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Healthy Lifestyle and English Poetry
2007-12-06 17:36:00
TIPS FOR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE: PROVIDED BY ENGLISH POETRY Wordsworth, considered to be a defining member of the English Romantic movement, displayed love for simplicity. We should aim to use the word ‘simplicity’ as the guide word for chalking out a lifestyle pattern for ourselves.Lifestyle is not a narrow concept. Its scope is as wide as life itself. The term ‘lifestyle’ depicts one’s attitude towards life, the way we lead our life and the values that we not only believe in, but also practice. Being healthy does not mean having only a healthy body. It also entails possessing a healthy mind and a healthy heart too.In the modern mechanical lifestyle, the biggest challenge for a human being is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our life is full of ups and downs but the health line should go up, up and up. We read many books on health and nutritious food. But merely possessing the knowledge does not make us healthy unless we practically follow it. We have a saying, “Eat drink ...
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The French Revolution and Wordsworth's Poetry - Part II
2007-12-01 15:57:00
(previous post continued)(4) The influence of BeaupuisAccording to Hudson, a “change of spirit occurred during his stay at Orleans and Blois, between which places he passed nearly a year”. He formed a close friendship whith a Republican General, Beaupuis, “an inspiring example of all in the Revoulution”. His tenderness, meekness, gallantry and utter devotion to the cause of the people are celebrated in glowing language in ‘The Prelude’. Talks with this noble friend exerted a profound influence on the poet’s mind. His hatred for all absolute rule, and his love of and pity for the “abject multitude” grew daily and he was ultimately fired with his friend’s humanitarianism and faith in the revolutionary cause and that “better days to all manking” were round the corner. His heart was now given to the people nad he felt that the revolution was the only way to right their wrongs. The September Massacres failed to disillusion him and when he returned to Paris a month...
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The French Revolution and Wordsworth's Poetry
2007-11-22 17:46:00
1. WORDSWORTH: Democratic BackgroundAn important event of the closing years of the eighteenth century, which stirred all Europe, and the English Romantics in particular, is the French Revolution . ‘The Prelude’ tells us much about Wordsworth’s reaction to the French Revolution. Wordsworth was the first of the great Romantics to be influenced profoundly by the Revolution, which had a far reaching impact on his life and poetry. But its ideals – Liberty, Equality and Fraternity – were not new to him. The societies, which he had been familiar with, in his youth were essentially democratic. Even at Cambridge he found a strong democratic spirit:“All stood thus far/Upon equal ground..” 2. FIRST VISIT TO FRANCEFor these reasons, “The Revolution, in its earlier phases, involved no revolution in Wordsworth’s mental life”(Raleigh). During his third summer vacations, Wordsworth visited France with his friend, Robert Jones. They landed in Calais on July 13, 1790, the eve of fi...
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The Echo of Black Death in Chaucer's Age
2007-11-15 13:43:00
W.H. Hudson has rightly said, “Every man belongs to his race and age; no matter how marked his personality, the spirit of his race and age finds expression through him.”For a comprehensive study of an author’s literary works, what is also required (among other things) is the social background of that period – the kind of society the author was living in. Apart from many other changes in the English society in the age of Chaucer, the most dramatic change was a demographic one – the occurrence of the most devastating plague called Black Death . It erupted first of all in Dorset in 1348 and was at its peak in 1349. This epidemic wrought havoc and around one-third of the population of England perished in it. The true medical causes of this plague could not be established but the effects of this devastation were long-term as well as social, political and religious in nature.The socio-economic system of England was paralyzed. The Black Death led to an acute shortage of labour. Th...
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Children's Day in India
2007-11-14 02:54:00
On the occasion of Children’s Day (celebrated in India on 14 November every year). Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was born on 14 November, 1889. Children’s Day is celebrated every year to mark his birth anniversary as he was very close to children.Milton remarks in ‘Paradise Regained’:The childhood shows the man,As morning shows the day.(Book IV, lines 220-21)It is indeed in childhood that the qualities are manifested and are exhibited in the child personality. The characteristics of personality can noticed right from the early childhood. Rightly has Wordsworth has expressed the same views when he says, “Child is the father of man”. Childhood is the formative period of a person’s life. The habits developed at this time cast a shadow throughout the life. This makes it all the more important that the negative traits exhibited by a child should not at all be ignored, otherwise they may become a habit and incorrigible later on. The period of childhoo...

Chaucer as a Poet
2007-11-11 14:11:00
Chaucer has many great works to his credit, including the twin masterpieces – ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ and ‘The Canterbury Tales’. There is a sense of order in the poetry of Chaucer. This order is apparent not only in his reflections on nature and workings of cosmos but also in his belief of divine involvement in human affairs. For instance, the concluding address to the Holy Trinity, in ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ according to Sanders, has been turned into a divine comedy from being a tragedy with the alchemy of Chaucer’s poetic genius.Another great work of Chaucer ‘The Parlement of Foulys’ is said to have been written to compliment the marriage of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia in 1382. In it he has presented a vision of birds gathered to choose their proper mates. The nobler the bird the more formal are the rituals of courtship accorded to it. Similarly, the social conditions of division of society according to ranks, is presented by Chaucer in his ‘The Canterb...
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Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted With the Night’
2007-11-10 15:07:00
Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted With the Night’ is a poem that moves about in a twilight world as far as choices available in life are concerned or when it concerns taking a firm stand on an issue. It is a poem about the darker side of things and portrays the poet’s isolation.The poet in this poem describes the comings and goings of a person walking about on the city roads. The poet has even braved the rain and wandered around on the city roads. He even walked upto the outskirts of the city. The poet even refers to the ‘saddest city lane’. He has seen the watchman while on his beat in these lanes. The poet saw some immoral activities being performed but he does not specifically mention them. Instead his eyes were dropped down with shame.The poet then stands still and the sounds of a cry fall upon his ears. The cry comes from a distant place and is also not continuous. The interrupted nature of the cry symbolizes suppression. The cries were neither to welcome nor to bid farewe...
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Hamlet's Madness
2007-11-07 17:12:00
Hamlet’s madness has been one of the most discussed topics among critics. The groundlings of Elizabethan stage were demanding. They wanted to see something new being performed on the stage. During the Elizabethan age the society at such a stage that they were experiencing the after-effects of Renaissance. They were still in the process of realizing the immense potentialities of a human being. The abnormal conditions portrayed on stage were like the inner processes being unfolded in the front of their eyes. Another reason was the desire of the human beings to see something dramatic in front of them.Hamlet’s feigned madness was like an outlet for his pent up emotions. I feel it is the crux of the play. He uses an abnormal condition to verify what a supernatural thing (ghost of his father) told him. He uses it as a tool and his aid. Hamlet’s ‘crafty madness’ provides him with a chance of observing other normal human beings.Hamlet at one place comments:“The time is out of jo...
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Keats as a Poet
2007-11-04 15:42:00
In Keats’ ‘Endymion’ the poet is still immature but shows great advancement. ‘Endymion’ is sensuous, imaginative and fanciful. The poet has attempted to unite the real and the ideal. To quote him from ‘Endymion’:“A thing of beauty is joy forever.”Keats’ third volume of poems included the famous ‘Isabella’, ‘Lamia’, ‘Hyperion’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ and among others were his odes and sonnets. His most famous odes are: ‘To Nightingale’, ‘To Autumn’, ‘On Indolence’, ‘On a Grecian Urn’, ‘To Psyche’ and ‘To Melancholy’. He has written 61 sonnets including ‘When I Have Fears that I may Cease to be’, ‘On Reading Chapman’s Homer’, ‘Bright Star’.A marked characteristic of Keats is his appropriateness of wording. For illustrating the magical use of compound expressions one may cite “soft-conched”, “sapphire-regioned” and “high-sorrowful”; for beautiful single epithets, “wa...
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Keats as an Inspiration
2007-10-29 17:37:00
John Keats was the youngest of the romantic poets. He was born on 31st October, 1795, in London. His life was tragic in the sense that he suffered many calamities during his very short life. His brother Tom and his mother died of consumption. He also lost his father at a very early age. His disappointment in live with Fanny Brawne, whom he loved passionately aggravated the family disease to which he himself had fallen prey. There were financial difficulties too in his life. After his boyhood he never had a home of his own and had to move from one lodging to the other. Finally he went to Italy to regain his lost health where he died on 23rd February, 1821.As Keats was afflicted by consumption, he was obsessed with the idea of death. Acutely aware of the pain and sufferings of poverty and illness, he wrote about these subjects with great poetic force. His poetry has the vividness of detail and intensity of emotion. His poems are just like a painting in which the object is depicted wit...
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Imagery in 'Macbeth' - Part III
2007-10-25 17:16:00
Today we'll talk about the imagery of light and darkness.Light is the symbol of knowledge and goodness while darkness is the symbol of evil and theft. A deep pal of darkness surrounds the whole play from beginning to end. Most of the scenes that crowd to our mind are the scenes of darkness. For example, the King Duncan is murdered in his sleep at night when it is too dark for anyone to see. Banquo is also killed at night. The night is so dark that he asks his son Fleance to bring a torch. Even Lady Macbeth, before her death sees only darkness around her. Therefore, she has asked her chamber servants to keep a torch lighted all the time. Even when there is any light, it is earnestly desired that the light be turned into darkness when Macbeth hears that Malcolm will be the Prince of Scotland, he appeals to the stars “hide your fires” so that his darkness remains invisible to the human eye. After this he only thinks of darkness and “thick night” whenever he wants to act. For e...
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Imagery in Macbeth - Part II
2007-10-22 05:08:00
The other image which recurs in the play is that of robes too big and unfit for Macbeth. Indeed, from the very beginning of the play, Macbeth is aware that the honours due to a King are too much for a person like him. When he learns from Rosse that he has been made the Thane of Cawdor, he asks:“…Why do you dress meIn borrow’d robes?” Even Banquo uses this image of robes and says: “New honours come upon him, Like our strange garments.” When Duncan has supped and is resting in Macbeth’s home, he (Macbeth) expresses his inability to his wife doing the dark deed. He says that he has earned a good reputation from all sorts of people, which is like robes I “their newest gloss”, which he cannot throw down so soon. At this, continuing this image of robes his wife asks him if he was drund when he hoped to wear those robes. After the murder of Duncan, when Rosse says that he is going to Macbeth’s coronati...
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Imagery in 'Macbeth' - Part I
2007-10-21 18:04:00
Commenting on the rich, vivid and varied imagery used by Shakespeare in ‘Macbeth’, A.C. Bradley says, “The vividness, magnitude and violence of the imagery…are characteristic of Macbeth almost throughout.” Indeed, from the very beginning till the end there are several symbols, similes and images invoked by the dramatist to lend to the play the characteristic horror, terror and darkness of human soul. Some of the recurring images in ‘Macbeth’ are those of clothes too big for Macbeth, creating the impression that he is a comic figure; the image of blood, bloody dagger and bloody hands; the image of sounds like thunder and its echo, the image of the speeding horses and images created with the help of animals, birds, reptiles; as well as the image of darkness and blackness all around.The play opens with a sound of thunder in which the three witches appear, at a deserted place. The sound of thunder is heard several times throughout the play, for example, when the witches ...
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T.S. Eliot's 'Murder in the Cathedral'
2007-10-16 18:39:00
Some selected quotations from T.S. Elio t’s play ‘Murder in the Cathedral ’:“For the good times past, that are come againI am your man.” (First Tempter)“To man of God what gladness?” (Becket)“Shall I who ruled among the doves as an eagleNow take the shape of wolf among wolves.” (Becket)“King is forgotten when another shall comeSaints and Martyrs rule from the tomb.” (Fourth Tempter)“Is there no enduring crown to be wonIs there no way in my soul’s sicknessThat does not lead to damnation” (Becket)Here’s what expert critics have to say about the play ‘Murder in the Cathedral’.Nevill Coghill: “Murder in the Cathedral is about a situation and a quality of life; the situation is perpetual and the quality is rare.”Helen Gardener: “The central theme of the play is martyrdom and martyrdom in its strict ancient sense.” David and Jones: “The play is not just a dramatization of death but a deep searching study of the significance of martyrdom.”Here ar...

Nobel Prize for Literature 2007 - Lessing
2007-10-12 16:36:00
The British novelist, Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature, announced yesterday. She is 87 years old at present, just weeks short of her 88th birthday. She is best known for her novel, ‘The Golden Notebook’, written in 1962. The academy that conferred most coveted prize on her called her an “epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.” The announcement of the prize was made by Professor Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, on 11 October 2007.She debuted as a novelist with ‘The Grass is Singing’ in 1950. Recently she produced novels like ‘The Good Terrorist’ (1985) that was a satire on romantic politics. In 1988, she wrote ‘The Fifth Child’ (1988) – it was about the tragedy of a family by an antisocial and violent child. Her latest ‘The Cleft’ is a science fiction.
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Hardy's Pessimism
2007-10-10 17:53:00
Hardy is known for his pessimism. Actually the factor that plays a very significant role in his novels is that of chance. The negative shades that are visible in his writings are an effect of what he had seen in his childhood. A sight of two hangings will definitely leave an imprint on the psyche of a child’s mind as it did on Hardy's mind.The Victorian age was an age of doubt, of contradictions and conflicts. This fact too shows its impact on the writings of Hardy. People were to live by the Bible but many took it in the strict sense and followed the literal words strictly. We see in ‘Tess of the D’urbervilles’ how Tess is treated unjustly by the society, which followed the law in words and not in spirit.In Hardy’s tragic drama of life a conflict between man and destiny is the centre of events. David Cecil remarks,”A struggle between man on one hand, and an omnipotent and indifferent fate, on the other hand goes on and that is Hardy’s interpretation of the human situ...

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini
2007-10-05 04:31:00
Khaled Hosseini, American novelist and physician, is the writer of the bestseller, his debut novel, ‘The Kite Runner’ (2003). ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ was released on May 22, 07. The author and his family migrated from Afghanistan after seeking political asylum. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is about two women Miriam and Laila – how their lives are connected later on and they suffer together.The author has portrayed the pitiable condition of women in the society of Afghanistan. Inhuman treatment is meted out to them especially to the characters of Laila and Miriam. Miriam’s mother, Nana too was on the receiving end. The discriminating practice against women – their wearing ‘burqa’ – has also been highlighted. The character that stands out from the rest is that of Miriam. She is an epitome of sacrifice. She proves to be equal to ‘a thousand splendid suns’. The author quotes two lines of poetry:“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,or th...
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Wordsworth's 'The Table Turned'
2007-09-27 16:06:00
Wordsworth's following lines from the poem 'The Table s Turned' set me thinking.One impulse from a vernal woodMay teach you more of man,Of moral evil and of good,Than all the sages can.Philosophers have since times immemorial loaded us with their meaningful lessons about leading life in a better way. But if we go by these words of Wordsworth, we should leave all the books and experience a first hand encounter. I would like to present a strong argument in his favour here. We all remember our childhood or have seen kids around us. How do they learn? Do they cram all things? How do they learn to sit or eat with a spoon? They learn by doing the thing. Even when are grown-up what we do practically ourselves, we comprehend and remember it easily. This is what the poet here is telling us to do.He is of the view that the books of the 'sages' cannot give us so much wisdom as we can get from natural experiences after first hand encounters.In this poem 'The Tables Turned' Wordsworth writ...
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John Grisham's 'Playing for Pizza'
2007-09-20 17:51:00
John Grisham's next book 'Playing for Pizza ' is being released on September 24,07. I myself am eagerly waiting for the release.Here I am presenting some excerpts from the press release:PLAYING FOR PIZZA is a short novel about a fallen American football star who can no longerget work in the National Football League and whose agent, as a last resort, signs a deal for him toplay for the Parma Panthers, in Parma, Italy. The quarterback’s move to a small city in a foreignland leads to a series of cultural misadventures. The idea for the novel grew out of time Grishamspent in Italy researching his last novel, The Broker, which was set in Bologna.Here's what Grisham himself has to say:“I was pleasantly surprised to find real American football in Italy,” says Grisham, “and as I dugdeeper a novel came together. The research was tough – food, wine, opera, football, Italian culture– but someone had to do it.”P.S. To read an excerpt from novel click here
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Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'
2007-09-16 07:57:00
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."Charles Dickens ’ famous novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities ’ opens with these lines. These lines form the crux of the novel. The author paints a picture of life in England and France. Scholars have found this novel as the least Dickensian of all his novels. Ever since its publication the book has attracted mixed opinions. Nevertheless, the novel has been a widely read one.An endea...

'The Grapes of Wrath'
2007-09-12 17:21:00
‘The Grapes of Wrath ’, one of the landmarks in not only American fiction but also in world literature. It was written by John Steinbeck in 1939. It was one of the post-depression novels of Steinbeck. The economic depression of 1930, had taken heavy toll by the means of mass unemployment and migration, of people from eastern to south-western parts, in large numbers. The author has, in this novel, narrated the impact of that depression on socio-economic life of poor people. ‘The G rapes of Wrath’ is thus, chiefly a long panorama of suffering and misery of Joad family, who, like thousands of others, migrated to California in the south-west. Steinbeck has used a number of symbolic allusions including the title – ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.The title has been borrowed from the song ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ written by Julia Ward Howe. The ‘grapes’ here are symbolic – they may be sour as well as sweet. While the sour grapes are unpalatable, the sweet ones are like...

'Stream of Consciousness' and 'Mrs.Dalloway'
2007-09-08 17:52:00
I have always been fascinated by the term ‘Stream of Consciousness ’. It sounds so poetic, may be because it compares the thinking process or our consciousness to a stream. The psychologist and the writer of ‘Principles of Psychology’, James Joyce, coined the phrase ‘stream of consciousness’ in 1890, although the technique had already been used by Edouard Dujardin (French novelist) in a short novel. By this term James Joyce meant that human consciousness is something fluid. With this technique what we have before us is the outer observations as theyimpinge on the flow of thoughts, memory and feelings.A novel written in this technique, that stands out in my memory is Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, which has been called “the first wholly successful novel that Virginia Woolf produced” by. The action or description of events in the novel has not been narrated in the chronological order – a typical characteristic of stream of consciousness. All the characters ha...
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Role of Supernatural in Literature
2007-09-06 12:29:00
Writers have from time to time experimented with different themes to weave an altogether new web in their literary works. The presence of a supernatural element has been one of the favourites with many authors.When Shakespeare made the ghost of Hamlet’s father appear before him in his drama ‘Hamlet’, it was merely that he had used what the Elizabethans already believed. Some of them thought that the ghosts were hallucinations but there were others who believed that the spirit made its journey back to the Earth in order to accomplish some incomplete task. Then there were a section of people who believed that it was by the permission of God that the spirit came to Earth to give a message. But this was only one side – God’s divine spirit; it could be an evil spirit or an independent spirit with a motive to create chaos in society.Hamlet too in the play doesn’t believe the ghost at first instance. He takes pains to prove what the ghost told him about his father’s murder. T...
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'The Diary of Anne Frank' - My point of view
2007-09-03 09:46:00
The book is indeed a very poignant life story of a young girl named Anne Frank . The book is a detailed sketch, in Anne’s own words, of the toughest two years of her life spent in hiding at the time of World War II because she was a Jew. She bares, in her writing, her fight with her own self, her innermost feelings, her conflicts (both within and without).Her account of war, where she questions the validity of war is heart-rending. The reader can sense the despair behind those words:“ ‘…What’s the point of the war? Why, oh, why can’t people live together peacefully? Why all this destruction?’The question is understandable, but so far no one has come up with a satisfactory answer. Why is England manufacturing bigger and better aeroplanes and bombs and at the same time churning out new homes for reconstruction? Why are millions spent on the war each day; while not a penny is available for medical science, artists or the poor? Why do people have to starve when mountains of...
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Character of Rosemary Fell in 'A Cup of Tea'
2007-08-30 15:38:00
Rosemary Fell is the main character in the story ‘A Cup of Tea’, written by Katherine Mansfield. She explored the inner recesses of the human psyche. Her short stories dramatize human emotions creating situations, which are at once tender and brittle. ‘A Cup of Tea’ is one of her most popular short stories. In this story Mansfield focuses on the working of a woman’s mind when her romantic dreams come into conflict with reality. In this way she dramatizes small the effect that small human failings like jealousy can have.Rosemary Fell, the main character, is an extremely rich lady and not just comfortably rich. The author brings out this point by writing that Rosemary went shopping to Paris from London. She bought loads of flowers from one of the most fashionable streets in London. At the shop too she would throw her weight around by telling them her likes and dislikes. She was a snobbish kind of a person. She had the antique shop, from which she shopped, to herself and thu...
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My Favourite Shakespearean Character - King Lear
2007-08-28 14:29:00
King Lear as presented to us by Shakespeare in the first scene of his drama ‘King Lear’ is very rash and impulsive by nature. And in the end he has to suffer on account of this rashness. He has to pay a very high price for a small mistake committed by him. King Lear was not right in dividing his kingdom because in those times the idea of dividing the kingdom was something very strange. The love-test put to his daughters in also not a very sensible idea, I suppose. The love-test was only to satisfy his hunger for assurances of devotion. Otherwise, he should have known the genuine feelings of his youngest daughter, Cordelia, when she says “Nothing”. Instead he replies, “Nothing will come out of nothing”, and finally banishes her from his estate. He couldn’t see through the high-stated words of his other two daughters, Regan and Goneril. When Kent tries to curb his impulsiveness and checks him from taking harsh action against Cordelia he too is sent away. It is Cordelia...
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Archetypes and Milton's 'Lycidas'
2007-08-25 14:53:00
The term 'archetype' has been frequently used in literary criticism. But it was especially used since the publication of Maud Bodkin's 'Archetypal Patterns in Poetry' (1934). The word 'archetype' has been derived from the Greek 'arche' meaning 'original' or 'primitive' and 'typos' meaning 'form'.The term was employed by C.G. Jung (the psychoanalyst). It has been used by the New Critics since 1930s to refer to a specific pattern fo plot or character which gives rise to what Jung calls a ?racial pattern?. Generally in criticism ?archetype? is applied to narrative patterns, type of character or images, which are common to a variety of literary works, myths or dreams. The followers of archetypal criticism are Maud Bodkin, G.Wilson Knight, Robert Graves, Richard Chase, Joseph Campbell, Philip Wheelwright.In this post I am only going to talk about the archetypes in Milton ?s ?Lycidas?. Milton?s ?Lycidas? is an elegy in the pastoral convention. It has been written n commemo...

Archetypes and Milton's 'Lycidas'
2007-08-25 14:53:00
The term 'archetype' has been frequently used in literary criticism. But it was especially used since the publication of Maud Bodkin's 'Archetypal Patterns in Poetry' (1934). The word 'archetype' has been derived from the Greek 'arche' meaning 'original' or 'primitive' and 'typos' meaning 'form'.The term was employed by C.G. Jung (the psychoanalyst). It has been used by the New Critics since 1930s to refer to a specific pattern fo plot or character which gives rise to what Jung calls a “racial pattern”. Generally in criticism ‘archetype’ is applied to narrative patterns, type of character or images, which are common to a variety of literary works, myths or dreams. The followers of archetypal criticism are Maud Bodkin, G.Wilson Knight, Robert Graves, Richard Chase, Joseph Campbell, Philip Wheelwright.In this post I am only going to talk about the archetypes in Milton’s ‘Lycidas’. Milton’s ‘Lycidas’ is an elegy in the pastoral convention. It has be...

Rohinton Mistry's 'A Fine Balance'
2007-08-21 13:56:00
I just finished reading Rohinton Mistry 's 'A Fine Balan ce '. I have here attempted to present my views about the novel. It is a heart-rending account of the suffering of the poor at the hands of the so-called upper-caste people and those who had the power. The condition of the slum-dwellers is pitiable ? the conditions in which they live, the way they are treated. Life takes a turn for the worse for the two tailors, Ishvar and Om, when they are taken away by the officials to a work site mistaking them to be beggars. Even earlier they had suffered too much. First in the village because they belonged to a lower caste; then their struggle in the city. But the torture they have to undergo towards the end of the novel, in the name of the Family Planning Programme, is more than a human can bear. One doesn?t expect them to be alive till the end of the novel. But they are fighters just like their former employee, Dina Dalal. Both Ishvar and Om take to begging as their profession.Even Dina...
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Rohinton Mistry's 'A Fine Balance'
2007-08-21 13:56:00
I just finished reading Rohinton Mistry's 'A Fine Balan ce '. I have here attempted to present my views about the novel. It is a heart-rending account of the suffering of the poor at the hands of the so-called upper-caste people and those who had the power. The condition of the slum-dwellers is pitiable – the conditions in which they live, the way they are treated. Life takes a turn for the worse for the two tailors, Ishvar and Om, when they are taken away by the officials to a work site mistaking them to be beggars. Even earlier they had suffered too much. First in the village because they belonged to a lower caste; then their struggle in the city. But the torture they have to undergo towards the end of the novel, in the name of the Family Planning Programme, is more than a human can bear. One doesn’t expect them to be alive till the end of the novel. But they are fighters just like their former employee, Dina Dalal. Both Ishvar and Om take to begging as their profession.Even ...