Rohinton Mistry is well versed with all the undercurrents of Indian politics. Though, Mistry left India in 1975 to settle in Canada, but even then he has complete knowledge of Indian politics which is not far removed from reality. His novels expose the day to day activities of our Indian politics, as for instance, corruption, politically motivated schemes, layman’s sufferings and the dominance of the corrupt officials over the downtrodden masses, etc. During his stay in Bombay, Mistry learnt a lot about socio-political background of his country before he left for Canada. Jasbir Jain remarks:
Rohinton Mistry’s work raises a whole lot of other questions specifically related to the ‘homeland’ and political memory. Neither nostalgia nor memory in itself, can account for this rootedness and preoccupation with the homeland and the environment precincts of the city of the birth. It is also not merely the fact of being more at home or having a more intimate relationship with space back there. It is more than all these, a projection of the individual character, a gesture of expanding the memory to include both the specific and the universal. (qtd. in Bharucha 11)
Analysis
Such a Long Journey deals with the modest dreams and aspirations of its protagonist Gustad Noble. However, it is not only about an ordinary man and his family. Rather Rohinton Mistry has dovetailed various narratives with the central narrative of Gustad. Mistry is concerned about the narration of some of the major events of the history of post-independent India. He has aptly deployed the feelings and apprehensions of a minority community to ascertain some of the national events. The novel is written against the background of the unfortunate war that India fought with ...
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the novel.is more than the tale of one individual's life, touching and riveting as this aspect is, it is a microcosm of a community, an image of a "tribe" invented through the imagination of its storyteller." The ability to intertwine characters, symbolism and conflicting ideas with such talent, enhances this novel, making Such a Long Journey a journey that is much enjoyed and seemingly well worth the experience. Works Cited Malak, Amin. A. "The Shahrazadic Tradition: Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey and the Art of Storytelling.
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The present paper aims at studying the novel as a love story whose dimensions are touched by caste, creed and other socio-political realities existing in the regionally contextualised boundaries of the South Indian state of Kerala. The narrative of The God of Small Things hinges on or around the Ayemenem House and at times peeps into the misty atmosphere of the History House to delicately explore the big things lurked unsaid inside. This novel features the very worst sort of war, a war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. Altogether, the novel reiterates how it really began in the days when the love laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how, and how much. This manifests almost like the guiding motif of this novel. On the whole Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a major breakthrough in Indian fiction in English. Especially in typical Indian setting, the depiction of an engaging tale of cross caste forbidden love between a Paravan
Nicholas B. Dirks. (2011). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton University Press
Sir Walter Scott is considered to be „one of the most delightful figures in English literature and probably the most famous of all the Scotsmen who have ever lived“(Fletcher 2002, p. 127). This Scottish writer is famous for his historical novels which were very popular in the nineteenth century, especially his work that is our subject to discuss in the essay – Waverley. Scott himself was a descendant of one fighting clan and knew a number of people who took part in Jacobite rebellion. This helped him to depict the events better. He enforces past events by the use of imagination and magnification. Scott introduces in his work „Waverley or ‘tis sixty years since” a protagonist who has many romantic features. The setting of the plot, the characters and the events that are going to happen represent romanticism. Sir Walter Scott published Waverley in 1814 anonymously. This work brought him a great success and popularity at that time (Sanders 1994, p. 375). There exist many opinions and critics about this work. Some consider his work a very long and boring story. They find the description of places and author’s style of writing long-winded. There are some passages about which even author claims that are lengthy. As it was part of my compulsory literature, I had to read it. I would not have started to read this work if I was not forced but I found it very interesting, though. Nevertheless, it brought closer look at history and culture of Scottish people, political and historical situation in eighteenth century. The nature of the Highlands and characters that are depicted in this work are truly fascinating for a reader.
There are people bustling, merchants selling, Anglo-Indians watching, and birds flying overhead. How many perspectives are there in this one snippet of life? They are uncountable, and that is the reality. Modernist writers strive to emulate this type of reality into their own work as well. In such novels, there is a tendency to lack a chronological or even logical narrative and there are also frequent breaks in narratives where the perspectives jump from one to another without warning. Because there are many points of view and not all of them are explained, therefore, modernist novels often tend to have narrative perspectives that suddenly shift or cause confusion. This is because modernism has always been an experimental form of literature that lacks a traditional narrative or a set, rigid structure. Therefore, E. M. Forster, author of A Passage to India, uses such techniques to portray the true nature of reality. The conflict between Adela, a young British girl, and Aziz, an Indian doctor, at the Marabar Caves is one that implements multiple modernist ideals and is placed in British-India. In this novel, Forster shows the relations and tension between the British and the Indians through a series of events that were all caused by the confusing effects of modernism. E.M. Forster implements such literary techniques to express the importance or insignificance of a situation and to emphasize an impression of realism and enigma in Chandrapore, India, in which Forster’s novel, A Passage to India, takes place.