In The God of Small Things, Roy ingeniously exposes and denounces the politics of the subaltern through questions of corporeality gender and race positioning. She does so, however, in a way that escapes facile dichotomous divisions and obvious essentialist oppositions. At the core of her critique is a social and cultural system that not only stifles individual freedom and social mobility but also, and above all, represses the expressions of the body and the discourses of desire. Arundhati Roy successfully builds a narrative that focuses on bodily encounters that defy authoritative discourses and function as frontiers of cultural and social contacts. “Edges, Borders, Boundaries, Brinks and Limits” (Rao, Pg. 5) are depicted as loci devised by a web of socio-historical relations that the narrative undermines and revises. Roy’s characters, both male and female, and their various forms of displacement, question the cultural inscriptions of the ‘disembodied’ body, thus giving evidence to the permeability of the corporeal entities that are inevitably socially regulated. The maltreatment of the subaltern is one of the major issues in the novel. The term ‘subaltern’ was popularized by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist in the 1920s and 1930s as a surrogate for the term ‘proletarian class’ in order to counter Fascism. In India, the term was catapulted by the Subaltern Studies Collective writing in 1982 on Southern Asian history and society from a ‘subaltern perspective’. In the preface to Subaltern Studies, Volume I, Ranjit Guha propounded a working definition of ‘subaltern’. “The word subaltern…stands for the meaning as given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary that is of inferior rank. It will be used as a name for the general attitude of ... ... middle of paper ... ...tment of the subaltern in her novel triggers the mnemonic of a colonial India. Nevertheless, she urges them to shatter all conventions of the traditional society in order to fetch an identity for themselves. By her treatment of the subaltern, she raises a moot question about their pitiable position in Indian society, but fails in her effort to give them their voice. Works Cited Roy, Arundhati. “The God of Small Things”. Delhi: Random Publishing House. 2008. Print. Guha, Ranjit. “Subaltern Studies: Writings in South Asian History and Society”. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1982. Print. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty; “Can the Subaltern Speak?: Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture”. Chicago: Illinois University Press. 1988. Print. Roy, Amitabh; “The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment”. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishing House. 2005. Print.
1. Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used very effectively in her story. Situational irony is used to show the reader what is assumed to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to hint to the reader something is happening to the characters in the story that they do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.
Irony shown in the resolution is when Ulrich and Georg both think men have come to save them when they see dark silhouettes running in their direction. In reality, once the wolves arrive they eat and kill the men rather than save them as they hope. The author misleads the audience by including many sections in which Ulrich and Georg make up, recognize they must work as a team and agree to provide assistance to each other. Saki guides readers to assume the story will end with Ulrich and Georg helping each other out. Instead, she concludes the story with the men being devoured by wolves, in an ironic, suspenseful, and unpredictable
...octor is an obstetrician but cannot save the life of the child. In the three central texts discussed heretofore it has become evident to the reader that irony is used to aid in the representation of an unfortunate event. The study of more short stories could come to show how irony can be used to demonstrate many events that end with different outcomes, whether they are positive or negative as in this case.
The primary theme of the works of Pynchon is not narrative, but prenarrative. Baudrillard’s essay on the submaterialist paradigm of expression holds that the State is a legal fiction. But Derrida suggests the use of capitalist constructivism to analyse class.
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a novel about how people’s pursuit of their own interests, influenced by the cultural and social contexts in which they live, ultimately determines their behavior. Through utilizing subthemes of self-preservation, the maintenance of social status/the status quo, and power, she portrays Velutha as the only wholly moral character in the story, who, because of his goodness, becomes the target of frequent deception. Roy argues that human nature is such that human beings will do whatever they feel is necessary to serve their own self-interests.
An example of irony right off the bat is Fortunato’s name. We, as the readers, know Fortunato’s fate. His name translates to “fortunate”, but we know that isn’t the case. When Fortunato states that his “cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill [him],” we know that, that is an example of dramatic irony. It won’t be the cough that kills him. It’ll be Montresor, whose name is revealed closer to the end of the short story. The suspense leading up to the death of Fortunato helps create the dark and ominous tone because we are waiting for the story to unfold since we do not know when Montresor plans on killing Fortunato, yet alone know how he will do so. Poe uses imagery and vocabulary to allow the readers to visualize the setting and become more engaged with the story. One scene where this can be seen is when the wall of the wine cellar is being described as having “long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling.” The humorous tone is created through the use of imagery. Fortunato is described as wearing a motley, which is a jester suit, with a “conical cap and bells” on his head to a carnival. This creates a humorous tone because Fortunato is dressed foolishly which ties in with his character since he doesn’t see his death coming. Another use of irony that aids in the humorous, but ominous tone is when Fortunato toasts to the “buried that repose around us,” not
Without irony in a story it may be very boring and easy to put the story down. With irony included in the story the reader does not want to put the book down and stays interested throughout the entire story because irony makes the reader want to know what is going to happen next because they can’t guess it. Kate Chopin uses irony to perfection in this short story. She does this by using irony to let the reader better understand the purpose and meaning of the story. Without the irony in this story it would be dull and boring, but with irony, the story has suspense and unexpected events. This story was not like other stories that you usually read. It was not predictable at all. I love the vivid imagery throughout the whole story. I like this story because you can not really predict what is going to happen. When you can predict, it usually ruins the story. It kept you wandering about how it was going to end.
The first instance of irony used in the story is when the two enemies become friends while trapped in the wilderness together. Ulrich von Gradwitz, “[changes] [his] mind,” and then offers to treat his enemy, Georg Znaeym, “as though [he] were [Ulrich’s] guest” (4). Throughout the short story, Georg and Ulrich go from being people who hate each other because of an ancient rivalry, to
There are many instances of irony in the short story "One's a Heifer" by Sinclair
“The general political importance of subaltern studies is in the production of knowledge to quote Marxian phrase ‘educating for educator’…the subalternist of production of knowledge was to undermine the monopoly credit rating of the progressive bourgeois and rethink the political so that subaltern insurgency is not seen as invariably pre- political….. ” (p.231)
Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.
ABSTRACT: In contemporary literary culture there is a widespread belief that ironies and paradoxes are closely akin. This is due to the importance that is given to the use of language in contemporary estimations of literature. Ironies and paradoxes seem to embody the sorts of a linguistic rebellion, innovation, deviation, and play, that have throughout this century become the dominant criteria of literary value. The association of irony with paradox, and of both with literature, is often ascribed to the New Criticism, and more specifically to Cleanth Brooks. Brooks, however, used the two terms in a manner that was unconventional, even eccentric, and that differed significantly from their use in figurative theory. I therefore examine irony and paradox as verbal figures, noting their characteristic features and criteria, and, in particular, how they differ from one another (for instance, a paradox means exactly what it says whereas an irony does not). I argue that irony and paradox — as understood by Brooks — have important affinities with irony and paradox as figures, but that they must be regarded as quite distinct, both in figurative theory and in Brooks’ extended sense.
Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy tells the story of the communist state of Kerala and the forbidden love between two castes, which changes the lives of everyone. In the novel an ‘Untouchable’, Velutha is a carpenter and works at Paradise Pickles and Preserves for much less than he deserves because of his status as an Untouchable in the caste system. Velutha falls into a forbidden love with a divorced woman, Ammu who is associated with an upper caste Syrian Christian Ipe family. Marriage was the only way that Ammu could have escaped this life, but she lost the chance when marrying the wrong man, as he was an alcoholic and this resulted in them getting a divorce. Ammu breaks the laws that state ‘who should be loved, and how and how much’, as their affair threatens the ‘caste system’ in India, which is a hierarchal structure and social practice in India in which your position in society is determined and can’t be changed. Arhundati Roy portrays the theme of forbidden love within the caste systems and shows how they are t...
Historical fiction explains complex global issues by illustrating them through the lives of characters, who reveal the impacts of larger issues through their stories and conflicts. In political activist and author Arundhati Roy’s semi-autobiographical novel, The God of Small Things, seven year old twins Estha and Rahel grow up in Ayemenem, India in the wake of the abolition of the caste system, which still lurks behind many aspects of society. The twins are so close they often think of themselves as a single entity, and yet they are stark opposites in many ways, as Rahel is more spirited and unpredictable, while Estha is thoughtful and quiet. The arrival in India and subsequent death of their European cousin, Sophie Mol, throws the twins into