Comparing A Stench of Kerosene and Country Lovers

Comparing A Stench of Kerosene and Country Lovers Both A Stench of Kerosene and Country Lovers demonstrate cultural

pressures in different parts of the world. A Stench of Kerosene is set

most probably in India. The main plot of the story, which involves

Manak, his Mother, his second wife, his first wife Guleri and his

friend Bhavani, is that Guleri leaves Manak to visit her parents, and

whilst there, Manak's mother introduces a second wife to Manak, and

she becomes pregnant, without Guleri knowing, and when she finds out,

she commits suicide by burning herself with kerosene, and when the

baby finally arrives, Manak won't have anything to do with it. In

India, it is common practice to have a few children, and when Manak is

unable to have a child with Guleri, the mother wants to make sure that

the family sticks to the traditions of having some children. The

beginning of the story engages the readers attention by starting with

a sound of a mare neighing. This makes the reader want to read on as

they will be intrigued. The start of the story is where the mare gets

ready to transport Guleri to her father's house and after begging

Guleri to stay with him, Manak returns to his home. The story ends

with the suicide of Guleri and the last time Manak saw her was on the

day she left. The story ending for Manak is unfortunate as he loses

his first wife and then disowns his new son with his second wife, of

whom we do not know the name. The story ended as it did because of

three main complications, the introduction of the second wife, the

death of Guleri, an...

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...ather, which was against all traditions in

South Africaat that time. This culture pressurised Thebedi to lie in

court.

Both of the stories have their main characters pressurised by culture

and tradition. In A Stench of Kerosene Manak sticks to his culture and

ignores his mind when he leaves Guleri for his second wife, not

because he wanted to, but because of tradition and the culture and

also because of the fact that he felt he had to respect his mother's

wishes with no argument. This is also true in Country Lovers when

Thebedi and Paulus drift apart at the beginning of their lives as

their cultures are completely different, They both have to ignore

their true feelings for each other, which are true love mainly because

of their culture, In both of the poems, cultural pressures affected

characters in both stories.