Black Arts Movement

 Black Arts movement, period of artistic and literary development among black Americans in the 1960s and early ’70s. Based on the cultural politics of black nationalism, which were developed into a set of theories referred to as the Black Aesthetic, the movement sought to create a populist art form to promote the idea of black separatism. Many adherents viewed the artist as an activist responsible for the formation of racially separate publishing houses, theatre troupes, and study groups. The literature of the movement, generally written in black English vernacular and confrontational in tone, addressed such issues as interracial tension, socio-political awareness, and the relevance of African history and culture to blacks in the United States.

The Black Arts Movement was the name given to a group of politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatists, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement. The poet Imamu Amiri Baraka is widely considered to be the father of the Black Arts Movement, which began in 1965 and ended in 1975.

After Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, those who embraced the Black Power movement often fell into one of two camps: the Revolutionary Nationalists, who were best represented by the Black Panther Party, and the Cultural Nationalists.  The latter group called for the creation of poetry, novels, visual arts, and theater to reflect pride in black history and culture.  This new emphasis was an affirmation of the autonomy of black artists to create black art for black people as a means to awaken black consciousness and achieve liberation.

The Black Arts Movement was formally established in 1965 when Baraka opened the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem. The movement had its greatest impact in theater and poetry. Although it began in the New York/Newark area, it soon spread to Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, and San Francisco, California. In Chicago, Hoyt Fuller and John Johnson edited and published Negro Digest (later Black World), which promoted the work of new black literary artists. Also in Chicago, Third World Press published black writers and poets. In Detroit, Lotus Press and Broadside Press republished older works of black poetry. These Midwestern publishing houses brought recognition to edgy, experimental poets. New black theater groups were also established. In 1969, Robert Chrisman and Nathan Hare established The Black Scholar, which was the first scholarly journal to promote black studies within academia.

There was also collaboration between the cultural nationalists of the Black Arts Movement and mainstream black musicians, particularly celebrated jazz musicians including John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Archie Shepp, and others. Cultural nationalists saw jazz as a distinctly black art form that was more politically appealing than soul, gospel, rhythm and blues, and other genres of black music.

Although the creative works of the movement were often profound and innovative, they also often alienated both black and white mainstream culture with their raw shock value which often embraced violence. Some of the most prominent works were also seen as racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and sexist.  Many works put forth a black hyper masculinity in response to historical humiliation and degradation of African American men but usually at the expense of some black female voices.

The movement began to fade when Baraka and other leading members shifted from Black Nationalism to Marxism in the mid-1970s, a shift that alienated many who had previously identified with the movement. Additionally Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Gil Scott-Heron, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin achieved cultural recognition and economic success as their works began to be celebrated by the white mainstream.

The Black Arts Movement left behind many timeless and stirring pieces of literature, poetry, and theater. Ironically despite the male-dominated nature of the movement, several black female writers rose to lasting fame including Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, among others.  Additionally, the Black Arts Movement helped lay the foundation for modern-day spoken word and hip-hop.

Leading theorists of the Black Arts movement included Houston A. Baker, Jr.; Carolyn M. Rodgers; Addison Gayle, Jr., editor of the anthology The Black Aesthetic (1971); Hoyt W. Fuller, editor of the journal Negro Digest (which became Black World in 1970); and LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, editors of Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (1968). Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka, wrote the critically acclaimed play Dutchman (1964) and founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre in Harlem (1965). Haki R. Madhubuti, known as Don L. Lee until 1973, became one of the movement’s most popular writers with the publication of Think Black (1967) and Black Pride (1968). Among other writers who engaged with the movement were Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Ntozake Shange, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, and June Jordan.

Existentialism

 Existentialism may be described as a modern youngest philosophy. It is very difficult to find its roots in any of the ancient philosophies. It is modern twentieth century’ philosophy.

Existentialism is an area in philosophy that deals with human freedom. Existentialism itself is a revolt against traditional philosophy; it has been labelled a philosophy but a definition is difficult as its proponents have a marked difference in outlook. Existentialist thought concerns itself with trying to understand fundamentals of the human condition and its relation to the world around us. Basic questions include, 'what is it like to be a human in the world?' and 'what is the nature of human freedom?'.

Existentialism can be seen as a philosophical movement that rejects that life has an inherent meaning, but instead requires each individual to posit his or her own subjective values. Existentialism, unlike other fields of philosophy, does not treat the individual as a concept, and values individual subjectivity over objectivity. As a result, questions regarding existence and subjective experience are seen as being of paramount importance, and initially above all other scientific and philosophical pursuits.

There are several philosophical positions, all related to existential philosophy, but the main identifiable common proposition is that existence precedes essence, i.e. that a human exists before his or her existence has value or meaning. Humans define the value or meaning of both his or her existence and the world around him or her in his or her own subjectivity, and wanders between choice, freedom, and existential angst. Existentialism often is associated with anxiety, dread, awareness of death, and freedom. Famous existentialists include Sartre, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, Fanon, Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, and Simone de Beauvoir.

Existentialism emphasizes action, freedom, and decision as fundamental to human existence; and is fundamentally opposed to the rationalist tradition and to positivism. That is, it argues against definitions of human beings as primarily rational. More generally it rejects all of the Western rationalist definitions of "being" in terms of a rational principle or essence, or as the most general feature that all existing things share in common. Camus posits, in his essay "An Absurd Reasoning," that society and religion falsely teach humans that "the other" (i.e. the world of observable phenomena outside the self) has order and structure. In fact, all attempts by the individual, termed "consciousness," to attempt to map an order or purpose onto "the other" will be met with failure, as "the other" is non-rational and random. When "consciousness" longing for order collides with "the other's" lack of order, a third element is born, "the absurd."

It then follows that, Existentialism tends to view human beings as subjects in an indifferent, objective, often ambiguous, and " absurd" universe, in which meaning is not provided by the natural order, but rather can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings' actions and interpretations

 

Its main exponents are: (i) Soren Kierkegaard the Danish Philosopher (1813-1835), (ii) Jean Paul Sartre, a French Writer, (iii) Karl Jaspess, a German Philosopher, (iv) Reinholf Niebuhr, a leading protestant theologian.

Contemporary existentialist philosophy views man as participating in a world of things and events, and encountering other men. The meaning of human Existence is that it is man’s nature to exist “to stand out into reality, to participate in being, to be present to all that is.” Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, described the dilemma of the individual man more than a century ago, with keen psychological insight.

 

Shakespeare's Sonnets (General Shakespeare)

 About the Author:

William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. They also continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Sonnet 12: Like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, the poem laments the frailty and impermanence of beauty and personifies "Time," which takes that beauty away, as its antagonist. The poem is part of Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sequence, a group of poems addressed to a handsome young man with whom the speaker has an intimate relationship. Within this sequence, "Sonnet 12" belongs more specifically to a subset of poems known as the "procreation sonnets," which encourage the handsome youth to marry and have children. Here, the speaker urges the Fair Youth to reproduce specifically as a way of leaving some of his beauty behind and, therefore, defying Time.

Sonnet 18: focuses on the loveliness of a friend or lover, with the speaker initially asking a rhetorical question about comparing their subject to a summer's day. He then goes on to introduce the pros and cons of the weather, mentioning both an idyllic English summer's day and the less-welcome dim sun and rough winds of autumn. In the end, it is insinuated this very piece of poetry will keep the lover—the poem's subject—alive forever and allow them to defy even death.

Sonnet 60: The speaker begins by comparing the minutes experienced by a human during his or her lifetime to the waves of the sea. Then the speaker thinks of a different parallel for human life—the sun. The sun rises in the east, full of light. Then, it slowly makes its way up the sky to its position at high noon. But then, out of nowhere, "eclipses" come and blot it out. The speaker ends this second section by talking about how destructive time is. 

Sonnet 104: This sonnet is another that deals with the passage of time. The speaker remarks that the subject never seems to grow old. He looks exactly the same as he did when the speaker first met him three years ago. But then the speaker realizes that the subject's beauty may be diminishing imperceptibly, like the movements of the hands of a clock. His beauty may be altering, but the changes are too subtle for the speaker's eyes to detect them. The speaker then warns future generations that the epitome of beauty will have died before they were ever born!

Sonnet 127: In this sonnet the speaker discusses the way blackness and darkness have been viewed. In times past, black was not considered beautiful ("not counted fair"), or if it was, it was not called as such. But now black is considered to be beautiful: "But now is black beauty's successive heir." Then, the speaker says beauty is slandered with bastardy, or illegitimacy, since women put cosmetics on their faces—"Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face"—making what is ugly beautiful through artificial means. True beauty has been bastardized and called into question. The speaker says that he has therefore chosen a mistress whose eyes are black and seem to be in mourning for those who use makeup to falsely disguise their natural darkness ("Sland'ring creation with a false esteem"), distorting what nature has created by covering it up with artificial cosmetics. Her black eyes look so suited to mourning that everyone says that's the way beauty should look.

 

 

 

 

Oral and Written Literatures: A Comparative Study

Introduction:  Oral literature predates written literature by many centuries; languages existed in the vocal and aural domains and it was much later that utterances were assigned symbols or letters. Oral literature is a much discussed topic with regard to indigenous cultures in Africa, the Americas, India, China, and wherever indigenous people have maintained their unique culture and traditions. In this unit, you will see how oral literature is different from written literature, without, however, being encased in watertight compartments. There is considerable overlap between these two. The need to look at oral literature and written literature under one heading underlines the fact that oral literature has considerably influenced written literature. There are numerous examples from Africa, India, North and South America, Europe, etc., of the different ways in which oral literature has influenced written literature.

Oral Literature Commonly known as ‘Folklore’, Oral Literature can be described as ‘verbal art’; art that is delivered orally and transmitted orally from person to person, generation to generation, region to region, etc., by word of mouth. Oral Literature denotes traditional forms of entertainment. OL may include epic poems, folk tales, folk songs, myths, legends, ballads of people and events, etc. In fact, OL exists in the ‘vocal’ (speaking) and ‘aural’ (listening) domains, in the broad world of ‘sound.’ And therefore, OL is manifest in ‘performance.’

Literature is what we commonly understand as ‘literature,’ that is, novels, poems, stories, essays, or anything that is ‘primarily’ written down. It is a written art.

Orature: As we have seen earlier, ‘literature’ itself means something that is written down, so the term ‘Oral Literature’ seems to appear oxymoronic. Pio Zirimu, the Ugandan linguist, had coined the term ‘orature’ to bestow a higher status to the verbal arts that did not come through in the term ‘Oral Literature.’ ‘Oral Literature’ was considered inferior to ‘Written Literature’ and he rejected the term. But his brief definition of orature as the use of utterance as an aesthetic means of expression remains tantalizingly out there, pointing to an oral system of aesthetics that did not need validity from the literary. The term however has spread, and one reads variously of Hawaiian Orature, Namibian Orature, Ghanaian Orature and many others. Yet the term ‘Oral Literature’ has continued to remain in currency in academic circles and is also used more widely than orature.

Oral and Written Literatures: A Comparison

If we take these two concepts ‘Oral Literature’ and ‘Written Literature’ separately, then it would appear that Written Literature is the opposite of Oral Literature – OL is ‘vocal/aural’ and WL is ‘written.’ But there is some relationship between OL and WL. Indeed there is, and for that we will have to look at how Oral Literature has influenced and impacted Written Literature. So, here, we would be looking at Written Literature in a culture or language that is influenced by Oral Literature. You will have to also bear in mind that OL is sometimes available as WL and WL in many cases is transmitted orally.

Story telling has an old and long history, as old as man. The practice of storytelling has existed ever since man learnt to speak. Probably people in the olden times (maybe prehistoric days) had nothing better to do after they were done with the day’s hunting, than sit around the fire and spin tales, fictional, and of days gone by. This might sound as if the ‘oral’ story telling is a phenomenon of old times. In actuality even today in many cultures, the oral tradition plays a vital and significant role. For instance, the Caribbean culture is largely oral and this is also true of many cultures across the world. Folklore is another form of what we call ‘oral literature.’ It is basically the creative expression of the traditional beliefs and customs of people which is told by the old grandfather/mother to the little children, and passed on by these children when they grow up to their own children. The stories keep changing from generation to generation, and new elements get thrown into the story which are more contemporary and related to the changes in the society/culture. Why are these stories told? What are these stories about? The purpose of these oral stories could be to entertain, to inform, to instil values in people, etc. In short, they could be told for any number of reasons.

Some literary features overlap both Oral Literature and Written Literature.  1. Sound (Voice) vs. Symbol (Print): Based purely on physical evidence, it can be said that literature signifies a written art work and folklore refers to an oral art. Folksingers, minstrels, bards, traditional folk theatre artists, community storytellers, etc., are generally considered to be unlettered and untouched by the print medium. Voice was the only medium through which they expressed their art and through which they got their art from the mouths of others like them. However, many folksingers and storytellers today are literate and sometimes incorporate what they read into their songs and tales. 2. Fluid vs. Fixed: Folktales and songs are fluid, that is, the way they are told and sung or performed changes with each performance, though the essence or the main theme or storyline remains the same. The singer or storyteller never tells the same story twice, each performance is different. A written work never changes once it is printed. The book will have the same story to tell at each reading or ‘performance.’ As long as the book exists and people care to read it, the ‘telling’ never changes. 3.Simplicity vs. Complexity: It might appear that folk art is simpler than literature. The folktale, the ballad, and the oral epic are simple forms of art that have arisen from innocent impulses and therefore lack the complexity that one sees in literature. However, oral literature has its own importance and space. We can say that as societies grew increasingly sophisticated, the simple forms gave way to written genres which met the same expressive needs. For example, the ballad form is a very popular genre in oral literature. 4.Style and Structure: Oral Literature differs greatly from Written Literature in matters of structure and style. Sometimes it would appear that in terms of structure and style, there is a great gap separating oral and written expression. It is generally accepted that Oral is characterised by features like repetition, stock epithets, stock characters, a marked preference for fantasy over reality, and an emphasis on action. And the opposite of these would seem to characterize Written Literature. And all these so-called Oral Literature features are also seen in written literature, right from Shakespeare to all the thrillers, mysteries, detective novels, and romances. 5. Authorship: One of the long-standing distinguishing features that appear to separate Oral Literature and Written Literatures is that of authorship. We have understood that Written Literature is the creation of a single individual and that folksongs and stories are communal compositions, arising collectively from the community. 6. Audience: Among all the features, it is the Audience that marks the clearest difference between Oral Literature and Written Literature. Simply put, the oral narrative cannot exist without an audience. Literature is and can be written in isolation for an imagined audience, an audience which might never read the written work of art.

Importance of Oral literature to the development of  Written Literature:

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o  is a Kenyan writer, who started writing in English and now writes in his native Gikuyu and Swahili. He has written novels, plays, stories, and influential essays in literary and social criticism. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o talks about ‘orature’ (Oral Literature) in his essay “Notes towards a Performance Theory of Orature” (2007). This is an important essay which gives us an African perspective to Oral Literature.  A. K. Ramanujan’s research on texts in three languages – Kannada, Tamil, and Sanskrit, on classical Tamil poetry, Kannada Bhakti poetry, linguistics, translation studies, folklore, and oral tradition, makes him the world’s most influential scholar on South Asian language and culture. Ramanujan’s essays on folk tradition “The Indian Oedipus,” “Tell it to the Walls: On Folktales in Indian Culture,” “A Flowering Tree: A Woman’s Tale,” “On Folk Mythologies and Folk Puranas,” and many more have become iconic over the years. On the back of his extensive work on Indian folk traditions, his views on oral and written literature assume critical importance. In the essay “Who Needs Folklore? The Relevance of Oral Traditions to South Asian Studies” (1990), Ramanujan discusses oral and written literature in his easy style with interesting examples. Ramanujan says that the relations between oral and written traditions in any culture are not simple oppositions and that they interpenetrate each other and combine in various ways.

Almost all literatures of the world have been influenced by their respective oral traditions, either directly or indirectly, at some point. Here, we shall look in some detail at two texts, Hayavadana, a play by Girish Karnad (Sanskrit-Kannada-English: India), and Things Fall Apart (Igbo-English: Nigeria), a novel by Chinua Achebe, and see how oral literature has influenced their respective literary works.

Conclusion: Thus, the oral literature plays a vital role for the growth of written literature. Yet Oral literature has its own place in the field of Comparative Studies. Still the art of oral literature is existing in many societies which carries the values of the societies from one generation to the next.

The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)

 Introduction:  There are critics, and reviewers who have generally spoken of several themes expounded in the novel The God of Small Things. In one sense, the novel evokes the child's world through the twins’ experiences. Another concern of the novel appears to be separation of people from one another and from society. Class-division, casteist oppression, feminist rebellion against patriarchy and also political dissatisfaction against Marxism are some of the major elements discussed in the novel. Even decaying of Syrian Christianity in Kerala may be termed as the Chief concern of the novel. Above all, there is sufficient ground to believe that the theme of the novel is symbolically expressed in the title itself.

Plot: The main action centers around Sophie Mol’s visit to Ayemenem. Joe dies in an accident, and Chacko invites Margaret Kochamma to Ayemenem for the holidays. Estha, Rahel, Ammu, Chacko, and Baby Kochamma make a trip to the airport, and on the way their car is trapped by a Communist march. The family then goes to see The Sound of Music, and Estha is molested by the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, a vendor at the theater. The next day Sophie and Margaret arrive, and the family returns to Ayemenem.

Estha fears that the Orangedrink Man will come for him, so he and Rahel find a boat and row across the river to the “History House,” the abandoned home of an Englishman who “went native.” The twins set up a hideout there. Meanwhile Ammu dreams about Velutha, and that night she and Velutha meet by the river and have sex. They continue to meet every night for the next two weeks.

Finally Vellya Paapen (Velutha’s father) comes to Mammachi and confesses his son’s relationship with Ammu. Mammachi and Baby Kochamma lock Ammu in her room, where she screams that the twins are “millstones” around her neck. The twins decide to run away to the History House, and Sophie Mol comes with them. Their boat tips over as they cross the river and Sophie Mol drowns. The twins reach shore and, terrified, fall asleep in the History House, unaware that Velutha is there too.

Baby Kochamma goes to the police, telling Inspector Thomas Mathew that Velutha tried to rape Ammu and kidnapped the children. Six policemen find Velutha and beat him brutally in front of Estha and Rahel. When Mathew finds out that Velutha is innocent, he threatens to charge Baby Kochamma. Terrified for herself, she convinces Estha to “save Ammu” by telling the police that Velutha killed Sophie Mol. Velutha dies in jail that night. After Sophie Mol’s funeral Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko to throw Ammu out of the house, and Ammu is then forced to “return” Estha to Baba.

The twins are separated for twenty-three years, during which Estha stops speaking altogether. When he is thirty-one Baba “re-returns” him to Ayemenem. Meanwhile Rahel is kicked out of many schools, and Ammu dies when Rahel is eleven. Rahel marries an American and lives in Boston, but then gets divorced and returns to Ayemenem when she hears Estha is there.

The twins are reunited in 1993. Mammachi has died and Baby Kochamma and the cook, Kochu Maria, spend all day watching TV as the house falls apart. The History House has become a five-star hotel. Rahel and Estha (who still doesn’t speak) sift through some old trinkets and notebooks and end up reaffirming their closeness by having sex.

Themes:

1. Life of the Weak and the Helpless Portrayed in the Novel:

For Roy The God of Small Things stands for the portrayal of life of weak and helpless, poor and destitute , whether they are small creatures like frogs and ants or human beings such as the victim of Hollick's lust or the women supplying chacko's man's needs  or children like Estha and Rahel . In contrast with 'The God of Big Things ',  the novel accounts for life and sufferings , even tragic hopes and triumphs of the downtrodden like Vellya Paapen and his sons or Ammu. The God of Small Things represents all those people who are victimized by dead traditions and conventions, fake pride and honour, the tyranny of the state and the politics of opportunism. 

2. Portrayal of the Ordinary, Simple and Natural Life of Children and Innocent Creatures: 

The God of Small Things is also the portrayal of the ordinary, simple and natural life of children and innocent creatures. One reason for this assumption is to be found in Roy's treatment of symbolism. It shows that the novel is mainly concerned with those creatures whose lives and works are treated as insignificant but they also have the natural but unsophisticated urges of life. 

3. The Big God of Big Things and ‘The Small God of Small Things’: 

The first clear allusion to the theme occurs in the first chapter of the novel. But it is checked as the wisdom is taken out from the sufferings of life, since it is a comment on the strange look that Rahel's eyes wore when McCaslin made love to her. The whole experience of rejection and loss of relations lies behind that look.

The Small God rules the destiny of those who are doomed to assume the role of offenders, because they are guided by nature and not by conventions. Ammu, Estha and Rahel tampered with the laws which settle as " who should be loved and how, and how much.” Those governed in this way are like the banana jam illegally produced by “Paradise Pickles and Preserves. It is wrong to say that trouble began with the coming of Sophie Mol to Ayemenem. The truth is “it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down, who should be loved ... and how much”. But this theory in reality means that all forms of social restrictions and discipline are injurious to the freedom of the human spirit and love. It is possible to proclaim the theme of the novel in these terms, but if it is done, then any restriction on sexual relations including incest is regarded by the author as injurious and an act of “The God of Big Things.” 

4. The Problem of division: 

The problem of division is met with in Pappachi's moth with its sudden bursts of violence in inter-personal behaviour. On the one hand it accounts for Pappachi's cruelty against Mammachi and Ammu, on the other; it is held responsible for outbursts of temper in Ammu, constituting a rebellion against patriarchal oppression and social tyranny. 

5. Depiction of Love in the Novel: 

It does not appear to be a sudden decision of the author that right in the middle of the novel, we have a short chapter entitled The God of Small Things. The chapter is highly symbolic. It deals with Ammu's dream, which can only be interpreted as her version of The God of Small Things, who is an embodiment of strong irrepressible urge for love and sex. Since this God of Small Things does not recognize and accept the social conventions and restrictions, he is bound to come in conflict with history and traditions and that too without any chance of success. This kind of love as personified in the novel, is like a person with serious handicaps. 'The God of Small Things' uses Velutha as a Vehicle and crosses over to the place of destruction. From now on, the lovers are completely under the spell of the God of Small Things. The social oppression fear of caste disparity, religious stigma - in short, the God of Big Things is recklessly forgotten. 

6. Division of the Life: 

The life is divided into two sets of forces, fighting for existence. The upper class consists of the burden of history, dead and decayed traditions false family honour and pride, patriarchy and political opportunism - the God of Big Things. The other lower world comprises children, insecure women, untouchables, the working people with their struggle for identity, existence and independence, and natural urges and desires - the God of Small Things. 

7. Manifestation of the Struggle on the Levels of Society, State, Family and Personal Relations: 

(a) Ammu: 

While exploring the manifestation of the struggle on the levels of society, state, family and personal relations; we should start with Ammu because the maltreatment she suffers has a disastrous effect upon her life as a child. As a girl she had witnessed the vagaries of patriarchal power. Her father used to beat her mother and once had turned them out of the house. She was deprived of higher education because her father thought that college education was an unnecessary expense for a girl. At Ayemenem, she remained totally uncared for and to minimise her sense of insecurity she drifted into a loveless marriage. Her husband an alcoholic went to the extent of asking her to satisfy the lust of his boss, to ensure his job. Ammu and her children were constantly reminded that socially and financially they had no locus standing in the Ayemenem House. 

Things come to a head when her night-meetings with the untouchable Velutha are discovered. At police station she is subjected to extreme humiliation being called as 'Vaishya' and her children as illegitimate. The state power, the family establishment and the society - all are seen to be in collusion against Ammu and her children. The remaining period of her life makes up story of misery, desperate search for livelihood and despondency tinged with fruitless day - dreaming. Her death and disgraceful cremation bring the story of her life to an end - the God of Small Things. 

(b) The Wounds of the Twins, Rahel and Estha: 

The same force of tradition and reaction are operative against Estha and Rahel, the condemned twins, being product of an inter-caste marriage - hated by the family as outsiders. The first shock that comes to the tender mind of Estha is his child abuse, which sinks deep into the psyche of the seven year old child and haunts him throughout his life. The second shocking wound for the twins, especially Estha, is the emotional blackmail to betray the person, they loved dearly which totally disintegrates the boy; thus associated symbolically with the God of Small Things. 

As far Rahel, the circumstances make her become to the diseased condition of her dying mother and after Ammu's death she drifts aimlessly. Her recklessness and awakening sexuality come in direct collision with the traditional Christian attitude; the God of Big Things. Her neglect at home and in school gives rise to a defiant mood in her mind - the God of Small Things. 

(c) Velutha an Embodiment of Extreme Social Discrimination, Poverty and Humiliation: 

Velutha the sufferer is symbolically associated with the God of Small Things, perhaps for the reason of extreme social discrimination, humiliation and poverty. He becomes a transgressor, when he indulges in illicit love affair with Ammu. This is not tolerated by anyone even by the communist, “The God of Big Things”. The police are also irked by the said illicit relation. Thus pitted against the ' God of Big Things, this small man in his small acts gets no chance of survival or escape. 

Conclusion: 

Thus the theme of the novel has been divided into two parts; first one is the upper class carrying the burden of history, dead and decayed traditions, false family honour, pride and reputation, patriarchy and political opportunism - the God of Big Things. Whereas the 'God of Small Things', consists of children , insecured women, untouchables, working people struggling for existence, natural urges and desires. Thus, it is clear that the basic theme of “The God of Small Things” sets in socio – political, cultural, historical contexts the India.

 

Three Questions (Leo Tolstoy)

Introduction: “The Three Questions” by Leo Tolstoy is a story about a king, who had three questions always in his mind that were “what was the right time for every action”, “who were the most necessary people”, and “how he might know what was the most important thing to do”. He found the answers for these questions only through experiences.

Various Answers: The king sent many messengers throughout his kingdom in order to find answers for the three questions that have risen in his mind. He promised to give a reward of a large sum to the person who answered his three questions. Many wise men tried their luck. They gave a number of answers. One said that the king should go by a timetable. Another said that the king should do whatever seemed to him necessary at the moment. The third suggested that the king should consult wise men or magicians. Answering the second question, they gave top importance to his councillors, or the priests or the doctors or the soldiers. In reply to the third question, the wise men gave importance to science or fighting or religious worship.

Meeting the Hermit: However, the king was not satisfied with all the answers given by the learned people. He went to a hermit in the jungle alone. There he saw the old and weak hermit digging the ground. The king asked his questions but got no answer. Then he took the spade from the hermit and began to work in his place. Several hours passed. It was evening, so the king stopped digging the beds. The king was ready to take leave from the hermit. Just then, someone was running towards them.

King's Kindness: The king saw a bearded man running towards them. His hands were pressed against his stomach from which blood was oozing. As he reached the king, he fainted and fell to the ground. He had a large wound in his stomach. The king washed the wound and compressed it with his handkerchief. At last, the bleeding stopped. The man felt better and asked for water to drink. The king gave him fresh water. The sun had set by then. The king and the hermit carried the wounded man into the hut and laid him on the bed. The tired king also fell asleep. When he awoke, the bearded man asked to forgive him.

Knowing the truth: The man was, in fact, the king’s enemy. He had followed the king to take revenge on him. He had vowed to kill him because the king had once put his brother to death. When he tried to follow the king, he got wounded by the king’s bodyguards. He would have died if the king had not dressed his wound. He felt grateful to the king who had saved his life. He promised to serve the king as a faithful servant. The king was happy that he had made peace with his enemy. He forgave the man and promised to give back his property.

Hermit's Explanation: The king then went up to the hermit. He again asked answers for his three questions. The hermit explained that by digging the beds for him, the king had escaped the attack. So, the most important time was when he was digging the beds. The hermit himself was the most important person. So, to do him good was the king’s most important business. The hermit further told the king that the most important person for him was the person who was with him at a particular moment. The most important business was to help that person. And the most important time was ‘now’ that is, the present moment.

Conclusion: Thus Leo Tolstoy, in this short piece of essay suggests that one has to go by his own counsel whenever he wants to take a good decision. To take good decision he needs to gain varied experiences like the king in the story. It is only life and no book or any individual that teaches one to make the right decision.