Amitav Ghosh’s Shadow Lines challenges our understanding of points of reference by examining the shadowy borders between the self and other’s perceptions of the self. The narrator portrays Tridib’s internal struggle to become a heroic, active figure in contrast to the passive figure that May believes him to be. Ghosh explores Tridib’s attempts to create a coherent self-identity by considering what it means to be considered a success, what qualities constitute a hero, and how one can reconcile the conflict between one’s active and passive characteristics. Ghosh’s Shadow Lines thus examines how imagination can provide the means for negotiating the discrepancy between one’s self and the reflection of the self obtained from others in the process of establishing a self-identity.
Tridib receives conflicting feedback from the people in his life about his identity, resulting in internal incoherence. Ghosh portrays how the narrator and the grandmother disagree about whether Tridib can be considered a success. The narrator perceives Tridib as a creative heroic figure, who is a source of information about the world. In contrast, the grandmother perceives Tridib as a passive unsuccessful failure. The narrator views Tridib as a heroic figure because he admires Tridib’s active imagination. From Tridib, he learns that, “a place does not merely exist, that it has to be invented in one’s imagination” (21). Tridib is an active agent in constructing his perception of the world. He realizes that imagination provides the means for framing perception. The narrator has an extremely vivid memory of the past as a result of Tridib’s influence. He recalls, “I could not forget because Tridib had given me worlds to travel in and he had given me eyes to see...
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...ard May and the grandmother initially believed him to be. Tridib’s sacrifice through his actions restores his imagined construction of himself as a strong active figure. Tridib bridges multiple discrepancies in order to establish a coherent self-identity. He negotiates the divide between his actions and his words, between his view of himself and others’ view of him, and between the active and passive aspects of his identity.
Ghosh’s Shadow Lines examines how imagination can provide the means for negotiating the divide between one’s self and the reflection of the self obtained from others. Tridib uses his imagination in order to construct a self-identity. The metaphor of the mirror represents the process of identity formation. Imagination becomes an essential means for processing the memories of the past in order to form a coherent sense of the identity one desires.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, is one of the most famous historical fiction books ever written. This 352 paged book has inspired many teens to acknowledge the Genocide of Baltic people. Ruta Sepetys was inspired to write a fiction book instead of a non-fiction book based on the stories she heard from survivors of the genocide during a visit to her relatives in Lithuania. She interviewed dozens of people during her stay. Between Shades of Gray was her first novel that she had written. This book was interpreted well enough by the readers to become a New York Times Bestseller.
Everyone in life must find, and know themselves from the stories they tell. In Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business Dunstan Ramsey tells us his life’s story, from a small-town kid, to battling in the war, growing into old age and his struggle to capture and understand his personal mythology. Personal mythology is ones life story and inner self, whether they’re conscious of it or not. It’s shaped and created by experiences, moments, people, beliefs and stories. Throughout his life Dunstan is molded and influenced by different events, people, stories and his inner-self that make him better understand and make his own personal mythology. However, Dunstan’s – like most other’s – personal mythology must be set on course by a trigger event that sends
The story is concerned with the conflict between his conception of himself and the reality.
"Who the hell am I?" (Ellison 386) This question puzzled the invisible man, the unidentified, anonymous narrator of Ralph Ellison's acclaimed novel Invisible Man. Throughout the story, the narrator embarks on a mental and physical journey to seek what the narrator believes is "true identity," a belief quite mistaken, for he, although unaware of it, had already been inhabiting true identities all along.
It is a coming of age story that outlines a boy’s personal growth and triumphs. Being able to reflect on the significance of the events that have led to his triumphs is critical, as it helps the reader understand their impact on his life and where he is coming from in the decisions he makes in the story. Such reflection is very important; as it makes the situations in the story more clear to the reader, and the story is then more easy and enjoyable to read. First person is the best point of view, in this story, for recounting these events, as it allows for a more personal and thereby more insightful reflection on the importance of the experiences he has. For example, the reader only learns of the importance of Paresh to the main character when he reflects “if I hadn’t tagged along with my family [that] day, I wouldn’t have met him that first time”(109). This indicates to the reader that Paresh will be an important figure in the protagonist’s life, which helps guide the reader’s understanding of the situation. The reader recognizes that Paresh will play a critical role in the main character’s life, and this helps the reader anticipate what may happen
At the end of the novel, the narrator has finally recognized his own invisibility; therefore finally able to redesign himself completely into a person able make a change in society. His experiences will aid him in his fight for power and acceptance in society. The narrator’s previous choices had been those of people around him urging him to define himself based on their standards. By rising above the assigned definitions of himself, the narrator is able to gain a new insight and new persona on and ultimately recreate his fate.
It is impossible to understand the innermost and ever complex thoughts, feelings, hopes, and reflections of others. To understand is to grasp the strife and pleasure of each moment’s depth through a set lens. Confined by my own lens, I have been and will always be the main character of my own book. Though I can never know another human’s cognitive glances, I can at least be mindful of the infinite complexity and reasoning of each human. Even the most empathetic cannot understand exactly how Claude Monet felt for Camille, how Beethoven felt for “Elise”, or how
This book is about the human mind and the abstractness of our visions and memories. Everything affects us physically and mentally. We all share a common feature; we are all simply human with simple human minds.
For this assignment I chose to relate man versus himself conflict to my novel Quid Pro Quo, because throughout the story I felt that Cyril MacIntyre constantly felt oppressed because he didn’t have confidence in himself, whether it was about the way he look...
Milan Kundera contends, “A novel that does not discover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral” (3). In this it is seen that the primary utility of the novel lies in its ability to explore an array of possible existences. For these possible existences to tell us something of our actual existence, they need to be populated by living beings that are both as whole, and as flawed, as those in the real world. To achieve this the author must become the object he writes of. J.M. Coetzee states, “there is no limit to the extent to which we can think ourselves into the being of another. There are no bounds to the sympathetic imagination” (35). Through this sympathetic faculty, a writer is able to give flesh, authenticity and a genuine perspective to the imagined. It is only in this manner that the goal of creating living beings may be realized. Anything short of this becomes an exercise in image and in Kundera’s words, produces an immoral novel (3).
"The Minister's Black Veil" is an allegorical narrative in which the agents of setting, symbols, characters, and actions come in a coherent way to represent non-literal and metaphorical meanings about the human character. The black veil is without doubt the most important symbol used in the story. It comes to represent the darkness and duality of human nature, adding thereby a certain undeniable psychoanalytical angle to the short story. The black veil represents the sin that all men carry secretively within their heart as M...
Being different can sometimes be somewhat scary because one may be considered an outcast. Being an outcast can be quite difficult especially when people can be cruel. In the short story “The Salamander,” the narrator is considered an outcast because she is different and does not follow society’s norms. The author from this short story, Mercè Rodoreda, can be compared to the narrator because she too did not follow the norms. Rodoreda’s short story includes some aspects that can be compared to her life, yet many other aspects in her story are inexplicable. “The Salamander” by Mercè Rodoreda can be described as a fantastic story because of the fantastic elements it contains, such as hesitation and liminality. The short story fits well into Todorov’s definition of the fantastic because it creates hesitation for the readers when the narrator experiences rebirth and it includes several examples of liminality. Liminality can be seen when the defined lines between human and animal, and life and death are blurred.
Just as nobody wants to be criticized and underestimated, so does Quoyle. While his family considers him as a root of failures and doesn’t give enough love to him, Quoyle also thinks about himself that he is not part of his family and wants to leave for somewhere. He is always despondent and not confident about his family, his appearance, and his life. However, through the picture, he finds out that he has something in common with his father. The author uses various dictions, imagery, and figurative language in order to vividly illustrate how Quoyle feels about himself and his family.
A persona is a mask shown to the outside world developed in relation to consciousness, to hide the darkest aspects of a psyche, known as a shadow, behind it. Shadows contrast personas by holding undesirable and unwanted memories and behaviors, but the dark side of an individual must be accepted for the individual to fully understand oneself. In the coming of age novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, narrator Gene Forrester returns to New Hampshire to visit Devon School, where he studied fifteen years ago just as World War II had begun to unfold. The narrative shifts back fifteen years ago to Gene’s days at Devon School with his best friend, Phineas, also known as Finny, as he recalls memorable events from his past. Gene’s persona and shadow
To some, Chris is seen as a hero, a young man who succeeded in every challenge he took on. In Chris’ mind, he was his own greatest hero, “he was Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny” (23). In reality, McCandless was inexperienced and is not a hero nor does he deserve the wild praises he r...