Common Wealth Literature PDF

Common Wealth Literature B.
THASLEEM
Telephone Conversation (Wole Soyinka )
The price seemed reasonable, location

Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam", I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey - I am African."
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
"HOW DARK?"...I had not misheard. ..."ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis-
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came.
"You mean - like plain or milk chocolate?"
Her accent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia" - and as afterthought,
"Down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding
"DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused-
Foolishly madam - by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black - One moment madam! - sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears = "Madam," I pleased, "wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?"
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Common Wealth Literature B.THASLEEM
Summary
In the summary of Telephone conversation by Wole Soyinka, the poet

talks about two people on the phone and the story goes on to narrate how
the African man is looking for a house and the land lady has proposed a
considerable price for the same. The poem strikes a positive note as the
man gets to know that his privacy won’t be hampered as the landlady
doesn’t stay on the premises. The African man is happy to know that and
just before he makes up his mind to consider the offer, he drops in to
mention that he is black. On the other end of the line, there was nothing
but silence which the African man takes it to be an impolite gesture of
refusal. However, the silence is soon broken as the landlady starts to
speak again asking him to explain exactly how dark he is. First, the man
think that he might have misheard the question but when the landlady
repeats, he understands that this is something very important for her to
know before she allows him to rent her house. This is something that
came out entirely devastating for the African man and for a moment he
felt disgusted with the question and fancies himself to be a machine, like
the phone and that he has been reduced to being a button on the phone.
He could also smell the foul from her words and he sees “red’ everywhere
all around.
The idea of Telephone conversation is to depict how brutal it can be for

a man who is subjected to racial discrimination. Thoughts of racism and
pre-notions come blended with an element of irony that takes over the
theme of “Telephone conversation”. The Afro-American man is reduced
to shame by the sudden silence from the other side and he gets into a state
of make belief where he sarcastically thinks that the lady broke her
silence and gave him option to choose and define ‘how dark” he is. “Like
chocolate, or dark or light?” Then, he goes on to answer that he is defined
as “West African sepia” in his passport. The lady not knowing how dark
it could be didn’t want to embarrass the man further by resorting to
silence. So, she asks him to define what he means. The man replies, that
it is almost similar to being a brunette but a dark brunette. All this while,
the man has been holding on to codes of formality which breaks loose at
the landlady’s insensitiveness. The African man now shouts out loud
saying that he is black but he is not that black for anyone to be put to
shame. He also says that the soles of his feet and the palms of his hand
are all white but he is a fool that he sits on his rear which has turned black
due to friction. He knows that the landlady will never be convinced with
his black complexion and he senses that she might slam down the receiver
on him. At such a crucial juncture, he makes a desperate and silly attempt
to plead her to come and take a good look at him but couldn’t help the
situation from getting worse. Finally, the landlady slams down the
receiver on his face.
Theme of Telephone conversation
The theme of Telephone conversation rests upon the conflict between the
protagonist and the absurdity of racism that makes the antagonist take a
negative stance towards him. The struggle begins with the protagonist’s
confession of being an African; a black man which sparks up the notions
of racism inside the landlady who denies renting him the house. The fear
of being judged on the merit of being a black man, projects a heavily
corrupt image of the society where individuality is at stake
Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation depicts a conversation between a

white lady and an African American man which casts a harsh light on the
racism and prejudice which grips society.
The title reveals the fact that two people are talking on the phone, so the
beginning of the poem is on a positive note: The man is searching for a
house and the land lady has named a considerable price, and the area
where it is located is an impartial and not racially prejudiced. Also the
man could enjoy his privacy as the land lady does not live under the same
roof. The African man is ready to accept the offer, but maybe there has
been a similar incident in his past, for he stops and admits to her that he
is black, saying he prefers not to waste the time travelling there if she’s
going to refuse him on that bounds.
There is silence at the other end; silence which the black man thinks is
the reluctant result of an inbred sense of politeness. However he is wrong
because when she speaks again, she disregards all formalities and asks
him to explain how dark he is. The man first thinks he has misheard but
then realizes that that is not true as she repeats her question with a varying
emphasis. Feeling as if he has just been reduced to the status of a
machine, similar to the telephone in front of him, and asked to choose
which button he is, the man is so disgusted that he can literally smell the
stench coming from her deceptive words and see red everywhere around
him. Ironically he is the one who is ashamed by the tense and awkward
silence which follows, and asks for clarification thinking sarcastically
that the lady was really helpful by giving him options to choose from. He
suddenly understands what she is trying to ask, and repeats her question
to her stating if she would like him to compare himself with chocolate,
dark or light? She dispassionately answers and his thoughts change as he
describes himself as a West African Sepia as it says in his passport. The
lady remains quite for a while, not wanting to admit to her ignorance, but
then she gives in to curiosity and asks what that is. He replies that it is
similar to brunette and she immediately clarifies that that’s dark.
Now the man has had enough of her insensitiveness. He disregards all
constraints of formality and mocks her outright, saying that he isn’t all
black, the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands are completely
white, but he is foolish enough to sit on his bottom so it has been rubbed
black due to friction. But as he senses that she is about to slam the
receiver on him, he struggles one last time to make her reconsider,
pleading her to at least see for herself; only to have the phone slammed
on him.
Wole Soyinka uses two main literary devices to drive home the message
of the poem. The first of the two is imagery. Right at the beginning, the
imagery used to describe the mental image the man has of the woman:
“lipstick coated, gold rolled cigarette holder piped”, just from listening
to her voice shows one that he thinks that she is, socially speaking above
him, from a higher social class.
Then when he hears her question regarding how dark he is, he is so
humiliated and angry that he sees red everywhere. The imagery of the
huge bus squelching the black tar is symbolic of how the dominant white
community treats those belonging to the minor black one.
The next most evident use is that of irony. In the beginning of the poem,
the African says that he has to “self-confess” when he reveals his skin
color to the lady. The color of his skin is something that he has no control
over, and even if he did, it is not a sin to be dark skinned, so the fact that
the man feels ashamed and sorry for this is ironical and casts light on how
ridiculous racism is that one should apologize or be differentiated against
solely because of the color of one’s skin. Also, it seems almost comical
that anyone should be so submissive when he has actually committed no
mistakes.
On the other hand, the lady is continuously described in positive terms,
suggesting that she is of a good breeding and upper class. Even when the
reader finds out that she is a shallow and racist person who exhibits
extreme insensitivity by asking crude questions, the man seems to think
that she is ‘considerate; and her clinical response to his question shows
only ‘light impersonality.’ The repeated and exaggerated assertions of the
woman’s good manners and sophistication drip with irony as her speech
contradict this strongly.
Also the basis of the woman rejecting to lease her house to the man is
because of the prejudiced notion that African Americans are a savage and
wild people. This idea is completely discredited by the ironical fact that
throughout the poem the man retains better manners and vocabulary than
the woman, using words such as “spectroscopic” and “rancid”, whereas
she does not know what West African Sepia is and is inconsiderate in her
inquiries. Using irony in this manner, Soyinka proves how absurd it is to
judge the intellect or character of a man depending on the color of his
skin only.
The poem deals with a foul subject, that of racism and prejudice, in a
lighthearted, almost comical manner. A most important device which
Soyinka has used to highlight this sense of racism, which was previously
widespread in western society, is that of the telephone. Had the person
been speaking face to face with the lady, this whole conversation would
never have taken place. She would have either refused outright, or would
have found a more subtle way of doing so. The whole back and forth
about ‘how dark’ the man is wouldn’t have occurred. Thus the telephone
is used to make the issue of racism clear and prove how nonsensical it
really is.
Written in an independent style and delivered in a passively sarcastic
tone, this poem is a potent comment on society. Soyinka might be
speaking through personal experience, judging by the raw emotions that
this poem subtly convey: those of anger, rage, shame, humility and an
acute sense of disgust at the apathy and inhumanity of humans who won’t
judge a book by its cover but would turn down a man for the color of his
skin. In today’s world, racism might be a dying concern; but that does
not mean that discrimination against other minorities has been
completely eradicated. Despite the progressing times, people continue to
harbor prejudices and illogical suspicions about things they do not
understand: may it be others ideals, religions or traditions and customs.
Thus this poem remains a universal message for all of us, as Soyinka
manages to convey just how absurd all prejudices are by highlighting the
woman’s poor choice of rejecting the man just because he does not share
the same skin color.
‘Telephone Conversation’ is a favorite, both for its excellent use of rich
language and the timeless message it conveys.
Telephone Conversation," by Wole Soyinka is about racism; more

specifically, it is about the way people -- both white and black -- fail to
communicate clearly about matters of race.
The narrator of the poem describes a telephone conversation in which he

reaches a deal with a landlady to rent an apartment. He feels that he must
let her know that he is black:
Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam," I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey—I am African."
This is where the lapses in communication begin. The landlady's first

response is, "Silence. Silenced transmission of / Pressurized good
breeding." She next asks the ridiculous question, "'HOW
DARK?...ARE YOU LIGHT/OR VERY DARK?'"
The narrator is "dumbfounded." Instead of telling her, "It's none of

your business," or simply, "Let's forget about the apartment," he offers a
cryptic response: "'West Affrican sepia.'"
When the landlady asks for clarification, the narrator only confuses
matters further:
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see

Are a peroxide blond.
He makes matters even worse by saying that "friction" has somehow

turned his buttocks "raven black."

Telephone Conversation" is actually a biting satire against the racist
attitudes of whites in the 20th century. Overtly, the poem deals with a
black, educated man who is ringing up a white landlady about renting an
apartment and, we assume, is not allowed to rent the apartment because
of the colour of his skin. However, if we look a little deeper, we can view
this poem as a biting satire that attacks and ridicules the social evil and
human weakness of racial prejudice. Consider how Soyinka places an
educated, clever black person against an ignorant and prejudiced white
person. The poem, through this contrast, shows the ridiculous nature of
any racist claims of white supremacy. The horrendous nature of the
question of the landlady, "HOW DARK?... ARE YOU LIGHT OR
VERY DARK?", makes a mockery of "civilised values," as does the
absurd way in which the speaker responds:
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused--
Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black...
The insistence on the skin colour indicates that the landlady might accept
a light-skinned tenant who could "pass" at being white. However, this
only serves to increase her ignorance and insensitivity. The double
meaning in the final, innocent question, "wouldn't you rather / See for
yourself?", is hilarious because of the way that the speaker is actually
asking the landlady if she wants to see his bottom to check the colour.
In 'Telephone Conversation', the poet conveys his disappointment and

anger about being discriminated by the Caucasian unfairly just because
he is an African by portraying the telephone conversation between
himself and the British landlady.
The poem is in the form of free verse. It is because 'conversation' isn't

something well-planned; instead, the speakers speak what they want
during the conversation. Also, with the aid of end-stop lines and run-on
lines, the outlook of the poem gives readers a sense of randomly
formation, which fully suits the way of 'telephone conversation' flows.
Instead of talking something about the price and things concerning the
house renting, the two speakers talk about their skin color. This issue was
bought up by the landlady at first. There was a pun, 'indifferent', to shows
the intention of the landlady. From the word 'indifferent', the landlady
seems not too aware who her house is rented to, however, she does aware
From what she asks the caller, 'are you light of very dark', she determines
not to rent her house to an Africa, she's obviously discriminating the dark
people, which cause the speaker angry.
It is then the man decides not to rent the house, instead of telling the
woman how dark he is directly, he play word tricks on the woman.
The poet describes the woman 'lipstick coated, long gold-rolled cigarette-
holder piped', it seems that the woman is wealthy and well-educated, it's
a bit ironic, from the outlook of the woman, it seems that the poet want
to convey the idea that the woman is good and 'considerate', however, the
poet actually want to point out the outlook of a person doesn't mean
anything, the woman is actually arrogant and impolite in the view of the
poet.
The most sarcastic point is the woman doesn't understand what the man
means when he says 'sepia' and 'brunette', which both mean very dark in
color. From the words the man uses, he wants to convey that racism is
not fair in the society because the Caucasian judge the African low class
and uneducated only by looking at their appearance, however, he simply
plays the word tricks on the woman, although it's a bit rude, and it show
African can be more educated than the one who is white, this reinforces
the point that African deserves high status in the society, it is not only the
white people can take charge over the African.
In the last part of the poem, the poem make use of humor because the
woman doesn't seem to understand what he is talking about, so he asks
the woman if she wants to look at his whole body to see if it is whole
black in color, he especially states 'his bottom is raven black'. Although
the woman wants to suppress her anger and be polite, instead, she can't
stand any longer and she offs the conversation first at last.
The poet thinks there shouldn't have any racism existed, people can't
judge other by only looking from their appearance, instead, they should
see and know others fully so as to judge what kind of people he is.
Analyzing the Author's Argument
In "Telephone Conversation", we see the message that racism, or seeing

people according to a limiting perspective of their color, degrades
individuals and breaks down relationship between people.
The fragmented and awkward syntax gives an impression of the

interaction. We as readers work to decode the meaning of the lines
reflecting their conversation.
Just as the sentences are stilted, we get the impression of stilted-ness and
lack of connection between the narrator and the woman. The
conversation has been made awkward by the introduction of the race
question. The narrator and the woman are not relating to each other. They
are reduced to trying to figure each other out, or decode each other's
meaning.
The author's special emphasis of the woman's statements about color

bring into stark relief (literally with the type script) the most important
words in the conversation. Soyinka shows us that the essence of the
conversation is her concern about the narrator being either "LIGHT" or
"DARK". This is what the conversation boils down to, and by extension
their relationship boils down to in the end.
The final question, we assume is rhetorical given the tone of the

conversation. However, it poses the essential question of the poem, which
is why the woman is interested in race. The truth is, as Soyinka shows
with the last line, that she is not interested in seeing the narrator as a
whole person, but instead has reduced or degraded him/he to having no
identity out of a single descriptor. This shows the true evil of racism in
reducing a person to nothing but a single word descriptor that places
him/her either in or out of acceptance.
Written in the first person narrative point of view, the poem “Telephone
Conversation” by Wole Soyinka is a poetic satire against the widely-
spread racism in the modern Western society. The poem is about a
telephone conversation in England between the poetic persona seeking to
rent a house and an English landlady who completely changes her attitude
towards him after he reveals his identity as a black African. The motif of
a microcosmic telephone conversation, therefore, is employed by the poet
to apply to a much broader, macrocosmic level where racial bigotry is
ridiculed in a contest of human intelligence, showcasing the poet’s
witticism as well as his ingenious sense of humour.
The poem starts with a somewhat peaceful atmosphere befitting the

poetic persona’s satisfaction for having found the correct house - “The
price seemed reasonable, location indifferent.” He was also happy about
the privacy that he believed that he would enjoy, for “The landlady swore
she lived / Off premises.” At this stage, we get to know that the two were
engaged in a telephone conversation, which, however, was to come
quickly to an unpleasant end as the man decided to reveal his nationality
- “Madam,” I warned. / “I hate a wasted journey – I am African.” A
sudden, unexpected hush of silence is strengthened by a caesura in line 6
of the poem to emphasize the impact of the African’s race being revealed
to the landlady. Furthermore, the poet’s use of the word “confession” to
describe an announcement of the persona’s ethnic identity is very
sarcastic in that being an African seems to be a sin which the persona
committed, and which he needed to atone for.
An uneasy atmosphere ensues thereby. Following the caesura, there is

“Silenced transmission of / Pressurized good-breeding”, with the word
“silenced” again to reiterate the landlady’s sudden change, as well as the
man’s intuitive sensitivity towards the unfriendliness on the other end of
the phone. There is a foreboding overtone, relevant to the change of the
woman’s attitude she would have towards the African man. And we get

the first indication of the poet’s sense of humour in the expression
“[p]ressurized good-breeding”, too, which is an ironical manifestation of
the polite manners landlady was supposed to have for the job of renting
premises. After a considerable period of silence, the landlady finally
spoke again, “Voice, when it came / Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled /
Cigarette-holder pipped.” It is interesting to note that when the landlady
opened her mouth again, the feeling she gave off is immediately
contrastive of what she was like before, as if her status in society was all
of a sudden upgraded, which is indicated by her voice colourfully and
olfactorially described. Such evocative language, which greatly appeal to
our sensory impressions, conveys the poet’s power of imagination
dissecting the sound of an affluent landlady’s voice. And such use of
subtly imagistic language is abundantly rich throughout the rest of the
poem.
Tension rises with the explicitly racial discrimination in line 10 of the

poem as the landlady asked “HOW DARK?” The poet uses capital letters
here, and a lot more to come, to accentuate the landlady’s effort in
seeking clarification for something that would have been irrelevant to
their previous topic, yet it mattered a lot to her. “I had not misheard”, the
persona reflected. Before he was able to respond, the landlady asked
again, “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?” reinforcing the racist
overtone in the English society today. The woman’s pushy, unequivocal
stance in pursuing the answer dumbfounded the man, who was so
confused and so taken aback by the landlady’s sudden change of attitude
that he suddenly appeared to have a blank mind. The automation imagery
“Button B. Button A” that the poet uses here not only vividly shows the
man’s temporary confusion, but also humorously foreshadows the
intelligence contest that is to follow. On a deeper level, the image of the
readily available automatic selection also implies the rampant racial
discrimination taken for granted in the western society.
What makes him come to his senses from this sudden dumbfoundedness,
however, is ironically the foul smell of the telephone booth, which the
persona humorously refers to as a facility of children’s play. “Stench of
rancid breath of public hide-and-seek” dragged him out from his dream-

like world back into reality. The poet then uses sentence fragments, “Red
booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered / Omnibus squelching tar”, to
describe the persona’s frantic attempt to ascertain the situation. The
diction “red”, which is connotative of terror and disturbance, is used three
times to highlight the extreme mental discomfort of an African man, who
referred to city buses, again humorously, as the idiomatic “omnibus”.
Such extensive use of symbolically chromatic images points out the
setting of this poem, for the first and only time, to be London. Thereby
arises the sense of irony as the place where the persona was facing such
ostentatious racism is in London, a city seen as a symbol of the developed
western world, where equality and justice are supposedly valued above
all. “This is real!” the persona’s exclamation only serves to delineate his
bewilderment at the situation.
Instead of describing the justifiable indignation that the poetic persona

was supposed to have felt at the moment, the poet chooses to characterize
him an a pacifist, or a humble and meek man who would rather not stand
up to face the situation. The telephone conversation between the two
conversationists continues as the African man hoped to get on with their
previous topic instead of starting a new, awkward one on a politically
sensitive issue – “Shamed / By ill-mannered silence, surrender / Pushed
dumbfoundment to beg simplification.” However, regardless of his
thoughts, the landlady, who was unequivocal in seeking the clarification,
continues to question him, “Considerate she was, varying the emphasis –
“ARE YOU DAARK? OR VERY DARK?” The African man, now
probably fuming with anger inside, remained silent, while the ruthless
landlady continued with her racist inquiry: “You mean – like plain or
milk chocolate?” The limited choice of words as well as the simple object
of comparison that the poet uses to describe the landlady suggests her to
be a linguistically impoverished character despite her affluent economic
status. Furthermore, her tone was cold and bordering on aggressiveness,
as is established by the persona’s interpretation accurately brought forth
with clarity and specificity - “Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
/ Impersonality.”

Deciding not to stay silent for any longer, and as if answering a passport
control officer, he replied “West African Sepia… Down in my passport”,
which was then responded with the landlady’s “silence for
spectroscopic/Flight of fancy.” Here, the character of the poetic persona
is seen to undergo a rapid development as he started to react against the
landlady’s racist comments, by first forcing her into submission with his
superior vocabulary. The double alliteration of “s” and “f” produce a
special sound effect, making the atmosphere almost fearfully spooky,
illustrating the mental status of the landlady whose turn it was now to feel
dumbfounded. Also worth noting is the metaphor of spectroscope,
hilariously befitting not only the skin colour of the persona, but also the
specific locale of England, where modern science and technology still
inexplicably intermingle with superstition. Either the case, the instant
victory he had over the landlady in this part of the conversation
demonstrates the obvious difference in their education and knowledge,
also illustrating the fact that beyond the landlady’s lavish exterior, she
was simply a shallow judgmental racist.
The contrastive images that the poet has so far established of the persona
of the African origin and the landlady of the western European society
serve to increase the tension in the atmosphere, precipitating the conflict
to its climactic moment. Although the African man had already provided
an answer, the landlady did not understand as she was not only bigoted,
but also definitely under-educated, as compared to the poetic
persona. She continued asking rudely, “…till truthfulness changed her
accent / Hard on the mouthpiece “WHAT’S THAT?” conceding /
“DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” Paying no attention to the
landlady’s disrespect for him, the persona started to turn the table
completely against her, as he took a firm control over the conversation,
defending the dignity and integrity of his ethnic identity from the ruthless
onslaught of the racist landlady. To effectively show this, the poet
juxtaposes various major European hair colours together in a deliberately
confusing manner, suggesting that although being an African, the persona
is nonetheless a person no different from any Europeans – “Facially, I am
brunette, but, madam, you should see / The rest of me. Palm on my hand,
soles of my feet / Are a peroxide blond. Priction, caused – / Foolishly,

madam – by sitting down, has turned / My bottom raven black – One
moment, Madam!” Sensing the landlady’s “receiver rearing on the
thunderclap”, which indicates the landlady’s slow but finally furious
realization that she had been outwitted, he rushed to ask sarcastically,
“Madam, ……wouldn’t you rather / See for yourself?” The quasi
politeness of the tone the poet uses here can hardly conceal the ultimate
insult, which shows how indignant the man was as he outwitted her by
inviting her to see his bottom, thus ending the poem with a tremendous
sense of humour, apart from the obvious sarcasm.
To conclude, through his poem “Telephone Conversation”, Soyinka is

able to satirize the racist society in the west. By showing that a dark
African persona is eventually capable of confronting the racial
discrimination aimed towards him, and retaliates against it by outwitting
the landlady, the poet sends out a clear message - dark skinned people are
no less intelligent than people that are lighter in skin colour.
A River
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.

He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carried off three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.
The new poets still quoted

the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her,
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.
He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
and then
it carries away
in the first half-hour
three village houses,
a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda
and one pregnant woman
expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.

A.K. Ramanujan was a translator and poet, born in Mysore. He is also
known as the greatest modern poet of India. In spite of a Western
University Education, he remained inherently Indian at heart. He
contributed richly to Indian aesthetics and folklore. He was concerned
about the decline of Tamil poetry. Moreover he had genuine kindness
toward the underdog, the poor and toward women. In his poem A River,
the narrator talks of the river Vaikai flowing through the ancient city of
Madurai. Madurai has been sketched by the narrator who is visiting, as
‘A city of temples and poets’
This is an ironic reference to Madurai as a seat of Tamilian culture, which

according to him is in a state of decadence. He observes that the poets,
past and present only speak of the river during the rains and floods. A
description follows, of the river in summer.
The above lines satirize and debunk the traditional romantic view of the
river Vaikai in Madurai, by the ancient poets. He is derisive too, of the
new poets who have no wit but to blindly copy their predecessors.
Humor is presented in the names of the cows and the colored diapers of
the twins to help tell them apart. Yet this too, is an attack on the orthodoxy
of Hinduism. While cows are given names, no one knows who the
pregnant woman is nor are they concerned. Human sacrifices were
performed to appease the gods because of droughts in Tamil Nadu, and
the drowned twin babies may be a reference to such cruel and orthodox
rituals.
This is an unusual poem with many layers of meaning and is a

commentary on the indifference of the old and modern poets to the
ravages caused by the river in flood and the pain and suffering caused to
humans.
This becomes ultimately clear that they are not sympathetic with
suffering human beings. They are totally callous and indifferent. This
kind of attitude makes their poetry weak and unappealing, dry and
cheerless.

The tone of the poem is based on sarcasm and irony. The structure of the
poem has been in paragraphs and single lines. There are four longer verse
paragraphs and a shorter one in the beginning. There are only two single
isolated lines. This kind of structural arrangement contributes to the
effect of irony. It also helps to grasp the main points clearly. Secondly, a
word can be said about the language used in the poem. It is very simple
on account of which the thought sequence of the poem is presented
unmistakably and clearly.
The poem A River by A.K. Ramanujan is a tour de force of impressive

potency and insightful philosophy and yet a poem characterised by its
graceful lucidity and finely honed criticism. Through the poem A River,
the poet raises the question of an artist’s commitment to the society.
In this poem, the poet has compared and contrasted the mind-set of the
old poets and those of the new poets to human misery. Both the poets are
apathetic to human sorrow and suffering. Their poetry does not mirror
the miseries of the human beings; on the other hand they are concerned
with the themes that are far away from the stark reality before them. They
write about the beauty of the river in full flood completely ignoring the
devastation and human tragedy wreaked by this beastly force.
In this poem, the poet refers to the river Vaikai which flows through the
city of Madurai. Madurai, reputed for its rich cultural and spiritual
heritage, is a well known city in Tamil Nadu. In the poem A River the
poet presents two strikingly contrasting pictures of the river: a vivid
picture of the river in the summer season and the river in its full flow
when the floods arrive with devastating fury.
In the summer, the river is almost barren and arid. Only a very thin stream
of water flows revealing the sand ribs on the bed of the river. There is
also the picture of the river in the monsoon season, flooded and with its
immense destructive power yet startlingly beautiful in its majestic flow.
Both the old and the new poets have celebrated the beauty of the flooded
river but they were not alive to or sympathetic with human suffering
caused by the monstrous flood.
The poet-visitor, a modern poet probably Ramanujan himself, visits

Madurai when the Vaikai is in flood. He was extremely shaken by the
dismal scene of utter destruction caused by the river to life and property
all around. He is even more stunned by the insensitive attitude and the
complete unconcern of the city poets, both old and new, towards this
tragic situation of human suffering and fatality. He was distraught that
they ‘sang only of the floods’ when they should have rather tried to
alleviate the people of their miserable state. Being a realist himself, he
takes a dig at these city poets for dodging reality and attempting to flee
into a made-up world of fantasy and fancy.
The poem A River illustrates many significant features of Ramanujan’s

poetry, such as his adept linking of the past and the present so as to
introduce the idea of continuity, his effortless depiction of the typical
Indian surroundings. The use of wit, irony and humour, and dramatic
imagery is distinctive of his style.
1. Which river is mentioned in the extract? What is Madurai reputed for?

What was the subject of the poets of Madurai?
The river Vaikai which flows through the ancient city of Madurai in
Tamil Nadu is mentioned in the extract. Madurai is famous for its
spiritual, literary and cultural heritage; its magnificent city with its
numerous impressive temples built by the kings that ruled Madurai in the
past.
The poets of Madurai, its minstrels, wrote and sang eulogies of its
marvelous temples and its magnificent cites. In a way these eulogies can
be deemed as eulogies of the kings who built these temples and cities and
patronized the literati.
2. What do the images of the river drying to a trickle and the sand ribs
suggest?
The river drying to a trickle conveys the scorching heat of summer that
dries up everything and makes life unbearably miserable with the
accompanying famine and starvation.
The dried river exposes the sand dunes at the bottom of the river and they
bring to our mind the skeletal rib cages of a starved human being.
Both the images bring out the ugly aspect of the dried up river that brings
drought, which in turn causes gruesome misery and starvation. Human
suffering caused by the drought is suggested by the river drying to a
trickle exposing the bone-dry expanse of the sand dunes.
3. What do the straw and women's hair do? What do they signify?

The straw and women's hair choke or block the watergates under the
bridges which have patches of repair all over them.
The three images -of the straw and women's hair and the bridges in
disrepair -together create a scenario of filth and wretchedness which the
flowing river has masked. However, the dry river bares and exposes the
ugliness that lies underneath.
The poet may be suggesting the attempt of the poets to hide or callously
ignore the stark and harsh social reality by writing poems of cities and
temples.
4. How does the poet describe the stones or boulders at the bottom of the
river? To what does he compare them? Why?
Using the figure of speech simile, the poet compares the wet stones to
sleepy crocodiles and the dry boulders to shaved buffalos.
The sleepy voracious crocodiles hint at the impending disaster because
of the unhygienic and polluted environment. Probably, the disaster has
already occurred because the poet evokes the image of shaven buffalos.
In all probability, the buffalos have lost all their hair because of some
fatal disease caused by the contaminated water and the environment.
5. Bring out the irony in the last line of the extract: The poets only sang of
the floods.
The poet paints a picture of disaster and ruin by presenting the dried river
in summer and the likely consequence of the unhealthy environment on
man and beast. However, both the old and the new poets are apathetic to
the bleak and harsh reality around them. Ironically these poets totally
ignore the misery around them and write about the romance of the river
in flood.
6. Who is referred to as ‘He’ here? Where is he now” Why?

He is a visitor to the city of Madurai who has gone there to see the river
Vaikai in flood. He can be a modern poet, probably the poet Ramanujan
himself.
Poets have romanticized the beauty of the river Vaikai in flood and he
had gone there to observe the beauty of the flooded river.
7. What were the destructions caused by the river? What was the reaction
of the people towards this tragic occurrence?
The poet says that the monstrous flood had carried away three village
houses, a pregnant woman and a pair of cows. These images signify the
terrible loss of property (three village houses], enormous loss of human
life (a pregnant woman) as well as the loss of villagers’ livelihood (a
pair of cows).
The people were apathetic toward the tragic destruction caused by the
flood; they talked about superfluous matters like the exact number of
cobbled steps run over by the flood or about the gradual rising of water
in the river. The use of phrase ‘as usual’ suggests the familiarity of the
villagers with the havoc caused by the flood. The flood has become a
usual annual event and the villagers have become immune to its
destructive fury.
8. Comment on the lines: a couple of cows/ named Gopi and Brinda as

usual
The poet had nowhere mentioned the name of any human individual but
he gives the cows names of divine figures. This is to convey the
importance of the cows to the villagers; the cows are sacred to the
villagers and also their main source of livelihood.
9. How do you react to the poet’s description of the unborn twins kicking
at blank walls of the womb?
The poet here depicts a harrowing picture of human struggle and its
futility. The twins are frantically kicking at the wall of the womb of the
pregnant women to escape from their awful condition. However, the
struggle is futile. They also drown along with their mother. The scene is
too deep for tears.
In a way, the poet implies that for the common man the struggle starts
even before his birth and there is no escape from the bleak and dreary
life he has to face in the world.
10. What do you infer from the following lines:

expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.
The pregnant woman might have dreamt about the unborn children and
might have had great hopes and aspiration of them. The drowning of the
pregnant women signifies the drowning of the hopes and aspiration
about the ordinary people which are shattered by the tragic flood.
11. Comment on the theme of the poem.

The theme of the poem is the insensitive attitude and the complete
unconcern of the city poets, both the old and the new, towards the tragic
situation of human suffering and fatality. We are distraught that they
‘sang only of the floods’ when they should have rather tried to alleviate
the people of their miserable state.
The poem also raises the question of the commitment of a poet or artist
towards the society.
Obituary by A K Ramanujan
Father, when he passed on, and at both ends,

left dust left his eye coins
on a table of papers, in the ashes that didn't
left debts and daughters, look one bit different,
a bedwetting grandson several spinal discs, rough,
named by the toss some burned to coal, for sons
of a coin after him,
to pick gingerly
a house that leaned and throw as the priest
slowly through our growing said, facing east
years on a bent coconut where three rivers met
tree in the yard. near the railway station;
Being the burning type, no longstanding headstone
he burned properly with his full name and two
at the cremation dates
as before, easily to holdin their parentheses

everything he didn't quite who sell it in turn
manage to do himself, to the small groceries
like his caesarian birth where I buy salt,
in a brahmin ghetto coriander,
and his death by heart- and jaggery
failure in the fruit market. in newspaper cones
that I usually read
But someone told me
he got two lines for fun, and lately
in an inside column in the hope of finding
of a Madras newspaper these obituary lines.
sold by the kilo And he left us
exactly four weeks later a changed mother
to street hawkers and more than
one annual ritual.
“Obituary” written by A.K. Ramanujan reminiscences his father’s death,

and the merit and meaning in the speaker’s family-life. The opening lines
enumerate the list of things the father left behind as legacy: his table
heaped with newspapers full of dust, debts and daughters. The speaker
carps that the father left them only with trials and tribulations. The
newspapers are just stale pieces of past-news, and the father of his own
has not contributed much in terms of creativity or productivity. Daughters
are considered to be a source of burden in India, not lesser than debts.
Parents are entrusted with the responsibility of “marrying them off” with
adequate dowry to suit their status. In a conversational tone, reminiscent
of Philip Larkin, he talks about the Grandson named after the father, who
had the incorrigible habit of urinating in bed. This highlights that the
poet’s father left behind nothing but only memories in the form of debris.
He claims that the Grandson was named after his father “by chance”
literally meaning ‘luckily'; however, signifying the opposite.
Added to the legacy is a dilapidated house. The poet mentions that the
decrepit house leant on the coconut tree through their growing years. The
deterioration in their quality of life is apparent, from the metaphor of the
house. Furthermore, it may also signify that the family had to live a
parasitic life borrowing from others (the way the house leans on the
coconut tree).The poet utters that his father being ‘the burning type’ burnt
properly at the cremation. The phrase may connote the features of the
father, his physicality being dried and parched. It may also refer to his
wry temperament. Further, it verges on the meaning that the person was
a chain smoker, if we observe the following lines:
he burned properly
at the cremation
as before,easily
and at both ends,
His eyes appeared as coins in the funeral pyre, and were not any different
and came across as they always did. This amounts to the fact that they
did not have any feeling in them even while he was alive. They are coin-
like in their metallic stare. Again, a person’s eye balls reflect whatever
he looks at. Perhaps the speaker indicated that his father’s eyes were
always on money. He also left some half-burnt spinal discs that were half-
burnt that the priest advised the children to pick ‘gingerly’ or carefully
and immerse in the Thriveni, the confluence of the three rivers where the
bones of the dead are immersed as per the Hindu rites. No conspicuous
or insignificant tombstone was erected for the dead person bearing dates
of his birth and death. Therefore, neither was his birth of much
consequence nor was his death. He is deemed so incapable, that even his
birth is a Caesarean one for which, he did not have to put in much effort.
His death also came easily to him in the form of heart failure at the fruit
market.
All he gained in his life worth mentioning, is that he managed to get two
lines of obituary inserted in some newspaper in Madras. The paper was
sold to hawker, who in turn sold it to a grocer from whom the poet
occasionally bought provisions. This underlines the triviality of whatever
the father has achieved. The poet states that earlier on, he used to read the
papers which had groceries like salt and jaggery wrapped up in it.
However, nowadays he does it for the reason that some day he may
succeed in finding those lines relating to his father’s obituary. Thus the

poet attempts to discover some meaning of his father’s existence in his
life : this is the significance of the quest in the end.
Analysis of the poem:

The poem “Obituary” was written by A.K. Ramanujan. An obituary is
usually a tribute to the person who has passed away, featuring the high
points of his life. Such is not the case in this poem. Written in first person,
the son is the narrator of the poem. Seeming quite disgruntled with his
father, the son points out all of the things his father left undone. His bills
were unpaid, and he left unmarried daughters. His grandson, a bed wetter,
was named after the grandfather, but improperly. The house in which the
narrator grew up leaned against a tree. Apparently, the father had a hot
temper which may be part of the son's unhappiness:
Being the
burning type he burned properly
at the cremation...
When the father was cremated, coins were placed on the body’s eyes In
keeping with the Hindu custom of swift cremation, bodies are cremated
within 24. After the cremation, the sons dug through the ashes to find hot
coals to throw in an eastward fashion into the river. The father would
have no headstone with the dates of his birth and death. To the son, the
dates are parentheses encapsulating the time of the father’s life. From his
birth to his death, the son feels that his father did many things incorrectly
or incompletely:
like his caesarean birth

in a Brahmin ghetto
and his death by heart
failure in the fruit market...
He hears that his father’s obituary took two lines in a local newspaper
four weeks after his cremation. The son often bought sugar cane placed
in one of these newspapers shaped like a cone. In the beginning, the son
says that he looks for the paper for fun, and then he says he would like to
have the obituary.
in newspaper cones
that I usually read
for fun, and lately
in the hope of finding
these obituary lines.
Since the narrator is the oldest son, he will be responsible for any ancient
rituals that the culture requires. There is little mourning when a Hindu
dies because they believe that once a person is born he or she never dies.
Often there is little crying. The son does not show any strong feelings for
the father’s death which may be due to the Hindu custom or his irritation
with his father. Now, everything is different. Understandably, the mother
is changed; her husband has died. Despite the displeasure with his father
voiced by the narrator, he still respectfully wants to have the paper with
the father’s obituary.
The poem "Obituary" by A.K. Ramanujan is a literary work that has the
author, in the poem, waxing nostalgic about a father's life and death. It is
a vivid, emotional, and intense poem that looks back on the life and times
of a dear loved family member. The author relates that the father left
behind a legacy that will live on for him:
left debts and daughters,

a bedwetting grandson
named by the toss
of a coin after him,
The author reflects that this man was cremated and disappeared all too
easily from this physical existence. He alludes to the transience of life
and the pain those left behind experience in a patriarch's absence. The
author muses about the physical remnants left behind from the father's
cremation: eye coins in the ashes and several spinal discs. This is the only
tangible evidence of the man left behind and this is painful to the family.
Essentially the poem deals withour brief time on this planet and what we
accomplish and ultimately leave to posterity. The poem also reflects on
the dignified way the family is encouraged to honor the deceased family
member as they are to throw his remains to the east where there are three
rivers that congregate by a railroad station.
The poem is vivid as it reflects on the father's past life in a Brahmin ghetto
and his death due to heart failure. The reader learns that the man died
suddenly while at a fruit market. The author reflects on how the father's
life has been reduced to a two line snippet in an obituary and how the
death of the man changed the mother significantly and how each year
they have the ritual of honoring and remembering this beloved man.
The poem ‘Obituary’, in this regard is a significant example of

Ramanujan’s poetry. This
poem is a comic serious evaluation of a dead father. The central irony in
the poem stems not only from its overall ironic tone but also from the fact
that there are two obituaries in the poem: The one published in the
newspaper as a routine matter of personal history and the other, the
aesthetic recreation. The poet estimates in this poem what his father
meant when he was alive and what he adds up to now that he is dead. The
poem is, of an intensely personal emotion that the death of the father is
neutralized by the continuing link with the father the changed mother:
And he left us
a changed mother
and move than
One annual ritual (53-56)
Point out the irony in this poem?

An obituary is usually a tribute to the person who has passed away,
featuring the high points of his life. Such is not the case in this poem.
Written in first person, the son is the narrator of the poem. However the
poet appears to be disgruntled with his father, the son points out all of the
things his father left undone. His bills were unpaid, and he left unmarried
daughters. His grandson, a bed wetter, was named after the grandfather,
but improperly. The house in which the narrator grew up leaned against
a tree. Apparently, the father had a hot temper which may be part of the
son's unhappiness
How does the poet neutralize the emotions that is caused by his father's
death?
The poem is, of an intensely personal emotion that the death of the father
is neutralized by the continuing link with the father the changed mother.
Bring out the nature of the poet's father in this poem.

The poem is vivid as it reflects on the father's past life in a Brahmin ghetto
and his death due to heart failure. The reader learns that the man died
suddenly while at a fruit market. The author reflects on how the father's
life has been reduced to a two line snippet in an obituary and how the
death of the man changed the mother significantly and how each year
they have the ritual of honoring and remembering this beloved man.
What does the poet tells about the eternal truth of life?
The author reflects that his father was cremated and disappeared all too
easily from this
physical existence. He alludes to the transience of life and the pain those
left behind
experience in a patriarch's absence. The author muses about the physical
remnants left behind from the father's cremation: eye coins in the ashes
and several spinal discs. This is the only tangible evidence of the man left
behind and this is painful to the family.
BACKGROUND, CASUALLY BY NISSIM EZEKIEL
A poet-rascal-clown was born,

The frightened child who would not eat
Or sleep, a boy of meager bone.
He never learned to fly a kite,
His borrowed top refused to spin.
I went to Roman Catholic school,

A mugging Jew among the wolves.
They told me I had killed the Christ,
That year I won the scripture prize.
A Muslim sportsman boxed my ears.
I grew in terror of the strong

But undernourished Hindu lads,
Their prepositions always wrong,
Repelled me by passivity.
One noisy day I used a knife.
At home on Friday nights the prayers

Were said. My morals had declined.
I heard of Yoga and of Zen.
Could 1, perhaps, be rabbi saint?
The more I searched, the less I found.
Twenty two: time to go abroad.

First, the decision, then a friend
To pay the fare. Philosophy,
Poverty and Poetry, three
Companions shared my basement room.
The London seasons passed me by.

I lay in bed two years alone,
And then a Woman came to tell
My willing ears I was the Son
Of Man. I knew that I had failed
In everything, a bitter thought.

So, in an English cargo ship
Taking French guns and mortar shells
To Indo China, scrubbed the decks,
And learned to laugh again at home.
How to feel it home, was the point.

Some reading had been done, but what
Had I observed, except my own
Exasperation? All Hindus are
Like that, my father used to say,
When someone talked too loudly, or
Knocked at the door like the Devil.
They hawked and spat. They sprawled around.
I prepared for the worst. Married,
Changed jobs, and saw myself a fool.
The song of my experience sung,

I knew that all was yet to sing.
My ancestors, among the castes,
Were aliens crushing seed for bread
(The hooded bullock made his rounds).

One among them fought and taught,
A Major bearing British arms.
He told my father sad stories
Of the Boer War. I dreamed that
Fierce men had bound my feet and hands.
The later dreams were all of words.

I did not know that words betray
But let the poems come, and lost
That grip on things the worldly prize.
I would not suffer that again.
I look about me now, and try

To formulate a plainer view:
The wise survive and serve–to play
The fool, to cash in on
The inner and the outer storms.
The Indian landscape sears my eyes.

I have become a part of it
To be observed by foreigners.
They say that I am singular,
Their letters overstate the case.
I have made my commitments now.
This is one: to stay where I am,
As others choose to give themselves
In some remote and backward place.
My backward place is where I am.
Nissim Ezekiel’s poem ‘Background, Casually’ is one of his most known

poems. If ‘Night of the Scorpion’ is a popular anthology piece, this poem
is more keenly read by the more academic readers of his poetry. The
poem’s significance to Ezekiel’s oeuvre lies partly in it being an
autobiographical poem which is seen to indicate crisply his ‘official view
of life’ as it were (whatever that means). Ezekiel’s general tendency in
his poems to be more communicative than be imagistic is evident here.
Similarly, the ironic tone that swings between whipping the self and the
society around it is also on abundant display in this poem. Some of the
other recurrent motifs of Ezekiel’s poetry that we see in this poem are:
* finding satisfaction in limited ambition
* a set of experiences stated as providing deep insights
* use of unrhymed metrical lines
* probing the question of identity in a firm social context
* controlled fragmentation unlike the modernist tendency of obscurity
The poem is divided into three sections which approximate the

childhood, adult and old-age experiences of the poet-speaker. The three
sections do not merely present a chronology of significant experiences
but reflections over these experiences that draw out lessons on the status
of the identity of the self. Allow me to comment, in a rather school boyish
manner, stanza by stanza.
A poet-rascal-clown was born,

The frightened child who would not eat
Or sleep, a boy of meager bone.
He never learned to fly a kite,
His borrowed top refused to spin.
Notice the references to facts twisted to accommodate the present

assessment of that fact. The first line for example is the present valuation
of the past. The line also introduces a preference made all through the
poem: the self-perception of the speaker as a poet. This self-perception is
immediately attached to irony with the addition of rascal and clown.
From irony, this present perception of the past slides to self-pity, a rather
clever ploy that corners the readers sympathy as well as explains away
the lack of heroism in the self. The reader is required to agree that this
‘boy of meager bone’ with not even the skill to fly a kite, is not destined
to achieve anything too noble; so the assertions of self-satisfactions at the
poetic achievements of this self in the third section of the poem come to
be accepted easily.
I went to Roman Catholic school,
I grew in terror of the strong

But undernourished (stave) Hindu lads,
Repelled (resisted) me by passivity.(inactive)
One noisy day I used a knife.
The second stanza slips from third to first person. In the 2nd and 3rd
stanzas the multicultural mix of the society in which the speaker has
grown up is introduced through the self-pity ploy. These two stanzas
insistently introduce a major strand of this poem’s thematic: identity. The
challenge to coherent formation of identity is indicated here as related to
the mixing of cultures that are not devoid of intolerance toward one
another. Amid the unhappy school life, a poetic career has without much
ado announced itself: ‘That year I won the scripture prize’. This line is
suggestive of the inclination of the child.
At home on Friday nights the prayers

Were said. My morals had declined.
I heard of Yoga and of Zen.
Could 1, perhaps, be rabbi saint?
The more I searched, the less I found.
Twentytwo: time to go abroad.

First, the decision, then a friend
To pay the fare. Philosophy,
Poverty and Poetry, three
Companions shared my basement room.
The last line of the 4th stanza is typical of Ezekiel in the use of antithesis.
Intimations of failure are always around the corner in his
autobiographical poems. The above two stanzas squeeze a long duration
into rapidly moving lines. Growing up amid diverse influences the

speaker expands the base of the incoherence of his identity to include
yoga, zen, jewish theology. The alliterative line ‘philosophy, poverty and
poetry’ burdens the experiential statement with the load of a life-time
inclination. Many of Ezekiel’s poems suggest this inclination:
‘Enterprise’ for example. Usually they indicate symptomatically the
poetic credo of this poet: to treat personal experiences philosophically to
produce poetic significance.
The London seasons passed me by.

I lay in bed two years alone,
And then a Woman came to tell
My willing ears I was the Son
Of Man. I knew that I had failed
In everything, a bitter thought.

So, in an English cargoship
Taking French guns and mortar shells
To IndoChina, scrubbed the decks,
And learned to laugh again at home.
The second section of the poem brings in adult experiences as suggested

toward the end of previous stanza. Amid rather tedious lines the above
quoted stanzas introduce the summary dismissal of the self that recurs in
Ezekiel’s poems. The sense of failure is recurrent. But Ezekiel usually
positions these statements strategically in the poems. Their function is
not to state to the reader the sense of the speaker’s disillusion. These lines
are positioned by Ezekiel in such a way as to herald the experiments that
lead the self toward the present significance. This strategy is also to be
found in ‘Enterprise’. The stanzas also indicate the speaker’s decision to
turn away from the metro-centricness of the colonial mentality. The last
line could have been interpreted as being puerile patriotism had it
occurred in a poem less ironic than ‘Background, Casually’.
How to feel it home, was the point.

Some reading had been done, but what
Had I observed, except my own

Exasperation? All Hindus are
Like that, my father used to say,
When someone talked too loudly, or

Knocked at the door like the Devil.
They hawked and spat. They sprawled around.
I prepared for the worst. Married,
Changed jobs, and saw myself a fool.
The song of my experience sung,

I knew that all was yet to sing.
My ancestors, among the castes,
Were aliens crushing seed for bread
(The hooded bullock made his rounds).
A lasting question, something that has characterized Ezekiel’s approach

generally, is introduced in the first line of the next stanza: ‘How to feel it
home’ is a question raised by many of Ezekiel’s poems about identity.
The manner Ezekiel frames the identity question is apparent here. Ezekiel
makes out a case for homely feeling as a measure of identity. With
homely feeling comes a responsibility. For Ezekiel, this responsibility
requires that one not only see ones home in appreciation but also with a
certain critical distance. Ezekiel practically indicates the figure of the
‘homely critic’ as the frame of reference. This homely critic manages a
stance that is not shy of scathing criticism, yet asserts the value of home.
It is thus that Ezekiel develops a critique of Naipaul’s tourist perspective
of India in his well known essay that appeared in Adil Jussawala edited
‘Penguin New Writing from India': ‘Naipaul’s India and Mine’. It is an
essay that would have won the prize for walking the tight rope. For in
this essay, Ezekiel defends the indefensible. The essay was written at a
time when the patriotic pitch was so shrill against Naipaul that anybody
critcising him would have sounded like whistling along. Ezekiel
maintains a remarkable cool in pointing out the perspectival problem in
Naipaul’s narrative. We easily see Naipaul’s ‘An Area of Darkness’ full
of prejudicial whining at personal slight and inconvenience rather than a
balanced criticism.

One among them fought and taught,
A Major bearing British arms.
He told my father sad stories
Of the Boer War. I dreamed that
fierce men had bound my feet and hands.
The later dreams were all of words.

I did not know that words betray
But let the poems come, and lost
that grip on things the worldly prize.
I would not suffer that again.
The third section swiftly moves on in life: the speaker is mature now. He
is through his experiments. He is ripe with his experiences so that he can
now give out his conclusions. That is, within the poem the narration of
experiences is now over, and it is time to draw out philosophical
implications. ‘The later dreams were all of words’ picks up the theme of
poetic career. The poem is now poised to give us a peep into the poetic
process.
I look about me now, and try

The wise survive and serve–to play
The inner and the outer storms.
This is a remarkable stanza which very concisely states a complex

attitude to poetry. The speaker puts simply that his approach to poetry is
rather pragmatic. The inner and the outer storms are not to be seen as
problems to be solved: it is not a measure of ones wisdom to solve them.
The wisdom is in playing the fool yet cashing in on these inner and outer
storms by making them the subject of ones creativity. It is a pithy way of
saying that the poet has to respond through his/her creativity.
The Indian landscape sears my eyes.

I have become a part of it
To be observed by foreigners.

They say that I am singular,
Their letters overstate the case.
I have made my commitments now.

This is one: to stay where I am,
As others choose to give themselves
In some remote and backward place.
These two stanzas, jerkily moving away from the earlier stanza, sum up
the speaker’s socio-political stance. The colonial divide between the
metropolis as the centre and ‘India’ as a backward place is alluded to
here. Staying in India is seen as a committed move. The ambivalent place
of the ‘homely critic’ is stated in the first line of the above quoted stanzas:
‘Indian landscape sears my eyes’. The necessity to assert ones
commitment to ones station arises because of the ‘the foreigners’
viewpoint. From their point of view, being in the ‘backward place’
warrants an explanation. The speaker seems to agree that his station is
backward, though it is his own.
Interesting in the poem is the way it frames the question of identity. The
poem quite clearly takes India as the place from which this view is
generated. The view that raises the question of identity and the
backwardness of the place, first of all, sets up a binary opposition. This
binary opposition conveniently sets up two categories: something called
India and something called foreign. With this opposition there is a
termination of the question. Then the poem sets out to resolve the puzzle.
It admits that the ‘identity’ of the speaker spills over a pure category.
That is what the ‘foreign’ experiences suggest in the poem. Therefore,
the speaker has to point out the ambivalence in the identity of the self –
critical yet committed to home. This view at once enables a distance from
the totalized category of ‘India’ and an identification with it. The problem
of course is that, the binary invoked here deals with essentialisms. The
perspective developed in the poem is very comforting in a way, and often
is seen as politically correct too. But it confronts the question of identity
in a reductive polarization between ‘India’ and ‘the foreign’.

India and the Poetic Voice Ezekiel’s Poetry
Abstract:
The article explores the conflicting voices of detachment and

involvement in Ezekiel’s those poems that depicts India and Indian life
exclusively. The Essay focuses on how family background, Jew identity
and higher education In England moulds his identity as an Indian poet.
Ezekiel’s poetry provides a a new lens to review Indian life and context.
Nissim Ezekiel stands as a flagship in the stream of modern Indian

poetry in English which whenever is discussed always starts with him.
A reader In American literature at the University of Bombay, Ezekiel is
not only a poet, but also a promoter and publisher of poetry. Born in
1924 and brought up in pre-independent Bombay, raised in a Bene-Jew
family led by a secularist rationalist scientific father, schooled in
western education at home as well as abroad Ezekiel with its root dipped
physically in Indian soil yet he is not absorbed by so called Indianness.
His western education, highly esteemed job at university bars him to be
categorised as àam admi’, and his Jewish family background makes
him an outsider to the vast Hindu-Muslim cultural milieu of India.
The poet himself is aware of his marginal identity in the country of
his birth, as he says of himself as quoted by Parthasarathy,
“I am not a Hindu, and my background makes me a natural outsider:

circumstances and decisions relate me to India”. (p28)
In a culturally inclusive country like India, Ezekiel’s queer existence

among the dominant Hindus and the Muslims makes him feel grounded
in the soil, yet not a part of it wholeheartedly. He is a detached involver
of the Indian life as Philip Larkin was of the British life. His existence
in Indian scenario is brilliantly depicted in very Ezekelian style in
`Background, Casually’
“I went to Roman Catholic school,

I grew in terror of strong
But undernourished Hindu
Repelled me by passivity.
One noisy day I used a knife”. (Parthasarathy, Ten Twentieth Century

Indian
Poets p35)
At 22 young Ezekiel went to England to pursue his dream and there
`philosophy/ poverty and poetry’, were his constant faithful
companions. A bitter thought that I had failed in everything’ forced him
to take a painful decision of returning home. No spontaneous will, but
hurting circumstances generate a hurting reconciliation. So he `learned
to laugh again at home’. In India he still could not feel home instantly;
hence `how to feel home was the point.’ This in-between situation
colours his mind, forges his outlook of home and abroad, characterises
his poetry. A poet who cannot feel home at home, whose birth place
does not naturally become his background rather he has to accept it with
pain as his background, his voice cannot be full of sentiment and
unbridled praise for it. He is a cynical observer, mentally at distance
from it yet a `part of it, to be observed by foreigners’. This play of
physical closeness yet mental and spiritual distance is quite prominent
in Ezekiel’s poetry. The country’s outlook does not become the poet’s
outlook, that’s why he has to find out his very own outlook-
“I look about me and try
The wise survive and serve- to play

The inner and the outer storms”.
Driven by unfortunate circumstances the poet neither gives himself up

to sentimental melancholia, nor vents his severe apathy towards his
uncomfortable surroundings, like a clown of comedy he mocks at
background, laughs at his own compromising existence. Therefore
irony, self-mockery, humour, satiric touches become his tools. His irony

has no acidic-effect, it has a rationalistic critical sharpness. He displays
the backwardness of the background, yet accepts it as an unavoidable
reality as an inseparable part of him.
There is conflict in the very heart of the poetic voice, but the poet never
goes to showcase it, rather he tries to bury it in veneer of poetic craft.
This play of rejection and acceptance is one of powerful forces in

Ezekiel’s poetry particularly his poems exclusively about India and
Indian life. Ezekiel is basically a poet of city life, to say in Bruce
King’s words, à representative voice of urbanised , western
educated India’ he goes on depicting ordinary events of Indian life in a
satiric tone to show the littleness of little events that get some extra-
ordinary stature, or over-sentimentalised in
farcical way and thus loss their original significance.
In his most anthologised poem `Night of Scorpion’ he gives in an
intellectualised emotion- free way, the slice of Indian life in critical
emotional moment in which everyone is seen seriously concerned for
other in their respective idiosyncratic way. The God--fearing, religious-
minded villagers who come to see the mortal victim of the diabolic
scorpion, instead of doing anything practical to mitigate the poison, they
pray to God a thousand times, convey their anxiety for the imaginary sin
of last life, misfortunate next birth, `the flesh of desire’. They appear
more concerned with `the unreal world’ than the real pain of the poet’s
mother. The very portrayal of the rustics in the light of `swarms of flies’,
`scorpion shadows’, and the mechanical repetition of the phrase `they
said’ convey the poet’s resentment to the ignorant villagers. The
poisonous scorpion stung the poet’s mother the nocuous tongues of the
villagers stung the heart of the little boy who only sees his mother rolling
under pain-
“My mother twisted through and through

groaning on a mat.”
A deliberate contrast between a son’s feelings for mother and the
neighbours’ concern for the mother’s unreal past and future birth and
their silence on present suffering is presented. Yet the matured poet
knows that the villagers are not as much callous as they are ignorant and
superstitious. That’s he says,
“More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,

More insect and the endless rain”
It is noticeable that the pheasants of line-8 now become `neighbours’
who are still pouring in on ignoring rain to see the poet’s mother. The
poet recognises both the villagers’ merit of helpfulness as well as their
solemn faulty habit of neglecting material world for a non- existing
world. The depiction of the modern-minded father is also ironic. Though
the rationalistic father himself tries èvery curse and blessing/Powder,
mixer, herb and hybrid’, even little paraffin, he lets his anguishing wife
to be treated by a ritual performing Holy man.
The final lines of the poem contain more sharp ironical

twist – “My mother only said
Thank god the scorpion picked on me

and spared my children”.
The typical motherly concern for her children’s safety nullifies all
the previous feverish activities of the villagers’ verbal babbling,
father’s scientific effort and the holy man’s religious rite.
In `The Visitor’ the `poet –rascal-clown’ presents himself as a fool

caught in the decrepit tradition; by misguided its irrational worldview.
With a crow cawing thrice the poet as `folk belief befits’ waits anxiously
all day for a visitor. He struggles within to `cope with the visitor’ who
may be Àn angel in disguise, perhaps/ Or else temptation in unlike
shape’. When the actual visitor comes ònly to kill a little time’
all the previous concerns and thoughts appeared inflated, `miracle of
mind’ mythicised in a culture. The poet realises his own blunder-
“I see how wrong I was.
Not foresee precisely this: . . .
The ordinariness of most events.”

Ìn India’, it is not age-old tradition with which the poet is at discomfort,
but incongruous imitation of western culture is the butt of Ezekiel’s
mockery, satire-
“The men are quite at home
Among the foreign styles.
(What fun the flirting is)
I myself, decorously,
Press a thigh or two in sly innocence
The party is a great success.
Then someone says we cannot
Enjoy it somehow, don’t you think?
The atmosphere corrupt,
And look at our wooden wives.’’
At parties foreign Indian wives `do not talk/ of course, they do not kiss’,
some feel atmosphere so corrupt yet some enjoy flirting. A totally chaotic
picture of Party-culture in India. In other poems of The Exact Name, À
Virginal, Progress’, `Beachescene’ he is equally balanced, crafty, witty
and ironic.”Ezekiel takes a realistic and human view of love sex, stripped
of sentimentalism and romantic illusions”. (Harish Raizada in the article
`Nissim Ezekiel’s Poetry of Love and Sex’, Prasad p-74) He is never shy
of talking of sex as in `Progress’
“The former, suffering
Self declined the use
Of woman who were
Willing but unlovable:
Love was high-minded stable.

Now he wears a thicker
Skin upgraded from
the Goddess of virtue
to mocking, sexual eyes
whose hunger makes him wise.”
In `Love Poem’, the poet encounters a woman whose` sad and

thoughtful love’ he hears` Above the tumult of despair’
“You bend your head, I touched your
Hair, the sign was timed without a word”
On further exploration, he discovers-
Great woman-beast of sex you are
I see you now as myth and dream
Completed, more than what you seem.
The friendly-foe, the near and far”.
In poem of the separation (hymns in darkness1976) when lovers feel

grown up, passion comes out spontaneously-
“One day you said,
`Suddenly, I feel
grown-up’. The price was only
a thousand kisses.”
After separation when the male lover wants his ladylove back not out of
romantic sentiment only and platonic love, he wants her back with the
very physical pleasure she gives

“I want you back
With rough happiness you lightly wear
Supported by your shoulders,
Breasts and thighs”
In midnight’s children Salman Rushdie describes that, in a movie named

`The Lovers of Kashmir’ directed by Hanif Aziz the leading, couple
planted an indirect kiss on an apple as direct kiss on screen was a taboo
in India. It was the year 1948 in which Gandhiji was assassinated. Two
decades after in Ezekiel’s poems bodily passion, hunger for flesh, passion
come out nakedly. Yet in backbone he feels to be confined unlike his
great Sanskrit poetic maestros
“How freely they mention
breasts and buttocks.
They are my poetic ancestors.
Why am I so inhibited?” (‘Passion poem3’,Hymns in Darkness)
Ezekiel’s some poems on India particularly `Goodbye Party for Miss

Puspa T.S.’ and ‘Very Indian Poem in Indian English’ shed light on the
funny side of Indian English and Indian mentality. Use of present
progressive form in place of present indefinite form of verb, vain
repetition for the sake of emphasis, abrupt digression from the main topic,
wrong use of word lead to comic self revelation of the speaker’s
confusion of mind .
“Puspa Miss is never saying no
Whatever I or anybody is asking
She is always saying yes.
And today she is going

To improve her prospects
And we are wishing her bon voyage.”
Use of saying, asking, growing, wishing instead of the present indefinite

form of the verb is more funny in À Very Indian Poem in Indian English’
“I am standing for peace and non-violence
Why world is fighting and fighting
Why all people of the world
Are not following Mahatma Gandhi
I am simply not understanding”.
Besides, the odd Indianised spoken English, other noticeable things are
the vague sense of Indian brotherhood. Though the patriotic speaker
admits the Gujratis, the Maharastrisans, the Hindiwallas are brothers yet
he is strongly aware of their difference and behavioural peculiarity. It is
clear that one does not love other rather tolerates other being located in a
single geographical territory. That’s the stark Indian reality beneath the
veneer of glorified Indian nationalism and communal harmony – the
sentimental love of the one brotherhood is up to lips only, in the heart is
only thin vulnerable layer of tolerance. The same picture we can find in
`Cows’. The poet’s 70-year old school-mistress mother is aware that
Hindus worship holy cows, she cannot but hate the earthly foolish
animals for making pavements dirty-
“She knows that cows are holy
Worshipped by the parents
of children in her school.
Even Gods ought not clutter up
The pavement – that’s her view
She is not against believe

What you like, she says
But get out of my way.”
The old lady does not hate the Hindus for their belief, she does not respect
also their belief, and she is disgusted of them. In other poems such as `the
Truth about the flood,’ `Rural Suite’ Ùnder trial Prisoners’ `Poverty
Poems’ he turns his attention from ordinariness of ordinary events to
littleness of big social issues. In `The Truth about the Flood’ the flood-
victims got help neither from the Govt. Officials nor from the student -
rescue party. The formers are busy in only supplying statistics and the
latters are more interested in taking photos of rescue service than the real
rescue operation. The poet knows the scenario will not change easily
soon; he does not claim to revolutionise, bring a sea change in a day.
That’s why he says –
“We are used to it

These people never learn”
The hesitant reception of a jaundiced background is always felt in the
mind of the reader. Being an alienated part of the Indian life, the poet
does not feel like Kamala Das the urge to brew up a revolution against
the demonic society. Kamala Das has to alienate herself from her
chocking background for survival, but Ezekiel has to compromise and
adopt it for survival. In his poems we do not get inflated picture of India
as we find in the19th century romantic poets the cynical dissection of
Hindu rituals and myths as we get in the poems of Parthasarathy and
Ramanujan and the local colour of Jayanta Mahapatra .Like other modern
poets Ezekiel is also critical of Indian life, but position makes him
distinguished. His poems are valuable to us because they show India from
a different angel, from a privileged marginalised perspective.
Works Cited:
King, Bruce. Modern Indian Poetry in English, Delhi: OUP1987.92

Parthasarathy, R. Twentieth Century Indian Poets, Delhi: OUP2012 print
Prasad, Madhusudan. Living Indian-English poets: An Anthology of
Critical Essays, Delhi: Sterling, 1989
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children, London: Vintage, 2009

My Grandmother’s House
There is a house now far away where once

I received love……. That woman died,
The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved
Among books, I was then too young
To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon
How often I think of going
There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or
Just listen to the frozen air,
Or in wild despair, pick an armful of
Darkness to bring it here to lie
Behind my bedroom door like a brooding
Dog…you cannot believe, darling,
Can you, that I lived in such a house and
Was proud, and loved…. I who have lost
My way and beg now at strangers' doors to
Receive love, at least in small change?
Summary-
“My Grandmother’s House” is a constituent poem of Kamala Das’s
maiden publication Summer in Calcutta. Though short, the poem wraps
within itself an intriguing sense of nostalgia and uprootedness. In her
eternal quest for love in such a ‘loveless’ world, the poet remembers her
grandmother which surfaces some emotions long forgotten and buried
within her-- an ironical expression of her past which is a tragic contrast
to her present situation. It is a forcefully moving poem fraught with
nostalgia and anguish.
The poet says that there is a house, her grandmother’s home, far away
from where she currently resides, where she “received love”. Her
grandmother’s home was a place she felt secure and was loved by all.
After the death of her grandmother, the poet says that even the House was
filled with grief, and accepted the seclusion with resignation. Only dead
silence haunted over the House, feeling of desolation wandering
throughout. She recollects though she couldn’t read books at that time,
yet she had a feeling of snakes moving among them-- a feeling of

deadness, horror and repulsion, and this feeling made her blood go cold
and turn her face pale like the moon. She often thinks of going back to
that Old House, just to peek through the “blind eyes of the windows”
which have been dead-shut for years, or just to listen to the “frozen” air.
The poet also shows the ironical contrast between her past and present
and says that her present has been so tormenting that even the Darkness
of the House that is bathed in Death does not horrify her anymore and it
is a rather comforting companion for her in the present state of trials. The
poets says that she would gladly (“in wild despair”) pick up a handful of
Darkness from the House and bring it back to her home to “lie behind
my bedroom door” so that the memories of the Old House and its
comforting darkness, a rather ironical expression, might fill assurance
and happiness in her present life.
She wraps up the poem saying that it is hard for one to believe that she
once lived in such a house and was so loved by all and lived her life with
pride. That her world was once filled with happiness is a sharp contrast
to her present situation where she is completely devoid of love and pride.
She says that in her desperate quest for love, she has lost her way; since
she didn’t receive any feelings of love from the people whom she called
her own, she now has to knock “at
strangers' doors” and beg them for love, if not in substantial amounts,
then atleast in small change i.e. in little measure atleast.
The poet has intensified the emotions of nostalgia and anguish by

presenting a contrast between her childhood and her grown-up stages.
The fullness of the distant and absence and the emptiness of the near and
the present give the poem its poignancy. The images of “snakes moving
among books”, blood turning “cold like the moon”, “blind eyes of
window”, “frozen air”’ evoke a sense of death and despair. The house
itself becomes a symbol - an Ednic world, a cradle of love and joy. The
escape, the poetic retreat, is in fact, the poet’s own manner of suggesting
the hopelessness of her present situation. Her yearning for the house is a
symbolic retreat to a world of innocence, purity and simplicity

My Grandmother's House" - Kamala Das - Critical Summary
Kamala Das is one of the three most significant Indian poets writing in
English today, the other two being Nissim Ezekiel and Ramanujan. Her
poetry is all about herself, about her intensely felt desire for love, for
emotional involvement, and her failure to achieve such a relationship. In
this poem, “My Grandmother’s House” Kamala Das, recalls her ancestral
home and her dead grandmother. This poem takes the form of a
confession comparing her present broken state with that of being
unconditionally loved by her grandmother.
Themes in the Poetry of Kamala Das:

The poetry of Kamala Das is a search for the essential woman, and hence
the woman persona of her poems plays the various roles of unhappy
woman, unhappy wife, mistress to lusty men, reluctant nymphomaniac,
silent Devdasi and love-lorn Radha. Kamala Das has also been called a
poet in the confessional mode. The confessional poets deal with
emotional experiences which are generally taboo. There is a ruthless self-
analysis and a tone of utter sincerity. As E.V.Ramakrishnan rightly says,
“In her poetry, Kamala has always dealt with private humiliations and
sufferings which are the stock themes of confessional poetry.”
Reminiscent of the Poet’s Ancestral Home:

The poem is a reminiscence of the poetess’ grandmother and their
ancestral home at Malabar in Kerala. Her memory of love she received
from her grandmother is associated with the image of her ancestral home,
where she had passed some of the happiest days of her life, and where
her old grandmother had showered her love and affection. With the death
of her grandmother the house withdrew into silence. When her
grandmother died, even the house seemed to share her grief, which is
poignantly expressed in the phrase “the House withdrew”. The house
soon became desolate and snakes crawled among books. Her blood

became cold like the moon because there was none to love her the way
she wanted.
Yearning for the Past: Choked with Grief:

The poet now lives in another city, a long distance away from her
grandmother’s house. But the memories of her ancestral house make her
sad. She is almost heart-broken. The intensity of her emotions is shown
by the ellipses in the form of a few dots. Now, in another city, living
another life, she longs to go back. She understands that she cannot
reclaim the past but she wants to go back home, look once again through
its windows and bring back a handful of darkness – sad and painful
memories, which she would have made her constant companion, to keep
as a reminder of her past happiness. The poet is unable to proceed with
her thoughts for sometime as is indicated by the ellipses (dots).
The poet is now choked with the intensity of grief. She yearns for love
like a beggar going from one door to another asking for love in small
change. Her need for love and approval is not satisfied in marriage and
she goes after strangers for love at least in small quantity. But she does
not get it even in small change or coins. Her love-hunger remains
unsatisfied, and there is a big void, a blank within her, she seeks to fill up
with love but to no avail. The image of the window is a link between the
past and the present. It signifies the desire of the poet for a nostalgic peep
into her past and resurrect her dreams and desires.
The poem springs from her own disillusionment with her expectation of
unconditional love from the one she loves. In the poem, the image of the
ancestral home stands for the strong support and unconditional love she
received from her grandmother. The imagery is personal and beautifully
articulates her plight in a loveless marriage. Thus, the old house was for
her a place of symbolic retreat to a world of innocence, purity and
simplicity, an Edenic world where love and happiness are still possible.”

Kamala Das recalls her ancestral house that was filled with the all-
pervading presence of her grandmother And this is why her
grandmother’s house is singular: Kamala Das received ‘love’ there.
When the poetess speaks of ‘love’ in particular she ascertains that it is
unconditional and selfless. With the death of the Grandmother, the house
ceased being inhabited. It now became an isolated and remote entity,
echoed by the phrase ‘far away.’ The poetess asserts that with the death
of her grandmother silence began to sink in the house. Kamala Das, at
that juncture, was too small to read books, but emotional enough to
comprehend the true feeling of love.
With the death of the Grandmother, her life that was hitherto filled only
with emotions becomes numb. Her veins thus become cold rather than
warm. It is as cold as the moon, the moon being an emblem of love. The
worms on the books seem like snakes at that moment, in comparison to
the size of the little girl; and in keeping with the eeriness of the situation.
The poetess also implies that the deserted house is like a desert with
reptiles crawling over. The poetess now longs to ‘peer’ at a house that
was once her own. She has to peek through the ‘blind eyes’ of the
windows as the windows are permanently closed. The air is frozen now,
as contrasted to when the grandmother was alive-the surroundings were
filled with the warmth of empathy. Kamala Das pleads with us to “listen”
to the “frozen” air; that is an impossibility. Neither is the air a visual
medium, nor can air cause any displacement because it is “frozen”. It is
an example of synesthesia.
In wild despair, she longs to bring in an “armful of darkness.” Note

firstly, that it is not a ‘handful’ but an armful. Secondly, ‘darkness’ that
generally has negative shades to it, has positive connotations here of a
protective shadow. It also reflects the ‘coziness’ inside the house.This
armful of darkness is her essence of nostalgia. With this piece of
darkness, she can lie down for hours, like a brooding dog behind the door,
lost in contemplation.
The speaker claims that in her quest for love she had now become
wayward. The poetess speaks to her husband that she who is now thirsty
for genuine love, received at one point in her life, absolute love in the
form of her grandmother. Ironically, she addresses her husband as
“Darling”, and talks of the lack of love in her life in the same breath and
tone.
Her pursuit of love has driven her to the doors of strangers to receive love
at least in the form of ‘a tip.’ Previously she was ‘proud’, as she did not
have to compromise on her self-respect. Now she has to move in the maze
of male monopolistic chauvinism, and beg for love in the form of change.
****
Nostalgic Element in Kamala Das’s Poems My Grandmother’s

House
and A Hot Noon in Malabar
Dr. Monika Assistant Professor M.H.D.College for
Women
Odhan (Sirsa)
The present research paper has been attempted to explore the
nostalgic element in the poetry of Kamala Das. The paper gives a lively
description of her early life which Kamala Das spent at her
grandmother’s house and her ancestral house at Malabar. After
marriage, she was far from those houses and in a pensive mood she
recalls that time and this fills her mind and heart with pleasant
memories. With the death of her grandmother the unconditional and
pure love by her grandmother also passed away. Now she is
married and seeks love, then she remind her ancestral house at Malabar.
In a nostalgic mood, she reminds all the incidents which she spent in
that particular place.
Kamala Das, a unique voice in Indian English poetry, is the

multi-layered dimensions of matter and manner in her poems make her
a significant personality in feminist literature. She was born in 1934 in
Malabar, Kerala. Her mother, Balamani Amma was a renowned poet in
Malayalam. Kamala Das was trained in the traditional art of decoration,
performing rituals at Nalapat house in Malabar. She went to a convent
school in Calcutta. These traditional and literary knowledge at Nalapat
house and modern and western knowledge at Calcutta—shaped the
psyche of the growing child. She was married to Das at the age of
fifteen, so that she could never adjust well married life inspite of her
husband being kind and liberal to her. She was educated both in Kerala
and Calcutta. It was during her long stay in Calcutta that she acquired
proficiency in English. She started her poetic journey through Summer
in Calcutta in 1965 which was followed by The Descendants in 1967
and the last one The old playhouse and the other poems in 1973. She
was honoured by the Sahitya Academy for her work Tanuppu in
Malayalam. Her poems first appeared in the Indian P.E.N. in 1965. She
won the poetry prize of the Asian Anthology Volume in 1963 and was
a frequent nominee for the Noble Prize. She wrote her autobiography
in Malayalam which later published in English with the title My Story.
Nostalgic element in Kamala Das poetry:

Kamala Das is known for her confessional mode of writing, her
treatment of love theme as a unique manner and a poetess of extreme
feminine sensibility. She started to write poetry at that time when
personal experiences took the place of colonial and nationalist themes
in English poetry by Indian women. After the soft and soothing strains
of Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu, the offensive individualism of Kamala
Das appears as a shock. She is considered as a subjective poet and her
poems are “products of uncontrolled emotions”. She was always in
search for the perfect masculine being and each encounter with the
male-the husband or the lover in discovering the meaning of true love
and finally the frustration and disappointment resulting from the
repeated failures of such experiments. To get relief from the frustration,
she turns to her past memories where she
got ideal love as a child. She showed her nostalgic element in her poems
My Grandmother’s House and A Hot Noon in Malabar which first
appeared in Summer in Calcutta in 1965. Kamala Das’ past and the
present are contrasted. The present time is in no way worth-living and the
past is inspiring and the memory is worth-retaining. When she thinks of
her past and her present life she thinks that how fast the time goes, today
my grandmother is no more and I can’t see her again. Nostalgia means
remembering our past or childhood. Indian poetess recalls her dead
grandmother in the poem My Grandmother’s House. This poem takes the
form of a confession comparing her present broken state with that of
being unconditionally loved by her grandmother. An unconditional love
expects nothing and expresses everything. In reality, the love of
grandparents towards grandchildren is unconditional and incomparable.
Kamala Das belonged to a traditional Nair family and was married at the
age of fifteen. After marriage, she remembers her childhood days which
she spent at her grandmother’s house. With the death of her grandmother
the house withdrew into silence. She recalls that she spent her childhood
in that house where she received unconditional and pure love by her
grandmother. She was the loving granddaughter and felt very close to her
and also felt safe and happy. In a nostalgic mood, she reminds all the
incidents which she spent in that particular place. But suddenly, she
comes in the present and thought that now grandmother has passed away
and that house has gone in silence where snakes moved on books racks.
The worms on the books seem like snakes at that moment, in comparison
to the size of the little girl; and in keeping with the eeriness of
the situation. The poetess also implies that the deserted house is like a
desert with reptiles crawling over. There were many books at her
grandmother’s house, but at that time Kamala Das was very young to
read those books means at such initial stage she neither understand the
importance of books nor the significance of the written material in those
books. Her blood became cold like the moon because there was none to
love her the way she wanted.
She understands that she cannot reclaim the past but she wants to go
back home, look once again through its windows and bring back a
handful of darkness – sad and painful memories, which she would have
made her constant companion, to, keep as a reminder of her past
happiness. Now when she is married and she usually thinks to go in her
grandmother’s house and want to peep through the blind eyes of
windows and listen the frozen air means all useless in material world,
and now in a melancholic mood she only bring darkness and that
darkness prevail in her life and put that her bedroom door like a
brooding dog. The image of the window is a link between the past and
the present. It signifies the desire of the poet for a nostalgic peep into
her past and resurrects her dreams and desires. The moon is being an
emblem of love. The poetess now longs to 'peer' at a house that was
once her own. She has to peek through the 'blind eyes' of the windows
as the windows are permanently closed. The air is frozen now, as
contrasted to when the grandmother was alive-the surroundings were
filled with the warmth of empathy. Kamala Das pleads with us to
"listen" to the "frozen" air; that is impossibility. In wild despair, she
longs to bring in an "armful of darkness". Note firstly, that it is not a
'handful' but an armful. Secondly, 'darkness' that generally has negative
shades to it, has positive connotations here of a protective shadow. It
also reflects the 'coziness' inside the house. This armful of darkness is
her essence of nostalgia. She feels so proud of her grandmother and the
house in such a way that she wants all the others know how
promising and satisfying was the atmosphere at the grandmother’s
house. She enthusiastically remembers her childhood days and
surprisingly tells her husband that can you imagine I live in such a house
where I received so much love and feel proud because of that pious love.
But now she has lost her way; she wants love; she begs love, that love
which she naturally receives at her grandmother’s house, but now she
wants the love with at least small change. The poet seems to speak in
favour of extra-marital love when she says:
I who have lost

My way and beg now at
strangers’ doors to Receiver
love, at least in small
change?
The pronoun ‘I’ here is very emphatic and also melancholic. It also
echoes her inner reverberations that when her grandmother was alive
she was rich with love and after her demise she became bankrupt and
started begging at stranger’s door. She did not expect the equal amount
of love that she received from her grandmother, from the society. So My
Grandmother’s House presents a nostalgic picture of those days which
Kamala Das spends in her grandmother’s house.
Kamala Das feels isolated and not satisfied with her present
position that is the main reason that she generally remembers her past.
She was successful in her career, but was really alone in her personal
life. She remembers her past days which she spent at her old ancestral
home in Malabar. This is peculiar description of a hot noon at Malabar
and this fills her heart a mixture of happiness and pensive mood both. A
Hot Noon in Malabar published in Summer in Calcutta expresses her
nostalgic yearning for her happy childhood and for her family house in
Malabar. She wishes that her childhood time could come back, and then
she becomes emotional when she thinks about her ancestral house and
her parents. She recalls every minute detail of that place which is far
away from her present life. Beggars’ sharp voice, a man who came from
hills with a parrot and it is supposed that the parrot will predict the future
and bangle sellers who spread red, green and blue bangles on floor and
these bangles were covered with dust; she reminds all these. The hot
noon was suitable for brown Kurava girls to come to Malabar to carry
on their livelihood. They used to read palms in lightening song voices.
These hard working persons came from far away and their heels were
totally cracked and when they struck their heels on the floor, it sounded
grating. Kamala Das again thought that, that noon was for those
strangers who tried to peep in the houses in a hope that somebody will
buy their articles, but normally they distracted and doubted that whether
they could convince the customer or not:
This is a noon for strangers who part
The window drapes and peer
in, their hot eyes Brimming
with the sun, not seeing a
thing in Shadowy rooms and
turn away and look
So yearningly at the brick ledged well.
They hardly spoke, but when they spoke, their voices seemed like jungle
voices means very rough. In fact this hot noon belong to wild men, their
wild thought and their wild love. Their wild feet stirred up the dust and
all this happened in Kamala Das home at Malabar. But unfortunately,
those days pass d away and now she is far away and she
only recalls those days in a nostalgic manner.
Kamala Das also makes an abundant use of the images of
windows and doors in her poem My Grandmother’s House and A Hot
Noon at Malabar where these symbolizes the poet’s connection to her
inner self with the outer world.
Works Cited:
Dwivedi, A.N. Kamala Das and her Poetry. Delhi: Doaba House, 1983.
Iyengar, K.R. Srinivasa. Indian Writing in English. New Delhi: Sterling
Publishers, 1983. Kamala Das. “An Introduction”, Summer in Calcutta.
New Delhi: Everest Press, 1965.
_ _ _. My Story. New Delhi: Sterling Paperbacks, 1998.
King, Bruce. Modern Indian poetry in English. Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1987.
A Far Cry from Africa (Derek Walcott, 1930 )
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt

Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break

In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious ( exited) as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread (fear)
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.
Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?
Derek Walcott (1930-) was born on the island of St. Lucia in the West
Indies, and educated at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He
was a precocious writer, self-publishing his first volume of poetry by the
age of 18. Moving to Trinidad in the early 50s, where he was employed
as a teacher, he became active in the theatre, and published, in 1962, his
verse collectionIn a Green Night, which gained him international
attention. He has continued to publish both poetry and plays, and was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.
Walcott’s earliest poetic influences were Modernist writers such as T. S.

Eliot and Ezra Pound. His themes most often touch upon the relationship
of a postcolonial West Indies with the culture and traditions of Britain,
and particularly the literary heritage of writing in English that he has
inherited. His own contributions to that heritage include plays and poetry
that adapt traditional literary forms to new contexts; a salient example is
his epic poem Omeros (1990), which reworks
Homer’s Iliad andOdyssey through an exploration of their themes in the
context of the modern West Indies.
“A Far Cry from Africa” was written in 1962, one year before Kenya
gained its independence. Behind Walcott’s poem lies a particularly
bloody chapter in the colonial history of the African nation Kenya. From
1890 to its independence in 1963, Kenya was a British colony. An influx
of European colonists to Kenya in the first half of the 20th century meant
that, by 1950, there were over 80,000 white inhabitants living in the
colony.
The majority of arable land in Kenya was appropriated by the colonial

administration for these British “settlers,” dispossessing the people of the
Kikuyu, who were forced to become landless squatters, itinerant farmers,
or seek work in the cities where they were exploited as cheap labour by
Western businesses. Attempts by Africans to bring political resistance to
bear began in 1944, but were hampered from an early date by divisions
within the Kenya Africa Union.
Mau Mau Suspects Held by the British

From 1952 to 1960, Kenya was the scene of a violent insurgency that has
come to be known as the “Mau-Mau Uprising.” The meaning of this term
is obscure (it may even have been made up by the British authorities), but
those who were engaged in this insurgency were primarily members of
the Kikuyu who sought an immediate end to colonial rule.
But while anti-Imperialism may have been the underlying impetus for the
movement, its actions were more akin to a civil war than an independence
movement: the vast majority of its victims were Kikuyu with allegiances
to more moderate anti-British political movements. While between 50
and 100 white settlers were murdered over the course of 8 years, over
2000 Kikuyu were victims. British propaganda, however, portrayed the
uprising as a “savage” African response to British rule and white
“civilization.”
The poem starts with the painful jarring harsh experience of the rebellion
that changed the tranquil peaceful setting of the country. The nation itself
compared to an animal, as it indicates it is an animal like a lion. “tawny
pelt” And how Kikuyu started the bloody battle. The Kikuyu are
compared to flies who are feeding on blood. Next we are informed the
aftermath of the rebellion. The poet describes that the country before the
conflict was a ‘paradise’ and with an ironical comment he indicates the
death, inhumanity and destruction occurred in the land. There is the
juxtaposition of the conflict against something divine with the image of
corpses scattered through a paradise. The worms that can be seen as the
ultimate emblem of stagnation and decay, cries at the worthless death.
Sarcastically poet indicates how the humans are reduced to statistics. And
at the same time though scholars justify the presence of white men in
Africa and the process of civilizing the natives, the poet indicates the fact
that it was a failure with the brutal death of the small white child and his
family. People behave like animals ‘savages’ hints and remind us the
persecution endured by the Jews. Jews were killed in millions due to their
ethnicity during the time of Hitler. Though the time and the place is
different the same kind of situations repeat in the world time to time. Next
the poet creates a picture of white men in searching for natives who are
hiding behind the bushes. The sound of ‘ibises’ hints a bad omen. Again
the repetition is shown through the word ‘wheeled’. The civilized men
thrived on conquering others. This process of violence and conquering
each other indicates the law of the jungle. The violence of ‘beast on beast’
can justify according to the law of nature, the law of jungle. Yet it cannot
be applied to the ‘upright man’ who are stretching out themselves to reach
the ‘divinity’. Apart from the task of stretching themselves to reach
‘divinity’ they end up with ‘inflicting pain’ which is killing and which is
the law of jungle; killing for prey. They call for the massacre they create
by killing as war. Ironically, wars between people are described as
following the beat of a drum — an instrument made of an animal hide
stretched over a cylinder. Though the natives think the act of killing white
men brings them ‘courage’ it ends up with fear. Moreover the poet
emphasizes the fact that though the natives justify their task mentioning
it as a ‘brutish necessity’ and considering it as a national cause they just
clean their hands with ‘the napkin of dirty cause’. So the poet suggests
the fact that the natives’ cause is dirty and ugly though they consider it
as right and nationwide. He sees a comparison with the West Indians
who had their share of harsh experiences with Spain. The fight is just as
the gorilla wrestles with superman. The gorilla in this context is
compared to natives and superman is compared to white men. The last
two lines indicate the situation of the poet, as he belongs to both cultures
how he feels inferiority regarding the situation. The mixed heritage of the
poet makes him unable to decide to which he should be partial. The title
itself too indicates the state of mind conflict of the poet, a cry from a great
distance away and moreover it shows the alienation and the inferiority of
the poet. The poem ends with a picture of violence and cruelty and with
the idea of searching for identity.
Conflicting Loyalties in "A Far Cry from Africa"
Heather M. Bradley, Washington and Lee University
Walcott discusses the conflict between his loyalties to Africa and to

Britain in "A Far Cry from Africa." The title of the poem emphasizes
Walcott's cultural instability as it implies a type of alienation from Africa,
despite its concentration on African themes. Walcott juxtaposes the
Africans and the British, focusing on each group's transgressions. The

poet maintains a negative view of his hybridism: "I who am poisoned
with the blood of both,/Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?" (1246.26-
7). This severely pessimistic image illustrates a consequence of
displacement--isolation. It seems that Walcott feels foreign in both
cultures due to his lack of "pure" blood. An individual's sense of identity
arises from cultural influences which define his or her character
according to a particular society's standards. The poet's hybrid heritage
prevents him from identifying directly with one culture and creates a
feeling of isolation. The poem provides a textual version of the poet's
mental dissertation on the vices and virtues which differentiate each
culture.
Walcott, in "A Far Cry from Africa," depicts Africa and Britain in the
standard roles of the vanquished and the conqueror, although he portrays
the cruel imperialistic exploits of the British without creating sympathy
for the African tribesmen. This objectivity allows Walcott to contemplate
the faults of each culture without reverting to the bias created by attention
to moral considerations. He characterizes the African Kikuyu in a
negative light: "flies/Batten upon the bloodstream of the veldt" (1245.2-
3). The Kikuyu resemble primitive savages who abuse the fertile
resources of their native plains. In this sense, the entrance of the British
appears beneficial not only to the inhabitants, but also to the suffering
land. However, Walcott contradicts this savior image of the British
through an unfavorable description in the ensuing lines: "The worm,
colonial of carrion, cries:/'Waste no compassion on these separate dead!'"
(1245.5-6). The poet casts the authoritative British figure as a worm, a
creature which exists below the fly on the evolutionary ladder. The
cruelty of the invaders toward their captives correlates with the
agricultural and technological ignorance of the Africans. Walcott's
feelings about his heritage remain ambiguous through his focus on the
failings of each culture. He portrays the futility of an empirical
comparison of the two cultures: "The gorilla wrestles with the superman"
(1246.25). The Africans, associated with a primitive, natural strength,
and the British, portrayed as an artificially enhanced power, remain equal
in the contest for control over Africa and its people.
Walcott further complicates his search for a legitimate identity in the final
stanza. He questions, "How choose/between this Africa and the English
tongue I love?" (1246.29-30). These lines identify the aspects of each
culture that the poet admires. He remains partial to the African terrain
and way of life, while he prefers the English language and literary
tradition. The poet grapples with his affinity for progress and technology
contained within the British culture and his nostalgia for the rich cultural
heritage of Africa. The magnetism that each culture holds for Walcott
causes a tension which augments as the poem continues. The concluding
lines of the poem deny the poet resolution of his quandary: "How can I
face such slaughter and be cool?/How can I turn from Africa and live?"
(1246.32-3). Walcott's divided loyalties engender a sense of guilt as he
wants to adopt the "civilized" culture of the British, but cannot excuse
their immoral treatment of the Africans. "A Far Cry from Africa" reveals
the extent of Walcott's consternation through the poet's inability to
resolve the paradox of his hybrid inheritance.
GOVINDA'S DISCIPLE
FAR BELOW FLOWED THE GANGA,QUICK AND

CLEAR,ABOVE
FROWNED THE JUTTING BANK.
HILLS DARK WITH THE WOODS AND SCARRED WITH THE
TORRENTS
WERE GATHERED AROUND.
GOVINDA,THE GREAT TEACHER,SAT ON THE ROCK

SCRIPTURES,WHEN RAGHUNATH,HIS DISCIPLE,PROUD
OF HIS WEALTH,CAME AND BOWED TO HIM AND SAID,
"I HAVE BOUGHT MY POOR WEALTH,UNWORTHY OF THY
ACCEPTANCE"
THUS SAYING HE DISPLAYED BEFORE THE TEACHER A PAIR

OF GOLD
BANGLES STUDDED WITH COSTLY GEMS AND EMERALDS.
THE MASTER TOOK UP ONE OF THEM ,TWIRLING IT ROUND
HIS FINGER,
AND THE STONES STARTED DARTED SHAFTS OF LIGHT.
SUDDENLY IT SLIPPED FROM HIS HAND AND ROLLED DOWN

THE BANK
INTO THE WATER
RAGHUNATH JUMPED INTO THE WATER
THE TEACHER SET HIS EYES UPON HIS BOOK,AND THE

WATER HELD
AND HID WHAT IT STOLE AND RAN ITS WAY.
AT SUNSET RAGHUNATH CAME BACK.
HE BEGGED HIM TO SHOW HIM THE PLACE WHERE IT FELL.

THE TEACHER TOOK THE OTHER BANGLE AND THREW IT IN
THE WANTER
SAYING"THERE IT IS"
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of

Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new
religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival
of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the
Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was
sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there.
In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he
managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch
with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He
also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his
Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the
Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and
visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his
devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in
1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against
British policies in India.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his
translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West.
In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents
on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the
voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he
became a great living institution.Although Tagore wrote successfully in
all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd
volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894)
[The Golden Boat], Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914)
[Wreath of Songs], and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The
English renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913),
Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally
correspond to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of
its title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed of them,
contains poems from other works besides its namesake. Tagore's major
plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark Chamber], Dakghar (1912)
[The Post Office], Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara
(1922) [The Waterfall], and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is
the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels,
among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the
World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]. Besides these, he wrote
musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two
autobiographies, one in his middle years and the other shortly before his
death in 1941. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and
songs for which he wrote the music himself.
Analysis
Rabindranath Tagore's poem Govinda's disciple is a moral fable that

deals with the relation between Govinda and his disciple Raghunath. It
is a subtle critique of materialism that goes by in the name of spiritual
respect.
Raghunath wants to impress his spiritual master by gifting him two

extremely precious bangles to display his reverence for his master but
Govinda throws one of them into the water of the river beside.
Raghunath dives deep into the water, desperately trying to revive the
bangle but the flow takes it afar, outside his reach. In the evening, when
he finally comes back to Govinda and asks him where did it go,
Govinda throws the other one into the water, saying it has gone there to
be precise. This is how he teaches a lesson to his disciple and makes
him realize that he was only satisfying his ego and not showing real
selfless regard for his guru.
Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Govinda’s disciple is a moral fable that

deals with the relation between Govinda and his disciple Raghunath. It
is a subtle critique of materialism that goes by in the name of spiritual
respect.
‘Govinda’s Disciple’ brings into focus the master-disciple relationship

and shows us how the master teaches values through living examples of
painful experiences. Govinda Singh, one of the founders of Sikh
religion, sitting on a rock on the bank of river Jumna teaches his
disciple Raghunath the importance of material renunciation to achieve
divine life.
The disciple presents a pair of gold bangles to his master. The master is
not pleased at his disciple’s gift. He wants to teach his foolish disciple
that attachment to this metal is a serious impediment to divine blessing.
A disciple who seeks divine life is expected to possess detachment from
the material world. The master lets one of the bangles roll down into the
river. The panic-stricken disciple jumps into the water to recover the lost
bangle. The master spent the time reading scriptures. As the daylight
faded, the disciple came up and begged his master to help him spot the
direction where the bangle fell to make yet another attempt. To his shock,
the master obliged him by throwing the other bangle to the same direction
where the first one fell.
This is how he teaches a lesson to his disciple and makes him realize
that he was only satisfying his ego and not showing real selfless regard
for his guru. What is left unsaid is more eloquent and effective. The
abrupt end gives the reader a powerful message.
one can examine the imagery used to describe the bangles the first time
the guru examines them when given by the student. An example of
personification could be seen when the diamonds “darted shafts of light.”
The implication here is that the diamonds have come to life, reflecting
the severe love the student holds for the bangles, almost to value them
more than anything else. When Tagore writes that “it slipped from his
hand and rolled down the bank.”, in this figure of speech, the idea of the
object holding value is something that brings out how the student viewed
the object, explaining why he was destined to lose it.
Night Rain
What time of night it is
I do not know
Except that like some fish
Doped out of the deep
I have bobbed up belly wise
From stream of sleep
And no cock crow
It is drumming hard here
And I suppose everywhere
Droning with insistent ardor upon
Our roof thatch and shed
And through sheaves slit open
To lightning and rafters
I cannot quite make out over head
Great water drops are dribbling
Falling like orange and mango
Fruits showered forth in the wind
Or perhaps I should say so
Much like beads I could in prayer tell
Then on string as they break
In wooden bowls and earthenware
Mother is busy now deploying
About our room let an floor
Although, it is so bad
I know her practiced step as

She moves her bins, bags and vats
Out of the run of water
That like ants filling out of the wood
Will scatter and gain possession
Of the floor. Do no tremble then
But, turn brothers, turn upon your side
Of your loosening mats
To where the others lie.
We have drunk tonight of a spell
Deeper than the owl’s or bat’s
That wet of wings may not fly
Bedraggled up on the iroko, they stand
Emptied of hearts, and
Therefore will not, stir, no, not
Even at dawn for then
They must scurry in to hide.
So let us roll over our back
And again roll to the beat
Of drumming all over the land
THE POET AND PERSON

Johnson Pepper Clark was born on April 6, 1935 at Kiagbodo, Warri
Province, in the now defunct Western Region of Nigeria to Chief Clark
Fuludu Bekederemo and Poro, his wife. Between 1940 and 1953, he
received his primary and secondary education, after which he continued
his studies at University College, Ibadan (UCI) in 1955.There, as a
student, he started his writing career. He was the editor of the Students’
Union journal, The Beacon. He became the founding editor of the UCI
poetry journal, The Horn, in which his early poems first appeared. This
venture was undertaken with the support of his teacher, Martin Banham,
who provided both moral and financial support for starting the journal
(Stevenson, 1979: 210; Elimimian, 1989: 1). Some of his
contemporaries in his student days included Christopher Okigbo,
Emmanuel Ifejuana, Abiola Irele, and a number of other Nigerian
writers of repute, who were also contributors to the journal. With some
of these people, he formed friendships that endured beyond the campus
gates, as shown in his later poems.
In 1960, he graduated with honors from the Department of English. In
1962, his first collection of poems, Poems, was published by Mbari
Publications, Ibadan. In 1965, he published A Reed in the Tide,
followed by Casualties in 1970. In the 1980s, State of the Union(1985)
made its debut, while Mandela and other poems was published in 1988.
A Lot from Paradise was his gift to the literary world for the 1990s. The
backdrop of his birthplace, his school’s locale, his close relationship
with his grandmother, his friends and his nation all had a profound
effect on Clark-Bekederemo’s works. In addition to his poetry, J. P.
Clark-Bekederemo is also a renowned playwright.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the poems of J. P. Clark-
Bekederemo in general, and Casualtiesin particular, whatever their
weaknesses, have opened the eyes of many to deeply shared feelings.
As observed by Egudu, cited in Elimimian (1989: vii), Clark-
Bekederemok’s “interest is in the problems of human beings
everywhere”.Clark-Bekederemo’s text mediates an empathetic
understanding of the poor and the battered, implying that all are
affected:
... Do not tremble then
But turn, brothers, turn upon your side

Of the loosening mats
To where the others lie
So let us roll over on our backs
And again roll to the beat
Of drumming over all the land
And under its ample soothing hand
Joined to that of the sea
We will settle to a sleep of the
... Innocent and the free.
“Night Rain,” West African Verse (p. 60)
It should be noted that the ending of the poem projects the idea of hope
and peace as an antidote to despair on the part of individuals and the
nation. Interestingly, this reveals an analogous link to the biblical
Jeremiah who, after declaring society’s shortcomings, also announced
hope for a better tomorrow. The poet, through his effective use of
language, does not only cry for Nigeria’s sorrowful history but warns
the nation to avoid a repeat performance of the nightmare of the 1960s
and 70s; he suggests that Nigeria’s politics do not have to lead to self-
destruction.
J.P Clark’s poetry for example, strives for the place of man in the face
of natural and uncontrollable phenomenon. In his poem “Casualties”,
J.P Clark informs us about the reality that /The casualties are not only
those who are dead / (line 1) but every one in the society. He structures
the language in such a way that it addresses socio-political issues. Clark
tries to capture the state of the down trodden in the society. A lot of
problems hover round man as he moves in time and space.
Even in his poem “Night rain”, Clark hints on the extent of poverty
prevalent in the African society; a direct reference to the sociological
experience of Africans in the hinterland and villages. Lines 10-24
clearly brings this to fore as they battle to survive the surging rain on
their thatch roof house made from rafters.
Droning with insistent ardour upon Our roof thatch and shed And thro’
sheaves slit open To lightning and rafters I cannot quite make out
overhead Great drops are dribbling Falling like mango…
In wooden bowls and earthen ware Mother is busy now deploying…

With a rich use of imagery, metaphors and irony, African poetry is an
embodiment of creativity. It is with these elements that its structural
form is achieved. It is expedient to state here that these poets use
distinct imagery which set them out from their contemporaries in
Europe. It is also paramount to state that new metaphors were created to
illuminate the various themes based on the poet’s divergence of
cultures.
Finally, African literature is universal for its artistry and descriptive
power, and singular for the attention that it draws to its own locality for
its imagery and ideology. It is an enriching combination of rich oral
literature, native experiences and the cultural heritage naturally
inherited by the poets with the acquired Western tradition gotten
through Western education.
Situating Humanity in J.P. Clark's Poetry of the Elements
Analysis
We are here to celebrate life and the accident of a benevolent history
that has preserved a literary icon for close to two generations writing in
poetry and drama genres of literature. John Pepper Clark is a Nigerian
foremost poet, playwright, essayist and epic writer. He is also well-
known for his philosophical essay, The Example of Shakespeare, and
his vehement protest against racism in his autobiography and
travelogue, America Their America. He is a poet recluse who
champions the public cause, a rebel who hides in the shade of
innocuous innuendoes of simplicity and the decoy of metaphors to
articulate the hard truth. He is indeed the conscience of his generation
by virtually poeticizing critical national and international issues,
especially in Mandela and Other Poems. He is still writing.
In John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, nature speaks in arts and humanity.
But just as William Golding says, 'the greatest idea is the simplest'. But
the poetic simplicity of JP Clark is a deceptive camouflage that masks a
brutal truth. Nature is variously foregrounded in his poetic works. In
The Casualties, for example, it is the irruption of wounds demanding
justice in poetic voice. His poetic vision never loses the sight of the
natural circumstances of man, which are either explicitly articulated or
built into his stylistic devices. At times, the humanity is at the mercy of
nature and often, they are at loggerheads and sometimes, they
compliment. JP Clark too has committed the generic sins of other
writers: for not leaving the thought at the level imagination.
Committing thoughts into writing is rebellion.
REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE IN J. P. CLARK’S “NIGHT

RAIN”: AN ECO- CRITICAL STUDY
Analysis of the text J. P. Clark’s “Night Rain ” is a narrative poem
which reflects on the consequences of nature on a group of people; the
narrator, his parents and brothers. The poet attempts to put across a
varying universal natural phenomenon adopting a typified poor African
household that is worried by a blind night rain. The word “rain” can be
variously used and interpreted as there is rain of Fortune, rain of
misfortune, rain of poverty and physical rainfall. In this analysis
however, the less complex manner of appreciating J. P. Clark’s “Night
Rain” is presenting it purely as physical/ordinary night rain in tune with
our theoretical framework; Eco-criticism.
Nature is presented as being more powerful than man, yet when there is
a problem of life, it is not for man to start panicking but to face the
situation squarely until a solution is found to the problem. With
uncommon courage and gallantry, the victims in J. P. Clark’s “ Night
Rain”, especially the narrator and her mother overcome their problem.
The common application of the term “Night Rain” as experienced by
the poet and, or narrator of the incidence fundamentally depicts man

and his environment with different challenges facing him within his
ecological existence. It can be understood therefore that the problems of
life could take any form, colour, shape or size and can take place any
time it so desires as demonstrated by the poet’s sudden rise from sleep
at night:
“What time of night it is
I do not know”
This shows the non-availability of clue to time-piece. But, the narrator
compares his experiences with that of a fish which is forced out of the
depth of water with a chemical substance:
“Like some fish
Doped out of the deep
I have bobbed up belly-wise
From stream of sleep
Linking eco-criticism to the scholarly analysis of critical

representations, in 1996, Cheryll Glotfelty, the Eco-criticism Reader
observes that Eco-criticism maintains “a triple allegiance to the
scientific study of nature, the scholarly analysis of critical
representations, and the political struggle for more sustainable ways of
inhabiting the natural world.” In African culture, women are presented
as every-busy people in the affairs of home keeping or home
management, very motherly and caring. The poet demonstrates this fact
by pointing out that in the dead of night when the rain arrives uninvited;
their mother is given a job to do “Mother is busy now deploying…
Although it is so dark I know her practiced step as She moves her bins,
bags and vats Out of the run of water”
The noun phrase “her practiced step” , which is the direct object of the
verb “|know” consolidates the fact that this is not the first time the
woman engages in this act. It is a usual thing. The perpetual poverty
which bedevils the household is further x-rayed through the group of
words, “her practiced step”|.
Again, the imagery of a riverside or seaside area or a
mangrove/rainforest region is equally well painted in the poem, J. P.
Clark’s “Night Rain” with references made to words such as water, fish,
tree, owl and bat. The metaphors of the land and, or the environment is
also documented. This imagery makes the poem to be picturesque,
understandable and entertaining. The setting/physical locale of the
poem as well as the poet’s choice of words/diction suggests the kind of
work J. P. Clark’s people are known for. The Ijaw people are
predominantly fishermen and this explains the environment where they
found themselves.
The mental pictures of drumming, dribbling, droning, deploying, doped
among others help to visualize the density of the down-pour as well as
its negative consequences on man. And of course, the images of
sheaves, shed, rafters, wooden bowls, earthenware and mats paint the
sordid condition of a household living in an abject poverty.
Nature is powerful and natural occurrences are blind as they do not give
concession or consideration to anybody. Rainfall,. Thunder storm,
volcanic eruption and earthquake just occur without any provision for
man, who is always at the receiving end of those natural calamities.
The effect of natural phenomenon, rain, in this poem, on human
beings is the central theme of the poet. It consolidates the popular
saying that man cannot cheat nature. As you lay your bed, so you
lie on it. Man needs to treat his environment in a mode to pave the way
for a peaceful and successful co-presence, co-existence and co-
habitation among the various occupants, tenants or habitants of a given
ecological entity so that man himself can be happy.
It is evident that man’s struggle and encounter with the wild forces of
nature is practically inevitable since the survival of man is entirely tied
to his environment. The air, the water, the food and the materials for
man’s shelter are all products of nature. Man therefore should be
sensitive and conscious of his environment as well as what the
environment demands from him for a happy living.
Besides the effect of nature on man, the poem shows the ravaging
poverty in Africa where people lack basic necessities of life. There is no
decent shelter for the citizens. The victims of this poem, according to
the narrator, are wet even more than the birds which perch on a tree all
through the rain:
“We have drunk tonight of a spell Deeper than the owls or bats”
The poet systematically calls our attention to the perceived
inadequacies of the society we live- in combing the sober and the
humorous, the grim and the witty. Commenting about this trend in
African communities, Okey, D. Ebele, (1998) observes: “It is evident
today; the rural communities have been cut off from the urban areas
because their roads have become impassable. Most, if not all our
communities, are smarting from their rustic eerie darkness. The people
of our hinterland are hungry for development, and desirous of the
opening up of their villages to beat back the forays of want,
deprivation, poverty, primitivism, superstition. Generally, they long for
better living conditions and the benefits of science and technology,” It
is therefore not surprising, if we link the event in this poem to the
neglect the Africans suffer in the hands of their governments. Instead
of marching on with primitive cultural practices, Africans should think
of fixing the system and prevent it from collapsing. As it were, the
economy is meltdown, occasioned by bad governance, repressive
policies, corruption and docile followership. African countries are in
bad state of indebtedness, flat broke up to their ears, even with cuts in
government expenditures like the removal of subside on basic daily
commodities. This pitiable and poor living conditions of most Africans
in forgotten villages is a serious issue, again, there is the need to
prepare for emergencies. The situation of the victims in J. P. Clark’s
“Night Rain” would not have been so bad if they had made provision
for the said rain. We all know the seasons of the year and their
peculiarities.
There is a feeling of tenderness and sympathy as the victims react with

an attitude of helpless resignation to the powerful natural phenomenon
in the name of a heavy rain. The run-on-line technique employed
denotes continuity and progressiveness of the event captures in the
poem while the first person narrative point of view makes the event
real.
Problems come and go as no condition is permanent. The experience of
the narrator is an ever- lasting lesson for us that we do not need to
blame the natural phenomenon for making life unbearable for us or
blaming God for making our family poor. Instead the poet just
displayed a nuance of Shakespeare’s literary wisdom in “King Lear”:
“This is the excellent foppery of the world that when we are sick in
fortune – often the surfeit of our behavior- we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains by
necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion.”

Literature is without doubt, expected to perform the function of healing
which we described as therapeutic function. Readers are expected to be
healed or cured of emotional, psychological, economic, pathological
and/or socially related health challenges through reading a text,
watching a drama or listening to the recitation of a poem. It is again
believed that literature can be employed to develop the language of both
the writers and the readers. Language is the vehicle, the context or the
medium by which message content/information in any literature is been
conveyed and disseminated to its publics. Hence, language and
literature are two inseparable kinds. “Literature is a social institution,
using as its medium language, a social creation…Literature represents
life and life is in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural
world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been
objects of literary imitation”,(Wellek andWarren,1968). In a simple
diction, a regular rhythm and a high degree of narrative expertise which
provide suitable imagery, readers are made to share the poet’s or the
narrator’s agonized situation and his unsettled state of mind as well as
the degrading living conditions of the entire content message..
Words such as dope, bobbed, droning, dribbling, deploying, sheaves,
rafters, tremble, spell, bedraggled, stir, scurry, ample and soothing keep
the pictures of the narrated event in the minds of readers. Thanks to his
ability to adopt and use constructively relevant literary techniques and,
or devices such as figures of speech (alliteration, assonance, irony,
metaphor, personification, simile, etc); enjambment, I-narrator, detailed
description and didacticism only to mention a few, J. P.Clark is
successful in documenting the representations of nature in his literary
creation. “Literature, whether handed down by the word of mouth, or in
print, gives us a second handle on reality, enabling us to encounter in
the safe, manageable dimension of make-believe the very same threat to
integrity that may assail the psyche in real life, and at the same
providing through the self discovery which imparts a veritable weapon
for coping with these threats whether they are found within problematic
and incoherent selves or in the world around us”, Achebe (1988).
CONCLUSION
We have demonstrated in this study the relationship between literary
works and environment, which is portrayed as eco-criticism and how
literature can serve as a tool for lasting developments. Our chosen
writer has exposed a fundamental social problem which bedeviled
African states and still dwells in them. For recommending solutions to
this social problem the poet can be described as a social pathologist
.Literature is a veritable tool for actualizing societal developments and
global advancement in general. With literature, good governance and
best practices can be achieved; since this will create rooms for
transparency, accountability, youth empowerment, women liberation
and eradication of barbaric traditions among other societal ills.
Three things are responsible for everybody’s behaviour; desire,
emotion and experience. J. P. Clark believes that our lives begin to end
the moment we become passive and/or silent about things that matter
in our environment and society at large and this is this opinion we hold
too. Human history is connected to natural history and man
responsibility to the environment needs to form a part of every text’s
ethical or cultural orientation. Our lives are not meaningful except they
are situated in the cultural context of our environment. Hence, the
study and understanding of culture in relation to the environment
through literature will help us in solving the challenges of the 21 st
century. Literature, whether as verbal or non-verbal is an effective tool
for articulating societal developments and global advancement in
general based on the numerous functions it performs.
The Postmaster
The postmaster first took up his duties in the village of Ulapur. Though
the village was a small one, there was an indigo factory near by, and the
proprietor, an Englishman, had managed to get a post office established.
Our postmaster belonged to Calcutta. He felt like a fish out of water in
this remote village. His office and living-room were in a dark thatched
shed, not far from a green, slimy pond, surrounded on all sides by a
dense growth.
The men employed in the indigo factory had no leisure; moreover, they
were hardly desirable companions for decent folk. Nor is a Calcutta boy
an adept in the art of associating with others. Among strangers he
appears either proud or ill at ease. At any rate, the postmaster had but
little company; nor had he much to do.

At times he tried his hand at writing a verse or two. That the movement
of the leaves and the clouds of the sky were enough to fill life with
joy—such were the sentiments to which he sought to give expression.
But God knows that the poor fellow would have felt it as the gift of a
new life, if some genie of the Arabian Nights had in one night swept
away the trees, leaves and all, and replaced them with a macadamised
road, hiding the clouds from view with rows of tall houses.
The postmaster's salary was small. He had to cook his own meals,
which he used to share with Ratan, an orphan girl of the village, who
did odd jobs for him.
When in the evening the smoke began to curl up from the village
cowsheds, and the cicalas chirped in every bush; when the mendicants
of the Baül sect sang their shrill songs in their daily meeting-place,
when any poet, who had attempted to watch the movement of the leaves
in the dense bamboo thickets, would have felt a ghostly shiver run down
his back, the postmaster would light his little lamp, and call out
"Ratan."
Ratan would sit outside waiting for this call, and, instead of coming in
at once, would reply, "Did you call me, sir?"
"What are you doing?" the postmaster would ask.
"I must be going to light the kitchen fire," would be the answer.
And the postmaster would say: "Oh, let the kitchen fire be for awhile;
light me my pipe first."
At last Ratan would enter, with puffed-out cheeks, vigorously blowing
into a flame a live coal to light the tobacco. This would give the
postmaster an opportunity of conversing. "Well, Ratan," perhaps he
would begin, "do you remember anything of your mother?" That was a
fertile subject. Ratan partly remembered, and partly didn't. Her father
had been fonder of her than her mother; him she recollected more
vividly. He used to come home in the evening after his work, and one or
two evenings stood out more clearly than others, like pictures in her
memory. Ratan would sit on the floor near the postmaster's feet, as
memories crowded in upon her. She called to mind a little brother that
she had—and how on some bygone cloudy day she had played at
fishing with him on the edge of the pond, with a twig for a make-
believe fishing-rod. Such little incidents would drive out greater events
from her mind. Thus, as they talked, it would often get very late, and
the postmaster would feel too lazy to do any cooking at all. Ratan
would then hastily light the fire, and toast some unleavened bread,
which, with the cold remnants of the morning meal, was enough for
their supper.
On some evenings, seated at his desk in the corner of the big empty
shed, the postmaster too would call up memories of his own home, of
his mother and his sister, of those for whom in his exile his heart was
sad,—memories which were always haunting him, but which he could
not talk about with the men of the factory, though he found himself
naturally recalling them aloud in the presence of the simple little girl.
And so it came about that the girl would allude to his people as mother,
brother, and sister, as if she had known them all her life. In fact, she had
a complete picture of each one of them painted in her little heart.
One noon, during a break in the rains, there was a cool soft breeze
blowing; the smell of the damp grass and leaves in the hot sun felt like
the warm breathing of the tired earth on one's body. A persistent bird
went on all the afternoon repeating the burden of its one complaint in
Nature's audience chamber.
The postmaster had nothing to do. The shimmer of the freshly washed
leaves, and the banked-up remnants of the retreating rain-clouds were
sights to see; and the postmaster was watching them and thinking to
himself: "Oh, if only some kindred soul were near—just one loving
human being whom I could hold near my heart!" This was exactly, he
went on to think, what that bird was trying to say, and it was the same
feeling which the murmuring leaves were striving to express. But no
one knows, or would believe, that such an idea might also take
possession of an ill-paid village postmaster in the deep, silent mid-day
interval of his work.
The postmaster sighed, and called out "Ratan." Ratan was then
sprawling beneath the guava-tree, busily engaged in eating unripe
guavas. At the voice of her master, she ran up breathlessly, saying:
"Were you calling me, Dada?" "I was thinking," said the postmaster, "of
teaching you to read." And then for the rest of the afternoon he taught
her the alphabet.
Thus, in a very short time, Ratan had got as far as the double
consonants.
It seemed as though the showers of the season would never end. Canals,
ditches, and hollows were all overflowing with water. Day and night the
patter of rain was heard, and the croaking of frogs. The village roads
became impassable, and marketing had to be done in punts.

One heavily clouded morning, the postmaster's little pupil had been
long waiting outside the door for her call, but, not hearing it as usual,
she took up her dog-eared book, and slowly entered the room. She
found her master stretched out on his bed, and, thinking that he was
resting, she was about to retire on tip-toe, when she suddenly heard
her name—"Ratan!" She turned at once and asked: "Were you
sleeping, Dada?" The postmaster in a plaintive voice said: "I am not
well. Feel my head; is it very hot?"
In the loneliness of his exile, and in the gloom of the rains, his ailing
body needed a little tender nursing. He longed to remember the touch
on the forehead of soft hands with tinkling bracelets, to imagine the
presence of loving womanhood, the nearness of mother and sister. And
the exile was not disappointed. Ratan ceased to be a little girl. She at
once stepped into the post of mother, called in the village doctor, gave
the patient his pills at the proper intervals, sat up all night by his pillow,
cooked his gruel for him, and every now and then asked: "Are you
feeling a little better, Dada?"
It was some time before the postmaster, with weakened body, was able
to leave his sick-bed. "No more of this," said he with decision. "I must
get a transfer." He at once wrote off to Calcutta an application for a
transfer, on the ground of the unhealthiness of the place.
Relieved from her duties as nurse, Ratan again took up her old place
outside the door. But she no longer heard the same old call. She would
sometimes peep inside furtively to find the postmaster sitting on his
chair, or stretched on his bed, and staring absent-mindedly into the air.
While Ratan was awaiting her call, the postmaster was awaiting a reply
to his application. The girl read her old lessons over and over again,—
her great fear was lest, when the call came, she might be found wanting
in the double consonants. At last, after a week, the call did come one
evening. With an overflowing heart Ratan rushed into the room with
her—"Were you calling me, Dada?"
The postmaster said: "I am going away to-morrow, Ratan."
"Where are you going, Dada?"
"I am going home."
"When will you come back?"
"I am not coming back."

Ratan asked no other question. The postmaster, of his own accord, went
on to tell her that his application for a transfer had been rejected, so he
had resigned his post and was going home.
For a long time neither of them spoke another word. The lamp went on
dimly burning, and from a leak in one corner of the thatch water
dripped steadily into an earthen vessel on the floor beneath it.
After a while Ratan rose, and went off to the kitchen to prepare the
meal; but she was not so quick about it as on other days. Many new
things to think of had entered her little brain. When the postmaster had
finished his supper, the girl suddenly asked him: "Dada, will you take
me to your home?"
The postmaster laughed. "What an idea!" said he; but he did not think it
necessary to explain to the girl wherein lay the absurdity.
That whole night, in her waking and in her dreams, the postmaster's
laughing reply haunted her—"What an idea!"
On getting up in the morning, the postmaster found his bath ready. He
had stuck to his Calcutta habit of bathing in water drawn and kept in
pitchers, instead of taking a plunge in the river as was the custom of the
village. For some reason or other, the girl could not ask him about the
time of his departure, so she had fetched the water from the river long
before sunrise, that it should be ready as early as he might want it. After
the bath came a call for Ratan. She entered noiselessly, and looked
silently into her master's face for orders. The master said: "You need
not be anxious about my going away, Ratan; I shall tell my successor to
look after you." These words were kindly meant, no doubt: but
inscrutable are the ways of a woman's heart!
Ratan had borne many a scolding from her master without complaint,
but these kind words she could not bear. She burst out weeping, and
said: "No, no, you need not tell anybody anything at all about me; I
don't want to stay on here."
The postmaster was dumbfounded. He had never seen Ratan like this
before.
The new incumbent duly arrived, and the postmaster, having given over
charge, prepared to depart. Just before starting he called Ratan and said:
"Here is something for you; I hope it will keep you for some little time."
He brought out from his pocket the whole of his month's salary,
retaining only a trifle for his travelling expenses. Then Ratan fell at his

feet and cried: "Oh, Dada, I pray you, don't give me anything, don't in
any way trouble about me," and then she ran away out of sight.
The postmaster heaved a sigh, took up his carpet bag, put his umbrella
over his shoulder, and, accompanied by a man carrying his many-
coloured tin trunk, he slowly made for the boat.
When he got in and the boat was under way, and the rain-swollen river,
like a stream of tears welling up from the earth, swirled and sobbed at
her bows, then he felt a pain at heart; the grief-stricken face of a village
girl seemed to represent for him the great unspoken pervading grief of
Mother Earth herself. At one time he had an impulse to go back, and
bring away along with him that lonesome waif, forsaken of the world.
But the wind had just filled the sails, the boat had got well into the
middle of the turbulent current, and already the village was left behind,
and its outlying burning-ground came in sight.
So the traveller, borne on the breast of the swift-flowing river, consoled
himself with philosophical reflections on the numberless meetings and
partings going on in the world—on death, the great parting, from which
none returns.
But Ratan had no philosophy. She was wandering about the post office
in a flood of tears. It may be that she had still a lurking hope in some
corner of her heart that her Dada would return, and that is why she
could not tear herself away. Alas for our foolish human nature! Its fond
mistakes are persistent. The dictates of reason take a long time to
assert their own sway. The surest proofs meanwhile are disbelieved.
False hope is clung to with all one's might and main, till a day comes
when it has sucked the heart dry and it forcibly breaks through its
bonds and departs. After that comes the misery of awakening, and
then once again the longing to get back into the maze of the same
mistakes.
Summary
In the small village of Ulapur, an Englishman who owns an indigo
factory near it manages to get a post office established. A postmaster
from Calcutta gets separated from his family and transferred to this
village. From the noise of the city, he comes to a deserted village with
just scattered glimpses of people. Tagore, a lover of nature, uses it to
describe the surroundings. The postmaster's office has a green, slimy
pond, surrounded by dense vegetation. The way he describes this shows
that postmaster is not in a position to appreciate his closeness to nature.
There are three central themes to this story.
Firstly, the story revolves around 'longing and separation'; starting and
ending with this. The postmaster is taken away from his family and
brought to a remote village. He was in a village, where its busy people
were no company, and he was left with not much work to do. He tries to
pacify his longing emotions by writing poetry. However, the fact that he
tries to write something external to him, like nature, makes it an
impossible venture. An orphan girl of the village, Ratan, helps him with
his daily chores. He speaks to her about his mother and sister in the
evenings, and would keep enquiring about her family. He would speak
with sadness of all those "memories which were always haunting him".
Secondly, 'companionship', and thirdly 'dependency' can be seen
through how the relationship between the postmaster and Ratan grows
through the course of this story. Ratan did not have many memories of
her family to be recalled. There were only fragments, like pictures, of
her father coming home in the evening, and her little brother whom she
played with, fishing on the edge of
the pond. Once she met the postmaster, 'Dada', she spent her days with
him. She would sit outside his shed, being only a call away from him,
and doing all the small chores. Dada would share his meals with her.
Then in the evenings, she would listen to him talking about his relatives
and in imagination make them her own.
Tagore translates the longing ringing in Dada's heart to nature, when
he says, "A persistent bird repeated all the afternoon the burden of its
one complaint in Nature's audience chamber." A man, who initially
failed his attempt at verse, thinks of this as parallel to his emotions.
Poetry is something that comes from the inner overflow of emotions.
He hopes for the presence of a loving human being he could hold close
to his heart. The postmaster can't stand the quietude of Ulapur. He
longs for the noises of traffic and life in Calcutta. One evening, he tells
Ratan that he is going to teach her to read. She grows closer to him.
She sees him as her only relative. She grows dependent. But, as the
season's rain seemed like it would never end, like the constant patter
on the roof, Dada was troubled by his heart's exile. He falls sick in his
solitude. Ratan takes care of him, and he recovers just taking her
presence for granted. But, he then decides that he has to leave this
village. He writes an application of transfer, based on the
unhealthiness of the village. The transfer is rejected. He tells Ratan
that he has resigned and will be leaving the village. She asks him to
take her with him. He thinks of it as an absurd idea and she is haunted
by his reaction. Next morning, she fills a bucket of water for him. He
bathes and waits for the next postmaster to arrive. He consoles Ratan
saying that he would inform the postmaster about her. He even offers
her some money to keep. She refuses both and expresses that she
doesn't want to stay there any more.
Ratan has lived a life of loneliness. Dada was her only companion, and
the only one who seemed to understand her. She is broken, when he has
to leave without her. He leaves as soon, as the new postmaster arrives.
He hesitates for a moment as the boat leaves, but it is too late for him to
take her with him. Tagore illustrates the two ways a human mind works.
The postmaster uses the element of philosophy to console himself. He
tells himself that meeting, attachment, and departing are all part of life.
It will all settle with the passage of time. The wind that fills the sails of
the boat indicates the reason the postmaster fills his heart with, as he
separates himself from the village. However, Ratan stands outside the
office "with tears streaming from her eyes." She has succumbed to a
common human folly, as Tagore expresses, of hope. She has been
separated from her only bond and now longs for it to return.
Tagore ends by saying that humans often fall into hope than seeing the
reason, and long before we realize, disappointment becomes too hard to
handle.
Q. What do you think is the chief elements of the story – The
Postmaster?
This is a touching story of a city-bred young man working as a
postmaster in a remote village to earn his bread and butter. He lives
here more out of compulsion rather than a choice. Rabindranath’s finely
crafted poetic narrative brings out the haunting home-sickness of the
educated young man at a place where he finds no suitable companion as
well as the mellow natural greenery and serenity that encompasses him
here. On the other hand, the despair and agony of Ratan, the young
orphan girl who foolishly identified her kind master as her elder brother
as he took a personal interest in her, has also been worded very
artistically in this moving story. This the postmaster did partly to pass
his long leisure which hung heavy in his hand and partly not to be
distracted by the memories of his near and dear ones who were in
Calcutta. When the moment of parting finally came, and when the
postmaster, having felt a bit of compassion for the servant-girl, offered
her recommendations and money, Ratan was rendered heart-broken.
Having believed that she was going to find genuine love and a home
sooner or later, the offer of money burned the very core of her being.
Bursting into tears, she ran away refusing all the help.
The postmaster despite his not so little feelings for Ratan realized with a
heavy heart that no lasting relationship was possible with her.Finally, as
his boat begins sailing swiftly and the village of Ulapurn recedes further
in the distance, he tries to find comfort in the thought that “there are so
many separations and deaths” in the world
Q. What do you think is the chief elements of the story –
ThePostmaster?
orphan girl who foolishly identified her kind masteras her elder brother
The postmaster despite his not so little feelings for Ratan realized with a
heavy heart that no lasting relationship was possible with her. Finally,
as his boat begins sailing swiftly and the village of Ulapur recedes
further in the distance, he tries to find comfort in the thought that “there
are so many separations and deaths” in the world

Q. What do you think is the chief elements of the story – The
Postmaster?
orphan girl who foolishly identified her kind master as her elder brother
The postmaster despite his not so little feelings for Ratan realized with
a heavy heart that no lasting relationship was possible with her.Finally,
as his boat begins sailing swiftly and the village of Ulapur recedes
further in the distance, he tries to find comfort in thethought that
“there are so many separations and deaths” in the world .
The Portrayal of Women and Social Oppression in Rabindranath

Tagore’s ‘The Postmaster’ and ‘The Conclusion’.
Abstract:
This article is an attempt to investigate Rabindranath Tagore`s
perspectives on women as seen through his short stories. While his
poems primarily describe beauty, nature and his search for what is
beyond mundane life, his short stories deal with the lives of ordinary
people. Women’s struggles and sufferings are particularly highlighted.
This article argues that while on one hand Tagore reveals the unequsal
social structure that oppresses women, on another, he creates
courageous women who challenge tradition. Rabindranath Tagore has
women as their central characters in ‘The Postmaster’ and ‘The

Conclusion’. The portrayals of Ratan, an orphan girl in “The
Postmaster” and Mrinmayi, a young tomboy forced into an arranged
marriage in “The Conclusion,” emphasize that literacy for women is of
little importance in a society where their roles only as male caretaker,
wife, or mother take precedence. As an innovative educator and path
breaker for social reform, Tagore often addresses in his literature issues
of oppression among women and the lower class. In so doing, Tagore
urges women to find an identity of their own, and realize that wifehood
and motherhood are but fractions of their whole being.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a writer of imminence and
versatile personality. He wrote extensively in various creative genres,
e.g. poetry, drama, fiction and non-fictional prose; composed songs,
painted over 3,000 pictures. He also advocated thoughts of rural
reconstruction, environment, and science. He too established
educational institutes on the basis of ancient Indian culture like
Shantiniketan and many more later on. His writing has been discussed
widely indifferent ways and approaches but his thought and delineation
of women in his work has still remained ignored, although he wrote
extensively about them. He wrote 119 stories. “Laboratory’ one of the
last stories published in 1940, about a year before the writer passed
away in August 1941. Prominently we find in this story Tagore`s view
of women and historicism. In the last phase of his life, Rabindranath
had devoted considerably to the thought of women, their place, status in
culture and their involvement in national reconstruction. Women are at
the core of his many poems, songs, essays and paintings. Laboratory
marks his matured and almost his last deliberation on women. It
impressed and stirred the readers.
Rabindranath is not feministic writer nor he viewed as an ardent
promoter of women`s rights. His thoughts and writing shows his
remarkable understanding of woman`s psyche. He raised the injustice
of an unequal social structure, and advocated for greater freedom and
decision-making power for women in the family and the society too.
Tagore`s short stories can be seen as representing three facets of
women`s lives, 1) the romance between men and women, ii) social and
culturally oppressed women and iii) the birth of the ‘new woman’ –

who challenges convention and seeks to make decisions about her
own life.
In Rabindranath Tagore`s stories prominently we find two principal
roles – mother and lover. The loving nature of mother has been
portrayed in many of his stories; Anandamoyee in Gora, Jatin`s aunt in
The Last Night and Rasmoni in Ramoni’s Son are a few examples.
Romantic love between a man and a woman is the basis of his stories
such as “Dalia” and Victory and Defeat.
Born in 1861 into an illustrious family, Rabindranath grew up in the
heart of Calcutta. He came of age at a time when the currents of three
movements had reached the shores of India: i) the religious: Rammohan
Roy had founded the Brahmo Samaj (1828), which had a profound
impact on a section of bhadrolok community, including Tagore’s
family; ii) the literary: ‘a literary revolution’ had been pioneered,
especially in Bengal, by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay; and iii) the
political: a nationalist movement had started ‘to give voice’ to Indian
people`s discontent against colonial rule. These movements influenced
the poet`s mind and sensibilities.
Rabindranath lived for eighty eventful years in colonial Bengal, and his
views about women changed over time. There were fast shifting in
political, economic, religious, cultural and social circumstances from
the middle of the nineteenth to the 1940s.
In ‘The Postmaster’ and ‘The Conclusion’, Rabindranath Tagore has
women as their central characters, who have had little or no formal
education. The portrayals of Ratan, an orphan girl in “The Postmaster”
and Mrinmayi, a young tomboy forced into an arranged marriage in
“The Conclusion,” emphasize that literacy for women is of little
importance in a society where their roles only as male caretaker, wife,
or mother take precedence. As an innovative educator and path breaker
for social reform, Tagore often addresses in his literature issues of
oppression among women and the lower class.
Tagore’s postmaster is a man who “belonged to Calcutta” and “felt like
a fish out of water” (89) after his transfer to his new post in a small
village. His education and experience remains failure to understand and
to solve the problems of new location. He is not comfortable to this
strange and unfamiliar environment where he has little to occupy his
time and no one with which to communicate except the factory people
who “were hardly desirable people for decent folk” (89). He befriends,
Ratan, an orphan girl, who is as hungry for attention as is he, yet while
his friendship becomes of great importance to her, the postmaster views
Ratan as little more than a servant. Although she cooks for him, lights
his pipe, draws his bath water, starts his fire, and is attentive to his
every word, he still thinks to himself, “Oh, if only some kindred soul
were near—just one loving human being whom I could hold near my
heart” (91). Though he thinks education is not necessary for women to
survive, he asks Ratan if she would like to learn to write. Tagore very
remarkably shows the psyche of patriarchal society regarding the
women education. Postmaster feels learning to read and write is not so
important to her to live. He becomes ready to teach only for himself so
that it will give him something to fill his empty hours. She learns very
quickly and is a most attentive student which emphasizes that, although
she is quite capable of learning, this is the first time she has been given
the opportunity to do. It also appears she is eager to learn not because
reading and writing will be useful for her but that knowing how will
please the postmaster. When one day he becomes ill with malaria, her
writing lessons is quickly put aside. She “ceased to be a little girl” and
“at once stepped into the post of mother, called in the village doctor,
gave the patient his pills at the proper intervals, sat up all night by his
pillow, cooked his gruel,” (94) and nursed him back to health. The
illness persuades the postmaster that he cannot cope with village life; he
applies for a transfer and although Ratan diligently continues to study
her old lessons, the postmaster has lost interest in teaching her further.
His only concern now is to return to Calcutta and the comfort of his
family. She begs him to take her with, yet he scoffs at the idea and has
no notion of how deep her affection for him has grown.
Throughout the story, Ratan’s feelings and needs are neglected and
overshadowed by the needs of the postmaster. The “loneliness of his
exile” (92) and his inability to cope with village life and situations that
are less than ideal accentuate his weakness, and by contrast, stress
Ratan’s strength; although still a child, she has learned to survive
independently despite living a life of poverty void of friends and family.
As Tagore’s story concludes, Ratan “wanders about the post office with
the tears streaming from her eyes” (97), Ratan only knows how to serve
and please. She far more docile and less outspoken and would never
have had the courage to ask. It is apparent that Ratan will continue her
lot in life as a servant to a man, regardless of how much she progresses
with her writing lessons.
Next story “The Conclusion” begins with the arrival home of Apurba
Krishna receiving his BA degree in Calcutta. While stepping from the
boat, he notices Mrinmayi, a tomboy who keeps the women of her
village “in a constant state of alarm” because she is not interested in
behaving like a proper Indian woman, who lives simple life and remains
obedient to her male master. She intends to remain single when most
Indian girls in her age have entered into arranged marriages (269). She
refuses to tie her hair back or veil her face like the other women upon
the arrival of some an unknown person (“distant zamindar”). (269) This
difference attracts Apurba to her and makes his mind to marry with
Mrinmayi. After their marriage, her unwillingness to conform keeps
them estranged. Previous to this marriage, Apurba’s mother has another
woman in mind for his bride. When he asks to see the woman she has
arranged for him to marry, she says, “I’ve seen her. You needn’t give it
another thought” (270). Yet Apurba insists that “[b]ride must be seen
before marriage” (271), while his thoughts remain on Mrinmayi. His
mother also thinks a girl should be simple, meek and obedient instead of
educated. Apurba inspects his mother’s choice of bride, and when he
asks the “dumbfounded ornamented bundle” what she has read, she
faintly replies after a prod from her maid, “Charuputh-Volume-Two-
Grammar-Volume-One-Descriptive-Geography-Arithmetic-History-of-
India” (271). Mrinmayi speaks as if taught by rote and appears to have
no more interest in marrying a person of whom she knows nothing than
does Apurba. Mrinmayi interrupts this ceremonial introduction between
strangers by precociously whipping off the girl’s ‘precious’ veil, the
meeting ends, and the girl is escorted by her maid to the inner rooms,
until the arrival of the next prospective husband. Before leaving,
Mrinmayi steals Apurba’s shoes, and when later she places them in his
path, he holds her as she struggles to free herself. When he gently
releases her, Mrinmayi is dumbfounded, feeling that “if he had struck
her in anger [she] would not have been at all surprised, but this gentle
sentence of punishment . . . .quite baffled her” (273). This reaction is
similar to that of Ratan’s who is more conditioned to the physical
punishment of her previous masters than to the gentleness of the current
postmaster, emphasizing that abuse to women is a practice of which
they have little or no right to object.
Mrinmayi has no interest in this college educated man, yet it is not
necessary that Apurba win her affections in order to receive her hand in
marriage. All he needs is his mother’s consent. His mother hesitatingly
gives the consent. Mrinmayi is trained by her own mother and the
village women to become a proper wife, and they instruct her that
“playfulness and frolicking around, loud laughter, gossip with boys,
and eating when hungry” will no longer be allowed (275). Mrinmayi
vehemently states she will not marry, but “nevertheless, she did” (275)
because she has no choice. She refuses, however, to behave like the
proper wife. She freely tells her husband that she will never love him,
and then asks, “Why did you marry me? (276), to which he has no
reply. Her mother-in-law locks her up in her room until she agrees to
behave, and she feels like a “newly captured bird” (276). Apurba
attempts to cheer her are in vain and he leaves her alone, locking the
door behind him as if afraid to go against his mother’s orders. Mrinmayi
dreams of going to see her father, her mother-in-law refuses to let her
go, and Apurba, still trying to win her love, offers to take her. Having
never left the village, Mrinmayi is awed by the many new sights, and so
she asks Apurba many questions, “Whose answers could not be found
in any of Apurba’s college books”. Unwilling he admits this lack of
knowledge. He answers nonetheless, even though his replies “did not
tally with the truth” (279). Tagore often emphasized that learning only
from books did not make a well-rounded scholar, and Apurba, even
with a college degree, is no more informed about the sights than is
Mrinmayi. When Mrinmayi arrives in an atmosphere of love and caring
at father`s house, she falls in love with her husband, but upon their
return, when he asks her to go with him to Calcutta while his schooling,
she refuses directly. She feels in Calcutta as much ‘a fish out of water’
as did the Postmaster in the village, where no one to whom
communicates. Apurba concedes temporary defeat, leaves her with her
mother, and tells her, “I won’t come back until you write me a letter”
(281). After he leaves, she regrets not having gone with him and returns
to her mother-in-law “veiled with due respect” (284). In a short time,
this marriage has transformed a free-spirited, non-conforming
Mrinmayi into a dutiful, self-sacrificing and devoted wife. She
painstakingly writes the letter, which is so difficult to write that “even
so much love could not make the lines straight, the letters neatly
formed, the spelling faultless”. She is not even sure how to address the
envelope, aware that “besides the name, something else is required,”
(284-85) but not knowing exactly what. It means that even though
Mrinmayi has learned how to write, she has had little use for the
knowledge, and therefore it is hard for her to recall. Much like Ratan,
their literacy is immaterial to their roles as male caretakers. Being
Ratan, learned how to write, but when the Postmaster goes back to his
home, she returns to her role as dutiful servant. Mrinmayi’s writing
skills are used only to bring her husband back and that the two are
finally reunited.
Mrinmayi’s own mother is also rigid with social conventions. She tells
her daughter, “How lucky you are they like you. Stay home and do some
housework. What good fortune to be part of a well-respected family.”
Her mother does not consider Mrinmayi’s feelings for marriage. She
only thinks it is as an opportunity to escape poverty and be seen as
respected citizens of their village. Mrinmayi tries to be obedient as she
tediously but with no enthusiasm works on a needlepoint project. She
tires of it quickly and in retaliation, chops off her hair, to which her
mother responds to her with a beating. Despite her efforts to escape the
marriage, the wedding takes place.
Apurva gives up hope for his wife’s affections and tells her he is going
back to Calcutta where he will remain until she writes him a letter
requesting his return. Meanwhile, Mrinmayi lays in bed, refuses to eat.
Her mother also scolds her for not being a proper wife. When she
realizes Mrinmayi`s suffering, says consoles: “Tears will not help us.
Don’t cry. Such is our fate. We’re like the refuse floating on the river.
We have nothing—we are nothing. That is why everyone scorns us.”
Tagore remarkably delineated the combined oppression of suppression-
i.e. poverty and women experienced by women of a lower class who
have no chance for upward mobility. Although Mrinmayi later realizes
she loves her husband and painstakingly writes him a letter, but actually
she have had no choice, but to remain trapped and unhappy in the
marriage. When she and her husband finally reunite, she has
transformed into the dutiful and respected wife. Now she is willing to
sacrifice all the dreams for the sake of marriage to work. The letter she
wrote, in the story, did not bring her husband back, for he does not find
it until after his return, again an implication that literacy is of little
importance for women and especially to the success of a marriage
relationship.
As stated previously, many of Tagore’s works present issues
surrounding both women and lower class oppression, yet they do not so
much support his own personal views but those of society. Tagore
himself was married to a woman only nine years of age, and the
“choice was limited, because a girl had to be found from the brahmin
sub-caste of demoted rank to which the Tagores belonged: other
brahmin families would not give their daughters to the Tagores”
(Dyson 56). This is similar to the case of Apurba and his mother’s
choice of bride, thus her determination to prevent his marriage to
Mrinmoyee, a woman of a lower status. While commenting on Tagore`s
views against child marriages, Dyson states: “it was part of the times
and mores. His father wished him to get married, and he did not go
against that wish” (58). Regarding Tagore`s view Edward Thompson
also comments that he “make a frontal attack on those social rules, and
especially on the abominations of child-marriage of girls” (19). Tagore
was ahead of his time in his support for women’s rights and
abolishment of oppressive acts against women, he still lived in a society
where many either opposed his views or were not ready for change. He
was a proponent for women’s education. Tagore fully expressed his
idea regarding the women education and place of women in the society:
Whatever is worth knowing is knowledge. It should be known equally by
men and women . . . . Knowledge has two departments: one, pure
knowledge; the other, utilitarian knowledge. In the field of pure
knowledge, there is no distinction between men and women; distinction
exists in the sphere of practical utility. Women should acquire pure
knowledge for becoming a mature human being, and utilitarian
knowledge for becoming true women . . . . It is the nature of women to
be a wife and a mother. (47)
Tagore strongly admired women, both those within and outside the
academic field. His works reflects the social attitudes and conventions
of the time regarding women; and the limited opportunities available for
women outside the home. Tagore’s stories present the representative of
a minority, who are molded as per social conventions in general and
patriarchal in particular. His women are capable to stand against the
dominating forces but they are unable to understand their suppression
realistically. Hence they remain calm and accept mutely the social and
cultural code as their fate.
Tagore spent the better part of his life promoting fuller education, both
for women and the poverty stricken. In a speech on co-education,
Tagore states, “In education, as in politics, if we do not give the hearty
support of women we shall be lacking in strength and conviction.” He
views that India “is deprived of the great strength that women
potentially have, because our household taps it,” yet that to “serve the
whole world cannot be the work of an individual like me—it is the work
of the whole India” (Tagore the Educator 38-39). Tagore was the only
one during his time, who promoted education for women, especially
women of the lower class who were playing better roles in the home as
caretakers. Tagore has depicted this attitude of educating women in
both stories. Ratan has the ability to learn but is seen by the postmaster,
the representative of patriarchal society, not as an intellectual but as a
household servant with “no philosophy” (97) of her own, and therefore
a woman who has no real need for formal education. Mrinmayi also has
the ability to learn but her mother’s only interest to marry to escape
poverty, and her husband’s only interest is that she behaves as a proper
wife.
Kalpana Bardhan, while addressing the issues of the oppressed, states
regarding Tagore’s stories:
[T]he oppressor is ultimately some aspect of the cultural ideology and
the social situation in which both men and women feel themselves
trapped because of some socially bred dysfunction of the individual will
and psyche. The tragedy lies in the distortion that their personalities
and relationships suffer under the tyranny of social mores and beliefs,
in the havoc that ingrained ideas can play on human mind and
behavior. The climax comes with the realization that habitual notions
have led one to blindness, to barriers from more humane choices,
ultimately to becoming one’s own jailer. It is then too late to change the
rules, even though the nature of the problem has been perceived. All
that remains is the shattering knowledge that the ideas one has always
lived by are wrong, oppressive, and mindless. (14-15).
Both stories reflect the same ideology. Ratan, who expresses her wish to
go with the postmaster to Calcutta, to free from oppression, is left
behind. Mrinmayi refuses to follow the social mores and beliefs of her
society, is “jailed” by Apurba who is the follower of social and cultural
conventions. Being the member of patriarchy, he thinks once married, a
wife has to give up all so that she can become the proper wife.
Tagore truly portrayed the life picture and emotions in his characters of
Ratan and Mrinmayi. Bardhan comments:
“[T]he oppression of the female is seen through male eyes and
reflected in male actions and reactions. The importance of this
perspective is pivotal in the perpetuation of or the resistance to
patriarchal oppression. The failure of the male to live up to his own self
in relation to the female, the recognition of his own defeat and

degradation in hers, is a potentially powerful basis of transformation
for him” (32).
Although Tagore’s postmaster is mostly oblivious to Ratan except
where it concerns his own needs, an awareness of Ratan’s oppression is
conveyed. In Tagore’s story, Apurba’s failure to live up to his own self
is seen in his jealousy when he thinks, “What did it matter if she had
momentarily reduced him to a laughing-stock, then ignored him in
favour of some ignoramous named Rakhal? Must he prove to her that
he reviewed books for a magazine called Visvadip and carried in his
suitcase cologne, shoes, Rubini’s camphor . . .”(273). He attempts to
please her by suggesting Rakhal to play with, when he realizes the
marriage has made her unhappy and also in his willingness to take her
to meet her father though his mother denied.(278).
Tagore fully represents in his stories issues of both gender and class
oppression. Tagore brings out the essence of human behavior and how
heavily society influences that behavior. Tagore once said, “Society
takes the burden of thinking so fully and completely on itself that I am
not even conscious that it is thinking . . . . Society has a place for
conduct that is false and no place for what is right” (Glorious Thoughts
of Tagore 228).
Works Cited:
❖Bardhan, Kalpana. Women, Outcastes, Peasants, and Rebels.
Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1990.
❖Dyson, Ketaki Kushari. I Won’t Let You Go. Newcastle Upon
Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1991.
❖Tagore, Rabindranath. “The Conclusion.” Rabindranath Tagore:
An Anthology. Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, edt. London:
Picador, 1997. 268-287.
❖Tagore, “A Poet’s School.” Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology.
248-261.
❖Tagore, “The Postmaster.” Stories from Tagore. Calcutta:
Macmillan, 1958. 89-97.
❖Thompson, Edwards. Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Works.
Calcutta: Association Press, 1921.
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
SETTING
The novel is set during the late 1800s/early 1900s in a small village called
Umuofia situated in the southeastern part of Nigeria. The time period is
important, as it was a period in colonial history when the British were
expanding their influence in Africa, economically, culturally, and
politically. Umuofia is an Igbo village with very well defined traditions.
It is a village that is respected by those around it as being powerful and
rich. Each person has a hut or obi that is located in the center of a
compound. Each of the wives has a separate obi with a shed for goats and
an attached chicken coop. The main occupation of the men is sowing and
growing yams since yams are considered the most important crop. The
women grew less significant crops like coco-yams, beans and cassava.
When Okonkwo is banished from his village, he takes his family to his
mother’s native village called Mbanta, where he is given two or three
plots of land to farm, and a plot of ground on which to build his
compound. The next seven years of Okonkwo’s life are spent in the
village of Mbanta. He then returns to Umuofia where the rest of the novel
takes place.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
Major Characters
1.Okonkwo
The hardy and ambitious leader of the Igbo community. He is a farmer
as well as a wrestler, who has earned fame and brought honor to his
village by overthrowing Amalinze in a wrestling contest. Still only in his
thirties, he has three wives and several children who all live in their own
homes in his village compound. Okonkwo has resolved to erase the
stigma left on him by his father’s laziness and is very successful growing
yams. He has very strong economic and political ties to the village and is
treated with admiration and respect. Okonkwo is a man of action.
2.Obierika
Okonkwo’s close friend, he helps him with the crops during his period
of exile, and keeps him informed of the radical changes taking place in
the village. He is a thoughtful man, who questions the traditions of
society. He is also Maduka and Ekuke’s father.
3.Ekwefi
Okonkwo’s second wife, she is the mother of Ezinma, her only living
child, whom she will do anything for even if that means defying
tradition.
4.Ezinma
Ekwefi and Okonkwo’s daughter, she is born after many miscarriages
and is loved and pampered by her mother. She has a special relationship
with Chielo, the woman who acts as the voice of Agbala, the Oracle.
Okonkwo is fond of her and often wishes that ‘she were a boy.’
5.Nwoye
Okonkwo’s son from his first wife. He is a sensitive young man who,
much to his father’s dismay, joins the Christian missionaries.
6.Ikemefuna
A boy who is bought as hostage from Mbaino, and who lives with
Okonkwo for three years. He is a clever and resourceful young man yet
comes to an unfortunate end.
7.Chielo
The priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and Caves, who carries
Ezinma on her back to the caves, saying that Agbala wants to see her.
8.Uchendu
Okonkwo’s maternal uncle with whom he spends seven years of his
exile, along with his family.
9.Mr. Brown
The Christian missionary who first introduces the tenets of Christianity
to the people to take them away from their superstitious and age-old
customs. He is a kind and understanding man who is accommodating
towards the Igbo.
10.Reverend James Smith

Mr Brown’s successor, he openly condemns Mr. Brown’s policy of
compromise and accommodation and attempts to efface all aspects of
Igbo culture.
11.District Commissioner
The man behind the whole affair, who handcuffs the six leaders of the
village and imprisons them. At the end of the novel, he orders his men
to take down the dead body of Okonkwo from the tree, and bury it.
Minor Characters
1.Unoka
Okonkwo’s father who during his entire lifetime never lifted his hand to
till the earth, and had passed his time playing the flute. Okonkwo
always remembers his father’s failure and strove to be as different from
him as possible.
2.Maduka
Obierika’s son who participates and wins the wrestling contest.
3.Ogbuefi Ezendu
The oldest man in Umuofia who forewarns Okonkwo not to get too
close to Ikemefuna, since the Oracle had pronounced his death already
and then tells him not to participate in his death. He dies a venerated
warrior with three titles to his name.
4.Enoch
The overzealous Christian who tears off the mask of the egwugu,
creating strife in the community.
5.Agbala
The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves, she dispenses advice and

overlooks all aspects of life in the village of Umumofia. No one has
ever beheld Agbala, except his priestess.
6.Ojiubo
Okonkwo’s third wife and mother of several of his children.
Protagonist
The protagonist of the novel is Okonkwo. The novel describes

Okonkwo’s rise and fall in a culture that is bound by tradition and
superstitious. Okonkwo also has his faults, and it is these faults that lead
to his downfall. His impatience and quick temper make him break the
rules of the Week of Peace and eventually is ostracized from his village
for his rash behavior. His headstrong nature and impulsive attitude
consequently bring about his own death at the end of the novel.
Okonkwo is respected for having reached a position of wealth and status,

without any support from family. In fact, most of his ambition and desire
stems from the rejection of his father’s lifestyle that is objectionable to
him. Okonkwo refuses to bow down to the tenets of the Christian
missionaries, even when almost the entire village has. His tenacity and
tragic flaws that he cannot see make him a hero despite his unforgiving
nature and rigid adherence to tradition. Okonkwo thus instills a feeling
of respect and admiration in the hearts of the readers.
Antagonist
The antagonists are the Christian missionaries who wish to invade the
content villages of Africa with their Western concepts and way of
thinking and convert the people into Christianity. The customs of African
culture are scorned and degraded. Gradually, many people are persuaded
into converting themselves into Christianity, with a few exceptions,
including Okonkwo. It is the missionaries who are the final cause of the
death of Okonkwo. Their behavior toward the leader of the village is
disrespectful and it is understandable that Okonkwo had to retaliate in the
only form he knows, by resistance to Christianity and loyalty to his
culture’s traditions. The reader sees the heartlessness of the district
commissioner who is only concerned about the material he has
accumulated for the book he wishes to publish.
Climax
The climactic point in the novel arises when, Okonkwo, without his
realizing it, shoots a young member of his community and kills him.
Though this was an accident, Okonkwo has to abide with the law that
deems he should be banished from his village for seven years. This is an
unfortunate situation, since until then Okonkwo has been steadily rising
in wealth as well as status in his community and very soon would have
acquired more titles. The calamity however results in his downfall. He
now has to live in exile for seven long years of his life in his mother’s
land.
Another parallel climax in the novel is when the missionaries inculcate

the lives of the villagers. Until then the people were governed only by
the traditional Ibo culture and were custom-bound, but the invasion of the
missionaries changes the lives of the villagers tremendously.
Outcome
The outcome of the novel is Okonkwo’s return to his village after his
exile and his self-destruction. He discovers that everything has changed
when he is not given the kind of welcome he had expected. Too much
has happened since Okwonko’s departure and the villagers have other
things to worry about. Okonkwo can no longer dream of becoming head
of the village because he has lost too many years in exile, and when he
returns, all of the customs, values and beliefs of the village have been
destroyed.
With the invasion of the Christians, the villagers find themselves at a loss.
With their sweet words and strong beliefs, the missionaries manage to
dissuade the villagers from their own religion and customs. The
Christians even begin living in the evil forest, in order to prove to the
villagers that all their beliefs about its evilness are baseless. Twins and
outcasts were allowed to enter into their church.
The missionaries also provide many good services to the villagers. They
build a church, a hospital, a school and also a court and trading store for
the villagers. Yet ultimately the core of their culture has been subjugated
to Western ideology and the traditional economy as well as social well
being of the village is gone forever.
SHORT SUMMARY
Things Fall Apart is about the tragic fall of the protagonist, Okonkwo,
and the Igbo culture. Okonkwo is a respected and influential leader within
the Igbo community of Umuofia in eastern Nigeria. He first earns
personal fame and distinction, and brings honor to his village, when he
defeats Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. Okonkwo determines to
gain titles for himself and become a powerful and wealthy man in spite
of his father's weaknesses.
Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was a lazy and wasteful man. He often

borrowed money and then squandered it on palm-wine and merrymaking
with friends. Consequently, his wife and children often went hungry.
Within the community, Unoka was considered a failure and a
laughingstock. He was referred to as agbala, one who resembles the
weakness of a woman and has no property. Unoka died a shameful death
and left numerous debts.
Okonkwo despises and resents his father's gentle and idle ways. He
resolves to overcome the shame that he feels as a result of his father's
weaknesses by being what he considers to be "manly"; therefore, he
dominates his wives and children by being insensitive and controlling.
Because Okonkwo is a leader of his community, he is asked to care for a

young boy named Ikemefuna, who is given to the village as a peace
offering by neighboring Mbaino to avoid war with Umuofia. Ikemefuna
befriends Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, and Okonkwo becomes inwardly fond
of the boy.
Over the years, Okonkwo becomes an extremely volatile man; he is apt

to explode at the slightest provocation. He violates the Week of Peace
when he beats his youngest wife, Ojiugo, because she went to braid her
hair at a friend's house and forgot to prepare the afternoon meal and feed
her children. Later, he severely beats and shoots a gun at his second wife,
Ekwefi, because she took leaves from his banana plant to wrap food for
the Feast of the New Yam.
After the coming of the locusts, Ogbuefi Ezeuder, the oldest man in the
village, relays to Okonkwo a message from the Oracle. The Oracle says
that Ikemefuna must be killed as part of the retribution for the Umuofian
woman killed three years earlier in Mbaino. He tells Okonkwo not to
partake in the murder, but Okonkwo doesn't listen. He feels that not
participating would be a sign of weakness. Consequently, Okonkwo kills
Ikemefuna with his machete. Nwoye realizes that his father has murdered
Ikemefuna and begins to distance himself from his father and the
clansmen.
Okonkwo becomes depressed after killing Ikemefuna, so he visits his best

friend, Obierika, who disapproves of his role in Ikemefuna's killing.
Obierika says that Okonkwo's act will upset the Earth and the earth
goddess will seek revenge. After discussing Ikemefuna's death with
Obierika, Okonkwo is finally able to sleep restfully, but he is awakened
by his wife Ekwefi. Their daughter Ezinma, whom Okonkwo is fond of,
is dying. Okonkwo gathers grasses, barks, and leaves to prepare medicine
for Ezinma.
A public trial is held on the village commons. Nine clan leaders,

including Okonkwo, represent the spirits of their ancestors. The nine clan
leaders, or egwugwu, also represent the nine villages of Umuofia.
Okonkwo does not sit among the other eight leaders, or elders, while they
listen to a dispute between an estranged husband and wife. The wife,
Mgbafo, had been severely beaten by her husband. Her brother took her
back to their family's village, but her husband wanted her back home.
The egwugwu tell the husband to take wine to his in-laws and beg his
wife to come home. One elder wonders why such a trivial dispute would
come before the egwugwu.
In her role as priestess, Chielo tells Ekwefi (Okonkwo's second wife) that
Agbala (the Oracle of the Hills and Caves) needs to see Ezinma.
Although Okonkwo and Ekwefi protest, Chielo takes a terrified Ezinma

on her back and forbids anyone to follow. Chielo carries Ezinma to all
nine villages and then enters the Oracle's cave. Ekwefi follows secretly,
in spite of Chielo's admonitions, and waits at the entrance of the Oracle.
Okonkwo surprises Ekwefi by arriving at the cave, and he also waits with
her. The next morning, Chielo takes Ezinma to Ekwefi's hut and puts her
to bed.
When Ogbuefi Ezeudu dies, Okonkwo worries because the last time that
Ezeudu visited him was when he warned Okonkwo against participating
in the killing of Ikemefuna. Ezeudu was an important leader in the village
and achieved three titles of the clan's four, a rare accomplishment. During
the large funeral, Okonkwo's gun goes off, and Ezeudu's sixteen-year-old
son is killed accidentally.
Because the accidental killing of a clansman is a crime against the earth

goddess, Okonkwo and his family must be exiled from Umuofia for seven
years. The family moves to Okonkwo's mother's native village, Mbanta.
After they depart Umuofia, a group of village men destroy Okonkwo's
compound and kill his animals to cleanse the village of Okonkwo's sin.
Obierika stores Okonkwo's yams in his barn and wonders about the old
traditions of the Igbo culture.
Okonkwo is welcomed to Mbanta by his maternal uncle, Uchendu, a

village elder. He gives Okonkwo a plot of land on which to farm and
build a compound for his family. But Okonkwo is depressed, and he
blames his chi (or personal spirit) for his failure to achieve lasting
greatness.
During Okonkwo's second year in exile, he receives a visit from his best
friend, Obierika, who recounts sad news about the village of Abame:
After a white man rode into the village on a bicycle, the elders of Abame
consulted their Oracle, which told them that the white man would destroy
their clan and other clans. Consequently, the villagers killed the white
man. But weeks later, a large group of men slaughtered the villagers in
retribution. The village of Abame is now deserted.
Okonkwo and Uchendu agree that the villagers were foolish to kill a man
whom they knew nothing about. Later, Obierika gives Okonkwo money

that he received from selling Okonkwo's yams and seed-yams, and he
promises to do so until Okonkwo returns to Umuofia.
Six missionaries, including one white man, arrive in Mbanta. The white
man speaks to the people about Christianity. Okonkwo believes that the
man speaks nonsense, but his son, Nwoye, is captivated and becomes a
convert of Christianity.
The Christian missionaries build a church on land given to them by the

village leaders. However, the land is a part of the Evil Forest, and
according to tradition, the villagers believe that the missionaries will die
because they built their church on cursed land. But when nothing happens
to the missionaries, the people of Mbanta conclude that the missionaries
possess extraordinary power and magic. The first recruits of the
missionaries are efulefu, the weak and worthless men of the village. Other
villagers, including a woman, soon convert to Christianity. The
missionaries then go to Umuofia and start a school. Nwoye leaves his
father's hut and moves to Umuofia so he can attend the school.
Okonkwo's exile is over, so his family arranges to return to Umuofia.

Before leaving Mbanta, they prepare a huge feast for Okonkwo's mother's
kinsmen in appreciation of their gratitude during Okonkwo's seven years
of exile.
When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia, he discovers that the village has

changed during his absence. Many men have renounced their titles and
have converted to Christianity. The white men have built a prison; they
have established a government court of law, where people are tried for
breaking the white man's laws; and they also employ natives of Umuofia.
Okonkwo wonders why the Umuofians have not incited violence to rid
the village of the white man's church and oppressive government.
Some members of the Igbo clan like the changes in Umuofia. Mr. Brown,
the white missionary, respects the Igbo traditions. He makes an effort to
learn about the Igbo culture and becomes friendly with some of the clan
leaders. He also encourages Igbo people of all ages to get an education.
Mr. Brown tells Okonkwo that Nwoye, who has taken the name Isaac, is

attending a teaching college. Nevertheless, Okonkwo is unhappy about
the changes in Umuofia.
After Mr. Brown becomes ill and is forced to return to his homeland,
Reverend James Smith becomes the new head of the Christian church.
But Reverend Smith is nothing like Mr. Brown; he is intolerant of clan
customs and is very strict.
Violence arises after Enoch, an overzealous convert to Christianity,

unmasks an egwugwu. In retaliation, the egwugwu burn Enoch's
compound and then destroy the Christian church because the
missionaries have caused the Igbo people many problems.
When the District Commissioner returns to Umuofia, he learns about the

destruction of the church and asks six leaders of the village, including
Okonkwo, to meet with him. The men are jailed until they pay a fine of
two hundred and fifty bags of cowries. The people of Umuofia collect the
money and pay the fine, and the men are set free.
The next day at a meeting for clansmen, five court messengers who
intend to stop the gathering approach the group. Suddenly, Okonkwo
jumps forward and beheads the man in charge of the messengers with his
machete. When none of the other clansmen attempt to stop the
messengers who escape, Okonkwo realizes that they will never go to war
and that Umuofia will surrender. Everything has fallen apart for
Okonkwo; he commits suicide by hanging himself.
The novel deals with the rise and fall of Okonkwo , a man from the village
of Unuofia. Okonkwo was not born a great man, but he achieved success
by his hard work. His father was a lazy man who preferred playing the
flute to tending the soil. Okonkwo was opposed to his father’s way of
life, and always feared failure. In order to prove his ability, he had
overthrown the greatest wrestler in nine villages, set himself up with three
wives, two barns filled with yams and a reputation for being a hard
worker. The reader learns that he was also one of the egwugwu--the
masked spirits of the ancestors. His importance is proved when he is sent
as an emissary to Mbaino in order to negotiate for hostages, and he
returns successfully with a boy, Ikemefuna and a virgin.
Okonkwo has his faults, one of them being his impatience of less
successful men and secondly his pride over his own status. His stern
exterior conceals a love for Ikemefuna, who lives with him; an anxiety
over his son Nwoye, who seems to take after his father; and an adoration
for his daughter Ezinma. His fiery temperament leads to beating his
second wife during the Week of Peace. He even shoots at her with his
gun, but luckily he misses. This shows his short temper and a tendency
to act on impulse, a tendency that backfires on him later on in the novel.
The boy, Ikemefuna, is ordered to death by the Oracle of the Hills and
Caves. Though Okonkwo is upset, he shows his fearlessness and
impartiality by slaying the boy himself. His final fault against his tribe is
when he unintentionally shoots a boy and kills him; for this he is banished
from the village for seven years and has to live in his mother’s village of
Mbanta. This is a great disappointment for him although he is consoled
and encouraged by his uncle, Uchendu.
The reader now hears of the arrival of the Christian missionaries, who
take over the village of Mbanta, as well as Umuofia, set up a church and
proceed to convert the tribesmen to Christianity. At first, they face much
resistence, but gradually many of the tribesmen including Okonkwo’s
own son, Nwoye, are converted and follow the path of Christ. After his
period of exile, Okonkwo returns to Umuofia with his family and finds it
totally changed. The missionaries have done a lot for the village.
Umuofia is prospering economically, but Okonkwo is firm in his refusal
to charge his religion.
The missionary Mr. Brown is overzealous in his methods. A Christian

named Enoch enters a meeting of the tribe in which the egwugwu is
present, and he unmasks one of them. This causes great anger, and the
villagers make a decision to destroy the church, which they eventually
do. This action incites the wrath of the District Commissioner, who
invites Okonkwo along with five other men and overpowers and
imprisons them. These elders are humiliated in the prison. On their return,
another meeting is held. The commissioner sends some men to stop the
proceedings, and Okonkwo, in a fit of fury, beheads one of them. The
tribe is disturbed and they let the other men escape. Finding no more
support from his tribesmen, Okonkwo hangs himself. His world has
fallen apart.
His tribesmen even refuse to cut him down and bury him since taking
one’s own life is a violation of the earth goddess, and his men would not
bury such a man. His friend Obierika’s words describe the tragedy most
powerfully “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You
drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.”
Okonkwo’s suicide is symbolic of the self-destruction of the tribe, for he

was a symbol of the power and pride that the tribe had and with its
demise, the tribe’s moral center and structure gave way to a more
dominant one. With his death, the old way of life is gone forever.
THEMES
Major Themes
The major theme of the novel is that British colonization and the
conversion to Christianity of tribal peoples has destroyed an intricate and
traditional age-old way of life in Africa. The administrative apparatus
that the British imposed on the cultures of Africa were thought to be just
as well as civilizing although in reality they had the opposite effect of
being cruel and inhumane practices that subjugated large native
populations to the British. In conjunction with the colonizing practices,
Western missionaries endeavored to move native peoples away from the
superstitious practices that they perceived as primitive and inhumane and
convert them to Christianity.
Another important theme that is explored in this book is the fallibility of

a man like Okonkwo, who is ambitious and hardworking who believes
strongly in his traditions. He wishes to achieve the highest title in his
village but ultimately his rash and impetuous behavior leads to his fall.
The reader also sees how Okonkwo refuses to break away from his
traditional and religious values, which results in his own death. He

refuses to conform to the forces of domination and therefore, one feels
respect and admiration for such a strong individual.
Minor Themes
One of the minor themes that Achebe addresses in this book is the
complex and subtle rites and traditions that make up Igbo culture. Achebe
wrote Things Fall Apart in response to representations of Africans as
primitive or as “noble savages” by European writers. In his novel,
Achebe explodes these Western constructions by presenting a society that
is as complex and dynamic as any culture in Western society. His
characters are also complex beings rather than stereotypes. It is in fact
the white colonialists and missionaries who appear to be one-
dimensional.
Along with the major theme of the destruction of African culture due to
colonization, the readers also see how orthodox traditions and customs
rule the people of the society. Absolute loyalty and obedience to the tribal
religion is inculcated into the minds of the people from their childhood.
Strict adherence to the laws, as well as gender roles create a community
that is extremely close knit, but once this bond is broken, tribal ways give
way easily and fall apart. This breakdown of society is seen as tragic as
people suffer and communities become divisive.
Mood
The title of the book as well as the epigram sets the tone of the novel
quite accurately. It comes from a W.B. Yeat’s poem called “The Second
Coming.” Yeats was a late 19th century Irish poet, essayist, and
dramatist. The actual verse that Achebe uses as his epigram is:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the
falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed
upon the world.
Chaos and disruption pervade good portions of the novel as well as a

sense of life being diminished and changing in ways that cannot be
controlled. Throughout the novel, the mood is usually somber and tragic
although there are moments of great celebration and joy during village
ceremonies such as weddings and the Week of Peace. The villagers have
strong faith and deep beliefs and do not allow any kind of laxness with
their customs. Yet during the festival seasons or during the wrestling
contests, the people lose some of their inhibitions and enjoy themselves.
The novel focuses on the downfall of Okonkwo and often conveys a sense
of loss and tragedy. When the reader reads about the egwugwu, the
marked representatives of the ancestral spirits, the mood conveyed is
extremely dramatic and even frightening.
Introduction
For many writers, the theme of a novel is the driving force of the book
during its creation. Even if the author doesn't consciously identify an
intended theme, the creative process is directed by at least one
controlling idea — a concept or principle or belief or purpose
significant to the author. The theme — often several themes — guides
the author by controlling where the story goes, what the characters do,
what mood is portrayed, what style evolves, and what emotional effects
the story will create in the reader.
Igbo Society Complexity
From Achebe's own statements, we know that one of his themes is the
complexity of Igbo society before the arrival of the Europeans. To
support this theme, he includes detailed descriptions of the justice codes
and the trial process, the social and family rituals, the marriage customs,
food production and preparation processes, the process of shared
leadership for the community, religious beliefs and practices, and the
opportunities for virtually every man to climb the clan's ladder of success
through his own efforts. The book may have been written more simply as
a study of Okonkwo's deterioration in character in an increasingly
unsympathetic and incompatible environment, but consider what would
have been lost had Achebe not emphasized the theme of the complex and
dynamic qualities of the Igbo in Umuofia.

Clash of Cultures
Against Achebe's theme of Igbo cultural complexity is his theme of the

clash of cultures. This collision of cultures occurs at the individual and
societal levels, and the cultural misunderstanding cuts both ways: Just as
the uncompromising Reverend Smith views Africans as "heathens," the
Igbo initially criticize the Christians and the missionaries as "foolish."
For Achebe, the Africans' misperceptions of themselves and of
Europeans need realignment as much as do the misperceptions of
Africans by the West. Writing as an African who had been
"Europeanized," Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as "an act of atonement
with [his] past, the ritual return and homage of a prodigal son." By his
own act, he encourages other Africans, especially ones with Western
educations, to realize that they may misperceive their native culture.
Destiny
Related to the theme of cultural clash is the issue of how much the
flexibility or the rigidity of the characters (and by implication, of the
British and Igbo) contribute to their destiny. Because of Okonkwo's
inflexible nature, he seems destined for self-destruction, even before the
arrival of the European colonizers. The arrival of a new culture only
hastens Okonkwo's tragic fate.
Two other characters contrast with Okonkwo in this regard: Mr. Brown,
the first missionary, and Obierika, Okonkwo's good friend. Whereas
Okonkwo is an unyielding man of action, the other two are more open
and adaptable men of thought. Mr. Brown wins converts by first
respecting the traditions and beliefs of the Igbo and subsequently
allowing some accommodation in the conversion process. Like Brown,
Obierika is also a reasonable and thinking person. He does not advocate
the use of force to counter the colonizers and the opposition. Rather, he
has an open mind about changing values and foreign culture: "Who
knows what may happen tomorrow?" he comments about the arrival of
foreigners. Obierika's receptive and adaptable nature may be more
representative of the spirit of Umuofia than Okonkwo's unquestioning
rigidity.

For example, consider Umuofia's initial lack of resistance to the
establishment of a new religion in its midst. With all its deep roots in
tribal heritage, the community hardly takes a stand against the intruders
— against new laws as well as new religion. What accounts for this lack
of community opposition? Was Igbo society more receptive and
adaptable than it appeared to be? The lack of strong initial resistance may
also come from the fact that the Igbo society does not foster strong central
leadership. This quality encourages individual initiative toward
recognition and achievement but also limits timely decision-making and
the authority-backed actions needed on short notice to maintain its
integrity and welfare. Whatever the reason — perhaps a combination of
these reasons — the British culture and its code of behavior, ambitious
for its goals of native "enlightenment" as well as of British self-
enrichment, begin to encroach upon the existing Igbo culture and its
corresponding code of behavior.
A factor that hastens the decline of the traditional Igbo society is their
custom of marginalizing some of their people — allowing the existence
of an outcast group and keeping women subservient in their household
and community involvement, treating them as property, and accepting
physical abuse of them somewhat lightly. When representatives of a
foreign culture (beginning with Christian missionaries) enter Igbo
territory and accept these marginalized people — including the twins —
at their full human value, the Igbo's traditional shared leadership finds
itself unable to control its whole population. The lack of a clear,
sustaining center of authority in Igbo society may be the quality that
decided Achebe to draw his title from the Yeats poem, "The Second
Coming." The key phrase of the poems reads, "Things fall apart; the
center cannot hold."
Underlying the aforementioned cultural themes is a theme of fate, or

destiny. This theme is also played at the individual and societal levels. In
the story, readers are frequently reminded about this theme in references
to chi, the individual's personal god as well as his ultimate capability and
destiny. Okonkwo, at his best, feels that his chi supports his ambition:
"When a man says yes, his chi says yes also" (Chapter 4). At his worst,
Okonkwo feels that his chi has let him down: His chi "was not made for
great things. A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi. . . . Here
was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation" (Chapter 14).
At the societal level, the Igbos' lack of a unifying self-image and
centralized leadership as well as their weakness in the treatment of some
of their own people — both previously discussed — suggest the
inevitable fate of becoming victim to colonization by a power eager to
exploit its resources.
In addition to the three themes discussed in this essay, the thoughtful

reader will probably be able to identify other themes in the novel: for
example, the universality of human motives and emotions across cultures
and time, and the need for balance between individual needs and
community needs.
Choosing a Language
Achebe maintains the opposite view. In a 1966 essay reprinted in his

book Morning Yet on Creation Day, he says that, by using English, he
presents "a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African
experience in a world-wide language." He recommends that the African
writer use English "in a way that brings out his message best without
altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of
international exchange will be lost. [The writer] should aim at fashioning
out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar
experience." Achebe accomplishes this goal by innovatively introducing
Igbo language, proverbs, metaphors, speech rhythms, and ideas into a
novel written in English.
Achebe agrees, however, with many of his fellow African writers on one
point: The African writer must write for a social purpose. In contrast to
Western writers and artists who create art for art's sake, many African
writers create works with one mission in mind — to reestablish their own
national culture in the postcolonial era. In a 1964 statement, also
published in Morning Yet on Creation Day, Achebe comments that
African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans.
. . . their societies were not mindless, but frequently had a philosophy of
great depth and value and beauty, . . . they had poetry, and above all, they
had dignity. It is this dignity that African people all but lost during the
colonial period, and it is this that they must now regain.

To further his aim of disseminating African works to a non-African
audience, Achebe became the founding editor for a series on African
literature — the African Writers Series — for the publishing firm
Heinemann.
The Use of English
Achebe presents the complexities and depths of an African culture to

readers of other cultures as well as to readers of his own culture. By using
English — in which he has been proficient since childhood — he reaches
many more readers and has a much greater literary impact than he would
by writing in a language such as Igbo. Writers who write in their native
language must eventually allow their works to be translated, often into
English, so readers outside the culture can learn about it.
Yet by using English, Achebe faces a problem. How can he present the
African heritage and culture in a language that can never describe it
adequately? Indeed, one of the primary tasks of Things Fall Apart is to
confront this lack of understanding between the Igbo culture and the
colonialist culture. In the novel, the Igbo ask how the white man can call
Igbo customs bad when he does not even speak the Igbo language. An
understanding of Igbo culture can only be possible when the outsider can
relate to the Igbo language and terminology.
Achebe solves this problem by incorporating elements of the Igbo

language into his novel. By incorporating Igbo words, rhythms, language,
and concepts into an English text about his culture, Achebe goes a long
way to bridge a cultural divide.
The Igbo vocabulary is merged into the text almost seamlessly so the
reader understands the meaning of most Igbo words by their context. Can
any attentive reader of Things Fall Apart remain unfamiliar with words
and concepts represented by chi, egwugwu, ogbanje, and obi? Such Igbo
terms as chi and ogbanje are essentially untranslatable, but by using them
in the context of his story, Achebe helps the non-Igbo reader identify with
and relate to this complex Igbo culture.

Chi, for example, represents a significant, complex Igbo concept that
Achebe repeatedly refers to by illustrating the concept in various contexts
throughout the story. Achebe translates chi as personal god when he first
mentions Unoka's bad fortune. As the book progresses, it gradually picks
up other nuances. As discussed in the Analysis section for Chapter 3, the
chi concept is more complex than a personal deity or even fate, another
frequently used synonym. Chi suggests elements of the Hindu concept of
karma, the concept of the soul in some Christian denominations, and the
concept of individuality in some mystical philosophies. The
understanding of chi and its significance in Igbo culture grows as one
progresses through the book.
Another example of Achebe's incorporation of Igbo elements is his

frequent reference to traditional Igbo proverbs and tales. These particular
elements give Things Fall Apart an authentic African voice. The Igbo
culture is fundamentally an oral one — that is, "Among the Igbo, the art
of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil
with which words are eaten" (Chapter1). To provide an authentic feel for
Igbo culture would be impossible without also allowing the proverbs to
play a significant role in the novel. And despite the foreign origin of these
proverbs and tales, the Western reader can relate very well to many of
them. They are woven smoothly into their context and require only
occasional explanation or elaboration. These proverbs and tales are, in
fact, quite similar in spirit to Western sayings and fables.
Modern-day readers of this novel not only relate easily to traditional

proverbs and tales but also sympathize with the problems of Okonkwo,
Nwoye, and other characters. Achebe has skillfully developed his
characters, and even though they live in a different era and a very
different culture, one can readily understand their motivations and their
feelings because they are universal and timeless.
Speech patterns and rhythms are occasionally used to represent moments

of high emotion and tension. Consider the sound of the drums in the night
in Chapter 13 (go-di-di-go-go-di-go); the call repeated several times to
unite a gathering followed by its group response, first described in
Chapter 2 (Umuofia kwenu. . .Yaa!); the agonized call of the priestess
seeking Ezinma in Chapter 11 (Agbala do-o-o-o!); the repetitious pattern
of questions and answers in the isa-ifi marriage ritual in Chapter14; the
long narrated tale of Tortoise in Chapter 11; and the excerpts from songs
in several chapters.
Achebe adds another twist in his creative use of language by

incorporating a few examples of Pidgin English. Pidgin is a simplified
form of language used for communicating between groups of people who
normally speak different languages. Achebe uses only a few Pidgin
words or phrases — tie-tie (to tie); kotma (a crude form of court
messenger); and Yes, sah — just enough to suggest that a form of Pidgin
English was being established. As colonialists, the British were adept at
installing Pidgin English in their new colonies. Unfortunately, Pidgin
sometimes takes on characteristics of master-servant communication; it
can sound patronizing on the one hand, and subservient on the other.
Furthermore, using the simplified language can become an easy excuse
for not learning the standard languages for which it substitutes.
Achebe's use of Igbo language, speech patterns, proverbs, and richly

drawn characters creates an authentic African story that effectively
bridges the cultural and historical gap between the reader and the Igbo.
Things Fall Apart is a groundbreaking work for many reasons, but
particularly because Achebe's controlled use of the Igbo language in an
English novel extends the boundaries of what is considered English
fiction. Achebe's introduction of new forms and language into a
traditional (Western) narrative structure to communicate unique African
experiences forever changed the definition of world literature.
Pronunciation of Igbo Names and Words
Like Chinese, the Igbo language is a tonal one; that is, differences in the
actual voice pitch and the rise or fall of a word or phrase can produce
different meanings. In Chapter 16, for example, Achebe describes how
the missionary's translator, though an Igbo, can not pronounce the
Mbanto Igbo dialect: "Instead of saying 'myself' he always said 'my
buttocks.'" (The form k means strength while k means buttocks.)
Igbo names usually represent meanings — often entire ideas. Some

names reflect the qualities that a parent wishes to bestow on a child; for
example, Ikemefuna means my power should not be dispersed. Other

names reflect the time, area, or other circumstances to which a child is
born; for example, Okoye means man born on Oye Day, the second day
of the Igbo week. And Igbo parents also give names to honor someone or
something else; for instance, Nneka means mother is supreme.
Prior to Nigerian independence in 1960, the spelling of Igbo words was

not standardized. Thus the word Igbo is written as Ibo, the pre-1960
spelling throughout Things Fall Apart. The new spellings reflect a more
accurate understanding and pronunciation of Igbo words. The List of
Characters includes a pronunciation that uses equivalent English
syllables for most of the main characters' names.

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Common Wealth Literature B.

The price seemed reasonable, location

1 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

In the summary of Telephone conversation by Wole Soyinka, the poet

The idea of Telephone conversation is to depict how brutal it can be for

Theme of Telephone conversation

Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation depicts a conversation between a

Telephone Conversation," by Wole Soyinka is about racism; more

The narrator of the poem describes a telephone conversation in which he

This is where the lapses in communication begin. The landlady's first

The narrator is "dumbfounded." Instead of telling her, "It's none of

Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see

He makes matters even worse by saying that "friction" has somehow

6 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see

The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet

Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused--

Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has turned

My bottom raven black...

In 'Telephone Conversation', the poet conveys his disappointment and

The poem is in the form of free verse. It is because 'conversation' isn't

Analyzing the Author's Argument

In "Telephone Conversation", we see the message that racism, or seeing

The fragmented and awkward syntax gives an impression of the

The author's special emphasis of the woman's statements about color

The final question, we assume is rhetorical given the tone of the

The poem starts with a somewhat peaceful atmosphere befitting the

An uneasy atmosphere ensues thereby. Following the caesura, there is

10 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

Tension rises with the explicitly racial discrimination in line 10 of the

11 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

Instead of describing the justifiable indignation that the poetic persona

12 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

13 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

To conclude, through his poem “Telephone Conversation”, Soyinka is

14 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

The new poets still quoted

15 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

‘A city of temples and poets’

This is an ironic reference to Madurai as a seat of Tamilian culture, which

This is an unusual poem with many layers of meaning and is a

16 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

The poem A River by A.K. Ramanujan is a tour de force of impressive

The poet-visitor, a modern poet probably Ramanujan himself, visits

The poem A River illustrates many significant features of Ramanujan’s

1. Which river is mentioned in the extract? What is Madurai reputed for?

18 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

6. Who is referred to as ‘He’ here? Where is he now” Why?

8. Comment on the lines: a couple of cows/ named Gopi and Brinda as

10. What do you infer from the following lines:

11. Comment on the theme of the poem.

Father, when he passed on, and at both ends,

as before, easily to holdin their parentheses

21 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

“Obituary” written by A.K. Ramanujan reminiscences his father’s death,

and at both ends,

23 HNDE 2ND YEAR 1ST SEMESTER 0752858168

Analysis of the poem:

like his caesarean birth

left debts and daughters,

The poem ‘Obituary’, in this regard is a significant example of

Point out the irony in this poem?