William Blake | Biography and Important Literary Works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Blake was an English poet, printer, and painter born on 28 November 1757 and died on 12 August 1827 when he was 69. As a poet, he didn’t gain any recognition during his lifetime but in current times, he is considered as one of the most important poets of the Pre-Romantic era. His poetry and visual art had a strong influence over the Romantic Age. William Blake was a devout Christian who always opposed the Church of England and maintained his belief in Marcionism, a Christian dualistic system. Because of his idiosyncracies and eccentricities, his contemporaries considered him a mad person and never got any recognition during his lifetime. William Wordsworth once commented, "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scot.”

The critics and readers of the modern period admired his expressiveness and appreciated the philosophical and mystical basis of his works.

William Blake was born in the Age of Reason and Enlightenment but he often opposed the philosophical ideas of Enlightenment and gave more stress to Humanism, and Romanticism over Empiricism and Rationalism. Blake abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality. He was a supporter of Free Love and raised the issue of women’s rights for happiness and self-fulfillment. Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity. He was a close friend of Thomas Paine and was an admirer of Emanuel Swedenborg. Blake was concerned about senseless wars and the blighting effects of the Industrial Revolution. He was influenced by the French Revolution and American Revolution and expressed his views in poetry, paintings, and engravings. Alexander Gilchrist wrote a biography of William Blake in the 1860s.

Blake attained formal education till he was 10 years old and then attained home schooling during which he also enrolled in a drawing class. Later on, he became a printer and engraver by profession. Poetry was his passion and he used his skills as a painter, printer, and engraver to express his poetic ideas in the form of Illuminated poetry in which he presented his poetic ideas in words with the help of assisting paintings and engravings. Literary critic Northrop Frye remarked that Blake perfected a “radical form of mixed art,” a “composite art” that must be read as a unity.

In 1781, Blake married Catherine Boucher who was five years younger than him. She was illiterate and signed her wedding contract with an X. William Blake not only educated her, he also taught her the skills of painting and engraving Later on, she became his assistant at work as an engraver and colorist.

Blake’s Influence:

While William Blake remained unrecognized, ridiculed, and poor during his lifetime, his works later proved to be influential. Some of the literary and artistic critics who appreciated his works included S. Foster Damon, Geoffrey Keynes, Northrop Frye, and David V. Erdman. His poems influenced Dante Gabriel Rossetti and W.B. Yeats. The authors of the Modernist period were hugely influenced by William Blake. The Beats poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylon, Jim Morrison, and English author Aldous Huxley were greatly influenced by Blake’s works.

Important Literary Works of William Blake:

Poetic Sketches:

In 1783, Blake’s first collection of poems and prose writing was published under the title Poetical Sketches. The book was never published for the public, with copies instead given as gifts to friends of the author and other interested parties. The book contains nineteen lyric poems, a dramatic fragment (King Edward the Third), a prologue to another play in blank verse ('Prologue, Intended for a dramatic piece of King Edward the Fourth'), a prose poem prologue ('Prologue to King John'), a ballad ('A War Song to Englishmen') and three prose poems ('The Couch of Death', 'Contemplation', and 'Samson').

The book begins with an 'Advertisement' which says that Bake began writing the contents of the book at the very early age of 12 when he was not well tutored and continued to occasionally add to the book till he was twenty years old. Considering his inexperience during this period, any irregularities and defects should be forgiven.

The first four lyrical poems of Poetical Sketches ('To Spring', 'To Summer', 'To Autumn', 'To Winter'), which are invocations to the four seasons, are often seen as offering early versions of four of the figures of Blake's later mythology, each one represented by the respective season, where "abstract personifications merge into the figures of a new myth." One of the poems titled ‘Fair Elenor’ is a Gothic poem.

In 1788, William Blake experimented with relief etching for the first time and produced two aphorisms titled ‘All Religions are One’, and ‘There is No Natural Religion.’

Songs of Innocence and of Experience:

In 1789, Blake published his first collection of Illuminated Poems titled Songs of Innocence which contained 23 poems illustrated with paintings and engravings. Most of these poems were based on themes of happiness and innocent perception in pastoral harmony. A few poems including "The Chimney Sweeper" and "The Little Black Boy", subtly show the dangers of this naïve and vulnerable state. In 1794, Blake published his second collection of illuminated poems titled Songs of Experience containing 26 poems. Soon, in the same year, he combined both collections and republished them as a single collection titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794. Blake experimented with relief etching, a method he used to produce most of his Illuminated books, paintings, pamphlets, and poems including Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Jerusalem.

Visionary Poet:

William Blake is said to have had visions from a young age. At the age of four, saw God" when God "put his head to the window". At the age of 8, Blake claimed to have seen "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars." Blake claimed to have such visions associated with beautiful religious themes and imagery throughout his life and these visions inspired his poetry and paintings. William Blake is known as a Prophetic poet and he wrote several Prophetic books in which he invented his own mythology to express his ideas. This poetic device is known as mythopoeia. For his inventive ways, Blake is also known as a Visionary Poet. A visionary poet uproots firmly planted ideas on the structure, the grammar, and the content of poetry to create something that had never been heard of.

Prophetic Works of William Blake :

In these books, William Blake introduced and developed his own mythology. Northrop Frye described these works by Blake as "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language." These works include --

Tiriel (1789); The Book of Thel (1789), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), The Book of Ahania (1795), The Book of Los (1795), Vala, or the Four Zoas (1797), Milton: A Poem in Two Books, Jerusalem: The Emancipation of Giant Albion (1804).

In addition, he also wrote three Continental Prophecies in which he openly criticized and opposed colonialism and slavery. These works by Blake were highly influenced by the American Revolution in which he strongly supported racial and sexual equality. These works include America a Prophecy (1793), Europe a Prophecy (1794), and The Song of Los (1795), which is made up of sections of Africa and Asia.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793):

Blake wrote this book as an imitation of Biblical prophecy but expressed his own beliefs and ideas through the book. He experimented with relief etching in this book and colored it with the help of his wife Catherine.

The book begins with an Introductory short poem titled "Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air".

In this book, Blake offered his theory of contraries and suggested that each person reflects the contrary nature of God, and that progression in life is impossible without contraries. The Heaven and Hell in the title also suggest two contraries. Another contrary he discussed is reason and energy. Blake suggested that two types of people existed: the "energetic creators" and the "rational organizers", or, as he calls them in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the "devils" and "angels". Blake expounds that “Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.”

In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake appreciated Milton and commented that ‘Milton was a true poet’. He also claimed that John Milton, in his epic poem Paradise Lost was "of the Devil's party without knowing it."

The book describes the poet's visit to Hell, a device adopted by Blake from Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost. The book is written in prose but the Argument is in verse. It also includes a lyrical poem titled Song of Liberty. Blake didn’t express Hell as a place of punishment, rather he depicted it as a source of unrepressed opposition to the authoritarianism of Heaven.

The most popular part of the book is Proverbs of Hell which contains many of Blake’s Aphorisms such as –

*The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

*The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

*If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.

Aldous Huxley chose the title of his autobiographical book ‘The Doors of Perception’ from this book in which he introduced his idea of ‘Mind at Large’ which has similarities with Blake’s idea.

Milton: A Poem in Two Books (1810):

Blake published his epic poem Milton: a Poem in Two Books in 1810. Its hero is John Milton, who returns from Heaven who returns from Heaven to meet the poet and discusses the relationship between current writers and their predecessors. The Preface includes a short poem titled “And did those feet in Ancient Time”. The poem is supposed to oppose the then-common apocryphal story of a young Jesus visiting England. Blake also briefly criticized the Industrial Revolution and its harmful effects on nature and human relationships by the phrase ‘Dark Satanic Mills’ in this poem. Another popular phrase from the book Milton is "Corporeal Friends are Spiritual Enemies".

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

Herzog by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Herzog is a novel by Saul Bellow that was published in 1964. It is the story of a middle-aged Jewish man in his early forties going through an existential crisis and neurosis. The novel incorporates several contrasting ideas such as nihilism and hope, despair and comic irony, and alienation and accommodation. The protagonist appears to be masochistic and passive, yet he tends also to be willful and sadistic. He believes in reason but is suffering from a protracted nervous crisis, following the collapse of his second marriage, that leads him to the brink of suicide. The major theme of the novel is to suggest that people must survive by maintaining a painful awareness of this mixed human condition, that life is an attempt to maintain equilibrium between nihilism and hope, and that life involves the necessity of accepting fragmentation, flux, failure, suffering, irrationality, sexuality, decay, and death.

The novel includes several letters that the protagonist writes. The letters are cranky, brilliant, poignant and, of course, they are never sent. He writes these letters to his friends, family members, and celebrities. In all these letters, he expresses disappointment either in the failings of others or their words, or apologizing for the way he has disappointed others.

Herzog won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction of 1964 and in 2005, Time magazine named it one of the 100 best novels in the English language since Time's founding in 1923.

The novel is written from the point of view of Moses Herzog, the protagonist

Characters of Herzog:

Moses Elkanah Herzog is the protagonist of the novel. He is a forty-three-year-old American Jewish man going through an emotional crisis. He is an erudite intellectual. He writes letters to express his ideas though he never posts those letters. Later, he feels that his intellect may have been a burden breaking him down and says, The intellectual has been a Separatist.

He has been cuckolded by his best friend, Valentine Gersbach; both of his marriages have failed; and he has failed to achieve his intellectual quest to resolve the philosophical problems of Romanticism. He is still determining who he is and what his goals are.

Madeline Herzog is his wife who recently divorced him for his close friend Valentine. She also maintained the custody of their daughter Julie. Madeline is the epitome of the selfish, neurotic yet attractive character, making her all the more dangerous female. By birth, she is a Jew but she is more interested in the traditional pieties of Christianity and America. She is beautiful, brilliant, cracked, and works for a doctorate in Russian church history. Her aim is to prove that she is no less intellectual than Herzog. She is flirtatious and dazzling in conversations. Unlike Herzog, she is expressive, a slut at home, and a bitch in bed, she expects a different kind of life. Initially, Herzog expresses all negative thoughts towards Madeline but as the novel proceeds and Herzog begins feeling better and getting rid of his neurosis, he begins letting her go, forgiving and forgetting her. Valentine is a handsome and interesting character. When Madeline gets pregnant, she wishes Herzog to spend more time with her but Herzog prefers his intellectual pursuit. Madeline turns towards Valentine during that period. Madeline is using Valentine to rise high in the intellectual circles. Romana is a beautiful girl in her thirties. She is the recent love interest of Herzog whom he met after his divorce. She is a beautiful, exotic female who devotes herself to sensual experiences. She wants to marry Herzog but doesn’t wish to dominate him like Madeline did. Sandor Himmelstein is Herzog’s lawyer in Chicago who handled his divorce. Harvey Simkin is Herzog’s lawyer in New York whom he requests to help in getting custody of Junie. Simkin tells Herzog to be more practical. Daisy is Herzog’s first wife and Marco is his son from Daisy. Phoebe is Valentine’s wife who doesn’t believe that her husband is having an affair with Madeline. William Herzog is Moses’s younger brother. He is a successful, rational person who helps Herzog and offers bail to him when Moses meets an accident and is charged with possession of a loaded weapon. Geraldine Portnoy is a former student of Herzog who is recently babysitting Junie at Madeline’s home.

Summary of Herzog:

Moses Herzog is wondering about his many failures. His personal life has collapsed and the world itself seems chaotic and mad. He wonders if life has any meaning. He is living alone in his apartment in Berkshire. He recently got divorced from his second wife Madeline. He has two children. His first child Marco lives with his mother and Herzog’s first wife Daisy. His second child, Junie is in the custody of Madeline, her mother and Herzog’s second wife who recently divorced him and chose to live with Valentine Gersbach, one of Herzog’s childhood friends and colleagues. After this debacle, Herzog pushed himself into a complex process of self-examination. He wonders who is he, what is real, and what is unreal, and he has no answers to it. He feels he is suffering from neurosis. If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. To clarify things, he begins writing letters that he never posts to anybody. Sometimes on paper and other times only in his mind. He writes letters to people he knows, those he has never met, and individuals who died a long time before he was born. He writes letters to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Friedrich Nietzsche, his deceased mother, his intellectual opponents, and even God. In the letters, Moses argues about intellectual ideas held by the individuals or about the things he has said or failed to say.

Moses meets his recent girlfriend Romana who insists that he needs rest and care and requests him to spend the night at her place but he says that he needs to go to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts to visit a friend. During his travels, he continues to write letters. Just a few months ago, his wife Madeline was pregnant with his child. She insisted on moving to Chicago and being a good husband, he couldn’t say no. He spent his $20,000 inheritance on moving from the Berkshires to Chicago and then she had left him for his friend, his ex-friend Valentine. When he reaches Martha’s Vineyard, he retreats to the room prepared for him by his hosts. He finds no peace there. He leaves a note saying bye and returns to New York by plane, and back in his apartment, he begins writing letters once more.

He continued writing letters the other day. In the afternoon, he gets a letter from Geraldine Portnoy, one of his former students living in Chicago. She informs Moses that when she was walking past Madeline’s house, she noticed Valentine had left Junie locked in the car. This further disturbs Moses. He opts to go to Romana’s place to have dinner with her and spends the night there. The next day, he consults his lawyer Harvey Simkin to discuss whether he can gain custody of his daughter, June, from Madeline. Harvey has prior meetings but he agrees to offer time in the courthouse. Herzog goes to the courthouse and waits for Harvey. During this period, he witnesses several cases being discussed. He hears of a case of an unmarried couple accused of beating the woman’s son to death.

Herzog gets too disturbed and decides to go back to Chicago. He goes to his father’s old house, which is now inhabited by his stepmother, and retrieves a pistol owned by his father. The gun has two bullets in it. He takes the pistol with the idea of killing Madeline and Valentine and running away with Junie. He visits Madeline’s house and observes quietly. From the kitchen window, he sees that Madeline is washing dishes. He goes around to check the bathroom and through the window, he sees Valentine bathing Junie with so much patience and love. Herzog feels that his daughter is in no danger. He drops the idea of getting violent and decides to return. He realizes that he cannot murder anyone. Moses visits Valentine’s home and meets his wife Phoebe who declines to believe that her husband is having an affair with Madeline and refuses to help Moses in gaining custody of Junie. Herzog goes to meet his friend Lucas Asphalter who arranges for Moses to visit June the following day.

The next day, Moses takes Junie to an aquarium. While returning, his car collides with a truck. While Junie is safe, Moses gets unconscious. The police investigate and find the loaded pistol in possession of Moses. They arrest him. Madeline visits the police station to get Junie and she further insults Moses. Moses’s brother, William, pays his bail. Moses asks William to visit his home in Ludeyville, Massachusetts that he bought for Madeline. William agrees to go with him. After their marriage, Madeline wished to live in the countryside. Moses spent a major part of his inheritance to buy the house and he loved living there. But Madeline got tired of living in the country and insisted that they should move to Chicago, and then she left him alone. The house has long been deserted.

William compliments the house and says that if Moses wishes to sell it, he will get a good price.

Moses learns that Romana is trying to call him and he asks William to drop him to New York at Romana’s place. Moses asks Romana to have dinner that evening with him at his home in Ludeyville. Romana agrees and William drives both of them back to Ludyville. Moses calls a home helper who begins cleaning the kitchen while Moses prepares for dinner. He realizes that he feels no need to write any more letters. He begins feeling peace at his home and decides to stay at Ludyville for some time. He also calls his first wife and asks her to send Marco to Ludeyville for a visit after his summer camp ends. He begins forgiving and forgetting Madeline.

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!

Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Henderson the Rain King is a novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1959. The novel was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1960. The novel was enlisted as 21st, on the Modern Library’s famous list of the 20th century’s 100 greatest novels in the English language. It is a novel that blends philosophical quests and comical situations entertainingly. The novel has been compared to Miguel De Cervantes’s Don Quixote. There are many parallels in the two novels. The main protagonists of the two novels are both around fifty years of age when they set out, and both, at times, look to connect with their heritage. Both protagonists acquire new names during their quests.

It is a picaresque novel with the main theme of materialism and greed while the author also explores the relationship between America and the rest of the world through symbolism. After World War II, America emerged as the world's strongest economy. Consumerism and competition for status upscaled the American Dream. Americans were replacing the pursuit of salvation with the quest for success. The author used symbolism to express concern about the spiritual death in America. The protagonist of the novel represents Individualism. He is an individual, a 55-year-old millionaire going through an existential crisis. To search his self, he takes a flight from the ‘Idlewild’ airport (the name suggesting the mental status of the protagonist) to Africa. The individual is moving from civilization (America) to its origins (Africa); from City (New York) through Garden (Arnewi village) into Wilderness (Wariri village) and ultimately into the Sky (comes back home as Rain King). It is a coming-of-age satire based on the theme of existentialism. The novel begins with the protagonist’s extreme sense of individuality where he can think nothing but what ‘I want, I want, I want.’ As he travels through Africa, his experiences with various African tribes make him a better person. At the novel's end, he can now listen to other equally authentic voices: ‘He wants, she wants, they want.’ He realizes that identity is found in communion. Man must live with the rhythm of things, for he cannot live forever against it.

Characters of Henderson the Rain King:

Eugene Henderson is a 55-year-old, married, rich farmer living in America. He is the son of a successful author who left 3 million dollars for his son after his death. Eugene is an oversized man but despite his richness, he is not satisfied with his life. He has more money than even his eccentric needs demand. He wishes to pursue medical science and serve the people, treating the ill people. However, his first wife Frances always ridicules his idea. He has a second wife Lily but even with her, he fails to attain peace. Henderson knew his desire but he wasn’t able to pursue it. He began wasting his time in alcoholism, began a new pig farm, and tried to learn music. Yet, he failed to find peace. His frustration turns him angry and violent. Miss Lennox is the housemaid at Henderson’s house. After her death, Henderson begins feeling guilty and decides to go to Africa. Charlie Albert is a childhood friend of Henderson. Henderson goes to Africa with Charlie and his wife. Romilayu is a African young guide with whom Henderson decides to go in the interior parts of Africa. Henderson acquires Romilayu as a sidekick much as Quixote did Sancho Panza.

Willatale is the Queen of the gentle Arnewi tribe. She realizes that Henderson is going through an existential crisis and tries to help him out. Mtalba is the younger sister of Willatale who wishes to marry Henderson. However, he runs away after a disastrous attempt to help the Arnewi people. Itelo is the prince and son of Willatale. He is a strongly built impressive and friendly young man. Henderson wrestles with him playfully and Itelo helps him in being accepted and admired by the tribe's people. Dahfu is the king of another African tribe Wariki. He has had Western education and Henderson realizes Dahfu is more erudite than himself. He understands Henderson’s existential crisis and suggests to him that meaning and truth come from suffering and that one must face difficulties rather than flee from them. The Bunam is the high priest of the Wariki tribe. He is the villainous character of the novel who is jealous of Dahfu and wishes to acquire more power.

Summary of Henderson the Rain King:

Eugene Henderson is a fifty-five-year-old affluent and influential millionaire in America. His father, who was a successful and reputed author, left him 3 million dollars after his death. Henderson is married and has many children. He divorced his first wife Frances and married a beautiful girl Lily. Despite all his richness, he is not happy. He continuously thinks of what he wants and how he can attain inner peace. For a long time, he wished to pursue medical studies and treat ill people. However, he was always ridiculed whenever he talked of pursuing medical education. His first wife Frances always made fun of him. He is overweight and annoying. Even after marrying Lily, he fails to attain happiness. He opens a pig farm in his huge house, begins tasting exotic foods and wines, and even tries to learn music but nothing helps in reducing his frustrations. Gradually, he begins arguing and fighting with Lily too, often belittling her. One day, he gets in a heated argument with Lily and in his anger, he shouts so loud that the housekeeper Miss Lennox suffers a heart attack and dies. Henderson is shocked at his own behavior and he feels guilty. He decides to move away and plans to visit Africa alone. However, his childhood friend Charlie Albert doesn’t let him go alone and plans a visit to Africa with his wife and Henderson.

After reaching Africa, Henderson notices that he is not feeling the freedom he desires while still traveling with Charlie and his wife who often get into arguments. Thus, he decides to run away alone and vanishes without informing Charlie. Since he is unaware of the people of Africa, he decides to take the help of a local guide named Romilayu. Romilayu is a simple sweet talking honest man who soon becomes a friend and confidante of Henderson. Romilayu surmises that Henderson is suffering from an existential crisis. While he is leading a rich lifestyle, he often turns self-deprecating himself. Romilayu and Henderson continue to travel in the inner parts of Africa for several days. They reach a place dominated by the Arnewi tribe. Henderson finds that the Arnewi people are very friendly. He soon befriends the prince of the Arnewi community and playful wrestles with him. The Arnewi queen awards Henderson with respect and treats him well. She realizes that Henderson is suffering from an existential crisis and he doesn’t understand the meaning and purpose of his life. She teaches him about grun-tu-molani, which means, “I want to live” or “man’s will to live.” Henderson learns that the Arnewi people are suffering a natural calamity. The pond on which the Arnewi tribe depends for their daily needs is infested by wild poisonous frogs because of this they are not able to use the essential water. He plans to help them and solve their water problem. He constructs a bomb to kill the frogs that are in the pond but the result is the destruction of the wall of the pond and the loss of the water within it. While the Arnewi people do not blame Henderson, he again falls into the trap of guilt. Heartbroken and exasperated he runs away but Romilayu notices him and follows him.

After traveling further in the interiors of African jungles, Romilayu and Henderson meet the Wariri tribe. When they meet Dahfu, the recent king of the Wariri tribe, Henderson learns that Dahfu is well-educated and has attained Western education. Henderson notices that Dahfu is much more erudite, intelligent, and wise than him. Dahfu befriends Henderson and soon learns that Henderson is confused and he is trying to seek the purpose of his life. Dahfu tells him about the traditions of the Wariri tribe and how he became the king of his people. His father was the previous king and when he died, Dahfu got the right to be the king. However, to ascertain his place, he is required to capture the cub of a lion which is believed to have the spirit of the previous king, Dahfu’s father. If Dahfu fails, he won't remain the king. Henderson learns more about the Wariri people and he realizes that the Bunam, the high priest of the Wariri tribe doesn’t like Dahfu much because of his Western ideas. Dahfu treats the lion that his father captured as his friend which the Bunam opposes. King Dahfu attempts to help Henderson move past the suffering he carries with him by having him spend time with a lion named Atti. Henderson is to try to be like the lion. The king also explains to Henderson that people’s inner and outer appearances are intertwined and that their characteristics and emotions are shown physically. The Bunam opposes Dahfu allowing Henderson go near the lion. One day, Henderson unknowingly lifts up a huge and heavy idol of Shunga, the rain goddess. The Wariri people consider it a divine act and begin respecting Henderson. Even the Bunam begins to praise him and attempts to use Henderson as a way to manipulate the king. Henderson sides with Dahfu.

With the help of the queen's mother, the Bunam forces Dahfu to expedite his task of capturing the cub of the lion. But when Dahfu goes to the jungle to catch the cub, the Bunam hideously tempers his weapons. When Dahfu faces the lion pride, he falls short of weapons and gets killed. Since Henderson had lifted the Shunga, Wariri people invite him to be their king but he realizes that the Bunam planned for the death of Dahfu and he decides to run away from Wariri. He departs with Romilayu and a lion cub, which in the tradition of the Wariri tribe has the spirit of Dahfu. During the journey back home, Henderson provides care for an orphan boy he finds traveling unaccompanied. He comes to the realization that true relationships must stem from love. He returns to America and meets his wife Lily as a changed person. He then decides to begin training to become a doctor.

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

Seize the Day by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Seize the Day is the title of the collection of three short novellas and a one-act play by Saul Bellow that was published in 1956. It was his fourth book and the title novella (Seize the Day) was adapted into a film by the same name in 1986. Seize the Day was republished as a single short novel in 1958. The novel's theme is the well-known American Dream based on Materialism sans emotional and spiritual values. The ultimate American Dream is to succeed in life—mostly by becoming rich. However, the Dream is not reachable for everyone and the novel explores how the pursuit of it can destroy a person. The novel explores failure, suffering, deception, isolation, and the idea of Care Diem (Celebrate the Present).

Characters of Seize the Day:

Wilhelm Adler or Tommy Wilhelm is the main character. He is married, but his wife and children are living apart from him. He asks for divorce but his wife Margaret declines divorcing him and keeps demanding more money to raise their two boys. His mistress Olivia is fed up with him because he cannot get a divorce and marry her. While Wilhelm is a Jew, Olivia is a Catholic and finds it distressing to be sleeping with a married man, and encourages Wilhelm to get divorced. Wilhelm is a failed actor while his father, Doctor Adler is a successful and famous physician who is now retired. Wilhelm seeks financial help from his father but Doctor Adler refuses to help him because he disapproves of his ways and scolds him for his failures and slovenliness. Wilhelm Adler has no stable source of income and to pay Margaret and get a divorce, he continues borrowing money and betting in the stock market. He is knee-deep in financial troubles. Dr. Tamkin is a supposed psychologist who impresses Wilhelm and gains his trust. Wilhelm continues to invest money in the Stock Market on the advice of Dr. Tamkin who suggests investing in lard and rye will prove to be profitable. However, Dr. Tamkin proves to be a fraud. Maurice Venice is a photographer and talent scout who met Wilhelm when he was a young college-going student. Maurice found Wilhelm very handsome and advised him to try acting in Hollywood. But when Maurice took a camera screening test of Wilhelm, he found that Wilhelm was not photogenic and advised him to drop the idea of acting. However, Wilhelm was convinced that he would succeed as an actor but he failed. Catherine is Wilhelm’s sister in her forties. Like Wilhelm, she is also a struggling artist and seeks monetary help from her father. Dr. Adler declines helping Catherine too because he believes she is not good at painting.

Summary of Seize the Day:

Wilhelm Adler is a middle-aged married man in his forties who is living in a luxurious residential hotel in Manhattan called the Gloriana. Many other retired people in the Jewish community live in the same hotel, however, Wilhelm Adler isn’t retired, nor does he have any stable means of earning. He is the son of a very successful and reputed physician Doctor Adler who is now retired and who also lives in the same hotel. Wilhelm had a bright future but he committed some mistakes in the past that have ruined his present. During his college days, he met Maurice Venice, a talent hunter and photographer who encouraged him to try acting in Hollywood. However, after the screening test, Maurice warned him that he tests poorly on camera and he must stay away from acting. Wilhelm ignored his advice and dropped out of college to pursue acting in Hollywood.

After wasting many years, he ended up in a sales job and got married to Margaret with whom he has two sons. However, he is not happy with Margaret and is having an affair with Olivia who works with him. Olivia, being a Catholic insists that he should get a divorce and marry her before they may consummate their relationship. Margaret isn’t willing to divorce him and continues to demand more money for the upbringing of her sons. Wilhelm was expecting a raise and promotion as an executive in the firm he works for. But one of the executives of the company promoted his own son-in-law in place of Wilhelm. Wilhelm felt cheated and disrespected, and in anger, he resigned from the firm. Now, he has no source of income while he is spending the limited money he got after his wealthy mother’s death.

Wilhelm decided to try his luck in the stock market so that he may gain some big amount by the help of which he may get a divorce from Margaret.

He has made acquaintance with Dr. Tamkin, a psychiatrist who also lives in the same hotel. Wilhelm is impressed by Dr. Tamkin for his knowledge of the stock market, and thus he trusts Tamkin to invest his last dollars in lard but that proves to be a failure. He hopes the stock of lard may go high, but for the time being, he is worried since he has no more money.

Wilhelm asked his father for financial help but Doctor Adler refused to help him out because he didn’t approve his ways. Doctor Adler does not respect Wilhelm, considering him slovenly and a failure in his work and marriage. Doctor Adler and one of his friends Mr. Perls warn Wilhelm not to trust Tamkin and laugh at Tamkin's dubious credentials as a doctor of psychology and his tall tales of inventions.

Doctor Tamkin has taken control of Wilhelm’s money and invests it as per his wishes. Dr. Tamkin invested a big amount of Wilhelm’s money in lard which didn’t work well for Wilhelm.

When Wilhelm goes to meet Dr. Tamkin to discuss his financial troubles and if there are any possibilities of profits in the stock market, Dr. Tamkin tells him that he should not worry too much because it won’t help him anyway. He takes Wilhelm to the brokerage office to see how the investments are going. Some prices are down, but others hold steady. Tamkin explains that he recently invested some money in a hedge of rye, and this should offset some unexpected losses. Wilhelm wonders why he continues to trust Dr. Tamkin while his investments never turn out profitable.

At the brokerage office, Tamkin notices that the price of rye stocks appears to be going up. Tamkin feels enthused and takes Wilhelm for lunch. They talk about Margaret and Olivia and Dr. Tamkin tells Wilhelm stories of his patients. It seems just about everyone has a strange mental issue if Tamkin is to be believed. Wilhelm wonders if anything Tamkin says is true. Growing impatient, Wilhelm insists they leave for the brokerage office. Tamkin assures Wilhelm he can't lose money, as modern technology pulls money out before prices drop too low. Tamkin leaves Wilhelm with the expensive lunch bill before excusing himself temporarily. Despite his financial troubles, Wilhelm is forced to pay for the expensive lunch. He goes back to the brokerage office to check the stock market and gets shocked when he sees that the rye price dropped abysmally, and now there is nothing left. He realizes that Tamkin has wasted all his money. He tries to seek him so that he may blame him for his losses but fails to find him.

Wilhelm is now penniless. He goes back to the hotel and asks his father again for some help. He asks his father to cover up his rent for this month but Doctor Adler refuses and sternly tells him that it is time when he either should go back to his home and live with Margaret or get a job. Wilhelm hardly has any choice. He calls Margaret but she is not interested in his troubles. She doesn’t want him to return home unless he returns to the sales job.

Wilhelm is heartbroken. He finds it too disrespectful to go back to the same job that he resigned. Moreover, he is not sure he will get that job back. Sorrowfully, he goes to Broadway where he notices a funeral parlor. He thinks he just saw Dr. Tamkin at the funeral parlor and rushes towards him to catch him and blame him for his losses. However, Tamkin notices him coming towards him and scuttles away. As Dr. Tamkin vanishes in the crowd Wilhelm is left in a line to view the open casket. Seeing the dead man before him makes his feelings of despair and shame swell, and he begins crying loudly. The other funeral-goers wonder who he is.

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 Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born author who settled in America. His parents were Jewish migrants from Russia. He was born on June 10, 1915, and died on April 5, 2005.

The Adventures of Augie March was the third novel by Saul Bellow that was published in 1953. It is a picaresque novel with numerous episodes surrounding a likable rogue character of low birth (the picaro). The novel is often termed a twentieth-century rendition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is also a fine example of the Bildungsroman style as it is structured around the development of the protagonist Augie March into maturity in an autobiographical manner. Saul Bellow won the 1954 National Book Award for Fiction and was also awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature, partly for The Adventures of Augie March.

The novel tells the story of Augie who grows up during the Great Depression and then sees the days of the Second World War.

Characters of The Adventures of Augie March:

Augie March is a Jewish American boy from Chicago whose family is suffering poverty during the Great Depression. Augie continues to grow up and travels through Mexico and Europe, doing various jobs and businesses, joining the War, and finally marrying and settling in Paris. Augie’s mother Rebecca (or Mama) is a simple-minded poor woman who grows her three sons. Simon is Augie’s elder brother who is the topper of his high school class. Simon’s girlfriend Cissy Flexner rejects him for a wealthier man and then Simon woos a rich girl Charlotte Magnus and marries him. After marriage, he manages the coal mining business of his father-in-law and becomes hugely successful. Georgie is Augie’s younger brother who is autistic or ‘idiot’ by birth. Grandma Lausch is an old lady who assists Mama in the upbringing of the boys. She teaches the boys what she learned from her experience as the wife of a successful businessman. She is Machiavellian in nature and believes that the ends justify the means. Einhorn is a crippled old man and an entrepreneur who guides Augie and employs him. Einhorn’s son Arthur wishes to be a poet. Einhorn suffers great losses during the Great Crash. Mr. Renling is a wealthy sporting goods businessman in Evanston who employs Augie. His wife, Mrs. Renling specially likes Augie and takes him with her to holiday parties. Augie meets a beautiful girl Esther Frenschel during such a party and falls in love with her. However, Esther rejects him because she feels Augie is Mrs. Reneling’s gigolo. Her sister Thea becomes infatuated with Augie and develops an affair. Joe Gorman is a well-known criminal who meets Augie in Chicago and appoints him as a partner to rob a leather goods store. Later on, he offers Augie a job to assist him in the illegal importation of immigrants over the Canadian border. Five Properties is a real estate magnate, a rich businessman whom Cissy Flexner marries after rejecting Simon. Mimi-Villar is an attractive waitress who works at a student hash house near the University of Chicago. Augie lives in the same student house where Mimi works and lives. He befriends her while she dates his friend Frazer. Lucy is Charlotte Magnus’s younger sister who falls in love with Augie. Stella is a beautiful woman dating Oliver. When Oliver gets arrested, she asks for the help of Augie to escape to Mexico City. She and Augie fall in love and later on, they marry and settle in Paris where Stella works as an actor for an international film company. Renee is Simon’s assistant at work. She traps Simon and becomes his mistress. She accuses Simon of impregnating her and files a lawsuit but Charlotte intervenes and saves Simon. Robey is an eccentric millionaire of Chicago who appoints Augie to assist him in writing a book on human happiness. Jimmy Klien is a childhood friend of Augie and worked with him at departmental stores. Later on, he becomes a police officer. Clem Tambow is Jimmy’s cousin and a student of psychology at the University of Chicago. He loves Mimi and hence befriends Augie. He advises Augie to join the Army and go to the war. Mintouchain is a successful, older Armenian divorce lawyer in New York. He asks Augie to manage his black market dealings in Europe. Basteshaw is also a native of Chicago whom Augie meets during the war. They survive a shipwreck. Jacqueline is Augie and Stella’s housemaid in Paris.

Summary of The Adventures of Augie March:

The novel begins in Chicago during the Great Depression period. Mama (Rebecca) is raising her three little kids in a poverty-stricken situation. She is a Jew, a simple, kind-hearted woman. It is not known if her husband is dead or if he abandoned her. Simon is her eldest son who is a bright student. Augie is the younger son who is not so bright in education and Georgie is the youngest whom everyone calls an ‘idiot,’ as he appears to be mentally challenged. Rebecca’s eyesight is weak. They are living on rent in a house owned by an old lady whom the kids call Grandma Lausch. She is lonely as her real sons have gone to work and nobody knows much about them.

Grandma Lausch is a scheming woman with an eccentric view of the world. She is cynical and Machiavellian and believes that the ends justify the means. She is dominating and in the absence of their father, she tries to control the boys as their mother is working and half-blind. She forces Simon and Augie to seek a job at the age of twelve so that they may help in raising the family and paying the rent.

As Simon grows old, he begins rebelling against Grandma Lausch and this creates a power struggle within the house. Mama loves her kids but she is completely submissive to Grandma Lausch and doesn’t oppose her much. Grandma Lausch forces the family to send Georgie in an asylum as she thinks he is mentally challenged. This further creates tension in the family. Simon, being older decides to take a corrective course and begins finding out about the sons of Grandma Lausch. With their help, Simon succeeds in sending Grandma Lausch to a nursing home, citing her growing dementia as the reason for her institutionalization.

When Augie enters High School, he loses attention in his studies and begins working for Einorn who is a cripple but an excellent entrepreneur and real-estate tycoon. Augie gets too impressed by him and considers him a father figure. Einhorn appoints Augie as his assistant. Augie becomes closer to Einhorn than his own son Arthur who is negligent towards Einhorn’s business and wishes to become a poet. Though Einhorn is partially paralyzed, he is very hard-working and intelligent. However, he made most of his fortune through shady businesses. As the stock market crashes, Einhorn loses most of his money. Yet, he takes the loss with optimism and decides to work hard again. Meanwhile, Augie and Simon clear their High School exams. Simon tops the class and becomes the high school valedictorian. Augie too passes the exam and to celebrate the occasion, Einhorn takes him to a brothel and offers him drinks.

Einhorn learns that Augie has made acquaintance with Joe Gormon, a known criminal who appoints Augie in a robbery of a leather goods shop as his assistant. Einhorn admonishes Augie and encourages him to opt for higher studies. Augie then chooses to go to Evanston to get admission to a college at the University of Chicago. He also manages to get a sporting goods sales job. The business is owned by a wealthy old man Mr. Renling who offers Augie a place to live. Mrs. Renling finds Augie very polite and begins considering him as her own son as Renlings are childless. She arranges for his riding lessons and other courses at Northwestern. During the summer holidays, Mrs. Renling takes Augie to a picnic where he meets Esther Frenchel, a beautiful girl in her twenties, and falls in love with her. However, Esther rejects Augie but her younger sister Thea is impressed by him and leaves him a letter that she loves him and that in the future, she will meet him.

After returning to Evanston, Mr. Renling shows his desire to officially adopt Augie as their son and heir of their property and business. Augie declines the offer and infuriates Mrs. Renling and then he is forced to go back to Chicago. Augie meets Joe Gorman again who asks him to be his partner in transporting illegal immigrants into the country. Augie declines the job but agrees to help Joe drive the car out East. On their way, the police track them and Joe Gorman gets arrested. Augie escapes and returns to Chicago through hitchhiking in freight trains.

When he reaches home, he sees that his mother is living alone and she is almost blind now. He learns that Grandma Lausch died away and Simon is absconding as he took too much loan to the betting pool. Simon also sold most of the furniture in the home. He wished to become rich instantly to marry his girlfriend Cissy Flexner who ditched Simon to marry Five Properties, a cousin of Simon and Augie, who is a rich real estate tycoon. Simon was too disappointed and angry at this. He committed some violence and spent a night in jail and then he absconded.

Augie begins seeking jobs and helping his mother. He begins selling books and settles in a small room near the Chicago University where he meets Mimi Villars. She is an attractive waitress who is dating Oliver. Oliver impregnates him and Mimi seeks Augie’s help in aborting the child. After some days, he learns that Simon has married into a wealthy family, taking coal heiress Charlotte Magnus as his wife. Simon wants Augie to marry Charlotte's cousin, Lucy, to gain access to even more of the Magnus family's money. Augie, however, becomes involved in a scandal when he gets caught helping his friend Mimi Villars obtain an illegal abortion. Both the Magnus family and Simon renounce Augie.

One night, Augie hears a knock on his door and as he opens, he finds Thea Frenschel outside. She came looking for him. Augie falls in love with her and they begin living together. Soon Augie learns that Thea is an eccentric girl. She is very honest but violent and fierce. She loves hunting. Thea persuades Augie to travel to Mexico where they settle with a family, living on rent. Thea begins training a hunting hawk. The hawk fails their expectations and Augie meets an accident while training the hawk. Thea then sends the hawk to a zoo and begins collecting venomous snakes. Augie finds Thea’s passion for hunting somewhat crazy and begins seeking some way to get out of the relationship. Meanwhile, he meets Stella who is trying to escape from Mexico City. She asks for his help but Thea is not interested. Augie insists that he should help Stalla out and persuades Thea to let him take Stella halfway. During the travel, Augie sleeps with Stella and when he returns, Thea surmises what might have happened and leaves Augie.

Augie returns to Chicago and learns that Simon has now become a hugely successful businessman. Simon forgives Augie and helps him find a job as an assistant of a rich millionaire tycoon Robey who is attempting to write a book on the history of human happiness. Augie also begins to teach at a local school. Augie learns that Simon has been trapped by his assistant Renee. Augie meets his childhood friend Clem Tambow who notices that Augie has changed. Augie tells him that his dream is to start a school, live with his mother and Georgie, marry a good woman, and raise a family of his own. Clem on the other hand encourages him to join the war.

Augie finally enlists in the army and goes to New York for training. In New York, he meets Stella again and they decide to marry. Stella introduces Augie to a man named Mintouchain who is a successful divorce lawyer. He is having an affair with a friend of Stella. Mintouchain lectures Augie on the tricks of adultery and a happy married life.

Just two days after their marriage, Augie is ordered to join a warship. During their travel, Augie’s ship is attacked by a torpedo and it sinks. Augie somehow survives along with a fellow man named Basteshaw from Chicago who worked as the ship’s carpenter. Soon Augie learns that Basteshaw is a man person with some crazy ideas. Basteshaw plans to take the lifeboat to the Canary Islands, where he can continue his mad experiments in peace, and he ties Augie up when he attempts to signal a passing ship for help. At night, Augie frees himself and takes the help of a British tanker to get away from Basteshaw.

After returning to New York, Augie convinces Stella to go to Europe and they settle in Paris where Stella begins working as an actor at an international film company. Augie begins managing Mintouchain’s dealings in Europe. Gradually, they begin leading a comfortable life. Simon and Charlotte visit them in Paris. Augie asks Simon about Renee and learns that she tried to trap and blackmail him by falsely accusing him of impregnating her. When Simon didn’t succumb to her threats, she sued him. Charlotte came to know all about it and she rescued Simon from Renee’s tricks. Augie realizes that though Simon loves Charlotte, he is disappointed because Charlotte cannot become a mother. Augie himself is not satisfied with Stella and his inability to secure a real profession.

One day, Augie’s housemaid Jacqueline tells him that she wishes to go to Mexico to which Augie laughs and says that he took a whole life to get out of that ditch. He says that he is like Christopher Columbus, who has truly discovered America. The novel ends on this note.

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

Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Fasting, Feasting’ is a novel by Anita Desai that was published in the year 1999. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1999 and was judged the runner-up. The novel offers a contrast between two different cultures and that contrast is silverlined by the title ‘Fasting, Feasting.’ Fasting represents the Indian culture known for its pious and longstanding customs. Feasting, on the other hand, represents the American culture suggesting opulence and sumptuousness. Despite this difference, the problems faced by individuals and society as a whole in both cultures appear similar.

The novel's themes include the importance of individuality and autonomy and how family ties can be suffocating for an individual. The novel hints at the ills of Patriarchy and the ill-treatment of women in both cultures. The author also offers a contrast between two religions (Hinduism & Christianity) and describes both of them as restrictive and oppressive for women.

Characters of Fasting, Feasting:

Uma is the central character of the novel. She is the eldest daughter of a conservative Indian family. She has faced discrimination for being a girl since her childhood. She is middle-aged now and single. She has "frazzled" grey hair and spectacles. Uma seeks freedom against family control. She wishes to explore the world. She is delighted when she gets a chance to travel with Mira-Masi. Aruna is Uma’s younger sister. She too faces similar discrimination but she is prettier than Uma and she is rebellious. She gets her way often because she has many prospects for marriage, unlike Uma. She marries a man of her choosing and moves to Bombay, where she lives a sophisticated life. Arun is the youngest child of the family. He was born late in his mother's life but was considered a blessing because he was a boy. He is a weak, sickly child. Mira Masi is a distant relative of Uma. She was widowed at an early age and then she turned spiritual and devoted her life to worshipping Lord Shiva. She tries to help Uma. Mother Agnes is the principal of Uma’s school. Her parents decide to stop her education and Uma begs Mother Agnes to help her but Mother Agnes refuses to help her out. Papa is the father of Uma. He is a successful lawyer. He is taciturn, rigid in his thinking, and strict in his treatment of his daughters. He is immensely proud to have a son. Papa is highly influenced by British culture and embraces many traits of Western life. He despises Arun for being vegetarian and wishes him to play cricket, and use the English language. Mama is Papa’s wife. When she was sixteen years old, her father married her to Papa. She is happy to be the wife of a successful influential man and remains subservient to him. At times, it appears she is more patriarchial than Papa. Dr. Dutt is a family friend and doctor. Like Mira Masi, she realizes the troubles of Uma and tries to help her by involving her in social work but Mama and Papa oppose her. Anamika is Uma’s cousin and daughter of Bakul Uncle and Lila Aunty. Like Mama-Papa, her parents are also patriarchial. Anamika is a beautiful girl and a brilliant student who won a chance and scholarship to go to Oxford University. However, her parents insist that further studies are useless and marry her to a rich and educated person. Her husband turns out to be sadistic and abusive. Her in-laws too torture her and she succumbs to death. Mrs. Joshi is a friendly neighbor of the family. Her husband loved and cared for her. But she had a spiteful mother-in-law like Anamika’s but she survived with the help of her husband. Ramu is Anamika’s younger brother. He is sickly and is hunchbacked. Arvind is Aruna’s husband who loves her. Aisha and Dinesh are Arind and Aruna’s children. Mrs. O’Henry is the wife of a Christian missionary in the U.S. Mrs. Patton is her sister. Mrs. Patton is a generous and kind woman but she doesn’t care much about her family. She is more worried about how she looks. Mr. Patton is her husband. He is a generic suburban father who likes to watch sports and BBQ. He is gruff, self-interested, and intolerant of any perceived threat to his authority. Rod is their son and Melanie is Mrs. Patton’s daughter. While Rod is friendly to Arun, Melanie is hostile towards him. It turns out that she is addicted and bulimic.

Summary of Fasting, Feasting:

The story of the novel is told from a third-person omniscient perspective by an anonymous narrator and the narration shifts between the past and present tenses. The novel is written in two parts.

The story begins in a small town in India where Uma and her younger sister are growing up in a traditional middle-class family. Both go to a convent school. Arnua is younger and prettier than Uma. When Aruna was born, her parents were disappointed because they wished for a son. Their parents, Mama and Papa are very restrictive and try to control their daughters in every way possible. They try to teach them domestic, traditionally feminine skills. Uma takes little interest in marriage or household chores. Though she is not a brilliant student, she likes going to school because it allows her a bit of freedom against her controlling parents. However, she continues to fail in her exams. Her parents always wished to have a son and when Uma’s mother gives birth to her son Arun, Papa insists that Uma must stop going to school and help her mother in taking care of the house. Uma tries to resist and runs away to the convent school, seeking the help of Mother Agnes. However, Mother Agnes shows her inability to help her because of her failing grades. Uma suffers her first seizure and falls on the floor. She is brought back to the house which becomes a jail for her. Because she tried to run away to the convent, her parents became more restrictive and cautious. They blame the convent school and Mother Agnes for trying to convert their daughter to Christianity. Aruna continues to go to school though she too is not a brilliant student. Uma’s cousin Anamika is everything that Uma isn’t. She is a beautiful girl, a brilliant student beloved by everyone.

As they grow old, Anamika continues to excel in education and gets the opportunity to go to Oxford University, but her parents, Lily Aunty and Bakul Uncle don’t allow her to go. Instead, they marry her off to the wealthiest, most educated man they can find. Anamika’s husband turns out to be a sadist and cruel person. Uma learns that Anamika’s husband and her mother-in-law often beat her for no obvious reason.

Meanwhile, Mama-Papa are trying to find a suitable match for Uma but men show little interest in her, preferring her younger sister. Uma faced three failed marriage attempts including two dowry scams. Finally, a man agrees to marry her. He is of the age of Papa, Uma’s father, and appears reluctant while marrying her. Later on, Mama-Papa and Uma learn that he is already married and has children. He married Uma only to claim the money for the dowry. Later on, he abandons Uma. Mama and Papa give up on trying to marry Uma off and she literally becomes a house servant.

Aruna is now a beautiful grown-up woman who gets many marriage proposals. She chooses Aravind, one of them who is a wealthy businessman from Bombay. She moves to Bombay and the family does not see her often. Uma continues to serve as the house servant while Papa, now retired, and Mama continue to order her around. She has no escape and she finds her own house suffocating. She thinks of writing a letter to someone to vent her frustrations. But she wonders to whom she may write a letter? She has a friend Mrs. Joshi who lives next door. It will be odd to write a letter to her. She may write to Aruna but she is too busy with her married life now when she is the mother of two children. Uma thinks of writing to Anamika but she doesn’t know if she is alive. She thinks of writing a letter to Ramu, her cousin, Anamika’s brother, but she doesn’t know where is he nowadays.

Neglected and confined, Uma tries whenever possible to get away from home. On one occasion, her relative Mira-masi, a religious widow who travels the country freely, tricks MamaPapa into letting her bring Uma with her to an ashram, or pilgrimage house. Mira-Masi tells Uma’s father that Uma’s marriage failed because Lord Shiva wants her to serve him and asks him to let Uma go to the ashram with her. At the Ashram, Uma feels highly spiritual, and one day, while bathing in a river she suffers a seizure again. There, Uma wanders around freely and happily for a month, until MamaPapa sends her cousin Ramu to bring her back. On returning, she continues to suffer again. Other women of the society notice her predicament and try to help her out. Mrs. Joshi and other neighbors invite her to socialize and mix with them but Mama-Papa continues to oppose her going out. Doctor Dutt, a family friend visits their house and asks Uma to begin working with her but Papa strictly refuses to let her go. Mama-Papa becomes so insecure about Uma that when she falls ill and her eyes become painful, Papa refuses to allow her to seek medical care. One day, Uma learns that Anamika is found dead, burnt alive. Nobody knows if she committed suicide or if was she killed by her husband and mother-in-law. Lily Aunty and Bakul uncle visit their house before distributing the ashes of Anamika in Ganga.

Meanwhile, Arun had been a weak child. He had little interest in education but he found school better than his house. Arun prefers vegetarianism while his father tries to force him to eat non-vegetarian food so that he may become strong. Papa is influenced by Western culture and wishes Arun to learn English, play cricket, and learn the ways of modern Western people. Arun prefers calm Indian ways. After much hard work, Arun wins a scholarship to study in America. When he arrives in Massachusetts, he tiredly withdraws, spending his first year in school by himself. When the school year ends, he is forced, by circumstances and his parents’ arrangements, to rent a room in the Patton family home during the summer break. Arun, thrust into yet another family web of conflict and obligation, is forced to confront a uniquely American brand of familial alienation and dysfunction. Arun finds that each member of the Patton family is lost in the patterned daily ritual of mindless consumerism and spiritual alienation. Mrs. Patton is the sister of Mrs. O’Henry, the wife of a Christian missionary whom Arun’s father knows. Mr. and Mrs. Patton has two kids, son Rod and daughter Melanie. While Rod is rude, and boasting but friendly to Arun, Melanie is hostile against him. Arun feels like a fish out of water in the suburbs–he is a vegetarian in a land of carnivores, he does not share anyone’s interests, and many of the American customs seem strange and very wasteful. That summer Mrs. Patton tries to make Arun feel welcome, becoming a vegetarian herself and inviting him to go grocery shopping with her. Her attention makes him feel uncomfortable, as does the strained family dynamic. Arun finds that Mr. Patton is rude, impatient, and always angry at his family members. He is too controlling and prefers to dominate everyone. Mrs. Patton is generous and kind but often succumbs to her husband and hardly cares for her kids. Rod is often away from home as he remains busy in car racing and football. Melanie, on the other hand, is reclusive and has got addicted to overeating. Arun notices that she is suffering from bulimia and tries to inform Mrs. Patton about it but she ignores him. Ironically, while the family freezers and cupboards are overflowing with food, the household is starved of nourishing warmth, love, and genuine community. One day in the grocery store, a cashier tells Mrs. Patton that she looks pregnant. Mrs. Patton becomes obsessed with sun tanning, further neglecting her daughter.

After some days, Mrs. Patton invites Arun to visit a local pond along with Melanie. Arun delightedly enjoys the feeling of escaping himself when swimming. Later, while Mrs. Patton is sunbathing, Arun goes to look for Melanie, who has disappeared. He finds her half-conscious in a pile of her own vomit. Mrs. Patton soon arrives, shocked at what she sees.

Finally, Melanie is admitted to a rehabilitation center. Arun receives a packet full of homemade sweets sent by Uma. He gifts the packet to Mrs. Patton and goes back to his college. Arun spends most of his time alone and isolated and tries his best to escape from Western society but in vain. He learns that families in both cultures suffer similar problems, despite the vast difference.

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

The Village by The Sea by Anita Desai | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Village by The Sea is a novel by Anita Desai published in 1982. The novel tells the story of a family struggling against poverty and how they succeed in alleviating their condition. This ingenious, inspiring work of fiction has touched the hearts of millions. The story describes the lifestyle of the poor families living near the Indian Sea, their only hope of fishing and the palm trees and a family of poor people “of Thul, a village in India. Though the story begins with a sense of pessimism, aloneness, poverty, drunkardness rusticity, and alienation, the situation continues to improve and ends on a hopeful note. The novel's main theme is the strength of familial ties, the kindness of strangers, understanding between freedom and responsibilities, and change and adaptation.

Characters of The Village by the Sea:

Lila is a thirteen-year-old girl living in the seaside village of Thul in the Western Ghats of India near Mumbai. She belongs to a poor family. Her father is a fisherman who got addicted to alcohol and doesn’t earn anything to earn a living. Her mother is a responsible lady but she is sick and bedridden. Despite the hardships she is forced to endure, Lila remains optimistic and tries to help her family. She takes over her mother's responsibilities and takes care of her younger sisters while also cooking and cleaning around the house. She used to go to school but dropped out because she was needed at home. Hari is Lila’s younger brother. He is twelve years old. Like Lila, he too is responsible and cares for his family. He used to go to school but he stopped because his family is no longer in a position to afford it. He begins working in fields to earn some money. Bela and Kamal are two younger sisters of Lila and Hari. Hari insists that they must continue to go to school. The two little girls try their best to help Lila. Biju is a wealthy fisherman of the village who is engaged in smuggling and that’s how he made a huge fortune. He is boastful and arrogant but village people like him because he is one of their own who managed to make a lot of money. In addition, he also helps villagers at the time of their need. Hira Lal is the watchman of Mr. de Silva’s apartment in Mumbai. When Hari reaches there to get a job, Hira helps him and introduces him to Jagu, a restaurant owner who employs Hari and offers him a place to live at his own home. Mr. de Silva is a wealthy man from Bombay who sometimes visits the fishing village where Lila and Hari live. He is a kind man and offers to give Hari a job in Mumbai. After Hari leaves Thul, Mr. de Silva helps Lila in taking care of her sick mother. Mrs. de Silva is the kind-hearted wife of Mr. de Silva who visits the fishing village with him for a vacation. Mina is Lila’s friend from school. Mr. Panwallah is an old watchmaker and repairer who works at his shop near the restaurant of Jagu. Ramu, Bhola, and Mahesh are Hari’s friends from the village. They too are poor and hope for a new fertilizer factory to be initiated in the village so that they may get some jobs.

Summary of The Village by the Sea:

The novel begins at Thul, a fishing village near the sea in the Western Ghats of India. The people of the village are generally poor with their main source of income being fishing and farming. The story is about a young thirteen-year-old girl Lila and her younger brother, twelve-year-old Hari. Leela and Hari have two more younger sisters named Bela and Kamal. The kids also have a pet dog named Pinto. The family used to be economically sound as Lila’s father is a skilled fisherman. However, they suffered bad fortune when Hari’s father paid a large sum of money to a man who promised to get him a job in Mumbai. However, the man lied to him and disappeared with the money. After the incident, the father fell into deep despair and began drinking and neglecting the family. He does not earn a living but borrows money from the neighbors to buy alcohol. Their mother used to be a warm and loving lady but she fell sick of an unknown disease and is now completely bedridden. As the economic conditions dilapidated, Lila and Hari decided to drop out of their school. Lila began taking care of the kitchen and other homely duties while taking care of her sick mother, and three younger siblings. She also works as a housemaid in other houses to earn some money. Hari too begins trying his luck with fishing and he also works as a laborer in the fields of other villagers. Life is miserable for them. Lila has only a few days of work as a servant and Hari works a small plot of land to grow crops. The crops never yield enough food for them and his small fishing net never catches enough fish to fill the stomachs of his family. Hari is strong and wants to get a better job but he cannot tolerate the turmoil of his family. He is sad about dropping out of school and insists that his two younger sisters, Bela and Kamal must complete their education. Hari begins to think about better ways in which he could help his family and believes their prospects might get better when he hears that a factory will be built in their village. All of Hari’s friends are excited, but Hari tries to have a more realistic view of whether he will find work in the factory.

During such a dire period, Hari feels a ray of hope when a wealthy man Mr. de Silva visits Thul with his wife for a vacation. Mr. de Silva is a rich businessman from Mumbai who likes the nascent, natural, and serene environment of Thul. He has bought some land and has made a nice cottage where he and his wife often visit to spend their holidays. Whenever they visit the village, they always employ small kids to accompany them and help them with some house chores, and pay them handsomely. Lila and Hari start helping them and become their servants. After finding out about their situation, Mr. de Silva offers Hari a job in Bombay as a car washer. The proposal excites Hari but he is not willing to leave his family in the village. Furthermore, he also has some suspicions about this offer as his father was also lured into a similar job proposal and was then fooled. After thinking over it, Hari realizes that his situation is no better in the village. He thinks about Lila who is growing fast and thinks that without money, he will never be able to find a good groom for her. During the same time, one of Hari’s neighbors poisons his dog Pinto as revenge for his father not being able to pay back money that he borrowed to buy alcohol. This further saddens him.

Some men from Mumbai arrive at the village to talk about the changes that the new fertilizer factory may bring about in the village. He talks about jobs for skilled workers but also says that some land will be acquired for the establishment of the factory and for making hundreds of homes for the factory workers. This will require the removal of rice and other crops from the government land that the farmers have been tilling for many years. Some of the villagers, headed by Adrakar oppose this. Biju, a wealthy fisherman suggests, they should go to Mumbai and protest against this move.

Hari is roused by the words of Adarkar and decides to go to Bombay to stand up for his people. He does not tell his sisters.

When Hari arrives in Mumbai, he is stunned by the busy environment of the buzzing city. He sees hugely high buildings and a crowd of four-wheelers on the roads. He follows Adrakar and Biju for a while but soon realizes that he has nothing to do with them. He remembers Mr. de Silva’s offer and manages to find the residence, but the rude servant tells him that Mr. de Silvas is not in town. A kindly watchman Hari offers him some water and listens to him. When Hari says that Mr. de Silva promised him a job, Hari tells him that he will take him to his friend Jagu who will arrange for his job. Jagu runs a small restaurant and he agrees to let Hari work at his restaurant. He offers him a salary of Rupee 1 per day along with food and shelter at his own home. Jagu’s wife is a poor, weary, and troubled woman, she is initially hostile to Hari when Jagu brings the boy home, but she turns kind to him when he confides in her that his father drinks and beats his mother. Hari sends home a postcard letting his sisters know where he is and that he is going to bring his earnings to them. Life is hard for Hari in Bombay but he works hard. While working for Jagu, Hari meets Mr. Panwallah, a watchmaker and repairer who runs his shop near the restaurant. Mr. Panwallah is touched by Hari’s hard work and honesty. He requests Jagu to let Hari work at his shop for an hour every day so that he may teach some watch repairing skills to Hari. Jagu agrees to this and Hari begins training under Mr. Panwallah. Soon he learns most of the techniques and tricks of watch repairing.

Meanwhile, Lila is facing troubles in the village. Her mother gets sicker and she needs immediate help. At such time, Lila remembers Mr. de Silva who could help her. When she visits his home, she finds that Mr. de Silva and his wife are going back to the city. She requests them to take her mother to the hospital. Mr. de Silva immediately agrees and says he will take care of everything. When Lila’s father hears of this, he yells at her in a drunken rage, but he goes to the hospital and remains at his wife’s side. He also gives up drinking and is much more subdued. Lila visits every week, and her mother improves more and more. Mr. de Silva departs soon but another guest appears at his cottage. He is an old politician who loves bird-watching. He also continues to help Lila and pays her dearly for homely chores.

Hari continues to learn new skills in Mumbai. When Monsoon arrives, he hears the news of some fishermen's boats being caught in the storm. This reminds him of his village and he begins missing his sister. He decides that he will go back to the village to celebrate Diwali with his family. He begins taking more interest in learning the watchmaking trade from Mr. Panwallah.

Near the season of the Deewali festival, he decided to return back to Thul. When he gets home, he finds that his mother’s condition has improved and that his father is slowly beginning to recover from his alcoholism. He starts a small business raising animals and thinks about using what he learned from Mr. Panwallah to open his own watch repair shop in the village.

The novel ends with the family contentedly celebrating, grateful for the positive changes in their lives.

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