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Strength and weakness of cultural influence on behaviour
A Passage to India by Em Forster Critical Analysis
Strength and weakness of cultural influence on behaviour
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An Inward Collapse of the Human Perspective in Forster's A Passage to India
The reverberation of sound in the form of an echo is threaded throughout E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, and the link between the echo and the hollowness of the human spirit is depicted in the text. The echo is not heard in the beginning of the text when the English newcomers, Mrs. Moore and Ms. Quested, arrive in India; it is more clearly heard as their relationship with India gains complexity. The influence of the colonizers and the colonized on one another is inevitable; however, the usual assumption is that the colonists are the most successful in imposing their values and ideologies on the individuals whom they view as the "natives." In an introduction to a text depicting a portrait of the colonizer and the colonized, Jean-Paul Sartre states that in attempting to dehumanize colonized individuals, the colonist becomes dehumanized himself. "A relentless reciprocity binds the colonizer to the colonized-his product becomes his fate" (Sartre xxviii). While Forster's text possesses numerous instances of the English losing a humanistic perspective as they place the Indians in a submissive role and treat them as subjects, it can be argued that Sartre's observation of the dynamic existing between the colonizer and the colonized is somewhat manipulated in Forster's text-instead of being dehumanized from their exposure to the colonized, the colonizers gain greater insight into the essence of humanity. The English characters in the text are embraced by the mystery and spirituality of the Orient, which is the focus of their imperialism. As a result, the English join their Indian counterparts in looking inward and outward to discover that the void a...
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...rain and snows!
O day and night, passage to you!
-Walt Whitman
Works Cited
Crews, Frederick C. E.M. Forster: The Perils of Humanism. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1962.
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1984
Parry, Benita. "A Passage to More than India." Ed. Malcolm Bradbury. Forster: A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Rosecrance, Barbara. Forster's Narrative Vision. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Introduction. The Colonizer and the Colonized. By Albert Memmi. New York: Orion Press, 1965. xxi-xxix.
Stone, Wilfred. The Cave and the Mountain: A Study of E.M. Forster. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Thomson, George H. The Fiction of E.M. Forster. Detroit: Wayne State University press, 1967.
Through the excerpts from Pixley, Carvalho and Kim, the basis of both liberation theology/liberation criticism and post-colonial criticism stem from their focus on the marginalized, whether that be natives or “The Other” and the interplay between these two criticism can be observed through their opposition to the dominant culture, the necessity of educating the marginalized and giving them a voice, and their analysis of the text through hermeneutics and its application in each criticism.
[2] James McConkey. The Novels of E.M. Forster. New York: Cornell University Press, 1957 (79).
Schlipp, Paul Arthur ed. The Philosophy Of Jean-Paul Sartre. The Library of Living Philosophers Vol. XVI, La Salle, Ill: Open Court 1981.
In British imperial fiction, physical setting or landscape commonly plays a prominent role in the central thematic subject. In these works, landscape goes beyond an objective description of nature and setting to represent “a way of seeing- a way in which some Europeans have represented to themselves and others the world about them and their relationships with it, and through which they have commented on social relations” (Cosgrove xiv). By investigating the ways in which writers of colonial ficition, such as H. Rider Haggard and E.M. Forester, have used landscape, we see that landscape represents a historically and culturally specific way of experiencing the world. In Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, the landscape is gendered to show the colonizer’s ability to dominate over native territory. However, while the scenario of the male colonizer conquering a feminized landscape reinforces a legitimizing myth of colonization, it is later overturned by Forester’s A Passage to India. In this novel, the landscape takes on a complex, multifaceted role, articulating the ambivalence of cross-cultural relationships and exposing the fragility of colonial rule. In contrast to King Solomon’s Mines, A Passage to India uses landscape as a tool to expose the problematic nature of colonial interaction that might have easily been left obscured and unacknowledged. We can read the landscape as a type of secondary narrator in A Passage to India that articulates the novel’s imperial ideology.
What aspect of A Passage to India justifies the novel's superiority over Forster's other works? Perhaps it is the novel's display of Forster's excellent mastery of several literary elements that places it among the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Among these literary elements, Forster's comic irony stands out, and throughout the entire novel, the author satirizes the English, the Indians, and the Anglo-Indian relationship. Frederick P. W. McDowell confirms this sentiment when saying "Forster, in his description (of characters), is the witty satirist..." (100).
Viera, Carrol. “E. M. Forster.” Dictionary of Literary Biography. Ed. John H. Rogers. Vol. 162. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1996.
E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse are concerned with the lack of intimacy in relationships. Forster’s novel is set in English-run India, the difference between race and culture being the center of disharmony. Woolf’s novel is set in a family’s summer house, the difference between genders being the center of disharmony. Despite this difference of scale, the disharmonies are much the same. Unity and intimacy are intertwined in both novels. Whereas the definitions of intimacy vary with each person, all of the characters strive for unity through their relations with others. The difference in ideas of intimacy are what prevent unity from being achieved. For the Indians, intimacy is a sharing of possessions and personal information that acknowledges equality. For the English, intimacy is similarity of background and allegiance. Thus, Heaslop tells his mother that he made a mistake by asking one of the Pleaders to smoke with him because the Pleader then told all the litigants that he was in with the City Magistrate (Forster, 20). To the Pleader, this sharing of cigarettes and leisure time is an act of intimacy because it seems an acknowledgement of equality. To Heaslop, this is only a friendly act of social convention because equality is based on race and class, is something inherent, not given.
Throughout the world organizations are developing strategies and putting long hours and effort in training the individuals on the job. Firms are attempting to improve interests in professional development to increase employee performance through training. About $100 billion is spent a year to train employees around the world to improve corporate performance in topics such as communication, sales, performance management, operations, and technology with much little impact (Jaidev & Chirayath, 2012). The concept of transfer training used in organizations is commonly used in firms today. This paper will discuss the concept of transfer training strengths and weakness and how trainers can utilize it in the workplace in a more efficient manner.
Forster’s novel creates in many ways a patient, but intimidating India. He says at one moment in the novel, “The inarticulate world is closer at hand and readier to resume control as soon as men are tired” (114). This begins to paint a picture of India’s personality as one that is resentful of those who have come and taken control of her land. She waits patiently for those who have invaded her territory to dissolve into dust like those before them. She has survived countless invasions and uprisings, and will still be there when men are gone.
E.M. Forster's A Passage to India concerns the relations between the English and the native population of India during the colonial period in which Britain ruled India. The novel takes place primarily in Chandrapore, a city along the Ganges River notable only for the nearby Marabar caves. The main character of the novel is Dr. Aziz, a Moslem doctor in Chandrapore and widower. After he is summoned to the Civil Surgeon's home only to be promptly ignored, Aziz visits a local Islamic temple where he meets Mrs. Moore, an elderly British woman visiting her son, Mr. Heaslop, who is the City Magistrate. Although Aziz reprimands her for not taking her shoes off in the temple before realizing she has in fact observed this rule, the two soon find that they have much in common and he escorts her back to the club.
As one of the most treasured modes of creative expression, literature possesses a remarkable power to illustrate the human condition in all of its nuanced and resplendent forms. With such power, however, comes an enormous responsibility, a duty to arouse the consciousness of the reader in a way that precipitates true emotion and contemplation. In effectuating this end, literature must transcend the literality of mere words and sentences, and instead provide the reader with a vigorous and truthful tableau of what it means to be a human being. These high standards, which all literature must fulfill, are perhaps best exemplified by E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India, which recounts the story of several characters trying to make sense of a
When considering the novels of E.M. Forster, it is natural to recall the reserved landscapes of the Merchant and Ivory cinematic versions. Gauzy images - green hills, languorous boat rides, tender embraces - these impressions, cousins, really, to Jane Austen's plots and settings, are remembered as period pieces seldom associated with the literary experimentation of Virginia Woolf or the winsome angst of the lost War poets. It seems - does it not? - the movies end happily with the appropriate pairing of couples. But Forster should not be lumped in with representative Edwardian literature or with cinematic bliss. In order to analyze the worth of Forster's literary contribution, our impressions of the films must be put aside so that the text's echo can rattle in our ears.
Yes, I agree with EM Forster that A Passage to India is not a political novel. Instead, it explores the vastness of infinity and seems (at first) to portray nothing. In those two words alone, `infinity', and `nothing', is the allusion of wondering, and wandering spirits. The title, A Passage to India, evokes a sense of journey and destination. When we string these two ideas together the novel begins to reveal itself as a garland worn in humble tribute to India. With this garland around his neck, Forster also pays homage to the Shri Krishna consciuousness as expressed through the Hindu religion. The clumsy attempts of the two great religions of Christianity and Islam to understand India represent forster's own efforts, and the journey he makes to India is tracked throughout the novel.
MacAulay, Rose. "A Passage to India." The Writings of E.M. Forster. New York: Barnes, 1970. 176-203.
E.M. Foresters, A Passage to India is a very riveting post colonial novel. It shows how cultures were forced to mix with one another and the consequences that came along from that. The story takes place during the early 1900s in different locations of India. There is a clear fluctuation between the British ruling class and the native population in India. It exhibits the difference in religious beliefs, thoughts, and economic issues. Forester makes the reader wonder and question if it is possible for the two different cultures to form a friendship. A Passage to India portrays how challenging it was for loyal friendship to be established between members of two antithetic cultures during post-colonialism in India.