Any author's primary goal in story writing is to convey an idea or topic to their reading audience. The conventional wisdom on this thought is that the clearer this is conveyed, the greater the appeal to the reader. However, some authors feel the need to resist this trend and forge new paths that sometime leaves the meanings of their stories obscure and hidden from the average reader. Donald Barthelme has taken this optional approach with his story "The Indian Uprising". There are several reasons that I did not fully enjoy this post-colonial short story.
One, its "point" is vague and this is a challenge to my current reading abilities and two, it rambles along its disjointed timeline to the point that I became easily lost. However, there is something that the story brought to light that I am now more fully aware of than before reading this story. That is my own abilities of intellectual analysis. It is these areas that I wish to elaborate upon.Donald Barthelme's deliberate twisting of the subtleties in meaning in his story is intriguing. However, as a recent popular movie so elegantly put it, it left me dazed and confused. I couldn't seem to figure out what the point or moral of the story should be.
Was this a story of a battle between cowboys and Indians, as it suggests in its title? The story starts off leading you to take this as a real possibility with lines such as "We defended the city as best we could. The arrows of the Comanches came in clouds."(123). Or was it a story of love set in the time of war? "...we issued entrenching tools to those who seemed trustworthy and turned the heavy-weapons companies so that we could not be surprised from that direction. And I sat there getting drunker and drunker and more in love and more in love." (124).
Although the story bounces between these two main "insinuations", it is never clear to me what or who the story is about and I found this to be an unfulfilling reading. In retrospect my previous readings of literature have been more of the atypical writing style. One that leaves you comfortable and secure and without guesswork "The Indian Uprising" avoids this style at all cost. The author's intent on writing in the style of a collage, although fascinating, is very confusing. I will be the first to admit I'm not the most avid of readers, but having to read a story two or even three times and still not fully perceiving its meaning made it an even more arduous read.
Did you know that the average gender wage gap in America, as of 2015, was
...it up to each reader to draw their own conclusions and search their own feelings. At the false climax, the reader was surprised to learn that the quite, well-liked, polite, little convent girl was colored. Now the reader had to evaluate how the forces within their society might have driven such an innocent to commit suicide.
Why did so many people, young, old, sick, wealthy and even convicted felonies had to experience firsthand of the worst evil man could ever pursue to one another. What was the point? Surely there have been many explanations, but those did not answer mine. I understood why the prisoners questioned their faith in God, I probably would have to. On the contrary, not even prayers to God could stop such evil. It criticizes the acceptance of human rights. This story puts a strain on trusting others. The individuals in this novel had a redundant encounter. It maddens me to the core. The hardships of what they had to go through, just for survival gives me grief. The story overall makes me feel distressed from every angle of the
Symbolism is displayed in this short story to strengthen the theme. When talking to his daughter about her departure for college, the father repeatedly mentions seeing Indians. When he is asked by his daughter what he was doing, he responded, "Looking for some Indians." He is beginning to worry here, by the indication that he is seeing Indians. (98) Later on he said, "Look... Indians on the warpath." (100) which is displaying how he further felt his fear of his daughter leaving. At the end of the story, he concludes by thinking, "I went
1774, Warren Hastings appointed the first governor general of India by the East India Company. In 1774, he was appointed the first Governor-General of Bengal. He was also the first governor of India. The post was new, and British mechanisms to administer the territory were not fully developed. Regardless of his title, Hastings was only a member of a five-man Supreme Council of Bengal so confusedly structured that it was difficult to tell what constitutional position Hastings actually held.
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
The main conflict in this story is a personal conflict of Jayanti trying to convince herself that America is still a great place, ignoring her uncle saying "Things here aren't as perfect as people at home like to think." She tries to stay open minded to how great America is going to be, until her conflict with the boys in the streets. The boys throw nasty slush at Jayanti and her aunt, but Jayanti doesn't seem to want to accept that fact boys that young are so disrespectful in America unlike at home for her. Another conflict she experiences is having her uncle hit her aunt in front of her, but having no idea how to react to the situation because her aunt forgives her uncle almost instantly after getting hit. I would find it very confusing if
The author, Elisa, is a rich woman living with her husband and servants when they were attacked by the Sepoys. There is no justification for the Indians’ actions but this portrays that they were gravely mistreated to the point that they had to resort to rebellion and violence. This is a tragic event that would distress any one of us today. The British were responsible for the rebellion and acts of violence because they let that country starve and looked down on them and their
Sidhwa’s representation of characters in Cracking India serves as the embodiment of suffrage that Partition caused to the people of India. Through Lenny, the reader envisions each character having his/her own experiences and reactions to the post-colonization, which expands the focus of the affects from one group to multicultural groups of citizens. She explains that “when you put yourself into the persona of a child, in a way you remove all those blurred images-- other people 's opinions, expectations about what life is teaching you and the stereotypes which come in” (Sidhwa “Interview” 519). Lenny’s perspective shows the unveiling of biases and discrimination in her imagined community that she encounters and observes. The individual traits and transformation of personalities and relationships between the protagonist and her circle of relatives and friends symbolize how
It rips off the rose-eyed lenses that people look at India through, and it exposes the corruption and darkness that occurs within its borders. The character, Balram, is a sort of anti-hero who climbs his way to the top by adopting the methods of those he once and still possibly detested. Through every wrongdoing he does, he is constantly struggling for self-justification in order to have a healthy conscience and enjoy being at the top (Kapur). I think this narrative was successful because the protagonist wasn’t necessarily the “the good guy”. It depicts how good people must resort to bad things because of the limitations placed upon them, and that surpassing those limitations by indulging in questionable practices is the only way to find success in such a situation. Adiga critiques the potential downfalls of a neoliberalist society, for while it benefits those who are successful, it harshly punishes those who struggle to be. By telling the tale of a man who was still technically morally good become the necessary evil that he hated in order to become successful, that Adiga was able to effectively portray the cons of such a free market
... Pakistan to surrender during the Indo-Pakistani War helped the Bengalis establish a sovereign state for themselves. The distribution of the racist pamphlets against the minorities showed Shiv Sena's chauvinistic and fascist regime. Indira Gandhi's corrupt government, socialist regime and her controversial scandals such as giving her son's company government money and the 1971 Nagarwala scandal were also revealed. All of these political events influenced the background of the novel and the characters’ everyday lives. .
Mohandas Gandhi was one of Indias most popular leaders. A Lawyer by trade, he left the law to fight personally for his peoples' rites against their British rulers. Deep comitted to nonviolence Gandhi was determined to win India's freedom by avoiding confrontation.
Within the context of the period 1847-1947 to what extent was Indian independence primarily the result of the growth of Indian nationalism?
Ruby Kaur May 10, 2014 Source 1 Ricardo Pollack is distinguished as a director because of the documentary, Partition: The Day India Burned (2007). The documentary itself discusses the detrimental consequences of the withdrawal of Britain's reign from India in 1947, which led to the forced relocation of men, women, and even children across newly defined border lines, along with violence, rape, and murder. The film makes its argument through dramatized reconstructions and witness testimonies, which offer personal insight into the horrors of the partition and conjure up feelings of sympathy and remorse. The film intends to make an educated public more aware of how an ethnically diverse nation was tragically divided and its effects on civilian lives. This is a secondary source with primary sources because it is based on witness testimonies and an actual historical event, but offers its own evaluation on the issue through dramatized reconstructions of the event.
“ I returned home with a sad heart. There was something bubbling inside me. The majestic building of the Inter college was constantly before my eyes. As soon as I returned home. I said to my mother ‘ Ma I want to go to school’ There were tears in my eyes. Seeing my tears my mother also started to cry” (14). Thus we see how author describes his childhood days full of humiliation, degradation and deprivation. “ These incidents attacks the basic of this caste-discrimination in a variety of ways, but especially through a stable focus on the ‘factual’ recounting of experience of discrimination” (Beth Web).