scandal were also revealed. All of these political events influenced the background of the novel and the characters’ everyday lives. .