Review 10

Rajeet Guha New School Homework 10 A book reader or a moviegoer has practiced the art of fooling oneself as long as he or she is immersed in the fictional form. He or she has deferred incredulity for the time being until he dog-ears his or her book or watches the movie in its entirety. Despite being cognizant of the fact that we have jettisoned scientific skepticism temporarily, the audience is seldom immune to new sensations encountered by their bodies or psychological changes experienced by them. Rarely can the reader or viewer extricate himself or herself from the spectrum of emotions that accompany such reading or watching. Knowledge of the mirage of unreality embedded in fiction drives aesthetic gratification. Aesthetic gratification is profound when there is verisimilitude in fiction. Verisimilitude is an innate ingredient in any art. Verisimilitude is a verity that is tenable in any art form like poetry, music, painting, sculpture or rhetoric. The use of figures of speech in literature like simile, metaphor, cliché, conceit, hyperbole, double entendre, pun, metonymy, symbol, motif, allegory, etc. make it inevitably inseparable from a semblance to reality ingrained in it. A subtle understanding and discerning use of such figures of speech creates verisimilitude and subsequently results in aesthetic gratification. A writer must know what figure of speech to use where and when appropriately in the text and above all in what context. The writer must contrast and evaluate the relative merits and flaws of each and every figure of speech pertinent to the sentence and paragraph. It is essential for the author to neither have a paucity of figurative speech nor have a superfluity of it. After having compared the figurative use of language in literature as encapsulated in similes, metaphors, symbols, motifs, allegories, hyperboles, puns, double entendre, conceits, clichés, etc. it will be apposite to talk about theme in literature. Theme is of paramount importance in literature. A work of literature can have an overarching theme or multiple themes may be discussed. A theme refers not just to the fictional form and content in literature but also to the salient ideas, abstractions or philosophies discussed or touched upon. These ideas, abstractions or philosophies that embody the theme or themes in literature are implicit in the story. Themes are shown and generally not told in literature. Themes are not fables or parables. Theme is not anchored in didactic teaching. Theme can only insinuate indirectly at a moral but never overtly lay it down. Theme makes conjectural judgments from different angles. None of the hypotheses are carved in stone and consequently do not become theories in the strictest sense of the term. Only relative judgments are implied. Absolute judgments are usually refrained from themes in literature. Theme in literature verily utilizes the components of emotion, logic and judgment to portray the happiness and unhappiness of human beings. Each story has a unique mix of emotion, logic and judgment that gives the story its distinctiveness and flavor. A theme of a story can never be rehearsed or planned meticulously in advance. The development of a theme is spontaneous and flows like a river. Like a river encounters obstacles and meanders along its path, the theme or themes in stories is continuously colliding or changing. There are plenty of changes in the development of theme that take place right from penning the first word on the first draft to the finished product of the manuscript. ‘The First Day’ is a short story by the author Edward P. Jones. The narrator of the story is a little girl who is five years old and comes from an extremely modest background. The narration is in the present tense. The narration is in the first person central narrator as the five-year-old narrator is also the protagonist in the story. The first sentence of the story foreshadows the latter developments in the plot. The story is told in flashback by a grown-up woman who reminisces about her first day in school. Her memory of her first day in school is bittersweet. It was the first day for the narrator not just in school but also the first day when a tragic truth about her low socio-economic background and her being the daughter of an uneducated and illiterate single mother revealed itself to her like a bolt from the blue. This was not just give a grievous blow to her self-esteem but shattered her innocent and naïve conception of being in the same societal bracket as her peers. It also irreparably and irreversibly damaged the narrator’s sweet, loving and warm relationship with her mother. The narrator started looking down upon her mother and was ashamed and embarrassed that her mother could not read or write. The narrator’s mother is the antagonist in the story. In fact, the narrator’s teacher who helps her mother fill out the form becomes someone that the girl looks up to and supplants her mother as a role model. The narrator also realizes that her mother does not epitomize earnestness and honesty. The mother does not practice what she preaches. The mother tells her daughter not to stare at others while staring herself at others. The mother is susceptible to double standards. The setting for the story is a lower middle class neighborhood in Washington D.C. inhabited overwhelmingly by black Christian families. These black Christian families struggle to make ends meet in the late 1950s and early 1960s and these people have strong bonding with the church and have hopes of upward mobility. The plot portrays how a protective mother prepares her daughter with care for bracing the first day in school, walks her daughter to school, initial disappointment at not being able to go to the school of the first choice, the mother’s tenacity to get her daughter admitted at another school, taking the help of a teacher to fill out the forms for her daughter and finally taking leave of her daughter as her little one was about to embark on her journey to formal education. The timeworn and the doleful building of the first school is a symbol of rejection while the bright and new building of the second school is a symbol of acceptance. The theme of the story is that formal education is the surest path to upward mobility for the have-nots and the lower rungs of society. There is another theme that is the sacrifice made by parents to see their children get the best in life including education even though they may have been deprived of it themselves. The triumph of perseverance and tenacity over disappointment and despair is another theme. ‘Hotel Touraine’ is a short story written by Robert Olen Butler. It is one of the stories in his collectable collection of short stories. This collection of short stories harks back to the early twentieth century when the entire world was on the cusp of change that would usher in a new era. At this juncture of history in the early twentieth century, picture postcards were a rage in America and Europe. Picture postcards were a popular form of communication at a point in modern history when television was a distant dream and computers was still in the realm of science fiction. Hotel Touraine is a story that emerges in the fecund imagination of the writer with the aid of a picture postcard and a cryptic message scrawled on its back by an obscure person. The plot of the story is well developed. The setting is the first decade of the twentieth century in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The action takes place mostly in the majestic and magnificent Hotel Touraine of Boston and its adjacent surroundings. The plot of the story is mostly about the interactions of two people from the opposite ends of the economic spectrum; one is a poor, defiant, recalcitrant and rancorous bellhop at the hotel and the other is a rich, depressed, lonely, slovenly, excessively indulgent, conceited, condescending and genteel fellow who lives a decadent lifestyle. The bellhop is the protagonist while the fabulously rich fellow is the antagonist. The bellhop is the first person central narrator whose emotional life is turned topsy-turvy after the tragedy that is the climax. The bellhop is filled with remorse and guilt over having being hostile to the wealthy and melancholic fellow who drowned his misery in alcohol. They both are bitter and dissatisfied in life despite being from opposite poles in society. The plot has a twist at the end akin to the stories of O’ Henry or Maupassant. The ending is bathetic. It arouses pathos in the readers. It is a maudlin tale that shows that appearances are deceptive. It also shows that money and the luxuries that it can buy is no substitute for happiness and tranquility. It also shows the animosities inherent in people of differing economic classes arising from deep-seated inferiority complexes and feelings of envy. The story also shows the inequality in society stemming from an asymmetric distribution of income and wealth. ‘A Man told me the Story of his Life’ is a short short story. The author Grace Paley has written this short or piece of flash fiction. Grace Paley has written this jewel of a short in the third person narrator point of view. The narrator is an obscure person who has interviewed the protagonist of the piece namely Vicente. Vicente is engaged in a monologue. Vicente is allowed to freely speak his own thoughts and talk about his education, his strengths, misguidance in his life by his advisors, his thwarted ambitions, his accidental career, his family, his moment of epiphany, affirmation of his intuition, his psychological triumph and his spiritual salvation so to speak. The antagonists are the school authorities and ultimately the state that prevented him from fulfilling his aspirations and goals of becoming a doctor. The plot is a bit sparse but succinct. The story is narrated in the form of a flashback. The theme of the story is choosing a career that leads to a regular and steady earning or a vocation that one loves but where one’s existence is hand to mouth. Another theme is each individual’s chance to choose a profession of one’s own or an arbitrary and heavy-handed choice by the state. A third theme is that of believing in one’s own intuition and leaving no stone unturned in pursuing one’s dreams no matter how long it takes to get settled over the purported wisdom of elders and authorities in selecting someone’s career. This compressed story is a scathing satire on the education system, educational advisors, the authorities in power and ultimately the state. Winky is a short story written by the writer George Saunders. The story has been written in the third person omniscient narrator point of view. The story’s protagonist is Neil Yaniky. Neil is a nondescript fellow and a bit of a wastrel in life. He is quite unimpressive looking. Neil is Winky’s brother. Winky, who is Neil’s eccentric, devout, kind, clumsy, callow, grotesque looking and scatterbrained sister is the antagonist in the story. We clearly see that the title of the story is misleading in the sense that Winky is certainly the antagonist, not the protagonist. Another important character is the self-help guru and motivational speaker Tom Rodgers who is a smart aleck that has used his charisma, marketing and oratory to make millions and a name for himself by capitalizing on the susceptibility and gullibility of the public. This motivational speaker needles Neil and is cajoling him to realize his American Dream by casting out Winky from his life and household. This motivational speaker is an objectivist like Ayn Rand and a dyed in the wool instrumental rationalist. Instrumental rationality typifies selfishness, covetousness, naked ambition and ruthlessness as personified in the robber barons of the nineteenth century capitalist America like Rockefeller, Carnegie, DuPont, Vanderbilt, etc. The narrative shows Neil clearly being influenced by such self-centered behavior and cupidity for some time until the eleventh hour when an upsurge of compassion and humanity rescue him from the barren spiritual wasteland of avaricious and self-aggrandizing behavior. Winky is a lovable and humane simpleton who finds solace in religion and the amazing grace of Jesus Christ. The narrative shows Winky engaging in an elaborate interior monologue when Neil is away from home. When Neil returns home, he has tender feelings for Winky. Suddenly in a revelatory moment, empathy and compassion for Winky overwhelm his brazenly selfish instincts to rapaciously pursue his lust for wealth and power. Neil is resentful towards Winky but cannot defenestrate her from his household. Neil is going to be reasonable towards Winky and not be instrumental in deracinating her life. Neil realizes he must be a watchful guardian over a defenseless and weak Winky and there is considerable chivalry and heroism in being her guardian angel. Besides they are siblings and need each other to comfort themselves in their hour of despair. Neil realizes and treasures human connections and relationships over money, riches and superficial status symbols. Nonetheless, the story falls flat as the protagonist fails to undergo a metamorphosis. A complete lack of change in character of the protagonist is a damp squib and the climax is never reached in the story. Saunders is a critic of the postmodern philosophy and its impact on literature. He skewers the philosophy of instrumental rationality and its byproduct of untrammelled capitalism. Saunders excoriates the rapaciousness of multinational corporations and the banality of evil prevalent in the unchecked capitalism of the unfettered market. He is a relentless critic of classical liberalism and ultimately advocates the virtues of compassion, communicative rationality and empathy in human beings. Finally, the last short story assigned in the reading was ‘This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona.’ It has been written by a celebrated Native American author namely Sherman Alexie. It has been written in the third person omniscient narrator point of view. The plot comprises an American Indian named Victor, who is the protagonist of the story, and an antagonist named Thomas-Builds-the-Fire, another American Indian. With the aid of the device of flashback it is known that Victor and Thomas were bosom buddies in childhood but have become alienated with the efflux of time. They had once in their teens even once been involved in an altercation. They lived in an Indian reservation in the state of Washington. Again in flashback, it is told that Thomas has had his share of trials and tribulations in life. He has always been an orphan. He has been brought up in the reservation and is a loner. He has been shunned by most of the others in the reservation throughout his life as he has been perceived as idiosyncratic and an oddball. He is a soothsayer and has supernatural powers. He can communicate with the spirits of nature and has a gift for storytelling; sometimes even bluntly telling uncomfortable and unpalatable truths. His candor has been a fertile ground for sowing the hostility of others towards him. He is a dyed in the wool Native American. He has a sense of history and is a walking, talking encyclopedia in American Indian history. Victor’s father left him and his mother years ago. After deserting them, Victor’s father spent his days in the dreary desert of Phoenix, Arizona. This event was traumatic for Victor. Victor’s father was an alcoholic who treated his family badly. Victor has led a cavalier life and is not acquainted that well with Native American heritage and culture. He has recently lost his job and soon hears of the demise of his father. He wants to rush to Phoenix but lacks the wherewithal to go there. The Bureau of Indian Affairs does not give him the money necessary for his trip. He has to go to Phoenix to retrieve his father’s body, his father’s truck, some photos, some cash and a few other things. In his hour of need, it is Thomas who saves the day for him. Thomas helps him with the requisite funds. They go by plane to Victor’s father’s place in Phoenix and return home to the reservation after collecting his father’s ashes, a few photos, a pickup truck, cash, checkbook and a few souvenirs. On the way back home to Washington State, Victor apologizes to Thomas for bullying him years ago. Thomas accepts his apology and forgives him. Thomas relates an incident on the way back saying how Victor’s father had once rescued him at Spokane Falls, taken him to a restaurant and drove him back to the reservation. In turn, Victor’s father had pledged Thomas to always look out for Victor. This is exactly what Thomas by providing emotional and material support to Victor in his hour of need. Victor warmed up to Thomas and agreed to listen once to Thomas, the irrepressible storyteller’s story just once. The theme of the story is the poverty and squalor that permeates life in the Indian reservations. The abject and crushing hunger, unabated alcoholism, devastating drug addiction, wicked violence in reservation life creates a Stygian scenario. Such a lamentable situation calls forth lachrymose sentimentality. It shows the execrable exploitation of Native Americans by mainstream politicians. The story also talks about themes of brotherhood, bonding and caring for one’s neighbors and tribe. The story is also about compassion, empathy, magnanimity and forgiveness and finally even an eleemosynary spirit.