Conflicting Worlds (further continued)

Gradually, we are shown through the course of the passage that Da-duh’s pride and confidence in her world decreases as she is enlightened to the new occurrences of the modern world. She constantly shows and exposes her granddaughter the natural gifts of her land in Barbados. And so, in great excitement she takes the child to a small clearing amid a dense bush and there she shows her an incredibly tall royal palm. And with extreme confidence she asks if the child has anything that tall in New York. She is yet again shocked to the extent that she trembles with “rage”, when the child informs her of the tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building. She is completely oblivious to the idea of something taller than the hills of Bissex can or do exist. She does not believe her granddaughter.

At this point, the clash of the different world’s are presented with perfection as the dialogue between the two and most importantly the absolutely bewildered reaction of Da-duh dominates the entire scenario. We see a complete defeat of Da-duh’s excitement.

Throughout the text, there is constant comparison or rather, note of differences between these two worlds of modernity and the natural world. The clash is depicted through the conversation between the two characters when they go for a walk. Both characters attempt to emphasize on the wonderful and unique qualities of the existence of their worlds and constantly defend and talk about it. It is interesting to note that although the conflict is about two different worlds, in real both live in the same world and yet have such different outlooks because of their background.

Conflicting Worlds (continued)

Da-duh and the little girl seem to have a certain bond even though through this bond they only manage to convey to each other the distinct and favourable features of their worlds. It is as if, from the beginning of their encounter with each other they are in constant competition to prove the positivity and greatness of their worlds. Although, it may be added that this determination was more from Da-duh than from the little girl as she wants to prove to herself the importance of her “natural” world. Da-duh’s constant repetition of phrases like, “I know they don’t have anything this nice where you come from” and “I bet you don’t have these in New York” is a way in which she tries to highlight the distinct and unique quality of her world and its natural benefits. She does this with great determination, bordering on stubbornness. Parallel to this, the girl with the same level of stubbornness and determination seeks to talk about her “developed” and mechanized world “of steel and concrete and machines”.  

Da-duh has lived eighty years of her life in Barbados and is ignorant to the great developments of the world. She lives in her own world of natural surroundings with basic facilities. She has appreciation for the fruits and foodstuff which grow in the plants and trees which surround the ground near her simple dwelling place. She has seen and experienced the time of slavery, when Africans were made to work on sugar-cane fields for long hours by the British during colonial rule. Even after emancipation of Africans in 1838, the British were still in control. Therefore, when the girl tells Da-duh that she “beat up” a white girl in her class, it comes as a great shock and she has a tone of incredulity as she is still under the impression of different opportunities existing for different races. Her difficulty in accepting this magnitude of change in times is evident when she says that the “world’s changing up so I can scarce recognize it anymore.” Whereas, it can be noted that such an incident or act (beating up white people) was taken as a casual or normal reaction by the granddaughter. This shows the wide generation gap and her ignorance about the history of slavery, similar to Da-duh’s ignorance about the developments in society and it further presents the conflict between the two characters’ views of their worlds.

Conflicting Worlds

“To Da-duh, in Memoriam” is a short story showing the change and developments that have taken place in many parts of the world over the passage of time and the struggle by Da-duh to accept this reality of change. This change has occurred over a long period of time and creates a constant conflict to appear in the story between Da-duh and her granddaughter. It presents the clash of a grandmother and granddaughter’s two different worlds through several ways. The narrative technique, setting, style and tone of the passage and most importantly, the dialogue between the two main characters of the story gives constant reflection to the conflict and difference which exists in their lives because of the differing atmospheres they live in. Also, to present this occurrence of conflict, the main themes of rivalry, slavery, freedom and modernization are highlighted.

The story has been told from the point of view of a nine year old girl after she has grown older. She, the granddaughter, remembers her reactions, attitude and experience at the time when she meets her grandmother, Da-duh for the first time. Therefore the narrative technique is unique in the fact that it is from the perception of a child and a first person account is given. This automatically creates an idea that the narrator is more inclined and in favour of the modernized world than the natural world of Da-duh as it is the modern world that she is accustomed to.

Of White Hairs and Cricket (continued)

The establishment of the change in tone is done with dexterity as the boy slowly begins to realize the reality of the situation. The first signal he gets of his discovery is when his friend Viraf acts strangely, in the sense that he is dull and seemingly upset. At first, his reaction to it is that of indifference as he says, “words to show concern were always beyond me”. The second time his discovery gradually starts to reveal as he sees his friend’s eyes are “red”. The narrator’s discovery is made significant as he hears “hushed voices” coming from Viraf’s flat. All this new behaviour which the narrator is put through creates suspicion and puts him into a confusion of what is going on.

The image created of Viraf’s sick father lying in bed greatly helps in establishing the significance of the narrator’s discovery as that image is the major signal which gives him the final realization of the existence of pain and takes him out of the world of innocence and protection. He describes the room saying “it was dark”. This could signify darkness in the sense of the existence of pain or evil. Viraf’s father had a “needle stuck into his right arm” and the narrator says, ‘it glinted cruelly”. The needle is described as cruel as the boy has always lived in such protected surrounding that he is not accustomed to seeing such a picture and for him it is not a good or right thing.

The entire atmosphere of gloom and sadness that is present at Viraf’s place is a key factor in establishing the importance of the child’s discovery. The worried mother and the sick father make the boy ponder over the importance of his own parents and provide him with a sense of appreciation for their love and efforts for him.

Of White Hairs and Cricket (Analysis)

The main focus of the short story, “Of White Hairs and Cricket” by Rohan Mistry is the routine life of a young Indian boy he narrative technique used is interesting as the boy himself is the narrator, giving the passage his perspective and point of view.  The writer establishes the significance of the narrator’s discovery of illness, which a friend’s father is suffering from, through various ways. The discovery by the boy is not solely about the illness but the entire realization that the sheltered world he has always lived in is not reality and that pain and suffering exists; people age and nothing remains the same. The story portrays the emotional difficulty of a young boy when he sees his father as a mortal being.  The significance of this discovery is put across through the sudden change in the tone of the story, the gradual build up of his sheltered life before his discovery, the imagery of Viraf’s (his friend) father lying sick in bed and the change in the atmosphere which the boy witnesses at his friend’s house. 

From the beginning, the narration of the story is seen to have a rather innocent or immature tone to it as it is being told from the perspective of a young boy. He describes in length the quality of life he and his family have, focusing on minor, local details which make the story more personal and real. The boy complains innocently of his dull task of pulling out his father’s white hair every Sunday and the tone of innocence continues to exist when we read of him remembering the days when his father used to play cricket with him. Overall, the tone is that of sweet innocence, happiness and shows content with the quality of his life. Similarly, the start of the passage shows him as excitedly waiting for his friend, Viraf, to go play or spend the day together. The light tone is evident as he is yodeling and waving at his friend. His thought process is young, light-hearted and humorous as he notices his friend’s well-mannered behavior towards a guest doctor and refers to it as “muskaa-paalis” (buttering someone). Also, his rapid and active movement while waiting for his friend shows a young and enthusiastic energy. He “cracked” all his fingers, and then walked towards the other end of the compound, “sitting on the steps for a few minutes”, “got impatient and climbed upstairs”. All these activities show his energetic happiness. 

Then suddenly the tone of the story changes into that of shock or a difficulty to explain the situation he was experiencing. When he goes up to Viraf and insists on playing something and when Viraf finally agrees despite his dull mood, they go to Viraf’s house which is where realization begins to dawn over the boy about the reason behind Viraf’s strange behavior. He sees Viraf’s father lying sick, in bed, his mother worried and saddened, talking to neighbours about the difficulty the family was going through.  

Living Through Memories (further continued)

Memories are made significant by Hardy in order to create an image in the reader’s mind of what exactly he was going through. The memories are also important as they make use of vivid imagery, symbolism and personification. With each memory told, Hardy is successful in establishing or creating a picture for the reader. Thus, a greater understanding of the relationship of Hardy with Emma is achieved. The image of a “dry March” is contrasted with the present image of rain. The rain could refer to Hardy’s tears of sadness over the death of Emma.

Therefore, memories are considerably relevant and important factors present in most of Hardy’s poems. They give the poem a story-like effect and Hardy uses it to establish a connection or link between his past and present life. The memories when reflected upon enable not only for the reader to get an insight of Hardy’s past, but also enables Hardy to eventually come to terms with the death of Emma. He learns to accept her loss and his mistakes and feelings of guilt by remembering the bittersweet memories they had together.

Living Through Memories (continued)

The concept of using memories is highly significant in showing the two different stages which the couple went through during the course of their relationship. In “The Walk”, the first and second stanza are divided in such a way that it is noted that in the first stanza Hardy reflects back to the times when he went for walks to a particular place and was not accompanied by Emma as she was unwell. He reflects on how he used to be alone and she used to stay at home, yet he mentions he did not mind being alone. However, he continues in the second stanza and comes back into present time when he is again at the same place for a walk and is alone again. Only, this time he feels her loss and complete loneliness asshe does not await his arrival at home, in their room. This technique of showing the reader the contrast between the situations in their relationship at past and present is achieved through the use of memories. The memory is significant as it enables Hardy to finally realize the worth of his wife, Emma, but it happens too late as now she is no more. When he reflects back, he longs again for her presence and wishes to be in her company.

In “the Voice”, it is seen that Hardy tries to constantly remind himself of Emma’s beauty, grace and the moments they shared together. He remembers the time of their early courtship when Emma would await the arrival of Hardy at their doorstep. He creates an image of her wearing an “air-blue gown”. This memory is significant as it emphasizes on the depth of their love for each other as she waits for him to come home and he looks forward to returning. This action or behavior of theirs is in contrast to Hardy’s attitude towards her at later times.  He ignored her greatly and although the two lovers were together till the end, the spark between them had seemed to fade away. Thus, this memory is a reminder to Hardy of the time when the spark between them was alive and it hurts him to think of her, now gone.

Similar instances of memory follow in his other poems. “At Castle Boterel” primarily concentrates on a particular memory of the two lovers at a certain road at Cornwall near Emma’s previous dwelling. The entire poem focuses on the fact that when they were together there, what they did did not matter so much as the fact that at that particular moment in time they were together and nothing else mattered. Hardy always looks at the past when he is at a particular place in the present which holds some memory or the other with Emma. The memory in this particular poem is significant as we see the importance or attention that Hardy provides his relationship. He says that many couples had been at that mountain and many of them had had special moments, but the moments shared between him and his wife were not comparable to any of them. He considers hi s love for her as unique and unconditional. The importance he gives to himself and Emma is significant in relation to the memory as the reader realizes that Hardy did truly care and love for Emma despite his mistakes of ignoring her.