DIDACTICISM IN SCIENCE FICTION FILMS

                Science fiction films has a long history with wide range of films to delve. The first science fiction film based on Jules Verne's novel is Le Voyage dans la Lune, created by Georges Melies in 1902. Several if science fiction films have characteristic themes that support elements of science ,technology, facts about aliens, planets in the outer space withe unrestrained fancy and fantasy of unrealistic or improbable suppositions. Science fiction films are prophetic--predicting  a life set in a distant future. It expresses the disastrous effects of the scientific inventions to the earth. It portrays the repercussion of the effects of science and technology on the environment of the contemporary society. With the changing precepts of technology, the unsophisticated and crude films have changed to matured and proliferated films. The films resonates the hostility of contemporary people towards alien elements and the alien world, the evil and heinous aspects of  science and technology.

           The themes also include the subjects of future--a future better or worse than the present, life on other planets, the crisis created by science or technological innovations, the destruction of the world by nuclear inventions, the international co-operation against invaders from outer space or monsters or any other dangerous threats of fatal viruses.

            In science fiction films, the themes revolve around aliens & Martians, strange potential creatures, weird ghastly species from outer space,space shuttles, meteors, clash of worlds, time travel, spaceships, Robots and droids, giant monstrous beings, space fights, virus & diseases, genetics & DNA, extraordinary scientists, fantastic breathtaking journeys to moon and to other planets, splendid vision of the galaxy, cyberspace, cyberwar, Bio war etc.  A threat that the earth is endangered by species of the other world forms an inevitable theme of the science fiction films. The aliens from distant planets intimidate earthly creatures and cause devastation to earth in order to make their planet a super power.

           The science fiction films have highly imaginative visual images of space ships,imaginary voyages, exploration into the unexplored worlds, space fight against aliens and their strange habitats and habits. The films visualize rise of a superhero. They depict ordinary human beings as their protagonist but they gain super hero capability and power in course of action. They gain incredible strength and fortitude to fight against a common foe of the society--an alien, a monster or a robot. The hero demonstrates extraordinary and astonishing courage, when there is a stressful point or a breaking point of saving the earth or saving innocent people from a destructive force. A good deal of sacrifice and other qualities as high-mindedness, love for fellowbeings, mutual understanding, compatibility, courage to encounter trials and tribulations, confidence in one's own self, living in harmony, exhibiting valour are some of the traits in a hero or a super hero in sci-fi films.

        Generally, the animated science films are watched by children and the moral values a film instil in their tender minds is significant. The films have to be instructive inculcating the virtues and the vices of the world and the ways to discriminate the good from the bad. The films should be consciously didactic because the young minds are inspired by the action of the protagonist with superhuman power. Children are concerned with making moral distinctions to tend their hearts of virtue and innocence.To become a responsible human being or to become a profligate depends on the path of their way. They learn moral values for guidance from their family environment and society to act truthfully and act with moral strength without swerving towards temptations. The children, sometimes even adults get moral clarity through stories and through films. 

Qualities as endurance, tolerance, confidence and the convictions of faith in religion, faith, in brotherhood, and regard for truth, peace and harmony are important traits which shape them as individuals. Whether to be humane or inhuman depends on the ratio of goodness and badness complicatedly blended in us. The appellation of a saint or the condemnation of a devil deservers or depends on the intemperance of either our virtue or vice. Despite the disappointments, disillusionments and the ambiguities of life, the films asserts an essential optimism that good triumphs evil, problems can be solved, things will turn out well, happiness is achievable, triumph is near, success is possible to those who endeavour .

 

Films appeal people of all ages invariably. They are the most potent means by which perceptions, values and attitudes are transmitted from one generation to the next. The  films’ recurrent  themes  of rescuing and saving , courage , adventure, mysteries of the other world,  good triumph over the evil, the virtuous winning the vicious, the delight in defeat of the evil-doers, the drastic crash of the alien space flight, the extinction of the monsters etc. appeal children. Most popular films in the animated series include Wall-E, Monsters Vs Aliens, Mars needs Moms, Lilo & Stitch, Chicken Little, Planet 51, The Iron Giant, Star Wars :The Clone Wars, Astroboy, Fly me to the Moon, Ghost in the Shell, The Transformers: TheMovie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within , Treasure Planet, Meet the Robinsons, AppleSeed, Skyblue, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, Battle for Terra, Heavy Metal, Akira, Titan A.E, Rock and Rule, Live Freaky! Die Freaky! Mutant Aliens, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Space Chimps, A Scanner Darkly etc.,

The paper intends to find the values of humanity and other substantiating themes as  restoration of Peace and Order, Freeing the earth from the clutches of Alien force, Conservation of the Environment, Destructive Vs Constructive forces, Love, Alienation, Meaning of existence, etc. in the animated Science fiction films as Wall-E, Monsters Vs Aliens and Mars needs Moms. These Science Fiction films are didactic; yet do not overly burden them with instructive, factual, educational, contemplative issues. 

WALL-E

Wall-E  is one of the best and most accomplished Sci-fi animated films,  with a robot love story on the surface and a serious theme of environmental destruction. The film is set in the year 2700 and the earth has become a ghastly place unfit for habitation. It is a city of skyscrapers raised out of garbage. For hundreds of years, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth) has been taking out the trash, and collecting precious bric-a-brac in order to shed off the boredom of his dreary routine. After hundreds of solitude, WALL-E finds a sleek search robot named Eve to whom he presents his inadvertently discovered ‘tiny, perfect green plant’, which he found growing in the rubble and transplanted to an old shoe.

Appreciating the value of his remarkable discovery, she excitedly races back to let the humans know that there's hope for their return to their home planet. When Eve, WALL-E unable to be alone, losing the only friend he's ever known eagerly follows her to space. The descendants of the Earth who live in Axiom have become “massive, flabby beings with tiny, almost vestigial limbs due to the low-gravity in the space ship. They incapable of movement, spend their days in moving recliners equipped with screens and live in their own virtual worlds. The space-station resembles the giant mall of “ Buy & Large”. In such a meaningless, hollow, worthless, futile life has a hope of retrieval when Eve brings the plant as a sign of survival on Earth. At the station, the plant becomes a proof that Earth is ready to be re-colonized.

WALL-E also gradually realizes that he has unknowingly found a secret that could save planet Earth, and once again make the ravaged planet safe for all humankind. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of Earth from returning, by stealing the plant, WALL-E, EVE, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny. Eventually, life on earth is resumed by human influence, combined with a little bit of artificial intelligence and robot.

It is a thought provoking film which makes us realize of what happens to the trash which we throw carelessly into this earth. It is a cautionary fable which initiates us to become conscious of the recklessness of human beings in their concern for the planet bestowed by God. We should not be shallow in spending thriftily on unnecessary things for flamboyance. In fact, Earth will has become a stark wasteland if proper care is not taken on the various issues as Global warming, Ocean Acidification, Ozone depletion, Coral bleaching, Species extinction etc, are not focused and rectified properly, this cautionary tale with striking ecological implications will become a reality.

            Wall-E gives an apocalyptic spectacle of the world and is a intimidating stimulation to the young children about the plight of their planet in future. It is a startling reminder that they have to live like the human who hover in an incredibly large orbiting spaceship Axiom if we do not heed properly to the threats of danger. It is a story about love and loneliness, perseverance and triumph, the possibilities of redeeming this earth from disaster and devastation. 

Monsters Vs Aliens

The most decipherable types of characters in science-fiction history are monsters and aliens.  The stereotypical fight between the monsters and the aliens, An ordinary Californian woman, Susan Murphy, was struck by a meteorite from outerspace on her wedding day to a Weather-Reporter in a TV channel, Derek Dietl. A substance called Quantonium is absorbed by her and immediately she grows into a tall giantess. She is ensnared by military, labelled as Ginormica and put in an exclusive prison headed by General Monger as a  part of a team of monsters. An alien named Gallaxhar detects the quantonium radiation emanating from Earth and deploys a gigantic robotic probe to find it. 

            General Monger convinces the President to use the monsters to fight the robot, promising the monsters freedom if they succeed. Susan and the monsters succeed in defeating the robot. Set free, Susan returns home with a hope to seek help from Derek, but he breaks up with her. Broken, she slowly realizes that after she became a giant, she has improved into a woman of courage, boldness and independent and feels her monster life better. When she is convinced to live with the monsters, she is suddenly abducted by Gallaxhar to his spaceship. Susan is trapped by Gallaxhar into the machine that extracts quantonium from her body, shrinking her to her normal size. Meanwhile, Gallaxhar, clones an army to invade Earth. She reabsorbs the quantonium , restores her giant size and with the help of the monsters and the General self-destructs the spaceship.

The monsters receive a hero's welcome home.  Even Derek tries to win Susan for the sake of an interview that could benefit his career. Susan rejects him. Thus the motley crew of monsters and the female hero confronts the combat with the four-eyed alien Gallaxhar and save the world from imminent destruction.

The moral value of the movie is that despite the odds, the female hero has the faith and courage to confront an alien. She has the great responsibility of saving the world from the alien.The saying,’ with power comes responsibility’ can be reversed to say ‘ with responsibility comes power’ to Susan and she gets the power to defend the earth and defeat  Gallaxhar. Though she has grown tall with the quantonium, her mental ability strengthens because of the crisis which she faces. The ability comes to her because she wants to save her monster friends. She is posed with the responsibility of saving the Earth and the giant task of  saving the whole of humanity.

The indomitable courage, the boldness to combat and the determination not to “give up”, sacrificial nature not to let down her friends in danger, the duty consciousness to complete the mission assigned to her explicates Susan’s heroic qualities. Her readiness to accept the destiny, the readiness to convince and compose herself after Derek’s rejection, the self-esteem and courage she expresses in rejecting Derek’s offer, and to smile at odds makes her a female hero indubitably. These character traits will inspire children and will make them aspire for a life of strength, courage and boldness.

Mars needs Moms

Mars Needs Moms is a animated movie that is based on one of the masterpiece of Berkeley Breathed. This movie shows children the importance of their mother to them. The storyline of Mars needs Moms is deceptively simple .  A young boy named Milo gains a deeper appreciation for his mom after Martians come to Earth to take her away. . One night, when he has a heated argument with his mother, he wishes he never had a mom. Later that night, his wish comes true when his mother is kidnapped by Martians who plan to steal her "momness" to rear their own young. 

The Martians, led by their villainous supervisor have been observing Earth mothers, passing up those who are too indulgent or unable to control their children. They select Milo's mother based on her ability to command Milo. To rescue his mother, he steals himself to the spaceship. When he reaches Mars, he is jailed but escapes with a help of Gribble, a human in Mars.  Gribble and a Martian girl, Ki helps him to save Milo’s mom. Gribble with his own   experiences of failure to rescue his mother, helps Milo. They after a crucial battle, imprisons the Supervisor. The mother and the son reach home safe while Gribble stay on Mars.

Mars needs Moms   is a film which portrays the importance of parenting and the home as a place of protection and shelter. It also has a strong message of the unconditional love of a mother to her son. A unruly son, a son who wished he never had a mother at all  becomes responsible and is ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of his mother. Here too, in this film, a ordinary boy with no super heroic powers fights with the villainous in a alien land. In a place fortified by strict guard, he manages to rescue his mom with unconquerable courage and boldness. The dire need to save his mother,” whom he never wished he had.” The film is inspiration to children who refuse to be obedient to a mother. It threatens yet instructs that at the need of hour, children exhibit valour and bravery.

As Robert Frost defines poetry, “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”  . A film not only gives us delight and but also makes us wise. A film delivers a message which inspires the audience and allows a moral clarity in leading their life. The characters depicted in the films epitomise life , resonates the cultural, psychological, philosophical  and historical aspects of the contemporary life. The film are “mirrors of life”. The events in the stories of science fiction also have some semblance of the emotional exchanges we have in real life. For instance, the love story of WALL-E, the lovely robotic dance of Eve and Wall-E has a resemblance of a happy couple in romance. As ashes are left and the gold is consumed, the good in a film expresses a moral vision of life.                                                                                                              

 

 References:

1.      http://www.imdb.com

2.      http://www.movieguide.org

3.      http://en.wikipedia.org

4.      http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes

Paper presented in International Conference on Science Fiction  19-21 January 2012  

organized by Bharathiar University, Cbe & Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies, Vellore & Vigyan Prasar, Noida.

Real Life Drama

          RESCUING THE BABY MONKEY

         
           Y esterday, when I went for walking at Yercaud foot-hills, at one place I heard a peculiar call. I always have a keen interest in listening to the calls of birds if they are especially new to me. So naturally, I diverted my attention to the direction from where the call came. But I wasn't able to see anything and so I went closer. Normally the calling bird will rise from the bush and fly away giving us a clear picture. But in this case, it didn't happen. Hence my curiosity was triggered more and when I went near, further, I observed a small baby monkey on top of a thorny bush clinging to the stem. So it was the 'caller'. The place was 10 feet high from my level and vertical above which the bushes have grown.

            Now I had my own doubts and I came back to the opposite, sat there and watched closely. The baby monkey continued to give his desperate calls and it neither attracted his mother or other monkeys not the passer-by, but only a falcon and an eagle.Finally, I concluded that it was a stranded or abandoned one and now I had to act. I first drove the intruding falcon away and started planning the accessibility to that babe.I started climbing the mound but it was direct steep and the the mud slid down making me kiss the ground. The surrounding portion was full of thorny bushes which prevented me from making a round about reach.

         The second time I made an attempt by climbing it holding the grass branches in my palms. I almost climbed it, when my foot slipped and breaking the grass I fell down again. Mud showered on my head and with small bruises I slid down.Failure, this time also. But I can't permit this set back. I ought to do something. It will be totally inhumane to leave that young one face a tragic end.I stealthily got on my feet and gripping the root of a small shrub I managed to make a final leap and reached the place. To my left, to my right and on all sides it was only thorny bushes. I stretched my hand to get hold of him but alas! it was short of 2 feet. I tried vaguely to persuade him to jump and hold me. He was too young to jump and it would be painful to climb down the bush whose base portion was more thick and pricky.

         All along this operation, I noticed a sharp hope in his eyes. Whenever any bike, bus or passer-by came that way, the babe immediately made desperate calls to divert their attention. I heard a bike's sound and felt that the rider was parking it nearby. I called for him from my hideous place and finally he came to me. I asked him to fetch me a sturdy stick and throw it to me. Suddenly I observed a small plant with thick stem near my left foot and I broke it and placed the other end of the stem on the thorny bush just below the baby's feet holding it firm.First it hesitated a little and then slowly easing its grip from the thorny bush it caught hold of the stick and approached my arm. It climbed up my arm and with one fast movement it clinged to my shirt tightly. I jumped down along with the "treasure" got a lift in  a bike, came to the foothills where my bide was parked.

        Here, I should mention a small fact .Among monkeys, the mother never lets her baby to be away from her and the baby always clings to his/ her mother, till attaining certain age. If in case this bonding breaks, the child is either abandoned or stranded and no other adult monkey. Ultimately, it will killed by falcon or eagle and had to fatally die. That's why I had to carry it down without leaving it with its folk.

       On the base of the foothill , to the Forest department I intended to leave the babe . But I found a kind villager  who assured me that he will take care of the monkey carefully and let it into the forest once it is grown fit to live in forests. With the thought that I had left the monkey in safe hands, I returned with a satisfied heart.

        I thanked God for he had given me an opportunity to save a young life and I strongly feel that it's not me who saved the babe, but the "belief" and "hope" it had in his eyes.                                                                                              

  K.Rathinavel.

 

              





                                                                                                                                     

        Letter dtd. Aug 7th 1988.  narrating to me his experience in rescuing a baby monkey while he was on his morning walk in Yercaud foothills.

WOMEN DEFYING PATRIARCHAL NORMS IN MANJU KAPUR’S DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS

Indian women novelists have been portraying women in various manifestations. But recently, the remarkable range of India’s most accomplished women writers of post colonial strand has brought a tremendous change in the trend of depicting women characters. Women writers as Kamala Markendaya, Nayantara Saghal, Anita Desai, Sashi Deshpande , Bharathi Mukherjee, Manju kapur, Gita Hariharan and the others have intuitively perceived the gender issues perturbing women and presented women as an individual who fights against suppression and oppression of the patriarchy.       

         The present paper analyses the patriarchal norms defied by the women characters in Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters. Difficult Daughters is indubitably a prowess work of art which acclaims her as a feminist writer. The novel is a nostalgia of the situations that prevailed during Indian War of Independence and the socio-political conditions of the time. Kapur expresses the plight of women in such a society, which eventually deprives her freedom to pursue her studies, choose a career and above all to choose her partner in life.

          Kapur has presented the women of the1940s, when women had no voice to assert their rights, most importantly the voice of the protagonist,Virmati. She raises her voice against male chauvinism to claim her rights of economic independence. Kapur makes her a cult figure that fights against taboos, social and joint family restrictions and constraints laid by patriarchy in the tradition.

                                                                                    

A major preoccupation in recent Indian Women’s writings has been a delineation of inner life and subtle interpersonal relationship. In Indian culture and heritage, individualism, quest for identity, protests and concepts of rebelliousness have often remained alien ideas, as far as women were concerned. Women were not supposed to raise voices for their rights, protest against injustice or question the already existing beliefs, customs, rituals and superstitions. They have to merely exist subjected to the patriarchal system. Women have to be obedient, quiet, submissive, and passive not claiming any of their rights neither as women nor as human beings.

Even the earlier Indian women novelists have been portraying woman as the silent sufferers, the upholder of traditional values and ethics, a strict observer of social taboos, an epitome of tolerance and patience, an exemplar to their successors, a being with no space for herself, a woman without an identity (rather identified as subordinates to men), a worshipper of their counterparts, benighted and ignorant about their rights as human and so on. Recently, fortunately there is a tremendous change in this trend, with the advent of feminism. Indian women writers have brought incredible transformation to conform a specific genre to explore the unexplored array of maladies; to reveal the explicit reality of the society and the plights of  Indian  women in the society. Women are no longer characterized to surrender, submit and suffer to martyrdom. Women novelists unveil the hidden secrets and enfold the deliberate denials that are refutable in today’s context.

A whole band of women novelists beginning with Ruth Prawar Jhabvala, Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desae, Sashi Deshpande, Kamala Markandaya and many others have highlighted significance of portraying woman as an individual rebelling against the traditional role, breaking the shackles of exploitation and oppression, awakening with a sense of identity,to  assert their individuality. Their novels speak about women’s frustrations, refusals, retaliations, and their breach of conventional expectations.

Manju Kapur has joined the growing number of modern Indian Women writers who have significantly contributed to the progression of Indian fiction. Kapur is a post colonial writer who intuitively perceives the position of women in a patriarchal society and deals with the problems of women.  Her novel presents the yearning struggle of women to establish an identity. She has tried to make a space that women have to occupy in domestic relationships. Kapur remarks “the mother-daughter nexus is only one of the many manifestations of the Indian women’s roles. She is a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law, ... in fact there are many aspects of  a woman’s life.”

Difficult Daughters is a maiden venture of Kapur. It is written against the historical background of the Indian Freedom Movement. The Partition of India is an important aspect interwoven with the tantalizing narrative of man- woman relationship. The novel presents the controversial issues of domineering patriarchal world, which denies women the voice and the freedom which is rightfully women’s. Kapur’s protagonist Virmati is not only portrayed as a revolutionary woman who fights for her right to educate herself but as one who manages her situations in moments of crisis. There is a parallelism drawn between the independence aspired and obtained by the nation and the independence aspired and yearned by a woman of the nation. Indian Freedom Movement aimed for the upliftment of the nation as a whole. Gandhi’s encouragement and invitation to women to participate in the freedom struggle itself proves that women were treated as equal partners to man and that women’s role is essential to achieve independence against a foreign rule. Gandhiji’s conviction brought women out of the conventional mode of behavioural pattern. The struggle for freedom from British, the quest for identity and the sense of oppression has become a shared experience both for the nation and for women in India.

Difficult Daughters is a profoundly conventional story set in Amritsar. Virmati faces numerous vicissitudes in her life to fulfil her desire to establish an identity. Virmati and even the other daughters in the novel are difficult to be managed by their mothers because of their dissenting nature. Kapur talks about a range of women and their problems which demand equal opportunities, equal access to education and identity beyond conventions. It pictures not only Virmati’s struggle but also the struggles of independence aspired by other women characters and their succeeding in it, unlike Virmati. The central focus is on the futile attempts Virmati makes to succeed. She fights but fails. Every time she rebels to liberate herself and aspires to live a freer life, she is condemned because of the incredulousness of her family and of the man whom she loves and later marries.

Virmati  is a difficult daughter for her parents. Kasturi, as an Indian mother feels abashed if her daughter drowns herself refusing to marry Inderjit; if she has an affair with a married man,Prof. Harish Chandra; if she elopes and marries against her choice. She asks Virmati whether her education has taught her such independence of disobeying and refuting parents. Virmati’s struggle to assert her individuality puts her in a dilemma and her demeanour reflects her inner conflict and the guilt that pervades her. It is clear when she suffers the traumatic experience of abortion, she is besieged with her guilt of deceiving her own parents.  And after her marriage with Professor, she suffers miscarriage. It at once makes her regret that “her father had died without forgiving her.”

As an educated woman, she is aware of the degree of control she has to exercise over her life. Her protest against the conventions is strong and it starts with her wish to continue her education after she meets Shakuntala, whom she immediately takes as an exemplar. She felt deprived of her rights when her parents wanted her to accept the arranged marriage. But all her protests lead her to life of depravity. And the deplorable condition deprives her from attaining the power and freedom she hopes to enjoy. Whenever she breaks away from her old prison, she is locked into the new ones. To liberate her, she believes that education is the only means but falls prey to the Professor’s snare.  While her relationship with the Professor provides an escape from the loveless marriage, it is itself furtive and claustrophobic, offering only a stolen clandestine love affair.

The repercussion of this continual illicit relationship, she suffers with the conception of the ‘sinful burden’. She exerted her rights but tainted and stained it. Therefore, she failed in her exertions. She feels void when she aborts the child, she laments, “That a child of their union, the result of all those speeches  on freedom and the right to individuality, the sanctity of human love and the tyranny of social and religious restraints, should meet its end like this!”(157)

She tries to contact him to find a solution to the impending danger but in vain. When the Professor meets her, she discloses the matter and proposed for her own marriage to him. But he refuses for the fear of spoiled his reputation and his family name. Then, Virmati retaliates,

I break my engagement because of you, blacken my family’s name, am locked up inside my house, get sent to Lahore because no one knows what to do with me. Here I am in the position of being your secret wife, full of shame, wondering what people will say if they find me out, not being able to live in peace, study in peace... and why?(137)

Now is the moment that makes her realize and affirm Swarna’s statement that,”Men do take advantage of women.”(138) Education is the only source she can turn to in all her crisis, as a solution to her problems. She is offered a suitable way to scamper out from the slanderous deed of having an affair with a married man. She finds refuge as the headmistress of a girl’s school in the hill station of Sirmaur. For the first and the only time, she has her own space, to live as Virginia Woolf’s “a room of one’s own”. Yet by encouraging the secret visits of the Professor, she again entraps herself into the sexual oppression and once for all loses the chances of liberation and identity. She freely allows him to exploit her sexually. Her whole reputation is tainted by her misconduct and the Diwan Sahib burst out, “it is important to set a good example...” .She contaminates her life and loses a beautiful life of freedom and dignity. She loses control as anyother ordinary woman.

         The journey to Shantiniketan would have led her to a destination which opens her to a glimpse of spiritual awakening and of a renewed autonomy. But the journey is interrupted and the long- waiting opens up a trap that she eternally and endlessly falls into. Virmati’s marriage with the Professor turns out to be disastrous. Though she becomes the second wife legally, she desperately struggles for self-assertion. The marriage alienates her from the husband’s family.  She is ordained to live with a mother-in-law, Ganga and the children who are hostile and resent. Lack of love and humiliation from them makes her steadfast to uphold her right to self-assertion through education at Lahore and through economic independence by becoming a teacher in a school at Nahan. When she slowly withstands and gets accustomed, she again suffers miscarriage. Once more, she finds consolation by pursuing MA at Lahore. At the end, the partition of India ironically unites Virmati with Professor. More promisingly, she acquires her coveted place of the wife and mother at Delhi.  

        Virmati’s life is restructured and reconstructed by her daughter Ida. In her pursuit of Identity, she loses it at every stage and struggles to make space for herself on her own. Her rebellious attitude fades whenever it has to be strong to refute the Professor’s sexual oppression. She allows him to exploit her with his love drenched words. She hopelessly and willingly succumbs to his lustful love knowing full well that her reputation, her life, her job would be at stake. She becomes submissive and passive under the patriarchal shelter.

         The other women in the novel Lajwanti, Kasturi, Kishori Devi, Ganga glorify the institution of marriage and take pride in being submissive. But the social scenario of Indian Independence is vividly visualized through Virmati the protagonist, Shakuntala her cousin and her hostel roommate Swarnalata. Shakuntala  makes her realize that education means freedom to women. Swarnalata makes her realize that men exploit women. Swarnalata is a vigorous, politically active and striking woman activist who inspires Virmati in asserting her self.

The women in the novel are all educated and modern. They are unwilling to blindly follow the old convictions and beliefs that curb the freedom of women as an individual. They are women who wanted to prove their individuality and strive towards attaining their own aspiration. They motivate themselves and work towards upliftment. The women do not accept the constraints of the society, religion or the tradition. Their conviction is, “that society would be better off if its females were effective and capable.”(150)

  

          Manju Kapur has presented a vivid portrayal of the women of 1940s and the events revolve around the backdrop of Indian Independence. Women’s emancipation perhaps has its zenith now but in pre-independence era the fight for autonomy and freedom was a combat in its early stages. So, Virmati’s attempt to succeed in her fight to assert herself is to be esteemed for though she failed, she has made an attempt. Because of her acquaintance with the Professor, she not only comes to value education and the higher things in life but also about the darker aspects of life. The endless vicissitudes of life makes her a matured woman. She tramples and defies the patriarchal constraints and expectations to assert her identity and achieves self-satisfaction and self-fulfilment in her life.

References

1. Kapur, Manju. Difficult Daughters. Penguin Books. New Delhi.1998
2. Verma, M.R and A.K.Sharma . Reflections on Indian English Fiction.New Delhi:        
         Atlantic  Publishers and Distributors . New Delhi,2004.
3. Verma, M.R and .K.A.Agarwal . Reflections on Indian English Literature .
         New Delhi: Atlantic  Publishers and Distributors . New Delhi ,2002.
4. Prasad, Amar Nath.  Indian Women Novelists in English. New Delhi: Atlantic
        Publishers and Distributors . New Delhi ,2001.
5. Roy, Anuradha. Patterns of Feminist Consciousness. Prestige Books. New Delhi,1999.

Mythological Allusions in GithaHariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night

Mythological Allusions

 in

GithaHariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night

            Githa Hariharan’s debut novel, The Thousand Faces of Night articulates the problems of women with the help of Indian Mythology. She links the plight of her women characters with the Indian myths as Mahabaratha, Sanskrit stories etc.; to the Gods, Goddesses, legendary heroines in the epics of India. These stories were instrumental in supporting the insidious patriarchal concepts. The lives of the three women in TheThousand Faces of Night—Devi, Sita and Mayamma exposes the different dimensions of women’s oppression. The reworking, revisioning and retelling of the myths as allusions of the character’s story is the highlight of the novel.

            The story of the three women tells about the society’s patriarchal pattern. The society‘s expectations and the taboos laid by men of the world are vividly portrayed. ‘Story within a story’ is the narrative technique which Hariharan employs in the novel. To substantiate her stories, she uses mythological allusions from the great epics of India.

For any Indian women, institution of marriage ensures protection, love , compatibility and happiness. Marriage makes a woman expect a lot of happy events, compassion, empathy, mutual understanding and a protective atmosphere to live life in peace and harmony. Marital life in India, on the contrary lays a lot of restrictions and constraints which constrict them from a life of freedom .  They suffer disappointment and disillusionment in the face of reality.

The Thousand Faces of Night is the portrayal of different facets of women suffering different kinds of suffering  and  depicts the status of women in Indian society.  It articulates the problems of women with the help of Indian Mythology. It yokes together the various vicissitudes faced by women of the puranas.

Devi , a young educated girl with ‘the American experience’  struggles to cope with her husband Mahesh, who is most of the time on business tour. She feels alienated in her own home. She searches for an identity and tries to free her from the bondage of marriage and the various roles levied on her .Grandmother’s tales heard in her childhood days inspire her and she tries to replicate them with her own life.  The stories which she heard every summer  from the Grandmother is a kind of preparation to her future life. The child’s mind is prepared to accept her role of woman. The grandmother’s stories prepares the child towards her marriage where fortitude, patience , endurance and perseverance are inevitable. Grandmother’s stories are allusions to Gods, Goddesses, superhuman warriors, brave prince, beautiful and virtuous princesses, men and women destined to lead heroic lives. For each character’s problems, the grandmother indirectly narrates a story . The stories are solutions to their problems but they  “were not simple:they had to be decoded.”(27) They were no ordinary bedtime stories.

The stories were told for particular occasion to a particular character as
Gauri’s domestic problems  is yoked with a story of the “ beautiful girl who married a snake”. Uma’s disastrous marriage was linked with how even Amba, a high born prince becomes a ‘victim of disaster’.Amma’s stories are yoked together with Gandhari’s story.Gandhari with all her fury “embraces her destiny –a blind husband—with a self-sacrifice worthy of her royal blood.”(29) . In the same way, Amma is a wilful, proud woman. Grandmother gives us an anecdote about how the father-in-law scolded her for not sweeping the floor of the pooja room. When she lost herself in playing the veena, the uproar  of the father-in-law to put her veena away , Amma with a furiousness ” reached for the strings of her precious veena and pulled them out of the wooden base. They came apart with a discordant twang of protest.”(30).  The heart-rending music was never heard again .

 Gandhari might have blindfolded herself as a subservient wife just because her husband was blind or she might have blindfolded herself to rebel against the injustice urged on her to marry a blind husband Dhritrashtra . Gandhari wants to punish people who have imposed her the marital life with a blind man. It might also be interpreted that she refrains to see what her husband is not let to see because of his blindness. As a subservient wife, she completely shuns the scenes which the husband cannot see. Gandhari is the very enigma of women of protest.she is a wilful, proud woman who denies, sacrifices “ sight” as an answer to the injustice done to her. In the self same way, Sita also discards the Veena as an act of denial and sacrifice to retaliate to the father-in-law’s curt remarks , “Are you a wife, a daughter-in-law?”(30)

Hariharan’s novel is a dexterous conglomeration of numerous stories besides the story of the protagonist Devi. And the technique is “Passing-on” narration from one character to the other. The narration passes from Grandmother’s stories, the Baba’s stories and to Mayamma.

In the novel,Sita as a young daughter-in-law also equivalently protest in Gandhari’s fashion. When the grandmother cannot find a precise mythological equivalent for the experiences women had, she uses to corelate them with stories of “the beautiful girl who married a snake”.

  Indian families have a plethora of relationships to saveguard the system of marriage. But when there is a familial problem, nobody supports her. She fights her battles alone—her battles with men. “A woman fights her battles alone.”  Devi , who lives a lonely life, not able to bear the solitary life frees herself from the bond and rejoins her mother. She fights her battle alone.

Devi’s father-in-law, Baba  is a typical illustration of a male-dominated patriarchal world. His character is revealed through the stories which he elaborates to Devi. They are elucidation of the codes laid down by Manu which explicits the virtuous and chaste women who inspires their husbands along the path of Dharma by their sacrificial nature, self-abnegation and subservience.

Baba’s stories are different from Grandmother’s stories. While grandmother’s stories “were a prelude to my womanhood, an initiation into the subterranean possibilities. His define the limits.”(51) Baba’s stories were not ambiguous and its centre-point “an exacting touchstone for a woman, a wife.”(51). Baba’s stories always reflects that women should be devoted to their husbands .He explains the means of reaching Heaven by serving their husband with devotion and care. Baba sets the criteria for a good housewife and even afte he left his hynotic voice quavers, “The housewife should always be joyous, adept at domestic work, neat in her domestic  wares and restrained in expenses. Controlled in mind, word, and body, she who does not transgress her lord, attains heaven even as her lord does.”(70).

Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s story, Purandara Dasa, Syaama Sastri, Thygaraja’s second wife story are Baba’s illustrative stories. Baba gives out philosophical note from Manu, “All men are enjoined to cherish women, and look after them as their most precious wards. Fathers, brothers, husbands and brother-in-law should honor brides, if they desire welfare. Where women are honoured, there the gods delight; where they are not honoured, there all acts become fruitless.”

Baba says that women had always been instruments of the saint’s initiation to ‘bhakthi’. He recites the story of Jeyadeva who sang Gita Govinda ,  to say how great man can see the spiritual greatness of his wife.

Baba alludes the story of Purandara Dasa, who became miserly as his fortune grew. One day when a Brahmin asked for money to conduct upanayanam, he kept putting him off. So the Brahmin went to Sarasvati Bai, who without thought gave her nose-ring. But when Purandara Das came to know this, he sent a messenger to bring her ring. Not knowing what to do, when she was about to drink the poisonous potion, she saw the exact replica of nose-ring. After this incident ,Purandara was humbled and he lead a austere life.

Baba’s another story of Narayana Tirtha, talks about how a virtuous wife devoted to her husband dies before him, a sumangali, her forehead unwidowed and whole with vermillion, her arms and neck still ornamented with bangles and gold chains.  He narrates how Syama Sastri’s wife died five days before he did and how Thyagaraja’s second wife died after performing the sumangali  prarthana .

Baba summed up his illustrative stories: “By public confession, repentance, penance, repetition of holy mantras, and by gifts, the sinner is released from sin. That which is hard to get over, hard to get, hard to reach, hard to do, all that can be accomplished by penance: it is difficult to overcome penance.”(67)

Githa Hariharan’s Devi,  inspite of the continuous exposure to the mythical stories told by her grandmother from childhood, and then after marriage the stories she hears from the father-in-law and the real stories of Sita, Uma, Gauri and Mayamma does not help her to be a submissive wife to Mahesh. Like how her mother-in-law revolted by leaving the family in search of God, Devi’s elopement  with Gopal, is also a revolt against her husband Mahesh, who merely wants her to keep waiting for his arrival as a submissive wife. His long tours, her father-in-law’s departure to NewYork deprive her companionship.Her longing to bear children to break the monotony , the loneliness and the meaninglessness of life is not fulfilled. Finally, in a fit to give vent to her lone life, to put an end to the “yawning emptiness”(68),she chooses to elope with Gopal . She hopes to find solace with the company of Gopal but in vain. So, the hankering for love ends  and she goes alone in search of her identity.

             Her life long search for an identity ends when she reaches her mother.  Her search for identity, her quest for identity, gets fulfilled only when she reaches her home. All the grandmother’s stories which were told to condition her mind towards the womanhood she would attain had not helped her to live a life of subjection to her husband. She even dismisses the very thought of conception and leaves Mahesh. Her acquaintance with Dan and the whole course of stay in America fails to give her an identity in an alien country. Her fear to accept Dan’s marriage proposal is part of the “American Dream”. Her fear to reject the proposal for arranged marriage after she comes to India, refuses her an identity . Her acceptance to marry of Mahesh and later to be his wife(the way he wanted her to be) does not satisfy her . She tries to bear children and would have satisfied herself as a mother, but refuses .

            When she probes into the lives of women in the myth of her grandmother, she recalls all of them: Gandhari anger to blindfold herself in protest against people who caused injustice,Sita who vows not to touch the most coveted Veena in protest against her father-in-law’s accusation, Amba who gloriously triumphed against Bheeshma who wronged her, Devi’s grandmother who accepts her destiny as a widow ,Parvati who revolts by leaving her family to God... Devi’s protest is self-assertion. Devi’s marriage with Mahesh is absolutely meaningless, with his constant tours and his” purposeful love-making”. Mahesh finds fault with her upbringing and he says, “this is what comes out of educating a woman”. (74). His remarks of the other women who are not well educated but happy, active, enthusiatic and confident for example he citesMrs.Thara. She revolts against Mahesh by refusing his craving desire for a child. Her revenge against Mahesh is fulfilled when she elopes with Gopal making him a cuckold.

                       Githa Hariharan is a feminist writer. Her protagonist tries to free herself from the so called notions, taboos of the society, expectations of the scriptures. She tries to break the bond a woman has with the society and she never wants to oblige to the expectations of the patriarchal world. She wants to free herself and takes the rebels of the myth as examples to find her identity. In reality too, she takes examples of women who had revolted and rebelled against the social pattern of the chauvinistic society. The characters in the novel are enigmatic to Devi and she judges herself against them.

References

Hariharan,Githa. The Thousand Faces of Night.  Penguin Books. Penguin Books India .NewDelhi.India, 1992.

Ray, Mohit K. & Rama Kundu. Ed. Studies in Women Writers in English. Vol.III  Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi.2005.

Sarada, T. “ Marriage : A Boon or Bane? A Study of Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night”. Women’s Writing in India: New Perspectives. Sarup and Sons.New Delhi.2002.

Trika, Pradeep. Indian Women Novelists.Vol.6 Prestige Books, New Delhi.1995.

Singh,R.A. Critical Studies on Indian Fiction in English. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi.2005.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must --but don't you quit.

 Courtesy:
Edgar A Guest
Tough Times Never Last! But Tough People Do!

Love

"Love"

by Charumathi Rathinavel on Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 12:43pm ·

 

Nothing is permanent. Nothing is indispensable in this wide world. Everything undergoes transition. It  sickens and it pains enormously to realize that the whole concept of love is exploited to its fullest extent, to a incredibly large proportion by people. Love has become a password for so many “conveniences” of life. A “make-believe” word . Under the cover of love, deception becomes easy and cozy for men and women irrespectively. ‘Covert operations’ are dexterously played with this magical emotive word "love" to  which mostly women become mesmerized victims.

Inspite of learning important lessons of failure and deprivation, people still hover around with the illusion that without love the world seems doomed and seek new comforts hoping a fresh start.

As Bacon says in his essay “Of Love”, the depth of love could be felt only through literature  and in modern times more in movies . That’s the reason why people still crazily swarm the theatres finding vent to their craving unfulfilled desires.

All the ovation for love, all the celebration of love could be found in surreal “ arts” than in reality. All the love stories are sweet and amorous. All tragedies and happy endings are applicable to dramatis personae of texts. Love can be divine and can be hailed,  not in real lustful life.

Death ,the harbinger of joy to the Celestial World!

Death ,the harbinger of joy to the Celestial World!

by Charumathi Rathinavel on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 2:35pm ·

If life's experiences embiitter us with misfortunes, sorrows, loses,sufferings of the mind & the physique;  if it is full of frustrations, failures, despair and struggle; if life has nothing to offer you; if you feel void; if  there's nothing worthwhile to spend ; if you deserve no space in this world; if life recognizes you not for your wealth/ success/attempts/ failures; if life rewards you not for your virtuousness; if life encounters only cheats, frauds, traitors, deceits and the like... it makes it easy for you quit this world; it satiates and never want to live anymore, nothing holds you, nothing grieves you, nothing really hurts or pains to leave this world.

Rather you welcome death... Death is a saviour , to relieve you from the mesh of the terrestrial life; redeem you from the burden of sin.

Indeed grateful to God we are, for without death... into this world of eternal suffering ... there is no redemption, there is no cure to the wounds of love...to the hurt of traitory... to the bleeding pain of life.

Angel of Death