A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is an unfinished novel written by Laurence Sterne that was published in 1768. Sterne died in the same year. It is a sentimental novel written from a sentimental point of view. The novel can be considered as a travelogue as Sterne traveled through France and Italy as far south as Naples and on his return, decided to write about his experiences. In 1767, Tobias Smollett wrote a travel essay titled Travels Through France and Italy in which he criticized the social norms of the Kingdom of France and the Italian Peninsula. Laurence Sterne didn’t approve of Tobias’s writing. He met Tobias during his travels in Europe and found him very quarrelsome. In response, Sterne wrote A Sentimental Journey in which he ridiculed Tobias Smollett too, and modelled the character of Smellfungus on Tobias Smollett.

Characters of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy:

Reverend Mr. Yorick is the main character of the novel. He appears to be an alter ego of Laurence Sterne himself. He is the sentimental traveler and narrator of the novel. He is quick to judge other people by their physical appearances at the beginning of his journey, but later regrets the assumptions he makes. Yorick is very interested in women and engages in many flirtations in the course of his travels. Father Lorenzo is a poor monk whom Yorick encounters and at first, refuses to assist. Father Lorenzo eventually becomes a longtime acquaintance of Yorick. Monsieur Dessein is the owner of the hotel in Calais where Yorick stays; he helps Yorick secure a carriage. La Fleur is a handsome, faithful, affectionate, simple-of-soul young man whom Yorick takes on as a servant. Count de B. is a man who mistakes Yorick for a character from the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and gives Yorick a passport in Versailles. Maria is a young widowed woman who recently lost her husband. Yorick knows her from the past and meets to console her. Madame de L is a beautiful and sorrowful woman Yorick meets at the door of the Remise, where he is to pick out a chaise. He receives a letter from her and sends back a love letter written by someone else, but the two do not cross paths again. Madam de R is a woman to whom Yorick is supposed to deliver a letter in Paris. The Lady is a thirty-year-old woman who is traveling with her fille de chambre and who has to sleep in a bed next to Yorick's bed. She is very uncomfortable with this arrangement, especially when Yorick speaks after he is requested not to. The fille de chambre is a young woman who works for Madame de R. Yorick initially sees her in a bookshop and compliments her on her virtue. The two later engage in a flirtatious interlude, with Yorick touching her satin purse and helping her with her broken shoe. Their flirtation gets Yorick kicked out of his hotel room. The grisset is a beautiful shopkeeper whom Yorick asks for directions and flirts with at some length, even though she has a husband.

Summary of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy:

Reverend Yorick is an English priest who never visited France. One day, he suddenly feels an urge to compare France to Britain. Thus he packs lightly and sets sail the next day from Dover to Calais.
In Calais, a Franciscan monk begs Yorick for alms. Yorick cruelly rebuffs him. The monk leaves once Yorick chastises him for depending on the bread of “other people’s” labor. After the monk leaves, Yorick regrets his cruelty and resolves to let his trip teach him to be a better person. He meets with Monsieur Dessein, the owner of the tavern where Yorick stayed. Dessein also owns a carriage yard and offers to show him some carriages for Yorick’s travel. While walking to the carriage yard, Yorick finds himself caught alone with a young woman named Madame de L. He accidentally insults her, eventually deciding that the monk told her a bad story about him. The monk is nearby and he and Yorick exchange snuffboxes; Yorick is desperate to make amends for the non-existent insult.

Yorick waits for the employees of the carriage store. He sees Madame de L again and tries to strike up a conversation. His attempts fail but the hotel manager returns with the key to the store and begins to show Yorick the carriages. Yorick and Madame de L are shown in one carriage and then accidentally locked inside. They share a brief conversation before the woman is told that her brother has come to collect her. Yorick mentions that her brother’s arrival has spoiled a proposal he wanted to make her; she replies that she guesses what the proposal is and that if her brother had not arrived, she would have accepted. She then leaves. Yorick purchases a carriage and thinks about a writer named Smelfungus with whom he has a bitter rivalry.

Yorick rides to Montriul, where he hires a servant, a young man named La Fleur with no useful skills. Yorick and La Fleur travel on to Amiens, where Yorick sees Madame L riding by in her brother’s coach. Later, Madame L sends Yorick a letter asking him to deliver another letter to Madame de R in Paris and inviting him to visit her sometime in Brussels. Recalling that he has sworn faithfulness to Eliza back in England, Yorick vows not to visit Brussels without her. By a series of coincidences, La Fleur ends up running into Madame L, who asks him whether he has a letter from Yorick for her. La Fleur, embarrassed, runs back to Yorick and convinces him to copy a love letter La Fleur has on hand so that La Fleur can give something to Madame L. Unable to think up a letter of his own on the spot, Yorick goes along with La Fleur’s plan and copies the letter. Then he and La Fleur leave for Paris.

In Paris, Yorick meets a barber and has a new wig fitted. He then visits the opera, where he witnesses a French military officer intervene in a situation to help a dwarf. On the way home, he stops to buy a book and meets a woman who works as a chambermaid for Madame de R, the person to whom he is meant to deliver the letter. He takes the chambermaid to his hotel where He and the chambermaid end up sitting on the bed; helping her with a loose shoe strap, Yorick knocks her over and feels extreme sexual temptation, but he hustles her out of his room before anything happens.

Soon he discovers that the police are searching for him, as he does not have a passport. Yorick must travel to Versailles to obtain a passport. Yorick calls at the home of a French aristocrat but is told that the gentleman is not available. Yorick begins to travel back to Paris but he is struck by the idea to visit Count de B whom he heard about in the bookstore. The Count is allegedly a fan of William Shakespeare so Yorick hopes that his nationality and his literary knowledge will secure a meeting. The Count agrees to see Yorick and the two men talk about books. The Count delights in the fact that Yorick shares a name with a Shakespearean character and he promises to bring him a passport. The Count appears to believe that Yorick is some kind of jester but Yorick does not correct him. Yorick accepts the passport which describes him as a jester because he does not want to argue with the Count.

Over the course of the coming days, Yorick begins to befriend the upper classes in Paris. He is introduced to a string of aristocrats by the count but eventually grows weary with the schedule and decides to move on to Italy. While traveling to Italy, Yorick stops to meet Maria. She is a young girl whose story was told to him by a friend, Mr. Shandy. Yorick finds Maria in a state of mourning and senses a great tragedy in her life. Moved by her plight, he bids her farewell. He thinks that if it weren’t for his beloved Eliza, he would marry her. The memory of Maria stays with him on the road to Lyon. One night, they stop at a small house in the French countryside. Yorick eats dinner with the family and watches them dance in the evening. The next day, Yorick stops at an inn for the night, where the innkeeper demands that Yorick share his room with a lady from Piedmont and her maid. Embarrassed at having to share a room for the night, Yorick and the lady talk through a series of rules they will follow to make the experience as painless as possible. Among the rules is that Yorick will not speak after they have gone to bed except to say his prayers. After they go to bed, however, Yorick tosses and turns so miserably that he ends up shouting, “O my God!” The lady scolds him. While making excuses for his outburst, the maid quietly enters the room. Yorick throws out his arm in the dark catching hold of her...the novel stops here with an incomplete sentence.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

The Economy of War | The Armed Conflicts and the Goal of One World Government

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. 

This has been a tumultuous year for the world as we faced multiple armed struggles at different fronts around the world. Russia and Ukraine have been struggling against each other since February 2014 and in February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country. The Israel-Palestinian conflict began in 1947 and currently, there is an ongoing war between the nations. The issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue growing while Taiwan seems like a boiling pot. While the US and NATO armies left Afghanistan, the area is hardly at peace as Pakistan continues to face insurgencies by terrorist groups like TTP. India continues to struggle against the infiltrators through its borders. Yemen, Congo, Sudan, and many other zones are still suffering the war cries. The second world war ended in 1945 but the war continued. It appears that we live in a perpetual war ground. Common sense suggests that war brings destruction, war hampers progress, productivity, and prosperity and it brings loss, sorrow, and death. Yet, the war continues, it never stops. However, man is a selfish animal, we always strive for self-interest, progress, and prosperity. So why does war continue? Why does it appear as if men are acting against their self-interest? After all, wars are not in our interest.

Reasons Behind the Perpetuality of Wars:

Wars are fought between Armies. Common citizens often remain away from the active areas of wars, battles, and insurgencies. However, more than often, common citizens especially women do become casualties of wars. But the moderator that controls armies, the machines of wars is the state government.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe in his essay ‘On Centralization, Decentralization, and Self-Defense’ explains the government as, “States, regardless of their constitution, are not economic enterprises. In contrast to the latter, states do not finance themselves by selling products and services to customers who voluntarily pay, but by compulsory levies: taxes collected through the threat and use of violence (and through the paper money they literally create out of thin air). Significantly, economists have therefore referred to governments—i.e., the holders of state power—as stationary bandits. Governments and everyone on their payroll live off the loot stolen from other people. They lead a parasitic existence at the expense of a subdued “host population.”

The government is a legal stationary Bandit that considers it is their right to rob citizens through levies, taxes, inflation (the hidden tax), and other means. Being stationary or permanent, the government intends to increase the base of its loot and always try to increase its tax revenue and further increase its spending by issuing more paper money. The larger the loot, the more favors they can do for themselves, their employees, and their supporters through freebies like free electricity, free ration, subsidized LPG, houses, toilets, and so on. However, there is a limit to increasing the taxes.  The government has to be careful not to burden the “hosts” whose work and performance make their parasitic existence possible so much that the latter stop working. On the other hand, they have to fear that their “hosts”—and especially the most productive among them—will migrate from their dominion (territory) and settle elsewhere.

This gives birth to the tendency towards territorial expansion and political centralization: with this, states succeed in bringing more and more “hosts” under their control and making it more difficult for them to emigrate to foreign territories. This is expected to result in a larger amount of loot. And it becomes clear why the end point of this process, the establishment of a world state, while certainly desirable from the standpoint of the ruling gang, would by no means be a blessing for all of mankind, as is often claimed. Because one cannot emigrate from a world state, and hence, there exists no possibility of escaping state looting by emigration. It is, therefore, to be expected that with the establishment of a world state, the scope and extent of state exploitation—indicated, among other things, by the level of state income and expenditure, by monetary inflation, the number, and volume of so-called public goods and persons employed in the “public service”—will continue to increase beyond any previously known level. And that is certainly not a blessing for the “host population” that has to fund this state superstructure!

This is the reason why various centralized groups, including the European Union, BRICS, NATO, UNO, World Bank, and their counterparts come into existence. Every superpower tends to increase its base and the whole world under a single power structure appears to be the goal. This is the reason for the conflict between the EU, the USA, Russia, and China. The same is the case with the Israel-Palestine struggles as the Western powers continue to support Israel in the hope of having a controlling hand in the Middle East. This is the reason why in 1948, the state of Palestine was divided in such a haphazard manner, and the same was done in the Indian sub-continent that resulted in East and West Pakistan and India. The West hoped to have an invisible command over the Indian sub-continent, which it has to some extent. The West (the US, Britain, Germany, and other Governments) continue to interfere, hamper, and topple governments worldwide in the name of the War on Terror, or the spread of democracy and others. It is worth noticing that these Western governments are excessively liberal to their own citizens.

Why the Foreign Policy of the West is so Aggressive? Supremacy of Dollar

Territorial expansion requires war – wars between rival gangs of stationary bandits. But the conduct of war requires means (economic resources), and bandits do not produce anything. They parasitically draw on the means produced and provided by others. They can influence the overall volume of production and the size of their own loot indirectly, however, through the treatment of their “host population.” Other things being equal, the more “liberal” – the less exploitative – the ruling gang, the more productive will be the host population; and parasitically drawing on a more productive host population, then, it is internally “liberal” gangs that tend to win out in war and drive the centralization process. This is the paradox of imperialism: internally liberal regimes tend to conduct a more aggressive foreign policy and are the central promoters of imperialism.

These imperialist ventures may initially have liberating effects: a relatively more liberal – less exploitative or more capitalist – regime may be exported to a comparatively less liberal society. However, the further the process of imperial expansion and political centralization advances, i.e., the closer one gets to the ultimate goal of a one-world government with a global central bank issuing a single universal fiat currency, the less pressure there is on the ruling gang to continue in its former internal liberalism. Internal exploitation, taxation, inflation, and regulation will increase and economic crises, stagnation impoverishment, and decline will result. With the economic failure of political centralization becoming increasingly dramatic, then, the opposite tendency toward de-centralization gains in strength.
The states tend to create and support conflicts and wars because the governments believe in Military Keynesianism. John Meynard Keynes proposed that government should raise military spending to boost economic growth. Despite the common belief that wars bring destruction, despondency, death, poverty, impoverishment, and overall ruin, the state, and the government know that wars are the only means for them to increase their territorial influence, their tax bases, and they will help in boosting the economic growth at the expense of common men. That is why the governments continue to develop and buy lethal weapons and there remains a race among countries to own the most lethal weapons.

About 3% of Indian GDP is spent on the education sector. The percentage of ‘education expenditure’ over ‘total government expenditure’ indicates the importance of education in the scheme of things before the government. The percentage of ‘education expenditure of GDP’ expresses how much of people’s income is being committed to the development of education in India. In 2023, India’s Defense Budget was around 13%-15% of Indian GDP which expresses the importance of spending on wars. This shows that under the current system of democratic governments, legal robbers controlling the citizens, the game of wars and defense will continue and prosper. Such armed conflicts are obvious and imminent.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the Ethics of Liberty. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse.

“Because I could not stop for Death” is a lyrical poem by Emily Dickinson. It was first published posthumously in the 1890 collection, Poems: Series One. This collection was assembled and edited for publication by Dickinson's friends, Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and it was originally published under the title "The Chariot.”

A Lyrical Poem is a short poem, often with songlike qualities, that expresses the speaker’s personal emotions and feelings. Historically intended to be sung and accompany musical instrumentation, lyric now describes a broad category of non-narrative poetry, including elegies, odes, and sonnets.

In the poem, Emily Dickinson describes her idea about Death, Afterlife, and Immortality. She uses personification to portray Death and Immortality as lively characters.

Structure of Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

The poem is 24 lines long and composed of six stanzas containing four lines each. A stanza of four lines is known as Quatrain. So, Because I Could Not Stop For Death has six quatrains with no regular rhyming pattern. The poem appears to be written in a regular metrical pattern. The first and third lines of each quatrain contain eight syllables written in iambic pentameter while the second and fourth lines are written in iambic trimeter.

Emily Dickinson used personification, symbolism, alliteration, allusion, enjambment, and volta in the poem.

Themes of Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

The major theme of the poem is the inevitability of Death. The narrator begins by saying that she “could not stop for Death” which shows she had not necessarily planned to die--but Death came for her anyway. It's not clear if the speaker is already dead, or she is traveling towards death. Either way, her death is presented as something natural, strange, and inescapable.

The use of “stop” in the first line could imply that the speaker was too busy living their life to acknowledge Death’s approach but when the speaker says Death stopping for her, she means Death is making a stop to pick her up, similar to a taxi or bus. The first line could also be interpreted as

perhaps the speaker could not stop for Death because she was too afraid. “Death” here is presented as something of a gentleman, “kindly” stopping his carriage so that the speaker can climb in, to make the speaker comfortable. Death isn’t cheery in this poem--but it’s also not a terrifying, horrible process. The other theme is Immortality who is also present in the carriage along with Death. It’s not clear if this is another personified figure—a kind of chaperone—or something more abstract. But the presence of “Immortality” does speak to one of humanity’s deepest questions: what happens to people when they die? Immortality is ambiguous here, it could refer to the Christian idea of Afterlife or it could also mean the permanent nothingness that awaits in death. The other important theme is the connection of Life and Death. “Death” is in “no haste.” That is, he doesn’t need to hurry to make death happen, because it is an automatic fact of life. In fact, the whole journey has the air of unhurried purpose, as though reaching the destination is a given and that therefore rushing is unnecessary. The carriage stops by a school, fields, and perhaps even the speaker’s own grave (stanza five). These seem to represent different stages of life, starting from childhood and preceding—like the journey itself—to the inevitable final destination.

Summary of Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

Stanza 1)

“Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.”

The poet personifies death, portraying him as a close friend or perhaps even a lover. In the first stanza, she reveals that she welcomes death when she says, “He kindly stopped for me.” The pleasant tone of the poem further suggests that the author is quite comfortable with death. Even if she was afraid of death, Death as a gentleman made her comfortable. The poet describes a carriage ride with the death personified which is symbolic of the author’s departure from life. Along with Death, the poet finds Immortality personified in the carriage.

Stanza 2)

“We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –”

She might have been afraid of death in the past but now she is comfortable with death and she says that she had “put away…labor and…leisure too, for his civility”. The author has come to terms with her own mortality.

She has set down all she wanted to do in life and willingly entered the carriage with Death and Immortality. She may be aware that had she not gone willingly, Death and Immortality would have taken her captive nonetheless. But the poet suggests that Death is kind, thoughtful, and even gentle. Death drives slowly for her, allowing her to reminisce. He “knew no haste” as they drove. He takes her through the course of her life with a slow and patient ride. Immortality rides along but is silent.

Stanza 3)

“We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –”

The poet continues to describe how gentle Death and Immortality are for her as they drove “passed the School where the Children strove” suggesting that the poet is generously given a few moments to remember her childhood. Then the carriage passes through ‘Fields of Gazing Grain’ allowing the poet to remember the prime of her life, her productive years. Then the carriage passes the ‘Setting Sun’ which symbolizes the poet’s death. The sunset is beautiful and gentle, and the passing from life to eternity is portrayed as such.

Stanza 4)

“Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –”

The poet uses Volta in the fourth stanza. A volta, or a turn, is often used by poets to create a significant shift in the tone and theme of a poem.

The poet shifts the nature of the personification of Death from pleasant to more ambiguous. Before the volta, Death is portrayed as a civil and courteous gentleman. After the volta, which occurs in line thirteen of the poem, Death takes on a more mysterious quality. Now that the sun has set, the author realizes that she is quite cold, and she shivers. Then, she becomes aware that she is underdressed. Prior to this moment of realization, the poet felt quite comfortable with Death and Immortality. After all, she was riding along with them in only her “gossamer” and her “Tippet – only Tulle”, or in other words, in only a sheer nightgown. When the sun sets and the cold damp sets in, she becomes aware of her inappropriate attire.

Stanza 5)

“We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –”

The poet realizes that she was seduced by Death who appeared to be a nice, gentle lover but now she faces disappointment. The carriage pauses before her new “house,” a “Swelling of the Ground.” She claims that “The Roof was scarcely visible” and the “Cornice – in the Ground.” The tone becomes one of disappointment as the author realizes that death is not all she thought it would be. Now, as the sun has set on her life, and she is standing before her new forever home, disappointment sets in. Death was kind and gentle, like a gentleman suitor. He lured her in with grandiose promises of eternity. Now that she sees her small, damp, eternal home, she feels cheated.

Stanza 6)

“Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –”

Now when the poet realizes that she has been seduced and trapped by Death, she feels centuries have passed “and yet Feels shorter than the Day” as life goes on without her. It has been centuries since that moment of realization when she “first surmised” that Death had seduced her, that he had appeared a kindly gentleman at first but had left her alone in the dark, cold, damp grave.

Literary Devices in Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

Apart from Personification, Symbolism, and Volta, Emily Dickinson also used alliteration, allusion, and enjambment. The Christian concept of the afterlife has been alluded to in the poem it is ambiguous if the poet agrees with it or not because instead of the common belief of eternal bliss in the ‘Afterlife,’ the poet ends the poem suggesting the gloomy, dark, eternal reality of nothingness after death. Alliteration is easily visible in lines such as ‘He Knew No Haste’ or ‘My labor and my leisure. The poet also used enjambment within the lines cutting them off before their natural stopping point.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Laurence Sterne was an English author, novelist, and cleric who was born in November 1713 and died in March 1768. His first successful novel was titled The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman which was published in nine volumes from 1759 to 1767. The novel appears to be a lengthy biography of the titular character Tristam Shandy. The novel is known for its degression, double entendre, and graphic devices. Tristam Shandy appears to be a sarcastic take on the style of novel writing pointing out the sham of the imposition of reality upon the distinctly unrealistic nature of the novel.

Laurence Sterne used Tristam Shandy in part as a way to expose the inescapable reality that novels simply could not be realistic. Tristram Shandy shuns, evades, challenges, and parodies conventions of realistic expectations in several creative and entertaining ways. German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer mentioned Tristram Shandy in his essay titled "On the Comparative Place of Interest and Beauty in Works of Art" as one of "the four immortal romances." The other three mentioned in the essay are Don Quixote, La Novelle Heloise, and Wilhelm Meister. In Tristram Shandy, Corporal Trim’s brother Tom describes the oppression of a black servant in a sausage shop in Lisbon that he visited. This episode is inspired by a letter Laurence Sterne received from a black man, the composer, and former slave Ignatius Sancho. Sterne’s reply to Ignatius Sancho became an integral part of 18th-century abolitionist literature.

Characters of Tristram Shandy:

Tristram Shandy is the titular character and narrator of the novel who is writing his biography. He mentions a series of accidents at a very early age such as his conception, his broken nose, and his weird name. But being a narrator of the novel he gives a detailed account of other characters and incidents. Walter Shandy is the father of Tristram who is a philosophical man who loves reading, discussions, and philosophical argumentation. Walter is a sensible and honest man suffering from sciatica. Mrs. Shandy is Tristram’s mother whom Tristram blames for his weird nature because she interrupted her husband while they were having sex. She is suspicious of her husband and often spies on him by peeking at the keyhole while he is having conversations with others. Toby Shandy is a retired military man. He is the brother of Walter Shandy and Tristram’s uncle. He is a gentle, honest man devoted to fortifying and glorifying the history of the Military. Yorick is a clergyman, a good friend, and the adviser of Walter and Tristram Shandy. James Butler, also known as Corporal Trim is a servant of Toby Shandy. He likes to give speeches and advises people a lot. Tom is Corporal Trim’s brother. Widow Wadman is a woman full of sexual desire. She was disappointed with her husband and was looking for another man who could satisfy her sexually. Later she meets Toby and falls in love with him but she wants to be sure that he can function properly in bed too. Susannah is the caretaker of Mrs. Shandy. She is responsible for many small disasters but she is the one who supports Mrs. Shandy as a midwife. Obadiah is a servant and butler of Walter Shandy. Dr. Slop is the physician of Tristram’s village. He broke Tristram’s nose during surgery, and he left him in pain. He always bleeds people rather than curing them.

Summary of Tristram Shandy:

In Volumes 1 to 6, the narrator describes the situations of his conception, birth with a smashed nose that supposedly bodes ill warnings for his future, and his mistaken naming, while his father believes that “Tristram" is the worst possible name for a child, he is named Tristram, and his accidental circumcision. While describing these events in six big volumes of the novel, Tristram Shandy also offers stories, diatribes, and opinions concerning family history, Walter Shandy's hypotheses and theories, and Uncle Toby's penchant for military fortifications. Tristram's own birth is not even reached until Volume 3.

Volume 1)

Rather than beginning at birth or childhood as do many biographies, this one begins at the moment of Tristram's mother and father having sex and conceiving him. The remaining part of Volume 1 is used to introduce various other characters of the novel including His father, Walter Shandy, who is overbearing and ridiculous in his intellectual ramblings, which cover a wide range of philosophical and pseudo-scientific hypotheses. His mother, Elizabeth Shandy, is the exact opposite of Walter in temperament, responding to her husband's arguments passively to not inflame him further. Tristram's Uncle Toby is a war veteran who suffered a grievous wound to his groin area. Though non-violent by nature, Uncle Toby obsesses over military history and tactics. Other characters introduced include Dr. Slop, the scientific-minded male midwife, and an unnamed female midwife who delivers Tristram at Elizabeth's insistence. There's also Yorick, the witty local parson and family friend, and Yorick's advisor, the ever-discreet Eugenius. The Shandy family servants, Susannah and Obadiah are also described.

Volume 2)

The second volume is dedicated to Uncle Toby, describing his characters, his war record, and the wound to his groin. The narration also flashes back to the day of Tristram's birth. Despite his wife's complaints, Walter insists that Dr. Slop serves as a backup to the female midwife. Dr. Slop fancies himself a very revolutionary and forward-thinking doctor, having invented a pair of forceps designed to pull the newborn baby during birth from its head. Tristram doesn’t take birth even in Volume 2.

Volume 3)

Volume 3 begins as Dr. Slop displays the forceps he invented by using them on Uncle Toby's hand. Much to everyone's distress, the forceps rip Toby's skin off. However, before Walter and Toby can protest, the other midwife calls Dr. Slop for assistance. With the situation seemingly out of their control, Walter and Toby take naps. They are awakened, however, by mechanical sounds emanating from the kitchen. They learn from Toby's servant, Trim, that Dr. Slop's dreaded forceps have caused significant damage to newborn Tristram's nose, and now, Dr. Slop is making a synthetic nose bridge for young Tristram in the kitchen. As is his way in times of crisis, Walter—rather than doing anything to help the situation—launches into a detailed, academic lecture on why humans need to have noses. The smashed nose supposedly bodes ill warnings for Tristram’s future.

Volume 4)

Walter learns from Susannah that the birth was very hard on young Tristram and that the boy may not survive the night. Walter calls Yorick immediately so the baby can be baptized. However, Walter can't be bothered to actually be in the room for the baptism and so Susannah must be the one to relay the name Walter has chosen to Yorick. Walter chooses the name "Trismegistus" (a "strong" name, he tells Uncle Toby), but Susannah misremembers it as Tristram. Unfortunately, the baby is baptized Tristram; most of the rest of the chapter concerns Walter's arguments with Yorick about changing the name. Tristram, Walter argues, is the weakest of all possible names, unlike Trismegistus, which is the name of some mystic Walter adores. Such a comparatively trivial concern is put into perspective at the end of the volume when Walter learns that his eldest son, Bobby, has died in London while away at school. In the 65th chapter of Volume 4 of Tristram Shandy, Tristram offers a "tender tale" in which Tom, the brother of Corporal Trim describes the oppression of a black servant in a sausage shop in Lisbon, which he had visited.

Volume 5)

This volume describes Walter's efforts to formulate a superior education plan for young Tristram, who is now five years old. After Bobby’s death, he became very conscious about Tristram’s education and he started writing Tristram-paedia in which he stated, how to teach his young child. But then he did not pay attention and ignored Tristram's education because he was busy writing the book. Tristram's poor fortune continues when the young boy is accidentally circumcised by a falling window. Tristram had been urinating out the window because Susannah hadn't replaced his chamber pot.

In Volume 6, Tristram relates his "life and opinions," and they come to him in a disjointed fashion.

Volume 7 concerns an older Tristram traveling in France for health reasons. The book seems isolated from the story that precedes and follows it.

Volumes 8 and 9 revolve around Uncle Toby's affair with the Widow Wadman, who is concerned about Uncle Toby's supposed groin injury and seeks to find out just how injured his groin is. Again, as in earlier books in the novel, numerous digressions and interruptions are spread throughout these two books, and Tristram through his mother, Mrs. Shandy, finally asks, "What is all this story about?"

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Copperfield in the Jungle by Ruskin Bond | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Copperfield in Jungle’ is a short story written by Ruskin Bond that was first published in his short stories collection titled ‘Tigers For Ever’ in 1996. This is an autobiographical story in which Ruskin Bond expressed one of his own experiences during his childhood. The title of the story mentions David Copperfield, one of the famous titular characters created by Charles Dickens in his book David Copperfield, and shows the influence of Dickens over Ruskin Bond.

Like his other stories such as The Tiger in the Tunnel, No Room for a Leopard, Dust on the Mountains, and others, Copperfield in the Jungle is a short story that explores the relationship of humans, animals, and the environment and ecology. The story is set staged against the Terai forests of the Siwaliks where Bond spent the better years of his childhood. The story highlights the lack of empathy of adult humans against animals and how adults no longer provide role models for our children. Models of right thinking and right behavior. Children are making them aware of their misdeeds.

Characters of Copperfield in the Jungle

The main character of the story is a twelve-year-old child who remains unnamed but one can guess he is Ruskin Bond himself during his childhood. While the child belongs to a family of hunters, he is much inspired by his grandfather who doesn’t like killing innocent animals for fun. Rather, the child loves reading literature. Uncle Henry is the child’s hunter uncle who takes him on an expedition. While Uncle Henry and his friends claim to be great hunters, they hardly succeed in any big hunt. They only managed to shoot two miserable, underweight wild fowls at the end of the week and they blamed it on the bad weather.

Summary of Copperfield in The Jungle:

The twelve-year-old narrator remembers his grandfather, who had a great influence on him. He says that like his grandfather, he too loves reading books and despises the idea of killing animals for fun during hunting expeditions. However, he says that his uncle Henry enjoys such wild sports.

The young boy could never get interested in the hunting expeditions of his Uncle Henry and some of his sporting friends. Perhaps he had inherited this from his grandfather who never understood the pleasure some people obtained from killing the creatures of our forests. Killing for food –most animals die that could be justified to an extent but killing just for the fun of it could not be justified or understood.
Even at the tender age of twelve, the bo disliked anything to do with shikar or hunting. He also found it terribly boring. To explain his point of view, the boy narrates one of his experiences.

Uncle Henry and some of his sporting friends once took him on a shikar expedition into the Terai forests of the Siwalik hills. The prospect of spending one whole week in the jungle with several adults with guns only filled him with dismay. They would all the time be thinking and talking of hunting a tiger or an elephant and he did not all the look forward to it. So, on their second day in the jungle, he managed to be left behind at the rest house. And in a corner of the back verandah of that old bungalow, he discovered a shelf of books –some thirty volumes, obviously untouched for many years. Much too young to know what was good and what was not. He would have read anything and everything with pleasure. However much to his delight the bookshelf contained among others. P.G. Wodehouse’s “Love Among The Chickens”, M.R. James’s ‘Ghost Stories of an Antiquary,’ Edward Hamilton Aikten’s “A Naturalist on the Prowl” and Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield. This chance acquaintance with M.Micawber and family, Aunt Betsy Trowood, Mr.Dick, Peggoty, and many other characters in Dickens’s novel seemed to set him off on the road to literature.
At the end of the week, the four men guns could only see a spotted deer and shoot two miserable, underweight wild fowls. Sitting in the rest house with his treasure of books Ruskin Bond saw not only the spotted deer crossing the open clearing in front of the bungalow but also a large leopard had done it only to help itself to a meal, it did not disturb the young Ruskin beyond a point and he returned to his reading. The hunting party however refused to believe this attributing this bit of information to his overactive imagination under the immediate influence of Dickens’s vivid portrayal of Master Copperfield. The boy brings the half–finished novel with him.

Thus, the expedition proved to be futile for the hunter Uncle Henry but for the boy, it was a treasure hunt that he won in the jungle successfully.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. John Steinbeck was an American author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He was born on February 27, 1902, and died on December 20, 1968. He was a prolific writer who wrote 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two short story collections. He was known for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining sympathetic humor and keen social perception because of which he was called “a giant of American letters.”

Tortilla Flat was his first successful novel was published in 1935. It is a comic novel that tells the humorous tale of the adventures of a group of pleasure-loving Mexican-American countrymen (Paisanos) who drink, steal, chase women, make music, and dance until they are eventually undone by a climactic fire. The novel is based on the theme of sharing and how sharing doesn’t help or improve things if we share things with those who do not deserve it.

Characters of Tortilla Flat

Danny is the protagonist of the novel. He is a simple non-chalant carefree man with no interest in materialistic things. He and his friends have no ambitions beyond their present enjoyment. He is poor and homeless but suddenly he gets two houses and an inheritance after his grandfather’s death. However, Danny has no interest in this newly acquired wealth and social status. He invites his friends to share their wealth with them. Pilon is Danny’s friend. He is a debauched person who gets involved in cheating and stealing but continues to convince himself that he is doing so to help others. Pablo is another friend of Danny who shares his house with him. Unlike Pilon, Pablo is not so dominant and has some artistic streak. Jesus Maria Corcoran is another of Danny’s friends who is humanitarian and prefers helping people in need. Unlike Pablo, he doesn’t get involved in stealing and scheming for selfish reasons. Big Joe Portagee is a friend of Pablo who is a known criminal and has been serving jail term. Paolo introduces him to Danny and they become friends. Unlike other friends of Danny, Big Joe follows no moral code. The Pirate is a lonely poor homeless man who likes dogs and keeps five street dogs with him, taking care of them. He lives in squalor on scraps, stashing away the little money he earns every day. He is the only one in the group of Danny’s friends who earns a little. He feeds the household and happily does the kind of physical labor the others always avoid. Tito Ralph is the jailor of Tortilla Flat, a decent and friendly man.

Summary of Tortilla Flat:

In the beginning, the narrator describes the small fishing town of Monterey and a poor countryside Tortilla Flat. Most of the inhabitants of Tortilla Flat belong to a multiracial group of Spanish-Americans called paisanos. These are simple living people who are yet untouched by the commercialism and greed of capitalism. Danny is a pasiano living in Tortilla Flat. He is a poor homeless guy who enjoys his time with his friends drinking and chasing women. Danny’s grandfather owns two houses but Danny prefers living in the forest. During the First World War, Danny and his friends get drunk and suddenly feel a surge of patriotism and enlist themselves but none of them get a chance of action in war. On his return, Danny finds out that his old grandfather has passed away and now he owns the two houses and the wealth of his grandfather. Danny isn’t prepared for this as he feels property means responsibility and he is not ready for that. Confused, he drinks too much and breaks some windows in the street. As a result, he gets jailed for a month.

After coming out of the jail, Danny starts living in one of his grandfather’s houses. Pilom, his old-time friend reaches him and asks for help as he is homeless. Danny allows Pilon to take his other house on rent. However, Pilon does not earn anything and hence, he hardly pays any rent.

Danny and Pilon then find out about their other Pablo and Pilon invites Pablo to live with him so that he may help him in paying the rent to Danny. However, Pablo too earns nothing. Sometimes later, Pablo and Pilon find out Corcoran, another friend of Danny and Pilon and he too starts living in the second house of Danny but none of them earn anything. Pilon is a scheming person who doesn’t flinch away from stealing and cheating and that is how the group makes enough money for their fun and drinking. In addition, Pilon also convinces his friends to rent rooms in the second house. Corcoran does some odd jobs and makes some money but he is too selfless and often spends all his money helping others like, feeding hungry children or helping someone get medical aid.

One night, after drinking too much wine, the group of friends loses consciousness while Pablo's Saint Francis candle burns the entire house to the ground. None of the friends get hurt though but they are sad because all of them are again homeless. Danny allows them to shift into his house but insists that they should stay away from his bed.

At Danny’s house, the four friends continue their debauchery, drinking and partying. They would often sit around a round table and the narrator compares to the Knights of the Round Table. None of the four men are earning anything substantial while they have their spending. One day, they find another man living in squalor on scraps and make friends with him. The man calls himself the Pirate. He earns a little by chopping wood and selling it in the market. The Pirate is often accompanied by five dogs whom he calls his friends and protectors. Pilon notices that while the Pirate makes money, he hardly spends any and deduces that the Pirate must have saved a lot of money. He starts following the Pirate in the hope of finding where he hides his money so that he can steal but fails. One day, the Pirate tells them about one of his dogs who was sick. He prayed to Saint Francis to cure the animal. Saint Francis came through, and the dog lived—only to be struck and killed by a truck later. Nonetheless, the Pirate feels a debt to Saint Francis and saves his money to buy a candle in his honor. The group becomes compassionate towards the Pirate and invites him to live with them at Danny’s house. Pilon continues to try to sneak in and steal his money. However, he soon gets another idea of making money with the help of one of his friends Big Joe who has just been released from jail. Big Joe Portagee informs him about a hidden fortune in the jungle that supposedly makes the ground glow on Saint Andrew’s Eve. Pilon and Big Joe decide to find the hidden treasure and steal it. On Saint Andrew’s Eve, they get heavily drunk and visit the jungle and spot a place on the ground from where a blue light appears emanating. The next day, they visit the place and dig it up only to find an old surveying map of no use.

Meanwhile, the Pirate begins trusting Danny and decides to retrieve the buried stash of money he saved and hands it to Danny for safekeeping. Danny stores it under his pillow. When Big Joe and Pilon return to the house, they come to know about the money saved by Pirate. Big Joe decides to steal that money but when he tries to do so, all four friends confront him and beat him until he gets unconscious. The group then counts the money and Pilon announces that it is enough money for the Pirate to buy the golden Saint Francis Candle. The group then visits the Church and the Pirate purchases the candle from Father Ramon, who tells his congregation about the Pirate and his tribute to the Saint. At the same time, the Pirate’s dogs rush into the Church and create a ruckus and as a result, the Pirate and others are thrown out of the Church.

The friends return to Danny’s house and they continue their lives of revelry and debauchery but the monotony of the paisano way of life and the weight of property ownership begins to wear on Danny. He begins feeling trapped and feels that his life in the forest is much easier and freer, so he leaves the house and runs away to the forest. As a vagabond, he steals from everyone including his friends, and continues an incessant spree of petty crimes. Husbands all over town call for vengeance for what he has done to their wives, and the police swear that he will be arrested on sight for his vandalism and fighting. After spending a month in the jungle, Danny decides to return. He is greeted well by his friends, however, Danny is still unsure if he wishes to lead a paisano’s normal life.

His friends then decide to throw a party to cheer him up but they have no money. When Pilon asks for help from Tito Ralph, he suggests that they should work hard to earn and save money for the party. The group then decides that they will work hard at the squid yard to earn and save enough to arrange for the party. Tito Ralph and Big Joe to accompany them at work. Everyone works hard and the news of these indolent men getting to work to earn money makes rounds throughout Tortilla Flat. At last, they have enough money to throw a nice party to which everyone is invited.

Danny is highly thrilled by knowing that his friends worked to arrange the party. At the party, he drinks too much alcohol and flirts with many girls. He then engages in light-hearted fights with others that escalate. He takes up a broken leg of a wooden table and challenges the whole world to fight against him but nobody accepts his challenge. He then leaves the house with a wooden piece to fight against his enemies outside. He continues walking in a drunken state straight off the edge of a cliff and into a gulch.

After his death, his friends decide to attend his funeral but they are broke again with no money and decent clothes. Thus, they are forced to watch the service from outside the cemetery. After the funeral, everyone gets emotional and they decide to throw another party as a tribute to their friend Danny. They return to his house and drink wine. While everyone is too drunk, the fireplace releases a spark that inevitably engulfs the entire house in flames. The friends all escape intact and do nothing to stop the fire. They stand by and watch, realizing their journey together is ending. As the house burns, each man walks off in a different direction, on his own.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is another short story from The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent that was written by Washington Irving and was published in the year 1820. The story is especially popular in America because of the character of Headless Horseman believed to be a German (Hessian) soldier fighting for the British Army who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle during the American Revolution. The story is about Ichabod Crane and his hapless attempt to win the heart and hand of Katrina Van Tassel in the context of a comical ghost story.

Characters of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

Ichabod Crane is the main character of the story who is from Connecticut, America. He gets a job as a school teacher and singing master in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He is a tall and thin young man who is a little greedy by nature. He is a strict master who uses a rod on misbehaving students but only against those, who can bear the rod. Ichabod Crane believes in mysterious happenings, ghosts, and the supernatural. Katrina Van Tassel is the only daughter of a wealthy farmer in Sleepy Hollow named Baltus Van Tassel. She is very beautiful, young, playful, and flirt and would often wear revealing dresses, expressing her figure in the best possible manner. She learns music from Ichabod who falls for her. Baltus Van Tassel is a rich, happy, and contended farmer who is not rude or proud. Abraham or Brom Van Brunt is the main rival of Ichabod as he too wishes to marry Katrina. Brom is a well-known rich person of Sleepy Hollow who is burly and boisterous in his behavior. He is known for his bravery and heroics and thus is nicknamed Brom Bones by the locals. Brom is a mischievous prankster and he is a skilled horse rider. Hans Van Ripper is a farmer of Sleepy Hollow at whose farmhouse Ichabid lodges. Ripper is a good helping man who lends a horse to Ichabod whenever he needs it. Diedrich Knickerbocker the narrator of the story was a Dutch historian.

Summary of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

The story begins with the statement that it has been found among the possessions of a deceased man named Diedrich Knickerbocker. The narrator describes the setting of the story which is based around 1797 in a bucolic area of ‘Tarry Town’ in New York. There is a village named Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane who originally hails from Connecticut moves to Sleepy Hollow for a job as a school teacher and singing master. It is a Dutch settlement in New York which appears to be a bit gloomy and bewitched. All the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow believe in ghosts and witches and they would often tell different ghost stories, especially involving a Headless Horseman, an old Hessian trooper whose head was shot off during the Revolutionary War, and who gallops off in search of it each night. The Horseman is seen most often riding by the church, where local historians say he was buried.

Ichabod, who himself was interested in ghosts and supernatural elements, found the village pleasing. He started living there at a farmhouse owned by Hans Van Ripper who appear to be a decent content man. Ichabod is a strict teacher but not a cruel one, doling out his punishment of the rod only to those who can handle it. Ichabod teaches students of the village leads the psalm singing lessons at church and enjoys flirting with the young women, who admire him for his intellectualism. Ichabod feels that he is the intellectual superior of every member of Sleepy Hollow. He also looks down on their old-fashioned, insular country ways. He enjoys spending time with the old Dutch wives to hear ghost stories and to tell his own, many of which come from Cotton Mather’s “History of New England Witchcraft,” which is his favorite book. Ichabod gets no salary or income through his teaching job and it is customary in the village for the farmers whose sons he teaches to feed and board him in rotation. To make some money and save, he begins offering private singing lessons.

Katrina Van Tassel is the daughter of a wealthy Dutch farmer in Sleepy Hollow. She is a student of Ichabod who is impressed by her beauty and flirtatious attitude. Once, her father Baltus Van Tassel invites Ichabod to his farmhouse and he gets startled by observing the wealthy environment of the house. He begins thinking that if he succeeds in getting the hand of Katrina in marriage, he will lead a rich life. However, soon he realizes that Katrina is loved by many, including the brawny, clever, and mischievous Brom Bones, who wander the villages looking for trouble with his gang of sidekicks. Brom isn’t a ruffian but he is a boisterous prankster with a good heart. Brom has already scared off many of Katrina’s other suitors, but Ichabod is harder to shake. Ichabod always avoids any physical altercation with Brom as that is Brom’s strength but he easily manipulates Brom intellectually. Brom, on his part, continues his pranks on Ichabod. He fills the schoolhouse with smoke, trains a dog to follow Ichabod around howling, and sets many other pranks to frustrate and humiliate Ichabod. Meanwhile, Ichabod continues his tries to woo Katrina who appears to be responding positively.

One day, a messenger comes with an invitation to Ichabod for a party at Baltus Van Tassle’s estate. Ichabod decides that it is the best chance for him to ask for a hand of Katrina in marriage. He feels thrilled and prepares well for the party in the evening. He even borrows a horse named Gunpowder from Hans Van Ripper.

At the party, Ichabod feels that he is the best man in the house. He decides to stay behind after the party and proposes to Katrina. However, Katrina disappoints him and Ichabod suffers a heartbreak. He immediately returns to the village. He finds the path home dark and eerily quiet. He tries to keep himself from getting too scared, but soon after he has passed the possibly haunted Major Andre’s tree, he sees a large, dark figure looming nearby. It does not respond to his call, but as he passes by, it starts to move and joins him on the path riding a large, dark horse. Ichabod is greatly disturbed and tries to shake off his pursuer, but he fails. Finally, he notices that the rider has no head on his shoulders; the head seems to be sitting on the saddle in front of the man. Ichabod tries to get his decrepit horse to run home as fast as it can, but he is not a skilled rider and the horse resists. He rides faster and faster, at one point losing Gunpowder’s saddle and fearing how angry Hans Van Ripper will be.

When Ichabod reaches near the church, he finds that the headless horseman is closing in. Thus, he hurriedly races to the bridge where the ghost is said to disappear and not follow. Ichabod crosses the bridge and looks back, but he sees the Horseman, instead of disappearing, hurls his detached head at him. It knocks Ichabod off of his horse. The next day Ichabod is missing, and a search party eventually finds the fallen saddle and horses’ hoof tracks next to a smashed pumpkin. Sometime later, an old farmer returns from New York with the news that Ichabod had run from the village from fear and to escape Katrina’s rejection but had become a successful lawyer and judge.

But the old Dutch wives and local folklore maintain that he was taken by the Headless Horseman.

At the end, there is a postscript from Diedrich Knickerbocker who claims that he heard this story at a restaurant during a business meeting in New York. Knickerbocker describes the storyteller as an older country gentleman with a good sense of humor. One of the elderly gentlemen who is tall, thin, and serious-looking, got annoyed at the storyteller and asked what is the moral of the story. The storyteller responded by saying that the story has three messages, first is to take a joke as we find it. Second, competing with someone sure to beat you is foolish. And thirdly, that some losses in life lead to better opportunities in the future. The annoyed gentleman claimed he still doubted the story’s veracity. At that point, the storyteller claimed he didn’t believe half of it himself. The postscript suggests that Ichabod surely survived the attack by the Headless Horseman which was nothing but another prank of Brom Bones. The storyteller appears to be Brom Bones himself during his older days while the other old, annoyed, tall, thin gentleman is Ichabod himself.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!