Conclusion According to Tanveer Hasan in his case study of Amitav Ghosh’s novels of Indian-American Diasporic Literature, One might argue that there are instances in the characters created by Ghosh who cling to memories more than they cling to their sanity. One cannot of course deny the important role memories have to play in framing or reframing the psyche of an individual, par when they have undergone a harrowing experience such as ‘cultural displacement, factional uprooting, secession claims, and ethnic refugees.’ The clarity with which the characters and the story tellers seem to get in and out of the realms of rational arguments about memory and irrational theories concerning the nostalgia is what makes Amitav Ghosh an author who narrates the tales of experience and not just of plots and …show more content…
Nayar says, “Amitav Ghosh is indisputably one of the most important novelists and essayists today. A novelist with an extraordinary sense of history and place, Ghosh locates an individual’s dream in the general, often uncontrollable, sweep of humanity’s destiny and actions. From the partition to colonial science to colonialism, Ghosh is interested in the ways in which the violence of history, geography and political alters lives. An extraordinary fine stylist and narrator, Ghosh is also, quite often, a dense read. Murugan is the main entertaining character in the novel The Calcutta Chromesome. He claims to be the only expert on the Ronald Ross story in the world. The one and only aim of Murugan’s life is to observe and bring out the medical history of Malaria to the world. We could see how Ghosh had given recognition to the less known and less fortunate people.
Everyone in this world gives priority to success. It became a fate that real talented ones were not noticed by the society mostly. Murugan's had guts to disagree things though the crowd accepts and believes it completely. Murugan could stand alone to prove the fact without depending anyone but
The strong relationship created between history and memory is one of a vexing nature due to deliberate selection and emphasis. It does however result in a confluence of different representations, that is, personal stories (memory) and public stories (history). Mark Baker’s biography and autobiography ‘The Fiftieth Gate: A Journey Through Memory’, explores his parents’ memories which are both verified and contradicted by Baker’s historical findings, as each asserts their claim through these different theories of representation drawing on such established criteria as evidence, accuracy, authenticity, authority and detail. Steven Spielberg’s horror-psychological thriller film, ‘Schindler’s List’ shows how amongst the abhorrence of the Holocaust, one man can make a difference for the better and leave a legacy of his generosity but it is also a question of what else he did that wasn’t emphasised due to the context of the film. Lastly, the poem ‘The Send-Off’ by Wilfred Owen expresses Owen’s personal feelings towards war which is enunciated through his strong emotive language.
These moments of pure happiness inspire hope in the hearts of his characters. The Indians are able to find peace for just an instant holding onto it in a beautiful way that allows them to forget the strains of their lives. This psychological phenomenon is exhibited constantly throughout the collection of stories but Victor best embodies it when he remembers his father. He changes “[T]he memories. Instead of remembering the bad things, remember what happened immediately before. That’s what I learned from my father.” (page 34). Instead of remembering how his dad left him when he was young he savors the memory of him when he was there. By being able to be thankful for the days with his father Victor can make life without him less painful. Alexie shows through Victor’s use of this coping mechanism of thankfulness that Reservation Indians are happier with the little they have than the spoiled people of the rest of our country. This idea is clearly a positive and shows that Alexie’s realism is not all just the racist, stereotypical garbage that many claim it is. Instead it has actual meaning behind it; it is simply an examination of the Native American’s lifestyle and world-view
The Way to Rainy Mountain has a distinct pattern in its form. In each section, it has three parts, each of whose separateness is clearly marked by its own place in each page and its own typeface: the legend, the history, and the personal memory. The pattern, however, never makes it simple for the readers to understand the novel. Rather, it confuses and bothers the readers by placing them where the double edges of reality meet. On the one hand, there is a reality as the result of the dominant ideology, which has become a priori in many cases, and which has hidden that there is another reality (or possibly, multiple realities). On the other hand, there exists another reality, which is present (thus, real) but absent (or buried), and which makes the dominant "reality" possible but, at the same time, continuously undermines it. In The Way to Rainy Mountain, the patterned form brings about the two different realities: first, there is a discursive, or ideological reality, which separates legend from history and the personal from the cultural; second, there is a lived-way-of reality, in which legend, history, and the personal experience can never be separated. Along the journey to the Rainy Mountain Cemetery, where the memory (that is, "experience of mind which is legendary as well as historical, personal as well as cultural" p.4) is buried, the readers are continuously challenged to make a connection between the three forms of memory, which has been always obvious in Native American oral tradition. It is hard to trace all three forms at once; thus, focusing on the personal account of experience and memory, I will examine how it is related with an...
... Through poetics and storytelling, authors give a more emotional feeling to important events that must be witnessed and remembered. Although resurrecting the past can be a struggle and cause emotional pain, it can also help to soothe people’s spirits. In The House on Mango Street, Ceremony, “Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe,” and Zoot Suit each tell a unique story that offers a new perspective and understanding of a culture. Texts that offer a look into the multicultural world we all live in, enable us to reconfigure our understanding of diversity and allow us to revaluate the importance and the presence of race and culture in daily life.
Ferguson, M. (1994). A lot f memory an interview with Jamaica Kincaid. Kenyon Review, 163-188.
Kothari employs a mixture of narrative and description in her work to garner the reader’s emotional investment. The essay is presented in seventeen vignettes of differing lengths, a unique presentation that makes the reader feel like they are reading directly from Kothari’s journal. The writer places emphasis on both her description of food and resulting reaction as she describes her experiences visiting India with her parents: “Someone hands me a plate of aloo tikki, fried potato patties filled with mashed channa dal and served with a sweet and a sour chutney. The channa, mixed with hot chilies and spices, burns my tongue and throat” (Kothari). She also uses precise descriptions of herself: “I have inherited brown eyes, black hair, a long nose with a crooked bridge, and soft teeth
The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the main protagonist, Arnold Spirit Jr., is a fourteen year old Native American living on a reservation in Spokane, Washington. He attends his high school years at Reardan High School, where he struggles to fit in. His best friend, Rowdy, is also one of Arnold’s main strong influences in his life. This story takes place in modern times, with no specific date given, but it can be implied that it took place in the early 2000s when technology really started to take off. In this novel, the author, Sherman Alexie, emphasizes that finding indentity, caring for family, and overcoming obstacles will lead to a happier life.
Memory cannot live without nostalgia, the trading of dirty truths for gilded memories of a time and place no longer accessible. Both Exiled Memoirs and Raining Backwards explore the relationship between memory and nostalgia. In both texts memory is used as a tool to reaffirm the Cuban exile identity outside of Cuba. Retelling stories becomes a way in which the characters’ fight against assimilation in the United States. As time goes on and the memories begin to fade, places like Varadero beach become romanticized with the purpose of keeping the memories of Cuba alive.
Zitkala Sa’s autobiography “Impressions of an Indian childhood” Should remain a part of the American Literary canon because her writing is full of rich history. Within the history that she depicts, she shows a different perspective. A lot of times, people do not realize the perspective of the Indians when looking back at this time. Her writing shows what begins out as a happy childhood.
It has been stated that the application of memory functions in fictional works which act as a reflective device of human experience. (Lavenne, et al. 2005: 1). I intend to discuss the role of memory and recollection in Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian science-fiction novel Never Let Me Go (2005).
Mulan is a young girl in China, who is trying to honor her family and ancestors by finding a husband. She was expects to be delicate, quiet, obedient, graceful, polite, and poised, none of which Mulan displayed. She showed up late to the meeting with the woman, “The Match Maker”, who picked whom Mulan would one day marry. Although they expect women in China to have a tiny waist, too small of a waist, which Mulan had, was no good. She would not be great at baring children. Mulan could not pour the tea right for the woman either. She missed the cup, spilling the tea on the table. She was not very graceful and upset “The Match Maker”, who believed Mulan would never honor her family. Mulan did not display the characteristics that the Chinese society expected a woman to have and was looked at as dishonorable to outsiders.
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He is one of the leading Indian writers in English who interweaves nature with experience and history. His works show an interaction between nature and human. He has published many fictions such as The Circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1988), In An...
...shown through Lenny’s point of view. Prior the partition, Lahore was a place of tolerance that enjoyed a secular state. Tension before the partition suggested the division of India was imminent, and that this would result in a religious. 1947 is a year marked by human convulsion, as 1 million people are reported dead because of the partition. Moreover, the children of Lahore elucidate the silences Butalia seeks in her novel. The silence of survivors is rooted to the nature of the partition itself; there is no clear distinction as to who were the antagonists. The distinction is ambiguous, the victims were Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims, and moreover these groups were the aggressors, the violent. The minority in this communal violence amongst these groups was the one out-numbered. This epiphany of blame is embarked in silence, and roots from the embodiment of violence.
“The only people for whom we can even begin to imagine properly human, individual, existences are the literate and the consequential, the wazirs and the sultans, the chroniclers, and the priests—the people who had the power to inscribe themselves physically upon time” (Ghosh 17). History is written by the victorious, influential and powerful; however, history has forgotten the people whose voices were seized, those who were illiterate and ineloquent, and most importantly those who were oppressed by the institution of casted societies. Because history does not document those voices, it is the duty to the anthropologist, the historiographer, the philosopher as well as scholars in other fields of studies to dig for those lost people in the forgotten realm of time. In In An Antique Land, the footnotes of letters reveal critical information for the main character, which thematically expresses that under the surface of history is something more than the world can fathom.
Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process.