BEGC-134 Reading the Novel Text Book

BEGC-134 Reading the Novel Text Book

Block 1
The Novel: An Introduction
Block Introduction 4
UNIT 1
Introduction to the Novel 5
UNIT 2
Aspects of the Novel-I 18
UNIT 3
Aspects of the Novel-II 34
UNIT 4
Future of the Novel 46
Suggested Readings & References 57

COURSE INTRODUCTION

In this day and age, it is but obvious that more and more people watch television,
Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hot Star, films, DVDs and Blue Rays in their spare time
and consequently, spend less time reading novels. In keeping with this lifestyle
trend, some critics of the novel proclaimed its death a long time ago. But going
by the number of novels published each year, in fact, in most national newspapers
we are sure to find a section dedicated to recent publications in both fiction as
well as non-fiction every week; hence, we are made to realise that the novel is
far from dead. On the contrary, the novel as a genre appears to have flourished in
all parts of the globe. In recent times some of the most exciting and prize-winning
novels have emerged from countries other than the original home of the novel/
fiction i.e., England. Look for instance at Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things
or Chitra Banerjee Divakuruni’s Mistress of Spices or Kiran Desai’s The
Inheritance of Loss, the Polish novelist and activist Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights,
or the Austrian author Peter Handke’s The Fruit Thief.

A large number of prestigious prizes have also helped in bringing considerable
visibility to the novel. For example, the announcement of the Booker Prize is
awaited with bated breath in Britain, the Commonwealth Countries, South Africa,
Ireland, and Pakistan as novelists from these countries are eligible for the prize.
In the United States of America, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction enjoys a similar
status. Here at home in India, we have the Sahitya Akademi Awards that bring
public attention to some of the finest writings of the year. This brief introduction
to the novel in a sense helps locate the course on Reading the Novel that we are
about to begin. In this course, we have selected three novels for you. Let us look
at the arrangement of the blocks in this 6 credit course.

Block I: The Novel: An Introduction
Block II: Kate Chopin: The Awakening
Block III: Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja
Block IV: Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart

In Block I, we give you a general introduction to the novel as a literary genre,
discussing its various aspects and giving you broad guidelines on how to really
read the novel perceptively. We also talk about the various trends in novel writing
and examine briefly the new areas that the novel has moved to. We even look at
what the future might hold for the novel. The next three blocks are Self Learning
Materials (SLMs) to the three novels in your course, prepared by experts from
all over the country, especially for you our learners, who deserve quality education
at their door step. In each of the blocks we introduce you to the author, give you
the relevant background information and discuss the particular novel under study
at considerable length.

You may notice that the novels in your course do not belong to any particular
age, or geographical location or even culture. The Awakening by Kate Chopin is
an American Novel written in 1899, while Gopinath Mohanty’s Paraja is an
Indian novel written originally in Odia and published in 1945, later translated
into English and published in 1989. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a
novel from Nigeria and much more recent (1958). In this short 6 credit course
we have tried to give you a feel of different types of novels cutting across borders
both culturally as well as chronologically.

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The Novel: An Introduction BLOCK INTRODUCTION
In this first block we will give you a basic introduction to what a novel is.
In Unit I we’ll look at the novel as a literary genre, we’ll try and define it and
look at why the novel emerged when it did and the various types of novels.
In Unit 2, we’ll look at the first three aspects of the novel – 1) plot, 2)
characterisation, and 3) narrative modes.
In Unit 3, we shall examine the next three aspects of the novel – 4) style, 5) time
and place, and 6) themes and also look at some of the aspects of the novel that
are inter-related. Having looked at the different aspects of the novel, we’ll also
look at the various ways in which novels may be, and are read. This we hope will
help you to acquire and improve certain skills necessary for reading a novel both
critically and intelligently.
Having done this, in Unit 4, we look at the novel in the 20th and the 21st century.
So, we begin with the novel in the post-modern world, and then go on to looking
at the novel in contemporary times, we also give you a brief understanding of the
postcolonial novel and we end with a discussion on the future of the novel.
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Introduction to the Novel UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL

Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Defining a Novel
1.3 Origins and Rise of the Novel
1.4 Types of the Novel
1.5 Literary Trends in 18th & 19th Century England
1.5.1 Prominent Novelists of the Age
1.5.2 Other Prominent Novelists of the Age
1.5.3 Literary Trends in 19th Century England
1.5.4 Prominent Novelists of the Age
1.6 Literary Trends in the 20th & 21st Centuries
1.6.1 The 1990s
1.6.2 The 21st Century
1.6.3 The Man Booker Prize in the 21st Century
1.7 Let Us Sum Up
1.8 Glossary
1.9 Hints to Check Your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES
The objective of this unit is to define a novel. We will also trace its origins and
look at its development through the last three centuries very briefly. Once you
finish going through this unit you should be in a position to define a novel, to
trace its origin, and development and to be able to distinguish the different types
of novels.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The literary term ‘novel’ may be applicable to a great variety of prose writing
particularly in this day and age. The ‘novel’ as a genre is not easy to define, due
to its being an extremely open and flexible form. Not only this, the ‘novel’ also
evades definition just as other literary terms do. However, since we are going to
be talking about the novel and studying various types of novels in this course,
we would still need to define a novel.
The novel is largely a creation of the west though there have been critics who
have tried to locate it in the ancient writings of Egypt and the writings from the
middle ages in Japan. The truth however, is that the novel as we know it today
emerged in the 18th century in England. Let us now try and work at defining a
novel in the next section.
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The Novel: An Introduction 1.2 DEFINING A NOVEL
Edward Morgan Foster (1879 – 1970) in his critical work Aspects of the Novel
published in 1928 states that a novel should have a minimum length of about
50,000 words. Anything in prose that is shorter than 50,000 words would be a
novella or a short novel. A novel would therefore, need to be longer than a long
short story. We may also say that a novel should be longer than a folktale, a
fable, or a short story. This definition that we have worked out however, is
merely a comprehensive definition of the term ‘novel’ and would not be applicable
to each and every type of novel.
A novel has a story to tell but all stories do not usually develop into novels. The
origins of the novel may be traced to the ancient epic and the medieval romance
traditions.

Check Your Progress 1
Write in your own words, briefly, after reading the preceding section carefully.
Try not to refer to the earlier sections while writing these answers.
1) Why is it difficult to define a novel? Give three reasons.
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2) Having said that it is difficult to define a novel can you, still provide a
working definition of the term ‘novel’?
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3) Is your working definition of the novel applicable to each and every type of
novel? If not, then why do we still need such a definition?
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Introduction to the Novel 1.3 ORIGINS AND RISE OF THE NOVEL
Of the two ancestors of the novel – the epic is the order form. An epic is a long
narrative poem about the deeds of brave warriors and heroes who are ‘larger
than life’. The epic poem has a heroic story to narrate and incorporates within it
the myth, the legend, folk tales as well as history. Epic poems deal with the
history of a country/a clan. In the western tradition there are two types of epics –
a) Primary
b) Secondary/Literary
Primary epics by and large belong to the oral tradition whereas secondary or
literary epics belong to the written form of literature. Homer’s Iliad and the
Odyssey, Beowulf and Gilgamesh are important examples of the primary epic,
while Virgil’s Aeneid and Milton’s Paradise Lost are fine illustrations of the
literary epic. In India we have the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as well as
Kalidasa’s Abhijnana Shakuntala and Meghdootam, which are counted among
the classics of world literatures. The epic tradition has come down to us in a very
unique manner. For instance, in the last hundred years or so, cinema has been the
favoured media for narratives on an epic scale. Novels such as, Herman
Melville’s Moby Dick (1851), Tolystoy’s War and Peace (1865 – 72), Anna
Karenina (1875 – 76) and James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939) have all been
made into films.
Now, let us look at the second source of the modern novel – the romance. The
romance was a literary form that was popular in medieval times. In the 13th
Century a romance was an adventure story usually of love or chivalry, and it was
written in verse. It must be remembered that the romance is primarily a European
form, and about characters that live in a courtly world. The word romance itself
is suggestive of the elements of fantasy, improbability and extravaganza, as well
as love, adventure and the marvelous and it was written in verse. However, over
time it came to be written in prose. During medieval times there were three
cycles –
a) The matter of Britain that dealt with the stories of the Legend of King Arthur
and his Knights of the Round Table.
b) The matter of Greece and Rome that told the stories of Alexander the Great,
the Trojan wars and the House of Thebes.
c) The matter of France that narrated the tales of the bravery and chivalry of
King Charlemagne and his Knights.
We have tried to define both the Epic and Romances, as they are the forefathers
of the novel. Interestingly, the novel owes its name to the Italian word novella
meaning a tale or a piece of news. The novel is called roman and is derived from
the word romance. But before I conclude, let me also tell you that yet another
important predecessor of the novel was the picaresque narrative that originated
in Spain in the 16th Century.
Most of you may be aware of the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
by Henry Fielding. This 18th century novel is written in the picaresque tradition
with a ‘picaro’ or rogue for a hero/protagonist and the novel deals with his
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The Novel: An Introduction escapades. So essentially what I am trying to tell you is that the novel had three
predecessors:
a) The Epic
b) The Romance and
c) The Picaresque Narrative
A novel therefore, may be defined as a long story written and printed in book
form, and dealing with imaginary people and situations, while creating an illusion
of reality.
Check Your Progress 2
1) State whether the following statements are True or False:
a) Primary Epics belong to the written tradition.
b) Odyssey is an example of a Secondary Epic.
c) Milton wrote Paradise Lost.
d) A Romance is a literary form of ancient times.
e) A ‘picaro’ is a rogue hero.
The novel was born in the west, primarily in the 17th century but its development
took place largely in the 18th Century. Critics have tried to trace its origins to
ancient Egypt, or even medieval Japan but the novel as a genre, was a creation of
the west. Some critics like Walter Raleigh have even stated that:
With the works of Richardson and Fielding the career of the novel may be said to
have begun.
(The English Novel, Walter Raleigh, pp. 180)
This brings me to the next important point. Why did the novel flourish in 18th
Century England? There were several reasons for that and let me tell you about
them very quickly.
The industrial revolution had taken place in England and the rest of Europe. This
meant that people had more leisure that could be dedicated to reading and writing.
Moreover, industrialisation led to tremendous improvement in printing
technology, as a result of which more books/novels could be printed and that too
easily. Then book clubs and circulating libraries were gaining popularity as well.
The other important reasons for the rise and development of the novel in 18th
century England was the changing socio-political and socio-cultural milieu. The
old system of patronage was gradually corning to an end. And writers did not
need to look towards the feudal lords for patronage. They could now turn to the
readers/public for support. The 18th century was a century of relative peace and
prosperity in England and England emerged as an international power with the
strongest navy in the world. An economically powerful and dominant middle
class began to emerge along with a steady increase in population. Literacy too
saw a sharp rise.
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Having given the various reasons behind the development of the novel in 18 Introduction to the Novel th
century England let me now tell you about the different types of novels that were
and are still being written in the next section.

Check Your Progress 3

Answer the following questions in your own words.

1) When was the novel born in England? Did its development take place in the
same century or in the next?
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2) What in your opinion was the reason for the emergence of the novel in
England? Answer briefly in point form.
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1.4 TYPES OF THE NOVEL
In this section, we shall take a look at the different types of novels. Critics down
the ages have tried to classify novels into various types. If we are to enumerate
all types of novels it may not be a useful endeavour as no rigid classification is
possible as the same novel may belong to more than one type. However, we do
need typologies for the simple reason that they are convenient as they provide
us with easy labels that help us in knowing what to anticipate in a particular
novel. Thus, in this section we try and give some shape to a variety of novels by
classifying them on the basis of:

1) The extra-disciplinary field they are close to such as sociological novels,
psychological novels, political novels, historical novels, religious novels,
and science fiction.

2) Their subject matter such as utopian novels, crime novels, detective fiction,
and bildungsroman.

3) Their literary style/structure/technique such as epistolary novels, realistic
novels, naturalistic novels, stream-of-consciousness novels, psychological
novels or the novel of character.

4) The particular emotions that they evoke such as romantic novels, sentimental
novels, or the escape novels.
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The Novel: An Introduction 5) The particulars class interests that they evoke such as bourgeois novels, or
the proletarian novels.
6) The geographical areas that they highlight such as Westerns, local colour
novels, or the novels of the soil.
7) The geographical areas from which the novelists hail such as Indo-Anglian
novels, Commonwealth novels, and African novels.
(The Novel: An Introduction, 1997, Dr A K Raina and Dr Rana Nayar,
IGNOU, Block 1, p. 9)
Apart from this there are other classifications as well. Let me begin by telling
you about the Novel of Incident – good illustrations of this type of novel are the
novels of Daniel Defoe, novels such as, Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll
Flanders (1722). Both these novels are of the picaresque narrative type as the
structure of these novels is episodic rather than organised plot form, and both
novels also have very convincing central protagonists. The next type under
discussion is the Novel of Character that may also be known as the Psychological
Novel. The focus in such a novel is the protagonist’s motives, on what s/he does
or how s/he will turn out as a person. A good example is Samuel Richardson’s
Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740).
Pamela may also be considered as an Epistolary Novel in which the narrative is
communicated to us through letters. This type of novel is also to be found in
more recent times such as, in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Then we have
the Realistic Novel that is characterised largely by its fictional effect of realism.
In such novels, the characters are often complex and they operate within developed
social structures while interacting with a large number of characters.
The exponents of such realistic novels were Defoe, Fielding, Jane Austen,
George Eliot and Henry James amongst others. From the writings of people
such as, Jane Austen emerges the Novel of Manners – or a novel that focuses on
the customs, conversation, and ways of thinking and valuing of a particular social
class. The Bildungsroman and Erziehungroman or the Novel of Formation or
Novel of Education (M H Abrahams, p. 193), is yet another type of novel. The
main theme of such types of novel is the development of the main character’s/
the protagonist’s mind and character through the narrative. Charlotte Bronte’s
Jane Eyre (1847) and George Eliot’s the Mill on the Floss (1860) or even J D
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) are examples of such types of novels.
Then there are other novels such as, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
or John Steinbecks’ the Grapes of Wrath; these are examples of the Social Novel.
If we have read either of these novels we will find that such novels are influenced
by the prevailing socio-economic conditions of the age in which these novels
were written.
Sir Walter Scott’s novel such as, Ivanhoe (1819) and Charles Dickens’s A Tale
of Two Cities are examples of the Historical Novel. As is obvious from the term
– historical novel, these novels deal with not only the characters but also the
socio-political settings of a real historical age.
There are many different types of novels – for instance Documentary Fiction,
Non Fiction Novel, Regional Novel, Involuted Novel, Anti Novel,
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Nouveauroman Introduction to the Novel (the new novel); Magic Realism; Metafiction and Fabulation
to name just a few, but for our purpose, the types we have dealt with in some
detail are sufficient.
In the next section we shall look at the literary trends in Eighteenth century
England.

Check Your Progress 4
1) Do we need to classify novels at all? Give a well thought out answer.
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2) Match the following:
a) Daniel Defoe a) Uncle Tom’s Cabin
b) Psychological Novel b) Novel of Formation
c) Jane Austen c) Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded
d) Bildungsroman d) Sense and Sensibility
e) Social Novels e) Moll Flanders

1.5 LITERARY TRENDS IN 18th & 19th CENTURY
ENGLAND
Eighteenth Century England was the age of transition as Edward Albert puts it
in his History of English Literature. This was the age when two distinct strands
of influence were at work simultaneously. The first of these twin strands was the
adherence, the allegiance or even the denying of the old order of classicism. The
second strand was that of Romanticism. Romanticism meant a return to real
nature and a new look at the human’s position and role in the midst of the natural
world. It also meant a new way of looking at the poor and the oppressed and a
drastic change in diction. Writers were now aiming for simplicity and sincerity
in their words.
They were turning to the legends and the myths of old for their inspiration. With
such a trend in place, it became important for writers to revive ancient literary
forms such as the ballad and as yet, there was also a general sense of inquiry and
keen interest that began to create an entirely new spirit of thinking. Writers also
began turning to history for their stories and in general there was sympathy and
freshness in the writings of the period.

1.5.1 Prominent Novelists of the Age
Samuel Richardson (1689-1776) is one of the prominent novelists of this period.
He was over fifty, when Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded was published in 1740.
This novel is in the form of a series of letters/an epistolary novel. His next major
novel was Clarissa Harlowe (1747-48).
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The Novel: An Introduction Henry Fielding’s (1707-54) novel Joseph Andrews appeared in 1742. Fielding
does away with the epistolary novel and creates a new and powerful novel that
carries the reader away with “his broad and vivacious humour; the genial and
half contemptuous insight into human nature” (Edward Albert, p. 258). His
greatest novel however was Tom Jones (1749). Realism is the hallmark of
Fielding’s novels.
1.5.2 Other Prominent Novelists of the Age
a) Tobias Smollette (1721-71): The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748);
b) Laurence Sterne (1713-68): The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gent (1760);
c) Horace Walpole (1717-97): The Castle of Otranto (1764).
1.5.3 Literary Trends in 19th Century England
This period saw the actual flowering of Romanticism in all its abundance. As far
as the novel was concerned the historical and the domestic novels were established
very firmly by Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. It was however, a more fruitful
period for poetry and produced great poets such as, William Wordsworth,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
1.5.4 Prominent Novelists of the Age
a) Sir Walter Scott (1771-32): Guy Mannering (1815); The Heart of
Midlothian (1818);
b) Jane Austen (1775-17): Pride and Prejudice (1798-97); Sense and
Sensibility (1997-98);
c) William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63): Vanity Fair (1847-48); The
History of Henry Esmond (1852);
d) Charles Dickens (1812-70): Sketches by Boz (1836); A Tale of two Cities
(1859);
e) George Eliot (1819-80): Adam Bede (1859); Middlemarch, a Study of
Provincal Life (1871-72);
f) Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): Desperate Remedies (1871); Far from the
Madding Crowd (1874);
Check Your Progress 5
1) Fill in the Blanks:
a) Samuel Richardson wrote ………………………………………. in 1740.
b) …………………………………………. wrote Tom Jones.
c) The Nineteenth Century saw the establishment of the
…………………………………. Novel and the Domestic Novel.
d) ………………………………., Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
………………………………., Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron were
prominent nineteenth century poets.
e) Jane Austen wrote ……………………………………..and Prejudice and Sense
and …………………………………………….
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Introduction to the Novel 1.6 LITERARY TRENDS IN THE 20th & 21st
CENTURIES
In the 20th century the American or the European tradition of the novel form was
largely divided by two major literary movements/ trends – Modernism and
Postmodernism or the period of the Modernist literature (1900 – 40) and the
Postmodern literature period (1960 – 90), more or less clearly divided by the
World War II years (1939- 45). The other literary trend that was in between the
two larger movements of this century was the contemporary period/ contemporary
literature which was largely literature written after 1960. The point to remember
here is that these literary movements also affected, influenced and included
literature from Africa, Australia and Asia as well. The advance in technology in
this century also meant that the production of books became cheaper which in
turn lead to a prominent rise in the production of what is called popular literature
and trivial literature. We have talked about popular literature at length in the BA
English Honours Course BEGC 106, so if any of you wish to read more on
popular literature do read through the material uploaded on egyankosh. We also
know that there came to a divide between what was known as “high literature”
and “popular literature” in the last century. We are aware that the distinctions are
not really absolute, and that there are interesting genres in popular literature that
could fit in both categories – such as, crime and detective and science fiction.
For instance, there are several awards instituted and given these days for these
two genres – crime and detective fiction and science fiction – the Nebula Award
(1965 onwards), the British Fantasy Award (since 1971) and the Mythopoeic
Awards (1971).
1.6.1 The 1990s
The 1990s saw the rise of multiculturalism and new media/ alternate media, and
these trends were to continue till well into the 2000 – 2010s. As a result of these
trends, in the music scene, we saw movements like “grunge”, “rave” and “hip
hop” gather momentum globally. The opening of capitalist markets, liberalisation,
the breaking down of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War, the introduction
of new media, the dissolution of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR), the dot-com bubble (1997–2000), all these factors combined and ushered
in a new era in literary production. A large number of former colonies gained
their independence – countries such as, Namibia (from South Africa 1990), Walvis
Bay, (retained by South Africa, joined Namibia in 1994), Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia, the
Slovak Republic became independent from the Czech and Slovak Federative
Republic (Czechoslovakia), Eritrea from Ethiopia (1993), Palau from the United
Nations Trusteeship Council, the United Kingdom handed over sovereignty of
Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China (1 July 1997), East Timor from
Indonesia (1999), Portugal handed over the sovereignty of Macau to the People’s
Republic of China (1999), the republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan broke away from the USSR. While all
this was happening politically, around the globe, in literature, J K Rowling’s the
Harry Potter series (that debuted in 1997), was hugely popular, John Grisham
was by far the bestselling author in the United States, with over 60 million copies
sold of novels such as The Pelican Brief, The Client, and The Firm. Stephen
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The Novel: An Introduction King, Danielle Steel, Michael Crichton, and Tom Clancy, as well as R L Stine
with the Goosebumps series were extremely popular.
Some of the well known literary writers and books of this decade were John
McGahern (Amongst Women); W G Sebald (Vertigo); Raphael Patai (The
Hebrew Goddess); Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (Good Omens); and Robert
Jordan (The Eye of the World); to name just a few.
1.6.2 The 21st Century
The 21st Century is the current century that will end on December 31st, 2099. It is
the first century of the 3rd Millennium. The first two decades of this century have
been marked by the rise of globalisation, Third World consumerism, global
concern over terrorism, an increase in private enterprise, negative effects of global
warming, the rising sea levels, Arab Spring (2010), civil wars, the overthrowing
of various governments, the United States of America as the only global
superpower, and with the People’s Republic of China contending for the post of
‘emerging superpower’. This century has also seen almost 49.3% (2017), of the
global population living in various forms of democratic countries; the expansion
of the European Union (EU), with a common currency called the Euro; the
withdrawing from the EU by the United Kingdom and most recently, the COVID19 pandemic (2020).
1.6.3 The Man Booker Prize in the 21st Century
2000: Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin); 2001: Peter Carey (The True History
of the Kelly Gang); 2002: Yann Martel (Life of Pi); 2003: D B C Pierre (Vernon
God Little); 2004: Alan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty); 2005: John Banville
(The Sea); 2006: Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss); 2007: Anne Enright
(The Gathering); 2008: Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger); 2009: Hilary Mantel
(The Wolf Hall); 2010: Howard Jacobson (The Finkler Question); 2011: Julian
Barnes (The Sense of An Ending); 2012: Hilary Mantel (Bring Up the Bodies);
2013: Eleanor Catton: (The Luminaries); 2014: Richard Flanagan: (The Narrow
Road to the Deep North); 2015: Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings);
2016: Paul Beatty (The Sellout); 2017: George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo);
2018: Anna Burns (Milkman); 2019: Margaret Atwood (The Testament); and
Bernadine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other). The award of literary prizes such as
the Man Booker, one of the highest awards for Literature indicates how importance
is accorded to novel writing globally.

1.7 LET US SUM UP
In this unit, we have defined the novel as a genre, looked at the origins of the
novel and its rise as a literary genre in eighteenth century England. We have also
examined the different types of novels and summarised the chief literary trends
of the eighteenth, and nineteenth century England; as well as novel writing in
the twentieth and the first two decades of the twenty- first century. Apart from
that we have mentioned the prominent novelists of the ages. Having read this
unit carefully we expect you to be able to define a novel, to be able to recognise
the novel as a genre and to be able to identify various types of novel.
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Introduction to the Novel 1.8 GLOSSARY
Alexander the Great : (336-323 BC) was an ancient Greek King of
Macedonia. He was one of the most successful
military commanders in history, and was undefeated
in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered
most of the world known to the ancient Greeks and
had travelled as far as India, particularly the Indus
area. His exploits are the stuff of legends and folklore
and the subject of many romances.
Charlemagne : or Charles the Great; or Charles I of France and of
the Holy Roman Empire (742/747 – 28 January 814)
was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. His
rule is also associated with the Carolingian
Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture
through the medium of the Catholic Church. His
foreign conquests and internal reforms, helped define
both Western Europe and the middle ages. Today he
is not only regarded as the founding father of both
French and German monarchies, but as the father of
Europe: his empire united most of Western Europe
for the first time since the Romans, and the
Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of
a common European identity (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia).
Fable : a fictitious story meant to teach a moral lesson; the
characters in fables are usually talking animals.
Folk tale : the large body of oral literature belonging to a tribe,
or nation, or ethnic group.
House of Thebes : Thebes was a city in Greece, situated to the north of
the Cithaeron range, which divided Boeotia from
Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain.
It played an important role in the fabric of Greek myth,
as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus,
Dionysus and others. In ancient times, Thebes was
the largest city of the region of Boeotia and was the
leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a major
rival of ancient Athens, and sided with the Persians
during the 480 BC invasion of Xerxes. Thebes was a
major force in Greek history, and was the most
dominant city- state at the time of the Macedonian
conquest of Greece. During the Byzantine period, the
city was famous for its silks. (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia).
King Arthur : King Arthur is believed to be a prominent English
leader in Britain’s legendary history, and the hero of
many medieval tales and chronicles. He is said to have
16
The Novel: An Introduction taken the mantle of a ruler over Britain and defended
his land against Saxon invaders following the
withdrawal of Rome. The stories of King Arthur
include numerous elements of both the legend as well
as folklore tradition, while some historians doubt his
very existence. The legend that was to become King
Arthur was largely developed as a result of the
writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but it needs to be
remembered that there were already a large number
of Welsh as well as Breton stories and poems about
King Arthur, way before Geoffrey of Monmouth ever
wrote his Historia Regum Britanniae/History of the
Kings of Britain (from Wikipaedia the free
encyclopadeia).
Legend : a story handed down for generations among a people
and popularly believed to have a historical basis,
although not verifiable, all such stories belonging to
a particular group of people are also known as
legends.
Memoir : a biography or biographical sketch, usually one
written by someone who knew the subject well, an
autobiography, especially one that is objective and
anecdotal in emphasis rather than inward and
subjective.
Medieval : characteristic of or congestive of the middle Ages.
Myth : a traditional story of unknown authorship, ostensibly
with a historical basis, but securing usually to explain
some phenomenon of nature, the origin of man or the
customer, institutions, religious sites, etc., of a people.
Narrative(s) : of having the nature of, narration, in story form; a
story; account.
Patronage : the function or status of a patron; support,
encouragement, sponsorship, etc given by a patron,
goodwill, famous, courtesy etc., shown to people
considered inferior; condescension
Travelogue : a lecture on travels, usually accompanied by the
showing of pictures both still and moving or on slides.

1.9 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1) i) Literary genres are difficult to define.
ii) The Novel is a very flexible form.
iii) The novel has a very open form.
17
2) A novel may be defined as a prose piece with a minimum length of about Introduction to the Novel
50,000 words. It should be longer than a long short story.
3) No, even the working definition of a novel is not applicable to each and
every novel.
We still need to define a novel as our main aim is to arrive at a working
definition / a comprehensive definition of the term.

Check Your Progress 2
1) a) F d) T
b) F e) T
c) T

Check Your Progress 3
1) Read section 1.3 and then answer in your own words.
2) i) increase in population
ii) emergence and economic ascendance of the middle class
iii) availability of leisure time
iv) an increase in literacy
v) popularity of book clubs and circulating libraries
vi) improvement in printing technology

Check Your Progress 4
1) Yes, we need to classify novels as these classifications help us in knowing
what to expect in particular novel.
2) a) Daniel Defoe – Moll Flanders
b) Psychological Novel – Pamela or Virtue Rewarded
c) Jane Austen – Sense and Sensibility
d) Bildungsreman – Novel of Formation
e) Social Novels – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Check Your Progress 5
1) a) Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
b) Henry Fielding
c) Historical
d) William Wordsworth; John Keats
e) Pride, Sensibility
18

The Novel: An Introduction UNIT 2 ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL-I
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Plot
2.2.1 Types of Plot
2.3 Character and Characterisation
2.3.1 Types of Characters
2.3.2 Characterisation
2.3.3 Methods of Characterisation
2.4 Narrative Modes
2.4.1 Types of Narrative Modes
2.4.2 Third person Narrative Mode
2.4.3 First Person Narrative Mode
2.5 Let Us Sum Up
2.6 Glossary
2.7 Hints to Check Your Progress

2.0 OBJECTIVES
This unit will look at the various aspects of the novel largely as understood by E
M Forster in his 1924 work, Aspects of the Novel. After going through this unit
you will come to know about three important aspects of the novel form. These
three aspects that will be covered in this unit are:
Plot
Character/ Characterisation and
Narrative Mode
This will help you in identifying, defining and classifying these varied critical
concepts that are necessary for a better understanding of the novel. It will also
aid you in reading the different novels.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous unit, we looked at the novel as a literary genre and we also realised,
after reading the unit that reading a novel is not that simple. It is not just about
the story line but rather developing a perspective on the fine nuances that a novelist
tries to make in his/her work. We also looked at the definition of a novel and
found that defining a novel is again, not as easy as we thought it to be. We then
traced the beginnings of the novel as a genre and looked at the reasons behind
the rise of the novel in eighteenth century England.
In this unit, we will be looking at three aspects of the novel that are crucial for a
better reading and understanding of it. This unit is designed to help you perfect
your skills and to equip you better for an intelligent reading of the novel as
students of Literature. Here, we shall be talking about the concept of plot, character
19
and characterisation and narrative mode, while we deal with the other aspects of Aspects of the Novel-I
the novel in the third unit. Essentially saying any literary work would have two
components – a) form and b) content. Form would imply the “how” of a literary
genre while content would mean “what” a piece of literature has to say. These
two components are very crucial to anyone who wishes to study any form of
literature – be it the novel, poetry, prose or even drama. While we all know that a
relationship exists between these two components and that these two components
are inextricably linked together, opinion varies on the nature of the relationship
between the two. However, we do know that the relationship between form and
content cannot really be ignored if we are to develop critical skills in reading
novels. It would be helpful to keep in mind our definition of the novel in Unit 1
when we are faced with this crisis of whether form or content is or is not important.
For instance, if a novel is defined as a long prose narrative / a long story written
in prose, then it goes without saying that anything written has some sort of shape,
which implies form. The novel is anyway a written form and the novelist would
therefore, be very careful about the way in which she/he presents his/her matter.
Moreover, the novelists would also have undergone rigorous writing and rewriting through the process of creating the novel, so in the case of the novel at
least we might safely say that the form does have an important role to play and
that we could also approach the novel via the form that encloses the content or
the message of the novelist or even the ‘what’ she/ he has to convey.
But when we say something like this we do not mean to say that the novel can be
approached only through the form or that the form is more important than the
content. And for us to be able to understand form in all its dimensions, it is
important that we are able to not only recognise but also be able to describe what
the identifying markers of these categories are. That is what we intend to do in
this unit and in the next section when we shall be talking about Plot.

Check Your Progress 1
Read the questions given below and answer in your own words.
1) What do you understand by the term aspects of the novel?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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2) What are the two main components of any literary work? Define each one
of them.
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20
The Novel: An Introduction 3) Is there a relationship between content and form?
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4) Is it advisable for us to approach a novel through the form rather than the
content? If yes, why? Give reasons.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

2.2 PLOT
The chief elements that comprise a novel according to Henry Hudson are, “Plot,
characters, dialogue, time and place of action, style, and a stated or implied
philosophy of life”. Taking off from this point of intervention we really need to
understand that the term plot as we know it today was mentioned for the first
time by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his famous work the Poetics in the 4th
Century BCE. He used the term plot as one of the important constituents of a
great tragedy as he was essentially talking about the dramatic form – tragedy.
But his definition is equally applicable to the novel as a genre as well. He defines
a plot as a, “combination of the incidents, events, situations and actions in a
story”. And another point that needs to be kept in mind is that Aristotle never
differentiated or drew any distinction between ‘plot’ and ‘story’. Edward Morgan
Forster a much later writer and critic in his work Aspects of the Novel, draws a
distinction between a plot and a story. In Forster’s Aspects of the Novel, he
defines a story as a “narrative of events arranged in their time- sequence” (p.
87). He then goes on to say that a “plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis
falling on causality.” Here, the keyword to remember is “Causality”. He cites
the oft quoted example … “The King died, and then the Queen died” – as an
instance of a story, and cites another example – “The King died, and then the
Queen died of grief too” as plot. This has been quoted here to explain the difference
that Forster tries to make between what he perceives as story and what he terms
plot. He is quick to point out that even though in both instances, the “timesequence is preserved” it is the acute “sense of causality” that actually
overshadows it. Forster’s emphasis therefore, is on causality as making the crucial
difference between a story and a plot. Notice for instance even how we speak.
We hear people saying very often, “She/he told me the story of his/her life.” Or,
“a plot was hatched to kidnap the child and demand a ransom”. Even for us
listeners (in this case), the second statement is definitely more intriguing and
will catch our attention straight away, rather than the first one. Forster also looks
21
upon plot as something organised, logically arranged, sequenced even unfolding Aspects of the Novel-I
one after the other in prose or verse or a narrative. He goes as far as to say that
the plot “is the novel in its logical, intellectual aspect; it requires mystery, but the
mysteries are solved later on.” (p. 95).
Going back to Aristotle’s definition of what he termed plot we need to keep in
mind that he never really maintained a distinction between a plot and a story.
However, there are critics who claim that a line has to be drawn between a story,
a plot and an incident. Having looked at Forster’s example wherein he makes
clear the difference between plot and story I don’t think it is necessary for us to
look at it again. We would however need to make a distinction between ‘story’,
‘plot’ and ‘incident’. An incident may be looked upon as a single episode or an
event. Aristotle had in the 4th Century BCE defined the concept of plot as including
both action as well as unity. Aristotle’s definition is important because it has
been adapted, adopted and critics down the ages have emphasised upon different
aspects of it.

Let us take a quick look at what some critics have had to say about plot. Vladimir
Propp (1859- 1970) argues that narratives and drama, “possess a particular
construction which is immediately felt and which determines their category, even
though we may not be aware of it,” (The Columbian Dictionary of Modern
Literary and Cultural Criticism, Eds., Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi,
Columbian University Press: New York, 1995, p. 231). Now let’s look at Henry
James (1843-1916) for instance, was of the opinion that “the representation of
life/ mimesis is the essence of plot and the distinction between plot and story is
superfluous. We already know Forster’s views on plot from our detailed
discussion. However, modern critics and readers of the novel today look at a
story as what happens within the framework of a narrative or a drama and at plot
as the way in which the events are presented.

In short, plot may be looked at as the sequencing or logical ordering of separate
events in a narrative that is selected by the novelist him/herself in such a manner
as to convey his/her message and to hold the attention of the reader and to sustain
his/her interest. It is the plot that serves as the broad framework within which the
theme of the novel, the author’s message, the characters/ people in the novel or
story play their part. A plot should also be good and skillfully put together and
there should be no gaps or inconsistencies. There should be a sense of balance
and proportion.

All said and done Aristotle’s definition of plot has served not also as a guide to
novelists in the past but also given rise to many challenges to the way the novel
is looked at and the manner in which plot has now come to be, in the last three
centuries.

Kindly Note: The manner in which you relate or recall the events of a novel
could be very different from the manner in which the author/ novelist would like
you to remember or read the novel.

2.2.1 Types of Plots
Having said so much about the plot by way of definition and analysis, it is but
obvious that there may be more than one way of ordering/ sequencing arranging
a plot. For instance, the way in which you might approach a novel or even
22
The Novel: An Introduction remember it may not be in keeping with the manner in which the novelists shapes
his/ her novel or wants his/ her novel to be read or even understood. Hence, it is
clear that we may need to look at the different types of plots. One way of doing
that would be by looking at what Hudson called the (a) Loose plot and the (b)
Organic plot. Hudson makes a distinction between loose plot and organic plot.
In the case of loosely constructed plot the story is composed of a number of
detached incidents with very little necessary or logical connection among
themselves. And the unity of the narrative depends not on the machinery of the
action but on the person or hero, who is the only binding factor. The examples he
gives of such loosely constructed plots are Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe,
Vanity Fair by WilliamMakepeace Thackeray and Nicholas Nickleby by Charles
Dickens.

When separate incidents are neatly dovetailed and not treated episodically and
form the integral components of a definite plot – pattern then it is an example of
an Organic Plot according to Hudson. The entire plan of the novel in this case,
has to be in place – the story, the characters, the events and even the manner in
which the novelist would like to combine or converge to bring about the
catastrophe.

Aristotle made a distinction between simple plot and complex plot. He said that
a simple plot is largely episodic in nature while a complex plot involves both a
reversal of fortune or peripetia and recognition. Now if we remember in Unit 1
when we discussed the picaresque novel we said that it is based on a series of
episodes loosely connected so this definition that Aristotle gave creates problems
for us in a sense. Moreover, the reversal of fortune and recognition may also not
exist in every novel and that is also problematic. We must bear in mind that
Aristotle was talking about the Greek tragedy and not really about the novel as a
genre.

Hudson also made a distinction between a simple plot and a complex plot as one
in which only a single story is told and the other as one in which multiple stories
work hand- in- hand to bring about a single unified whole. For instance, Hudson
compares the two stories of Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp in Thackeray’s Vanity
Fair and says that these are not amalgamated properly whereas he says in Charles
Dickens’s the Bleak House all the three threads of Esther Summerson’s story, the
story of Lady Delock’s sin and the story of the great Chancery Suit by Jarndyce
V Jarndyce are interwoven skillfully together.

Another opinion is expressed by the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne a
19th Century novelist and author of The Scarlet Letter. He identifies four types of
plots: tragic, comic, satiric or romantic depending upon the Subject matter/ content
of the novel. Now, we had said earlier that a novel should or could be approached
through its form and not content and this definition also creates problems in the
sense that it leaves out other types of novels such as, the psychological novel,
the political novel, the historical novel, crime thrillers among others.
So, it is essential that we remember that all classifications/ typologies of either
novels or plots have a limited degree of relevance and one rule does not apply to
all. The reason we have discussed plot and the various types of plot in detail here
in this unit is to give you a broad idea of the different types of novels and plots
and to help you understand how the construction of the plot varies from one
novel to another. While it is also important for us to know about these
23
classifications in order to have a good understanding of the novel, it is not Aspects of the Novel-I
recommended that these classifications be extended in a strict manner to your
reading of the different novels both in this course and outside the course.
Kindly Note: It is important that you focus only on how the plot has been
assembled together or constructed and not on what type of plot it is or could be.
Since we have said so much about plot and the different types of plots we would
need to do a review exercise quickly next.

Check Your Progress 2
1) How does Aristotle define plot? Does his definition hold true for the novel
as well?
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2) How would you define plot?
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3) Is it important to make a distinction between plot and story? What is the
nature of difference between the two?
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4) Why and how do we identify different types of plots? Are there any
limitations involved in such classifications?
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24
The Novel: An Introduction 5) Does knowledge about the plot and the different types of plot help in our
reading the novel?
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2.3 CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION
Having examined the plot as the first aspect of the novel, let us now turn our
attention to character and characterisation the second important aspect of the
novel that we will be dealing with in this unit. Character very simply put would
mean a figure in any literary piece of work. Characters could be, both human as
well as non- human entities such as animals or even inanimate entities – that
however, have been personified by the author/ novelist. The word character also
connotes a sense of morality. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century England
and France, the term character used to mean or refer to a literary genre. As far
back as the late 4th Century and early 3rd Century BCE, the term characters were
used and it meant a genre in which a character type, rather than a truly individual
being/ character was sketched in a brief work written in prose or verse.
Having begun with the 4th Century BCE let us now look at what other critics
have to say and at what character (s) has meant down the ages. A character may
also be a persona in a novel/ a drama/ a poem who has been endowed with
physical, moral and psychological attributes by the novelist in such a way as to
ensure that we as readers come to look upon them as real. For a character to be
good, the novelist would have to present him/her in a very convincing, plausible
and consistent manner and his/her attitude should not appear to be selfcontradictory. If at all such self – contradictions arise then it is crucial for us to
look at and analyse why this has happened or what the novelist wanted us to
understand from this. Some novelists could make the character stand out by
exaggerating his or her physical demeanour while others may depict their
characters subtly. If the physical demeanour is exaggerated then the character
could emerge like a cartoon or in a very incongruous manner. In which case, she
or he would not be a character but a caricature. Dickens has numerous caricatures
in his novels.
Just as we drew a distinction between the types of plots, we can do a similar
exercise as far as characters are concerned and this, we shall do keeping in mind
what Forster had to say about Flat and Round Characters.

2.3.1 Types of Characters
There are several ways of classifying characters but ultimately it boils down to
Forster’s classification of Flat and Round characters that are easily and readily
distinguishable and identifiable. Let us deal with flat characters first.
Flat Characters are usually built around a single idea or quality. They are often
presented rather cursorily in a single phrase or sentence and so are not sketched
25
beyond a mere outline. They derive from a sense of collective identity from the Aspects of the Novel-I
type or group (social or literary) to which she/ he belongs. So, words, deeds and
attitudes are dismissed as quirks of the class. And finally, flat characters are twodimensional and so do not undergo change in the course of a novel.
Round characters on the other hand are a combination of several ideas or qualities.
They are sketched in detail rather painstakingly and may require an extensive
treatment. They do not derive from any group. They have a distinct sense of
personal identity and are often responsible for their words, deeds and attitudes.
And lastly, round characters are three- dimensional and have the power to surprise
us through an unexpected (though not totally improbable) act of transformation.
Sr No FLAT CHARACTERS Sr No ROUND CHARACTERS
1) Flat Characters are usually 1) Round characters on the other
built around a single idea hand are a combination of several
or quality. ideas or qualities.
2) They are often presented 2) They are sketched in detail,
rather cursorily in a single painstakingly and may require an
phrase or sentence and so extensive treatment.
are not sketched beyond a
mere outline.
3) They derive from a sense 3) They do not derive from any
of collective identity from group. They have a distinct sense
the type or group (social personal identity and are often
or literary) to which she/ responsible for their words, deeds
he belongs. So, words, and attitudes.
deeds and attitudes are
dismissed as quirks of the
class.
4) Flat characters are two- 4) Round characters are threedimensional and so do dimensional and have the power
not undergo change in the to surprise us through an
course of a novel. unexpected (though not totally
improbable) act of
transformation.

2.3.2 Characterisation
The reason why we are dealing with characterisation at length here is because
characterisation is also inextricably linked to both character as well as plot. For
a work of literature to be credible to its readers, the readers need to be convinced
by the characters that are portrayed by the novelist in the novel and the characters
should also be such that the reader can actually visualise them. The author could
then either comment directly or indirectly on the characters, in which case, she/
he would be employing direct characterisation or she/ he could use direct
characterisation. In the first instance, the author would be telling readers about
the characters, while in the second instance she/ he would be showing the readers
what the character is really like. For an author to create a successful works of
fiction, she/ he would need to make the plot convincing, the characters should be
26
The Novel: An Introduction such that the readers can identify them/ oppose them or relate to them and the
motivation to believe in the character should be compelling. To take the definition
of character a little further, we feel the need to point out that with most post
structuralists critics and postmodern novelists – the character is supposed to be
dead. In other words, they have “announced” the death of the character. For
instance, the French theorists Roland Barthes in S/Z declare that “what is”
obsolescent in the contemporary novel “is the character; what can no longer be
written in the Proper Name.” The character therefore, is now no longer discussed
as a real person but as a literary construct.
What has to be remembered is that character and characterisation while being
interrelated critical concepts are not synonymous. The term character generally
refers to a person (not necessarily an individual), characterisation is a study of
the different methods that a novelist may use to present a whole range of characters
in a logically arranged manner. The choice of characters or methods of presenting
them is entirely up to the novelists who may have a vision for them and is often
guided by certain factors. Factors such as:
a) His / her choice of the narrative/ story and the way in which she/he wishes
to develop it.
b) The ideal/ ideas she/ he seek to represent through the characters.
c) His/her individual attitude to the ideas she/ he seeks to present through
different characters in the novel.
The novelist once again has the choice of combination, meaning she/ he can
choose to combine these factors in any way she/ he finds suitable to his/ her
story/ narrative. But she/ he usually keeps in mind the following questions while
deciding on the combination of factors to be arranged. These questions could be
related to:
a) How much importance should be given to which character and how?
b) How should the characters be made to interact with each other, and why?
c) How and why should the characters be grouped together into different
categories, viz. character/ caricature, individual/types, major/minor?
Kindly Note: Characterisation is essentially an art, a matter of conscious,
judicious and discriminating use of certain strategies needed for the process of
selection, grouping and presentation of different characters in a novel.

2.3.3 Methods of Characterisation
The manner in which or the technique employed by the novelist as far as
characterisation is concerned varies from novel to novel and from novelist to
novelist. However, for the sake of a broad classification, we can make two
important categories, i.e., Narrative and Dramatic methods of characterisation.
In the narrative method, the quality or trait of the character is described, narrated,
evaluated or commented upon by the novelist. The novelist also offers the final
assessment of a character’s motives, attitudes or behavioural oddities. In the
dramatic method, the quality or trait of the character is shown or revealed through
his/her words, and actions in a series of dramatic situations. The reader is also
allowed to draw his/her own conclusions about the character’s motives, and
attitudes.
27
Aspects of the Novel-I Sr No Narrative Method Sr No Dramatic Method
1) The quality or trait of the 1) The quality or trait of the
character is described, character shown or revealed
narrated, evaluated or through his/her words, and
commented upon by actions in a series of dramatic
the novelist. situations.
2) The novelist also offers the 2) The reader is also allowed his/ her
final assessment of a own conclusions about the
character’s motives, character’s motives, and
attitudes or behavioural attitudes.
oddities.
When you read the different novels prescribed for you, you will realise that the
novelist often uses both the methods in a novel and one method is not sacrificed
in the interest of the other. What we are trying to really tell you is that all said and
done, these two methods of characterisation are not really mutually exclusive
but rather they are complementary to each other.
When you need to figure out either characters or the method characterisation, it
might be helpful for you to keep in mind the following questions:
i) What does the character say or do, and why?
ii) What do the other characters in the novel say about him/her and why?
iii) What does a novelist have to say about a character and why?
iv) Which category does a character belong to, and why?
(The categories could be: major/ minor, individual/type). Before we move on to
the next aspect of the novel that we wish to cover in this Unit, let us stop for a
while and reflect on what we have done so far.

Check Your Progress 3
1) Define the term ‘character?
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2) Why is it important for a character to be consistent? Give reasons.
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The Novel: An Introduction 3) What is the difference between a character and a caricature?
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4) Identify the two main types of characters. Compare and contrast the two.
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5) How is the term character different from characterisation? What factors if
any, determine characterisation?
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6) What are the different methods of characterisation known to a novelist?
Point out the main difference between the two important ones.
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7) Do you think the information given in Section 2.3 will help you in your
reading of a novel? If so, how?
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Aspects of the Novel-I 2.4 NARRATIVE MODES
Before we begin talking about what narrative mode means or does, we need to
understand the meaning of the term narrative per se. Some people might say that
narrative is just another, more sophisticated word for what is ordinarily known
as a ‘story’. This however, is a misconception that needs examining. A story is
something that is merely told. Whereas, a narrative is not only the story but also
how the story is told and in what manner it is told. In other words, a story is
merely a component of the narrative whereas a narrative includes something
more. But at the same time, a narrative is not the plot. Just as the story is but one
component of the narrative, so too is a narrative just one of the several methods
of giving shape to a plot. Narrative therefore, is an important strategy available
to the novelist with the aid of which she/he can create, describe or comment
upon either the situations or characters or both. The study of the narrative modes
can be of immense help in different ways such as,
i) It can help you to understand how a novel is different from other genres
such as a poem or a drama,
ii) It can also help you to distinguish between different types of novels and to
an extent, help you to understand the basic nature of these differences as
well.
This would probably make more sense to you when you read about narrative
methods in the next subsection.

2.4.1 Types of Narrative Modes
Novelists have, over a period of time developed a large variety of modes/ strategies
to present a story. Considering the fact that the novel has been around since the
18th century, the scope for locating newer narrative methods has been immense.
Generally, a novelist uses only one specific narrative mode suited to what she/
he want to narrate and how she/ he wishes to do so. Sometimes, a novelist could
use a combination of several narrative modes simultaneously in a work of fiction
though, as you may discover, this is done only in some cases. The following
types of narrative modes/methods are well known:
1) Third Person Narrative
2) First Person Narrative

2.4.2 Third Person Narrative Mode
In this narrative mode, the narrator is someone who is located outside the story
and who refers to all the characters in the story by name or as ‘she’ or ‘he’.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart that we will be studying in Block 4 is a fine
example of this type of narrative mode. Let’s take a look at the opening lines of
the novel Things Fall Apart:
Okonkwo was well-known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His
fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had
brought honour to his village by throwing Amalmze the Cat…
In this case, you realise that the narrator is a know-all in the sense that he knows
everything that needs to be known about the characters as well as the situations.
30
The Novel: An Introduction He may appear to be god-like in the sense that he knows more about the characters
than the characters themselves. He has an unchallenged monarchical presence in
the novel as he surveys all. He has complete hold over and access to the character’s
thoughts, feelings, emotions, motives, speech and even actions. Whenever a thirdperson enjoys this privileged, almost sovereign status, we say, that the narrator
is omniscient and that the narrative mode is the third person omniscient mode.
However, when the third person omniscient narrator chooses to focus on the
thoughts, feelings or experiences of a single character or a limited number of
characters within a story, then, we identify it as third person limited narrative
mode. In such instances, a novelist seeks to impose certain limitations upon him/
her self so as to be able to present all situations / characters through the eyes/
perspective of a character she / he sympathises with the most. In your study of
the different novels, you are not really likely to come across anything that can
help you understand as to how this mode functions. However, at a later stage, if
you do get to read the novels of Henry James in particular, you would be able to
appreciate the third person limited narrative mode much better.

2.4.3 First Person Narrative Mode
Very often, a novelist creates a character/ persona in the first – person and attempts
to view other characters / situations through his/her eyes. When such a mode of
narration is used in a sustained manner through a novel, we may say that it is an
instance of the first person narrative mode. Sometimes the use of the first person
narrative mode may mislead us to think that the narrator is the same as the author
or at best, an alter ego of the author. While in certain cases, especially in an
autobiographical novel, the narrator/ author distinction may ultimately disappear,
but it does not always happen in this manner. It would be wrong to say, then, that
a novelist uses the first person narrator as a pretext for giving a fictional account
of his/her life or drawing upon his/her personal experiences. In fact, even in an
autobiographical novel, the facts/events/ situations are fictionalised to such an
extent that the distance between the narrator and the author increases considerably.
To give you some idea of how this mode of narration works, here is an example
from Charles Dickens’
David Copperfield:
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will
be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the
beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and
believe) on Friday, at twelve o’clock at night….
Charles Dickens has made use of the first person narrative mode, the first person
mode certainly imposes more limitations. Since it perceives characters/ situations
from the standpoint of a single character and not an omniscient narrator, it does
offer a circumscribed view of whatever a novel may describe. However, it is
generally preferred for the following reasons:
i) It lends a degree of authenticity to the narrative as the reader gets a feeling
that she/he is listening to the story straight from the horse’s mouth.
ii) It lends a sense of immediacy to the narrative and therefore makes for a
greater involvement on the part of the reader.
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Check Your Progress 4

Aspects of the Novel-I
1) What is the meaning of the word ‘narrative’? How is it different from a
story and a plot?
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2) Give a comprehensive definition of the term narrative mode. What are some
of the advantages of studying the narrative mode of a novel?
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3) Identify the two main types of narrative modes. Make a detailed assessment
of the merits and demerits of each of them.
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4) If you have to write a novel which narrative mode would you opt for and
why?
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The Novel: An Introduction 2.5 LET US SUM UP
Speaking very broadly any literary work may be said to have two major
components – form and content. When studying novels it is always more helpful
to study or look at the content of the novel from its form or from the point of
view of having analysed the form. The form of a novel can in turn be examined
with the aid of the several aspects of the novel such as the three we covered in
this unit- plot, character and characterisation and narrative mode. It is also
important that we are able to not only define but also understand what each of
these aspects are and what they do or do not do in a literary work if you wish to
have a sound understanding of the novel. Plot is the overall arrangement of
characters, situations and events, in a novel and is different from the story that is
simply the manner in which we like to remember the happenings in the novel.
Character refers to a person with certain moral, physical and psychological
attributes while characterisation is the use of various strategies available to the
novelist for the purpose of presenting the character. Narratives modes, the third
aspect we covered in this unit, is the different ways of narrating the sequence of
events that unfold in a novel, or presenting the characters or action. By using
different narrative modes, an author is able to sustain the interest of the readers
in the narrative and is also able to emphasise the different points of view presented
in the novel.

2.6 GLOSSARY
alter ego : the other self; an intimate friend
circumscribe : lay down limits of, confine, restrict circumscribe:
constituent : component, part of something bigger
demeanour : bearing, outward behaviour
fictional mode : method of narrating a story
narrative : tale or story told in a particular manner
persona : aspect of personality meant to be shown to others
per se : by itself; considered alone and not in connection with
other things
picaresque : a type of story dealing with the adventures and travels
of a character who is a sort of a good – hearted rogue
strategy : art or skill of doing something

2.7 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Read Section 2.1 and then write your answer.
2) Form and content. Form is the ‘how’ while content is the ‘what’ of a literary
work.
33
3) Yes. Read Section 2.1, however, the nature of the relationship is debatable. Aspects of the Novel-I
4) Yes, read, understand. Reflect and then answer.

Check Your Progress 2
1) A combination of the incidents, events, situations and actions in a story.
2) Think about it carefully and then answer.
3) Section 2.2 has the answer.
4) In Sections 2.2, 2.2.1 lie the answer.
5) Yes, it does – it gives a broad idea of the different types of novels and plots
and the manner in which the plot is constructed.

Check Your Progress 3
1) Human and non- human, personae in a literary work endowed with some
physical, moral and psychological attributes by the novelist.
2) For the character to be plausible and true to life.
3) While a character is endowed with physical, moral and psychological
attributes by the novelist, a caricature is a character in whom certain traits
are exaggerated to the extent that it makes him/her appear incongruous.
4) Refer to Section 2.3.1
5) While character refers to a person or a non-human, or an inanimate entity,
characterisation is a study of the methods that a novelist uses in order to
present characters.
6) Refer to Section 2.3.3
7) Here you might need to pause and think about your answer.

Check Your Progress 4
1) Refer to 2.4
2) Narrative mode is a novelist’s method by which she/ he can create, describe
or comment upon situations and or characters. A study of the narrative mode
can help us to understand how a novel is different from poetry or drama as
well as to differentiate between different types of novels.
3) Refer to Section 2.4
4) You’ll have to really think before you answer this one.
34
The Novel: An Introduction UNIT 3 ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL II
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Style
3.3 Time and Place
3.4 Themes
3.5 New Areas of Novel Writing
3.6 Novels of the Diaspora
3.7 Third World Novels
3.8 Let Us Sum Up
3.9 Hints to Check Your Progress

3.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit, we shall be looking at the other three aspects of the novel. These
will include the aspects of style, time and place and themes. We have already
discussed as to why we need to study the aspects of the novel carefully so we
will not go into it here. Suffice it to say that these aspects of the novel that are
taken up for discussion in this unit will help us understand the novel better. After
looking closely at these aspects of the novel we will then turn to the new areas of
novel writing, at the novels of the third world, and the novels of the diaspora.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
In units 1 and 2 we were introduced to the novel as a literary genre and we also
learnt that reading a novel is not as simple as merely reading and following the
story line. It involves our mental abilities and makes us draw on all the critical
knowledge we have in our possession to really appreciate or even express an
opinion about a novel. What we are trying to say is that, reading a novel is a very
specialised activity, an activity that makes us use a whole new set of vocabulary
(words such as plot, character, characterisation, narrative, narrative modes, critical,
criticism, critique), knowledge and understanding of different genres, and aspects
of the novel. It also means that we need to be able to make fine distinctions and
be well acquainted with the text/ novel and the novelist before we get around to
talking about the novel. You must know what a novel is, the different types of
novels that are there since the 18th century, the different types of novels being
written in modern times, the various aspects of the novel and how these aspects
ought to be studied. Putting it in another way, what we are really trying to tell
you is that, studying a novel or reading the novel as the title of this course suggests
is, in effect the ability to study the various aspects of the novel, hence, the focus
on the aspects of the novel.

Studying the different aspects of the novel will help you in several ways:
1) You would know what to expect when you read a novel.
2) You will be in a position to read the novel intelligently and offer an informed
opinion on it by developing the necessary critical skills and efficiency.
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The earlier unit, Unit 2 and this Unit, have been prepared with the idea of helping Aspects of the Novel-II
you acquire the necessary critical skills and or improving (that is, assuming you
already possess these skills) upon them, in order to read a novel intelligently. In
this unit, we shall be talking about the three other aspects of the novel – style,
time and place and themes, as well as looking at the new areas of novel writing,
third world novels and the novel of the diaspora as these are newer trends in the
area of the novel. Broadly speaking, every known literary work, the novel
included, could be said to have two components: form and content. Simply put,
content as mentioned in the earlier unit refers to ‘what’ a poem or a novel says
and form refers to ‘how’ the poem or the novel says whatever it does. These two
questions related to the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of a literary work is, of paramount
importance to anyone who wishes to unlock the mysteries of the work. Everyone
recognises that there is a very close relationship between the two aspects though
opinion on the nature of the relationship differs. But we have discussed this to
some extent in Unit 2. In this unit, we shall begin with examining style as another
aspect of the novel.

3.2 STYLE
It is commonplace to say that all literary artists, novelists included, have to work
within the available range of a specific language. A good novelist always strives
to enrich the language she/ he decides to work with. What really distinguishes a
good novelist from an indifferent one to some extent is the way in which language
is either used or handled. In a manner of speaking, language is the ultimate material
available to a novelist’s or writer. Style is essentially an aspect of language and
is largely reflected in a novelist’s ability to turn language into an effective and
imaginative vehicle for the purpose of narration and or, communication of his/
her ideas. Since each novelist is likely to use language differently or in his/her
own unique manner, the writing style of one novelist would obviously vary from
that of the other. Style is a distinctive signature of a novelist, an expression of
his/ her creative genius almost in the same manner in which your selection of a
particular dress may be said to carry an imprint of your imagination or lack of it
or reflect your personality. We would like to suggest that in view of a large
variety of styles available, no classification is either possible or desirable.
If we are to study style more closely, it would refer to the way in which a literary
work is written and the devices/ techniques or tools an author/ novelist uses or
has at his/ her disposal to express his/her opinion or message or thoughts. The
manner in which the message and the choice of words, diction, he/she uses to
present it gives rise to the aspect of style. Style therefore, is particular to a writer/
author/ novelist in this case and often it is the distinguishing factor that separates
him/ her from the other writers/ authors/ novelists. Added to the use of words,
language and the manner of presentation is also, the individual’s personal
idiosyncrasies and quirks that obviously impact the writer and hence, also
contribute to his/her style of writing. Even though we have tried to define and
explain what style is or does, we must remember that style too is a literary term
and by rule is difficult to identity, define and analyse as well as extremely elusive
too.
We can also look at style from various points of view. For instance, we could
look at style from the point of view of creating an effect. If we do so, we as
critics would need to focus our discussion on the diction, imagery and rhetorical
36
The Novel: An Introduction devices that are used by a particular novelist. If we look at style from the point
of view of whether or not it belongs to a certain literary age or movement or even
when we talk about different authors, then we would need to identify and analyse
only those aspects of a given work that reflects the general style in question. For
instance, we could consider a work to be belonging to the Augustan age, or the
Victorian age; or we could say a work is “ornate”, “Coleridgean”, “transparent”,
formal, low, high Renaissance, alliterative, Jamesian” etc.. (Murfin and Ray, p.
385)
Style could also be divided into three major categories: the high/grand, the middle/
mean, and the low/base/plain. Northrop Frye invented a new distinction of style
that he based on whether a literary work makes use of “expression and rhythms
of ordinary speech or, instead makes use of formal devices and elaborates in
order to differentiate its language from the quotidian”. He termed these two
distinctions – the demotic and the hieratic. But at the same time, he also identified
a high, middle, and low level in each of these two classifications. Then there is
the decorous style which implies that the language conforms to the speakers, or
the subject matter as well as the readers, or simply put what it really means is
that the language is in keeping with the literary genre in which it is written, the
socio-economic class of those who are using it in the novel (in this case), and the
socio-political/ socio-cultural context in which it is being used as well as the
occasion for which it is being used. Decorum was an actual convention of writing
in the 18th century that dictated that the style of a work should “match” or be
consistent with all the aspects of the work.

When examining style, we could also look at whether the sentences of a novel or
any literary work are predominantly periodic/ loose (non periodic). A periodic
sentence according to Murfin and Ray, “is not grammatically complete until its
very end. Typically, several dependent clauses and parallel constructions precede
the final independent clause in a periodic sentence, so the meaning of the sentence
cannot be ascertained until the entire sentence has been read”. They then explain
non periodic or loose sentences as, “typically contain (ing) a number of
independent clauses joined only by coordinating conjunctions such as and or
but” (p. 386). Periodic sentences appear to be more formal and the style that
emerges as a result of using these types of sentences is said to be an elevated
style whereas, in comparison the loose sentences or the non periodic sentences
appear to be more informal and therefore conversational or base. We could go on
explaining style through use of such terms but that might merely serve to confuse
you and that would mean defeating our purpose of study. So, we will not go into
details here at this point. Suffice it to say that there are various ways of creating
style and stylistic devices are used by novelists to create their own particular and
distinguishing style and critics too have various looking at style and they have
done so down the ages.

That being so … you may wonder how you could possibly gain some
understanding of a particular novelist’s style or his/ her creative use of language?
Experts will suggest different ways of analysing the language that you may not
find at all useful at this stage. For this reason, we suggest that you base your
impressions of a particular novelist’s style on your ability to answer the following
questions:
1) Does a novelist use the language in a manner familiar to you or does she/he
strive for novelty, richness or creativity?
37
2) Does this creative use of language lie in his/her use of words, diction or his/ Aspects of the Novel-II
her sentence/ structure or all of them?
3) Can you identify some of the recurrent images and symbols in the novel? If
so, make a list of each of them.
4) Do images and symbols make his/her language ‘obtuse’ or transparent?
(Remember: Overuse of images and symbols will make the language rich und
allusive, sometimes obtuse; while discriminating use of both will make for
transparency)
5) Does she/he use a simple style or a complex one?
(The answer to this question will depend upon how you answer the other four).

Check Your Progress 1
1) How would you like to define the term style?
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2) Why is it not possible to offer a neat classification of different styles?
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3) How can one assess the style of a particular novel? Can you suggest any
method for it, other than the one outlined in section 3.2?
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3.3 TIME AND PLACE
The notion of time and place is derived from the classical notions of the unities
most often ascribed to Aristotle. Aristotle however, dealt only with the unity of
action in some detail when he was talking about tragedy. Whenever we discuss
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The Novel: An Introduction Aristotle, we need to remember that Aristotle always talked about drama/ tragedy
and not about the novel. It is a different matter that we have chosen to adapt
many of his insights on tragedy to other literary genres such as the novel. He
also talks about the unity of time in the fictive form. However, the classical
unities of time, place and action have been attributed to Aristotle and the 16th
and 17th century Italian and French critics expanded upon these unities.
Therefore, 17th century French Drama, particularly that of Molière and Racine
were very strict observers of these unities and very regular. In sharp contrast are
the English dramatists who wrote for the Jacobean stage. By the late 17th century
however, even English dramatists had begun evaluating their own work according
to the rules of the classical unities. Thus, we had a highly irregular Shakespeare
who did not adhere to any of these rules or strictures and the conservative and
regular Jonson who followed the rules of the classical unities very strictly. Till
Victor Hugo’s play Hernani (1844) was staged, the classical unities were very
influential in dramatic criticism. This play created quite a stir at it debut because
it violated the rules of classicism. It must be remembered that Greek and Latin
drama were very strict in the form and their stage presented a single place
throughout the action, while the plot narrated the events of a single day and the
action too took place on a single day.

The action of a novel, like that of any other human activity, has to be located in
‘time’ as well as ‘place’, if it has to make any sense to us. Both ‘time’ and ‘place’
as represented in a novel are, more often than not, imaginary and not real
categories. It is so because a novelist always likes to exercise his/ her prerogative
of adding an element of fiction to whatever she/ he may choose to describe or
narrate. As a matter of fact, this tendency towards the fictionalisation of time/
place categories as also the characters, situations or actions is what makes a
work of fiction different from a historian’s work on the one hand and a journalistic
report on the other. Even when a novelist chooses to describe an actual or historical
time/place category, as she/ may often do, she presents it in a manner that it
appears strange or unfamiliar. Sometimes she or he may describe the real or
known time/ place in such a manner that it might appear far removed from the
way we may have either experienced, seen, heard or read about it. This is not to
suggest that a novelist cannot or does not ever use time/place categories without
fictionalising them. She/ he may often do so, and whenever she/ he does it the
novel may either become historical in nature or take on the shape of reportage.
Since a novel presents action on a fairly broad scale, a number of ‘time sequences’
and ‘locations’ often come into play. It needs to be pointed out here that the
action of a novel can move either in a linear fashion or in a disjunction manner.
It is said to move in a linear fashion when the chronology of events is consistently
maintained in the act of narration and there is an onward movement from one
place to another. Linear action follows the alphabetic order and if the action
starts (in terms of both time and place) at say point A, its moves towards points
B, C, and D… and ultimately Z.

Charles Dickens David Copperfield is a good example of what we mean by
linear movement of action. On the other hand, disjunctive action comes into
play when the chronology of events is carefully and systematically disturbed for
the purposes of narration and there is a movement back and forth in both time
and place. It often happens when a novelist either uses flashback techniques or
makes a character reconstruct events in a random fashion. In this case, the action
39
may start at point H, revert to point A and move toward B, C, D…G before it Aspects of the Novel-II
jumps forward to P… and so on. Such disruptions in time and place make the
action disjunctive and this is often deliberately and consciously done by the
novelist with the explicit purpose of attracting the reader’s attention through
new ways of narrating or describing. The disjunctive mode is often associated
with most of the 20th century novels.
To help you out with your reading of different novels, we suggest that you keep
the following questions in mind:
i) When does the action begin and when does it end?
ii) Do you find any disruptions in the time sequence of the novel? If so, how
many? Identify all such disruptions and if possible, account for them as
well.
iii) Identify the total time sequence presented in a novel. Prepare a chart so as
to show how it moves from one point to another.
iv) Where does the novel begin and where does the novel end?
v) Which are the different places mentioned in the novel? Identify them.
vi) Prepare a comprehensive list of all the places named in the novel. While
doing so, keep the following order in mind: Country, town, parish, village,
home, etc.
vii) If possible, associate different characters with different places and different
time sequences as well.

Check Your Progress 2
1) What are the two planes on which the action of a novel moves?
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2) Does a novelist always use time and place categories in a realistic manner?
If not, why?
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The Novel: An Introduction 3) What are the different ways in which time and place categories can be used
in a novel? Identify, define and classify them.
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4) Why is it important to know about a novelists specific use of time and place
categories? How can one glean such information from a novel?
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3.4 THEMES
So far, we have restricted our discussion to what we call the ‘form’ of a novel, its
various manifestations or critical concepts/ strategies with the help of which the
‘form’ can be comprehended fully. You would perhaps recall our earlier
suggestions made in Section 2.1 to the effect that the content of a novel should
preferably be mediated through its form. This is as much as to say that if you are
able to put these critical strategies to an optimum and effective use, you may be
able to decipher the ‘content’ as well. This brings us to a point where it becomes
necessary to explain what we really mean by the term ‘content’. In its broad
sense, content would refer to the themes or ideas that run through the fabric of
the novel.
Themes arise from the interplay of the various aspects of the novel such as, the
plot/ setting, character, sometimes the element of conflict and the aspect of tone
(under style). If we were to analyse the meaning of theme very simplistically we
could say that the theme of a piece of fiction/ novel is its views about life and
about how people behave. The theme of a novel particularly these days is rarely
didactic/ moralistic. In fact, most of the time, it is not even presented directly.
We locate the theme with the help of the characters, the action and the setting of
the novel. In short what we really do is to try and figure out or work out the
themes ourselves. The novelist merely communicates his/ her message to the
reader and it is up to the reader or us to decipher what the theme is. However, it
is important to point out here that every idea a novel may seek to present does
not necessarily develop into its theme. An idea becomes a theme only when it
recurs through a novel in such a way as to demonstrate a novelist’s preoccupation
with it. A novelist often reveals his/ her concern or preoccupation with a theme
or a set of themes in several different ways, some of which are as follows:
41
Aspects of the Novel-II i) Indirectly through the medium of character/ characters, as a character is
widely held to be the chief vehicle of an idea or ideas in a novel.
ii) Indirectly through certain patterns of imagery and symbolism that run
through a novel.
iii) Indirectly through key words or phrases that find a recurrent expression in
a novel.
iv) Directly through authorial comments that lie interspersed in a novel, where
a novelist takes the liberty to comment on either the characters or situations
or both.
v) Through the title.
vi) Through allusions that are made throughout the novel
vii) Through details and particulars in the novel and the greater meaning that
those details could contain.
This by itself would make clear to you how closely interrelated and interdependent
both ‘form’ and ‘content’ are. In your search for different themes of a novel you
may focus specifically on this particular aspect of a novel.
Remember: theme, plot and the structure of the novels are interrelated und all
help to inform and reflect back on each other. Moreover, the theme does not
always tell us everything about the novel, and that it is simply one of the aspects
of the novel.

Check Your Progress 3
1) What is the meaning of the term ‘content’?
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2) What is the main difference between an idea and a theme?
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The Novel: An Introduction 3) In what different ways does a novelist usually reveal the theme of a novel?
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4) What kind of relationship exists between ‘content’ and ‘form’ and why?
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3.5 NEW AREAS OF NOVEL WRITING
At the onset of the twentieth century, Western fiction grew modern and shed
many images such as Victorian, realistic, and its image of what Malcom
Bradbury calls “the great instrument of social representation”. It found a place
for itself when paradigms were shifting, along with expectations, desires and
imagination. At the end of the twentieth century different forms of the novel had
taken centre stage. By the time we entered the new millennium the novel as a
genre saw striking changes. A large number of writers who had contributed
tremendously to post war British fiction had died. Novelists such as, Graham
Greene (died in 1991), William Golding and Anthony Burgess (1993), Kingsley
Amis (1995), Iris Murdoch (1999) and Penelope Fitzgerald in 2000, Arthur
C Clarke in March, 2008. The millennium offered great cultural excitement and
impetus to new writers. But what was also happening is that some essential notions
of the novel and its Britishness were rapidly dissolving and getting lost and the
stage was now set for writers from other cultures such as from Scotland, Ireland
and India to name just a few.
Moreover, the changes also occurred in writing that began to emerge from different
perspectives both on myth as well as reality and we saw fiction/ novels from
America, Australia, South America, Caribbean, India, Africa, Ireland and other
postcolonial countries. By mid – twentieth century most of the former British
colonies had regained their independence from Britain. These former colonies
were to be renamed Commonwealth countries and later postcolonial countries
and a vast body of writing emerged from these countries. The novel these days
has taken on a vast “variety of voices, forms and manners”, and is randomly
open “to all styles, all attitudes, all kinds of performances, along with equal
randomness of judgment about what is serious, worthwhile, valuable,
authoritative” (Malcolm Bradbury, p. 521).
The most striking feature of the novel today is its sheer plurality, its diversity
and mixed origins. Bradbury finds the novel in the millennium dealing with
43
history and the novelist’s relationship with the past and he gives the example of Aspects of the Novel-II
A S Byatt’s Booker novel Possession: A Romance. Other writers who were
interested in the relationship between history and the fable include: Penelope
Fitzgerald (Innocence, 1986, The Blue Flower (1995), Kazuo Ishiguro (The
Unconsoled, 1995), Tibor Fischer (Under the Frog, 1992, The Collector
Collector, 1997). But all said and done, fiction or the novel is at its richest in the
millennium. There are certain themes that recur through novels, (and the list is
the one prepared by Bradbury):
apocalyptic cities, gender wars, gay and lesbian relations, marital collapse,
feminist self- discovery, football fever, serial killers, child abuse, New age
consciousness, laddish girls and girlish lads. (p. 539)
He also says that social comedy has replaced hard satire and that “dark horrors
have replaced familiar lives”, that, “serious literary fiction in under profound
pressure from the commercial”, and “Grand Narratives are giving way to more
plural and playful themes”. Before we conclude it needs to be mentioned that the
novel still survives, it proliferates and penetrates. It has seen many deaths but it
seems to be thriving and expanding is boundaries, cultures and horizons. In the
next section we shall talk about the novel of the diaspora.

3.6 NOVELS OF THE DIASPORA
The word diaspora come from an ancient Greek word “ meaning “a scattering or
sowing of seed” and it now refers to the entire process of forcing people or
ethnic populations away from their own homelands, the dispersal of these people,
and the ensuing developments in their culture including literature. The current
usage of the word diaspora comes from the Hebrew Bible to refer to the population
of Jews exiled from Judea in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, and from Jerusalem
in ADE 136 by the Roman Empire. The term was assimilated from Greek into
English in the mid 20th century. As an academic field, diaspora studies has been
established and is related to the wider modern meaning of the usage ‘diaspora’.
The literature that developed as a result of the movement of people from their
homelands to other countries for whatever reasons – be they economic, social,
political, is what is known as diaspora writing or literature of the diaspora. Much
of the writings tend to deal with as H C Narang puts it, with “the myths and
legends, rites and rituals, songs and dances, faith and belief, philosophy and
pragmatism, memory and amnesia, success and failures, and tears and smiles –
In short, the lived experience of not one but two communities”. Let us look at
third world novels briefly in the next section.

3.7 THIRD WORLD NOVELS
In a politico-economic sense the term ‘third world’ implies all the nations that
were (and are still) generally considered to be underdeveloped economically in
the 20th century. The term arose during the Cold War to refer to nations that did
not belong to the First and Second Worlds. It was used for countries either still
developing or under-developed, especially in Latin America, Africa, Oceania
and Asia. The term third world also has a reference to the Third Estate, the
44
The Novel: An Introduction commoners of France during the French Revolution, as they were opposed to the
clergy and the nobility who comprised the First Estate and the Second Estate.
The political birth of the term third world strictly speaking took place at the
Bandung Conference (1955). The third world is culturally and economically
diverse and includes the petroleum-rich countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United
Arab Emirates, etc. and the new industrial countries such as, India, China,
Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico etc. and poor countries such as Haiti, Chad,
Afghanistan, etc.
The literature that has emerged from these countries is what is popularly known
as third world literature. However, these days the term third world is not really
politically correct, hence, a more umbrella term such as literature from the margins
is used to refer to these writings. In some cases, the term used is also new literatures
or sometimes known as postcolonial literatures, if the writings happen to be
from former colonies. Some of the good examples of Third World Novels and
Novelists are: Sembene Ousmane (God’s Bit of Wood), Chinua Achebe (Things
Fall Apart), which we will be studying, Ngugi Wa Thiong’O (Petals of Blood),
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), Salman Rushdie
(Midnight’s Children), Nawal El Saadawi (Women at Point Zero), Earl Lovelace
(The Wine of Astonishment), Mario Vargas Llosa (The Real Life Of Alejandro
Mayta), V S Naipaul (A House for Mr Biswas), and Isabel Allende (Of Love
and Shadows), to name just a few.

3.8 LET US SUM UP
In this unit we have covered the three other aspects of the novel – style, time and
place and theme, as well as looked briefly at the definition of and implication of
terms such as third world novels or new writings or even diaspora novels. You
need to remember that this unit is only an introductory unit and the purpose
behind this unit has been to expose you to new areas and terms in the study of the
novel. In Unit 4 we will be examining the future of the novel.

3.9 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1

1) Style is the unique way in which each novelist uses language to narrate the
story or communicate his/her ideas.
2) As each individual writer has his/her own specific style, it is not possible to
classify such a diverse range of available or possible styles.
3) Think before you write your response.
Check Your Progress 2
1) The novel moves through time and is set in a particular place.
2) Refer to Section 3.3.
3) Time can be used either in a linear fashion or it can be made backwards and
forwards in a disjunctive manner.
4) Refer to Section 3.3.
45

Check Your Progress 3 Aspects of the Novel-II
1) The themes/ ideas found in a novel constitute its content.
2) An idea is not necessarily the theme of the novel. An idea becomes a theme
when it recurs through a novel, demonstrating the novelist’s preoccupation
with it.
3) Refer to 3.4.
4) For purposes of analysis, it is necessary to speak of ‘form’ and ‘content’ as
separate categories. But as we know they are inseparable.
46
The Novel: An Introduction UNIT 4 FUTURE OF THE NOVEL
Structure

4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Novel in the Twentieth Century
4.3 The Novel in the Post-Modern World
4.4 The Novel in the Present Age
4.5 The Postcolonial Novel
4.6 The Future of the Novel
4.7 Let Us Sum Up
4.8 Hints to Check Your Progress
4.9 Suggested Readings and References

4.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we discuss the novel from its origins in the 18th century to the present
times as well as the possible trends in the future. This unit will also look at the
novel under various socio-political conditions such as postmodernism and the
present context as well.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
The novel originated in the 18th century in Western Europe and soon became the
most popular literary form. How soon? Well, in a span of a few decades, it started
evolving in different directions, covering areas of life that had hitherto been left
untouched in creative writing – poetry, drama, long or short comments and analyses
in prose, for instance. One prominent stream of fiction writing, took up
contemporary manners and morals as its central concern and aimed to educate
the vast majority of readers in what is now known as proper behaviour. This
trend of fiction let the reader know all that was expected of him/ her in one’s
environment and how one was to circumvent obstacles if they emerged on one’s
path towards happiness, fulfillment, salvation, or what you like. Thus, the novel
worked as a sort of class-room where the novelist assumed the role of a teacher
and taught the reader through various methods – discussion, mimicry,
representation of characters along lines of wrong and faulty conduct – and
compelling her/him to reconsider one’s ‘normal’ (socially acceptable) approach
to issues. Of course, the necessary precondition of this writing was that it had to
be interesting or the readers would share the fate of audiences listening to a
preacher from the pulpit. This could be called pleasure combined with purpose.
Such an educative role made the novel extremely appealing to vast audiences
hungry to know and learn about life. The best example of such fiction-writing
was Henry Fielding in England.
Around the same time as Fielding wrote (in the eighteenth century) his morally
educative novels, one sees a totally different kind of novel writing by Richardson
who presented not the social life or the ethical tendencies of a time but went into
the workings of the human mind. The psychological dimension in Richardson’s
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writing is indeed fascinating. Richardson Future of the Novel ’s characters think and feel delicately,
they remain uncertain, and at the edge of thought and do not know which direction
to take to see their dreams fulfilled. Richardson’s novels are about self-knowing
as the character’s mind is made to explore his/her own motivations. How to
relate with an unknown person? What could be the pitfalls in the growth of a
relationship? What drives an individual to come out of oneself – one’s sense of
fear or a desire to fulfill oneself in spite of the dangers ‘involved’? Richardson
dealt with these questions with great subtlety. A substantial part of the appeal in
Richardson’s writing lay in the characters he chose for depiction in his novels.
They were women, young and curious, in which males of the day took keen
interest and expressed a desire to relate to them. The apprehension of seduction
always lurked behind the attempt that the males in question made. Also note that
the new woman of the eighteenth century had to be treated differently from her
counterpart in the earlier centuries. She was middle class with a sensitivity about
her selfhood, about the role she would be playing under pressure from others or
somewhat independently.
Isn’t this to mean that both Fielding and Richardson catered to the cultural
requirement of the day in their different ways “ the former telling the curious
reader what to adopt and what to shun and the latter letting the reader into the
unknown recesses of the minds of the new men and women that had emerged in
an altogether new England. This England, needless to say, was marked by the
onward progressive march of the native merchants and traders. What is suggested
is that the novel as a literary form at the time met the demands of the social
environment and shaped the minds of the people even as it allowed those people
to influence its workings.
As the nineteenth century saw the novel in Europe strongly and courageously
depicting scenes of socio-historical movements, it entered problematic areas of
life such as the desirability of retaining or changing the existing power structures.
This happened particularly in French and Russian fiction. The two gradually
became highly realistic in their treatment of vital social themes. American fiction,
too, documented changes taking place in the existing social environment amidst
violence and wars. Both in Europe and America, the novel registered important
happenings of the day. The names of Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens,
the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Thackeray, Thomas Hardy, etc. come to
mind, who through their peculiar fictional strategies laid bare the clashes and
antagonisms of the time. Issues and questions of helplessness, anguish, tragedy,
defeat, moral self questioning, heroic struggles of individual characters with
entrenched interests, etc. are scattered all over nineteenth century fiction. These
denote the practice of novel writing by writers to engage with a real world that
unfolded before them in its complexity and mystery. At the same time, we come
across in the fiction of the nineteenth century a gradual occurrence of
marginalisation of the literary endeavour. Particularly, as Georg Lukacs has
argued in his significant discussion of the novel in The Meaning of Contemporary
Realism, the novel could be seen moving in the direction of crisis and keeping its
head above water with a great deal of difficulty. Thus, we see that in a little less
than two hundred years the novel as a literary form had come to confront hurdles
that had become increasingly difficult to cross. The question naturally arose:
What would happen to the novel in the twentieth, or to be more precise, what
was the future of the novel in the next (twentieth) century? Interestingly, we
meet this question today in more or less the same form as then. Thereafter, with
48
The Novel: An Introduction the calendar changing and the twentieth century coming to an end, we would
also need to look at what happens in the 21st century.

Check Your Progress 1
1) Write a brief account of the developments in the novel as a genre from the
18th to the 19th century.
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4.2 THE NOVEL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The twentieth century bore witness to the emergence of varied perspectives in
the field of learning. There were new views, responses and attitudes formulated
by different states, combinations of countries big and small, and within them by
groups, classes and individuals. The latter were active in their intellectual or
other pursuits to block or augment the march of sections that they supported or
opposed. The twentieth century world was a truly divided house “ the more so as
it had become united along politics and ideologies. Since 1917, there had been
two blocs, the capitalist imperialist bloc on the one side and the socialist bloc on
the other. Even as late as the 1990s, the ‘unipolar’ world we lived in, had
contending interests with the small socialist countries as they rose against the
mighty imperialist political formations. The tumultuous period we lived through
saw small Russian states moving gradually back to the socialist ideology and a
rising public outcry all over the world against the American invasion and
occupation of Iraq. This has a connection with literature in general and the novel
in particular. Historical conditions shape literary trends and forms and are in
turn shaped by them in a significant manner. That is how we relate literature to
life.
What are these historical conditions that we refer to in our discussion about the
present topic? Firstly, the twentieth century has seen two world wars: secondly,
there has been intensive socio-economic exploitation of nations in the form of
colonisation; thirdly, the age has also witnessed de-colonisation and the
independence of colonies long buried under the weight of oppression; fourthly,
there has been a cut-throat competition and clash of ideologies which are evident
in the Cold War period of the nineteen fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, and
finally the world emerges as a unipolar world with the dominance of America.
Let us look at the novel in the postmodern world next.

4.3 THE NOVEL IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD
Broadly, this historical development constitutes the life of the twentieth century
and forms a backdrop to the formulation of multiple opinions. In which area of
life does such a making of multiple opinions happen? Obviously, the politicalideological area where forces, developments, formations of all kinds manifest
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Future of the Novel themselves, asserting as they do, weakly or strongly, their ways of life, identities
and attitudes. Mark that ‘multiplicity’ is the watchword in this ‘postcolonialpostmodern’ world of ours. We hear in this world that all established forms of
life, nay, all established ways of thoughts and feeling as well as aspirations have
become redundant and that humankind cannot go any further from here. According
to this new and quite powerful argument, things are going to become worse from
here on, since, non-human aspects of technology and commerce have decisively
taken over existence. There have been prophets of doom such as the American
theorist Fukoyama who boldly predict the end of history. The argument is
interesting since inherent in it is the belief that ‘history’ is a relatively new
phenomenon, call it five or at the most ten thousand years old, before which
humankind lived irrationally, anarchically, savage-like. The technological
developments of today are thus, going to reduce humans to the level of nonthinking, non-feeling automata “ the humans from now on would lose conscious
control over their lives and only follow commands from a superior, all-powerful
agency that is unapproachable to the faculty of human reason”
On the other side of this complex phenomenon of predictions, claims and
counterclaims, I have in mind the serious disagreements of those who think that
technology is bound to obey human commands of reason since technology is an
extension of human power and also that governments, associations and such
other formations of collectivity only reflect the power of human beings to improve
the scope of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Thus, there are claims and
counterclaims. At the end of the twentieth century and now at the beginning of
the twenty-first century, what could be the role of literature in general and the
novel in particular? More, what could be the future of the novel, and more
assertively, does it indeed have a future?

Check Your Progress 2
1) What were the developments in the novel in the last century? Give a
summarised answer.
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4.4 THE NOVEL IN THE PRESENT AGE
The answer to these questions is inherent in the above discussion and all important
aspects of this query have been broadly touched. There are examples galore in
the twentieth century which has witnessed large scale experimentation in the
novel. Its range was widened in the twentieth century to include the psychological
symbolical, impressionistic and such other representations of life within the body
of the novel. In the nineteen forties and fifties, for instance, a writer like Samuel
Beckett confronted drama and fiction writing with the question of meaning in
social and human existence. He called literary writing (drama in particular) the
writing of the absurd. Thus, it is that we write only to tell ourselves or find that
50
The Novel: An Introduction meaning does not reside in the social sphere. This is how the argument goes
with the literary representation of the post-World War II period. The nineteen
fifties and sixties were without doubt the years of disillusionment and despair.
The novels of Beckett, (that were written a few years earlier), became subjects
of discussion in the post World War II period and brought out the inefficacy of
novel writing in the twentieth century.
Think also of the writer Vladimir Nabokov for whom the novel form served the
purpose of negating the established parameters of novel writing and made the
novel form in this context a vehicle of expressing anarchic human tendencies.
The nineteen fifties and sixties were a background to this phenomenon. Nabokov’s
highly controversial novel Lolita challenged everything existing in the
contemporary ideological sphere, the writer lashing out at the oppressive moral
structures of the family and parentage. For Nabokov, these structures had an
important psychological dimension where a different kind of human being, raw
and undifferentiated, lived. Conversely, however, Lolita became a highly moralist
comment on the way things were unfolding in the twentieth century world.
Nabokov also devised a new method of creating blank spaces within a crowd of
descriptions where nothing related to anything and the representation only became
a challenge to the meaning seeking reader.

Of course, things didn’t stop here. The nineteen seventies and eighties saw a
totally different kind of fiction writing, from a centre that had hitherto remained
only a point of margin, away from where the determining forces of the day
operated. What I mean by the centre here is the position of the discerning author
who situates herself/ himself away from the dominant power. To be still more
explicit, the fiction writing of these decades ceased to be Europe-centric because
of which a clear rupture occurred in novel writing, in fact, with the entire tradition
of the European-American fiction. Generally speaking, this phenomenon is
associated with postcolonial and postmodern writing.

Since, we see the novel as essentially preoccupied with subtler aspects of feelings
and emotions, we realise that a view of certain life-processes prevalent today
would be highly useful. There emerges, in the midst of poverty and squalor, for
instance, a peculiar kind of resistance with the victims of the dominant order
gaining awareness of their situation gradually. What is suggested is that no social
situation is simplistic and uni-dimensional where oppression is taken to be an
unchanging fatefulness. In things that promote others and those that block certain
ones runs a thread. It may be weak at places but contains in it the possibility of
becoming strong. The certainty of an ongoing development in society preserves
humans in hostile surroundings. Indeed, these life-processes are what are reflected
in literature. In literature, we find the representation of the current system at
work and the various approaches to life from various positions intertwine to
finally become one with the evolving structures. It is not only the English or the
French writings that constitute literature in the twentieth century, but there has
been substantial contribution in the field of literature by writers from all over the
world. There has been extensive works written by the former colonised. Let’s
take this up in some detail next.

4.5 THE POSTCOLONIAL NOVEL
In this sense, what we get in the twentieth century is something new and extremely
significant in the history of literature. The age was a witness to the democratisation
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of literature. This is precisely why the twentieth century was to become a Future of the Novel
significant moment in the development of literary sensibility. The tyranny of the
few (nations/ men), as it were, was undone in the latter half of the twentieth
century by the assertion of the many (Nations/ Men) in the area of expression.
Writing has become a world-wide possession after the independence of the
colonised nations. There are writings from Latin America, Africa, South Africa,
Australia, India and so on, expressing their pains and sufferings as well as points
of view and their ‘reality’.
Ours is a world of great upheavals and disturbances. Here is where we find
views and thoughts being shaped. Latin America and Africa were the crucibles
in which new ways of literary response were being forged. These countries and
places had either already become independent or were moving towards that end.
Writing thus, became, with independence, more accessible and open, to the whole
world. Freedom in expression was one of the biggest achievements of the age.
There was a whole range of interpretations of thought-processes in the twentieth
century. This in a way made the world much more democratic in approach. The
people of this new world would either be treated as equals or they would perish.
However, there were also some problems and difficulties specific to the field of
literary writing. It would indeed be useful to have a look at them and consider
the ‘necessities,’ call them compulsions if you like, they create for the writer.
This is more so in the case of the contemporary writer/ novelist surrounded as s/
he is by innumerable factors of living. I have indicated this in the previous parts
of this discussion.

It should be stressed that a longer span of time in which a literary tendency can
be placed should be carefully observed in critical discussion. What I have in
mind at this point is that the first decade of the twentieth century had a ‘past’ that
could hardly point towards the modernist trend in fiction writing. But the trend
definitely came, as all of us know. Not only did the emphases change in literature
but the related perspectives and attitudes shifted decisively towards mystery,
uncertainty, unknowability, etc. There seemed to be no future at the time for the
kind of writing Dickens or George Eliot had pursued in the period immediately
preceding these years. But a sort of flowering of new creativity did occur in
fiction. And yet, there remains a vital link of a writing trend with its immediate
past. Here, we have followed this general process of understanding the
phenomenon. Thus, the early twentieth century novel contained in it a great deal
of the practice under the genre in question. From Fielding and Richardson through
Austen, the Bronte sisters, Dickens, George Eliot and Hardy the novel form
manifested numerous experiments, changes in strategies, etc. One particular
change for us to consider was that around nineteen hundred this literary form
began showing signs of separation, if not isolation, from the life in the midst of
which it got shaped. This trend has continued ever since then till the nineteen
seventies and eighties and may still carry on for reasons that are specifically
historical and political. Also to be kept in mind is the fact that these reasons have
not deterred the novel from performing its literary-cultural function. This point
becomes relevant to our present discussion involving the future of the novel.
Shall we not call this the success of the genre, its enduring importance and gritty
nature? We get a clue to the overall issue of this Unit from the fact that challenges
and difficulties posed by ideological-cultural circumstances only makes the fiction
of the period more valuable with respect to the grasping of contemporary reality.
52

The Novel: An Introduction 4.6 THE FUTURE OF THE NOVEL
Do we visualise in the case of the novel the same kind of decisive break with its
past at the dawn of the twenty-first century as seen in the beginning of the twentieth
century? We observe that a deep current moves today against the novel. It is
sought to be replaced by ‘popular fiction’ on the one side and journalistic writing
on the other. Both exploit the sense of suspense and curiosity around ordinary
questions of interest. Still further, the sociological aspect of the novel – it was
called a documentary form since it adhered to the common details of existence
and sought to capture the warp and weft of life in their immediate surroundings.
The sociological novel in our context has been made redundant by long
descriptions of cultural and social life in historical writings.
In the very first decade of the twenty-first century, however, what has been
witnessed is an anti-novel current. This means that the twenty-first century seems
in some ways to be departing from the literary traditions followed in the last
three centuries. The new opinion gives weight to direct statement and a firstperson analysis of trends. According to this opinion, the thinker/ philosopher/
writer should express only that which one perceives in the given environment
since that makes more sense than an ‘artistic’ visualisation of a phenomenon. A
number of arguments can be marshaled in support of this view that we can consider
in brief here. For instance, the form of the novel is seen as a passive form of
expression by the writers of the new age – the expression says and does not say
anything. The author may not take responsibility for what one has written under
the pretext of offering an imagined, not an actual reality.
V S Naipaul, the famous novelist of the post World War II era, had said that the
new millennium calls for a kind of writing that deals with things head on, without
softening their edges. Facts are, what Naipaul had come to pin his hopes on in
the changed scenario marked by experiment, innovations and descriptive
shufflings. As we observe the phenomenon, we also notice that ‘the common
reader’ (Virginia Woolf’s term, a novelist herself) is more interested today in
pop fiction that helps one to kill tine and take care of boredom. Pop fiction leaves
no trace of the ‘effect’ of the work after another novel has been read. It is possible
that in a cumulative way, pop fiction bolsters biases and prejudices, racial or
national, but the individual work of pop fiction does little in terms of helping the
reader re-look and examine one’s stock responses. Contrast this with the fact
that the so-called serious novel is a subject for serious consideration by a specialist
reader and interpreter who engages with the task of decoding the hidden meaning
or message, if any, in the work of fiction.
Deconstruction, the reigning doctrine of the contemporary period, has blurred
distinctions between fiction and non-fiction as well as between the said and notsaid. Compare this with ‘novel proper’ with its eighteenth or nineteenth century
counterpart that brought about changes in people’s responses and attitudes. There
seems no scope today for a Fielding, Balzac, Tolstoy or a Hawthorne novel to
hold a mirror up to the reality of our times. Thus, it is believed that the form of
the novel has become seriously deficient in the twenty-first century. Under such
general apprehensions and misgivings, Naipaul had announced the death of
fiction.

53
Do we agree with all this and stop assigning importance to the novel? Do we Future of the Novel
accept the argument that the novel form has outlived its utility and is thus, to be
replaced by a straightforward expression of thoughts, feelings and emotions as
happens, for instance, in a travelogue, biography/ autobiography, long short essay,
a series of firsthand accounts of happenings, etc? To state in another way, is
responsible journalism the answer to novel writing?
We notice here that the argument about novel writing has shifted from offering a
narrative to the reader to telling her/him directly what the author wishes to convey
about one’s world. In this, there seems to be an over-emphasis on performing a
socio-political role on the individual author’s part – there seems to be an unseemly
haste to leave a mark on the community of readers that are ready to be convinced
by the author’s offering of opinion or advice. For such a role, literature already
has the essay form. In fact, the essay form and the novel form emerged almost
simultaneously in nineteenth century Europe, particularly England. Still more,
the novel initially combined the essay and the narrative in such a manner that it
became a virtual ‘class room’ for the reader, a literary institution to make available
to the audience fresh views, norms and responses juxtaposed with one another as
well as with the entrenched ones in the minds of the audience. It is only later that
novels were seen as drifting away from views, pronouncements and analyses
and focusing exclusively on the experiential aspects of life. Indeed, the novel
form has gone through a host of phases and stages to finally reach the situation
we confront today.
But what we see as ‘the situation’ is only half the story. If, the crisis of the novel
form is so acutely visible in the literature of western Europe and America, the
same is not the case with the rest of the world. It would be interesting to compare
the modernist crisis in the European novel to the emergence of the novel form in
the languages of the many colonies at the time when they resisted the imperialist
political pressures through nationalist struggles. Tagore (Bangla) and Premchand
(Hindi) in India could hardly be accused of writing crisis novels in which the
humans stood marginalised and indifferent in a capitalist world, victims of a fate
over which they had no control. Lu Hsun used fiction and nonfiction equally
well to promote the interests of social change in China in the first half of the
twentieth century. The Russian novelist Mikhail Sholokhov truly underscored
the dynamic nature of human behaviour, the gritty character of Russia’s men and
women against all odds in the wake of World War II. The Latin American novel
seems perhaps the strongest answer to the charge of the novel form having outlived
its utility. In the last three decades of the twentieth century, the so called
postcolonial novel (Rushdie, Coetzee, Mistry, Amitav Ghosh) has made its
mark as an uncompromising intervention in a complex world of conflicting
discourses and identities. These and other novels may not answer questions to
the satisfaction of readers, but they do confront us with difficult issues. Examples
abound.
Precisely, it is this tension in our world caused by the clash of interests that
brings along a space for analysis and self-reflexivity – we as sensitive citizens
wish to see the factors that work behind the tension in question and exert our
mind to that ends at the same time we turn towards our own role in the larger
happenings of the day. After all, it is our collective opinions and attitudes that
finally decide the fate of our social environment. Isn’t it interesting that the already
existing centres of power know the potentialities of such collective opinions and
54
The Novel: An Introduction spare no efforts themselves to execute what Noam Chomsky, one of the greatest
libertarians in our midst today has called the “manufacture of consent?” Our
tension-ridden world presents before the writer of the novel as for the ordinary
citizen the challenge of seeing through this game of “manufacture of consent,”
being played in crude and subtle ways. What we have noted as the endeavour of
postcolonial fiction writing is one example of this challenge. Rushdie, Coetzee
and others constantly remind us that the modern reader and observer has remained
under attack since World War II which (the attack) has its roots in the interests of
the status quo – let things remain as they are or the perilously balanced world
will fall like the proverbial nine pins. I am not suggesting that the postcolonial
writer shows clear commitment to shaking up the present scenario and letting
the reader know things as they actually stand. Far from it! What I say is that this
writing trend in the novel form reflects the crisis of the modern ideologicalpolitical arrangement and makes a space for the justice-seeking egalitarian
interests to comprehend and be active in. The novel of today can perform this
fascinating talk. Whether it does better to the state of affairs or not is a separate
question and should be addressed at another level. The important aspect is that
this clash of perspectives gives an opportunity to the observer for retrospection
and enquiry into the present literary form.
Indeed, this way of thinking is a break from the traditional literary form. As
always, the novel form has to resort to experimentation and innovation in a big
way so as to meet the requirements of the audience to who’s vital interest it has
remained committed since its origin. It may provide in future a different way of
approaching and interpreting life. At an abstract level, it can be said that a form
may gradually weaken and disappear if the spirit that keeps it alive remains no
more active to sustain it. In this sense, a rejection of one form or genre includes
a building up of a different set of preferences and conditions for a new form in
writing. This in a way provides freedom to those who wish to explore unknown
territories in writing. In this way, the theoretical attempt to reject the novel in the
twenty-first century may be seen as an act of approaching literature and life in a
different fashion. Nevertheless, these are questions that cannot be answered
straight away (which the century itself will answer in due course of time) but
they are significant questions which must be raised even before this new genre is
adopted and fiction is rejected.
Check Your Progress 3
1) Does the novel have a future at all in the present century?
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Future of the Novel 4.7 LET US SUM UP

At the end, let us quickly go over a few related things. Firstly, facts, straightforward
views and responses in themselves may not be adequate enough to present the
true face of life and conditions surrounding us. If we look back in time, fiction
performed the role of taking into account not merely incidents and events but
also situations that project life in its complexity. Thus, the idea of realism central
to fiction could also be interrogated keeping in view the demands of the twentyfirst century world.
Secondly, conditions and situations in their stark form could take us away from
what we call an objective view. The traditional novel form may take us so close
to the happenings of life, (this has happened in the naturalist novel of the
nineteenth century), that we are unable to grasp the forces at work beneath the
surface. For us to make sense of the problems confronting us, the novel form has
to effect ‘alienation’ from our surroundings that we consider developments with
wakefulness and detachment. This forces us to examine our own approach to the
novel under which we expect it to ‘tell’ us about ourselves. It may also turn out
that more important than the act of ‘telling’ in the novel is to ‘de-stabilise’ our
complacent selves. The novel in the present form doesn’t appear to be sufficiently
equipped to do it for us. Hence, the outcry against the novel form!
Thirdly, fiction in the twentieth century has been multi-cultural and multi-lingual,
particularly in the postcolonial period. This was a major shift in the paradigm.
Fiction writing is no more a privilege of the western world. We have with us a
major body of third world writing in the second half of the twentieth century. It
is important to understand these two kinds of fiction to make an intelligent guess
with regard to the future of the novel.
Within 20th century writing, a major concern has been nationalism. The idea of
nationhood emerged strongly in the middle of the century. Such nationalist
struggles have brought in their wake social identities of a different kind – rather
restricted and narrow as compared with the broad human identity. In the formation
of such identities, religious faiths, cults, rituals, whole cultural notions of peculiar
celebratory activities have been emphasised to demarcate one community from
other. Whereas there is a demand to modernise minds and attitudes, there is the
counter-demand to preserve ethnicities and specific ways of life. All this gets
subsumed under what we call nationalism with every country or nation voicing
its concerns independently of other countries. Since the concept of nationalism
has worked effectively against the forces of colonisation and liberated
communities and nations in a number of cases, we call a stop at the present time
to the use of terms such as the colonising or the ‘colonised’ nations – that is what
the word ‘postcolonial’ has come to clearly suggest.
With the advent of new theories in the last few decades of the twentieth century,
there has been a strong tide of instability in the realm of fiction. This instability
has come mainly with theories of post-structuralism and deconstruction. This
seems to have shaken the strong political ideologies such as, those of national
assertion and anti-imperialist bias, newly found by the former colonies. The writers
confronting this phenomenon seem baffled by a number of conflicting ideas
submerged in their texts which were earlier considered to be under their conscious
control. The large number of theories existing, about fiction, has resulted in a
56
The Novel: An Introduction sort of anarchy where one can get away with anything one wish to say about a
literary work. Since everything can be questioned in this historical phase of ours,
even ideas of freedom and independence are presented as suspect, questioned as
they are by the new crop of theorists. In this scenario, not just words or phrases
but gaps, pauses and silences are interpreted for their roles in projecting or hiding
a supposed ‘truth’. This is accompanied by the newly emerged view that the
author is dead and the text is everything. Many a time, the conclusion is reached
that every reader constructs his/her own text, suggesting in this way that perhaps
even the text is dead. How far it is from the bleak future of the novel is a point we
are compelled to consider.
Finally, fiction of late seems to have had a definite role to play with respect to
focusing upon women’s issues – whether it is the question of ills and evils of
patriarchy or the cultural-ideological pressures that the modern social set-ups
bring to bear on women. In many a case, such an attack on women’s freedom and
dignity has been captured as cutting across geographical, racial and political
boundaries. Theoretically speaking, the concept of ‘racial’ boundary could be
considered dubious and untenable, but in the case of women’s suppression, it
has existed since times immemorial and is therefore ‘real’. It is recognised on a
large scale that women are persecuted simply because they are women and not
that they are wrong, unjust or violate social norms. There is an in-built feeling of
inadequacy in women for reasons of long-term suppression in history. Not only
does the morale of women remain low, their very responses, social and even
linguistic, show signs of self-created guilt and inferiority. It is heartening to see
that in a greater part of the second half of the twentieth century, women’s writing,
particularly their fiction and semi-autobiographical prose pieces, has infused a
new sense of purpose and urgency into the literature of our time. Thus, whereas
the novel as an overall genre and form has entered new problematic areas defying
comprehension, the women’s part of fiction writing has unraveled hitherto,
unknown aspects of the suppressed self. Add to this the tendency among a host
of women novelists of the contemporary period to those significant political
issues have been chosen for depiction as a rare case of committed literary
intervention. Important examples of this are the writings of Maria Campbell,
Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Atwood, etc. who in their different ways have
underlined the need to oppose audacious male behaviour vis-à-vis women. Nor
have these women writers fought shy of naming ideological and political centres
of power. Their engagement sometimes goes deep enough to assert the importance
of people’s mobilisation against oppressive state structures. This is a far cry
from the highly vague and uncertain fictional representations of most European
writers, invariably white males.
4.8 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
Read Section 4.1 carefully before writing your answer.
Check Your Progress 2
Read Section 4.3 and then frame an answer
Check Your Progress 3
Read Sections 4.5 and 4.6 before writing out your answer.
57
Future of the Novel 4.9 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES
Kettle, Arnold An Introduction to the English Novel Vols I & II, Bombay, Delhi:
B I Publications.
Lodge, David. Language of Fiction. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Goldman, Lucien Towards Sociology of Novel, tans. Alan Sheridan. London:
Tavistock
Lukacs, Georg. The Historical Novel, London: Merlin. The Theory of the Novel,
Lodon: Merlin
Laing, Dave. The Marxist Theory of Art, Sussex: Harvester.
Williams Raymond. The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence, London:
Hogarth.
Moers, Ellen. Literary Women, London: The Women’s Press.
Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own, London: Virago
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. London: Basic Black.
Belsey, Catherine. Critical Practice, London: Methuen.
Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory, London: Methuen.
Norris, Christopher. Deconstruction: Theory and Practice, London: Methuen.
Bennet, Tony. Formalism and Marxism, London: Methuen.
Ashcroft, Bill & Gareth Grilliths. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice
in Post-Colonial Literature, London: Routledge.
Tiffin, Helen. Post-Colonial Literature, London: Routledge.
Bakhtian, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed Michael Holquist,
Trans. Caryl Emerson and Holquist, Austin. University of Texas Press.
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms, Seventh Edition, 1941 ; rpt. New
Delhi: Harcourt, 2001.
Allen, Walter. The English Novel, 1958.
Albert, Edward. A History of English Literature, Oxford University Press:
Calcutta, 1988
Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modem British Novel 1878 – 2001, Revised Edition,
England: Penguin Books, 2001
Childers J & G Hentzi (Eds). The Columbia Dictionary of Modem Literary
Terms and Cultural Criticism, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, (Ed) Margo Cullen, New York: A Norton Critical
Edition, 1994
58
The Novel: An Introduction Daiches, David. Critical Approaches to Literature, Second Edition, Calcutta:
Orient Longman Ltd, 1989
Forster, E M. Aspects of the Novel, England: Penguin Books, 2000
Murfin, R & Supriya Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms,
London: Macmillian Press, 1998

Block 2
KATE CHOPIN: THE AWAKENING
Block Introduction 4
UNIT 1
Locating The Awakening: Background and Context 5
UNIT 2
Contextualising: The Awakening 14
UNIT 3
Critical Responses to The Awakening 25
UNIT 4
Critical Approaches to The Awakening: Feminist,
Psychoanalytical, Others 34
Suggested Readings & References 42

BLOCK INTRODUCTION
The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel published in 1899 at the very end of
the 19th century and is Chopin’s second and final novel. Even though this novel
was published at the height of her popularity, this work literally marked the end
of her career. The Awakening though now considered a classic as we shall see in
Units 3, and 4, was not well received at the time of its publication. This could
have been because the novel deals with a theme that was not acceptable to the
Victorian reader. The Victorian age (between 1820 –1914) as you may be aware,
corresponded more or less to the years of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837 – 1901).
Since this novel deals with a woman who changes drastically from a married
woman and a mother to become an independent as well as sexually aware self
indulgent woman, the readers of the times probably could not come to terms
with the theme of the novel and hence, did not accept it. Needless to say, this
novel never got its due then.
In Unit 1: we try and locate/ situate the novel The Awakening by providing the
intellectual setting to the novel and also a brief look at the socio-cultural space
of the age. We also introduce you to the writer Kate Chopin and her works and
place The Awakening within her oeuvre. And we look at what a biographical
approach to literature is and see if it helps us understand a novel better.
Unit 2: In Unit 2, we look at the context of The Awakening.
Unit 3: In Unit 3, we look at the critical Responses to The Awakening
Unit 4: In Unit 4, we look at three critical approaches to The Awakening

UNIT 1 LOCATING THE AWAKENING: Background and Context BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTS
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Intellectual Setting of The Awakening
1.3 The Nineteenth Century: A Socio-Cultural Background
1.3.1 Nineteenth Century Britain
1.4 Location: The Writer and the Novel
1.5 Symbolising in The Awakening
1.6 Kate Chopin’s Oeuvre
1.7 Let Us Sum Up
1.8 Hints to Check Your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit we will introduce you to the writer Kate Chopin and examine the
times during which she lived and wrote The Awakening. It is important that we
learn about the writer and her times to get a better understanding of Chopin, The
Awakening and her other writings. We will also take a look at the social and
cultural milieu in which the novel is located, and at the philosophical ideas of the
19th century that prevailed then, so that you comprehend the themes of the novel
better.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
We will now look at and discuss the socio-cultural background and intellectual/
philosophical ideas of the late nineteenth century, as those are the contexts within
which the novel – The Awakening is set. Kate Chopin, well read and intelligent,
observed with keen irony and absorbed the mood of the ending of the century.
She was familiar with the works of Gustave Flaubert (1821-80), (French novelist
who wrote Madame Bovary (1856), and Chopin’s novel has been compared with
Flaubert’s through reviews that will be discussed in Unit 3), Tolstoy (1828 –
1910), (Russian novelist who wrote Anna Karenina (1878), to which also, some
critics have compared The Awakening), Guy de Maupassant (1850 -93), (French
writer whom she greatly admired). In fact, she was so inspired by his stories,
many of which dealt with dark themes of suicide, infidelity, drowning etc that
she translated eight of them, managing to sell only the three most conventional.
It must also be mentioned that some of the same themes are also present in her
works as well. She had also read the works of other modern European writers
such as, Ibsen (1828 – 1906), and Swinburne (1837 – 1909). Influences of
American writers such as, Walt Whitman (1819 – 92), (Leaves of Grass, 1855),
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 64), (The Scarlet Letter, 1850) and Herman
Melville (1891- 91), (Moby Dick, 1851) have been traced in her work. Henry
James (1843 – 1961), and the psychological novel (for instance, Portrait of a
Lady (1881) was contemporaneous with Chopin’s time. The dark vision of the
6
Kate Chopin: The Awakening human condition as noted by German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788
-1860), influenced Chopin, as did the music of Richard Wagner, (1813-83), a
German composer of operas. The next section will examine the socio-cultural
background/ context of the nineteenth century as well as it was during this period
that the novel was written.

1.2 THE INTELLECTUAL SETTING OF THE AWAKENING

The decade in which The Awakening was published, namely, the 1890s, was a
complex time, as it mirrored the unresolved tensions between the old world and
the new, the transition time between the two centuries and the traditional vis a
vie modern ways of thinking. Intellectual thought was at this time being redefined
by the influential works of Charles Darwin (1809 – 82), Herbert Spencer (1820
– 1903) and Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963), and at the end of the century by
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939).
Theories of evolution and determinism were inspiring naturalistic ways of thinking
(the ways in which women were locked into social roles from which there was
no escape, except through death), on the one hand there was faith in the ways of
destiny and pre-ordained kinds of living and then there was science that ‘confirmed
(Chopin) in her belief of the relativity of morals’: ‘Fixed truth in any form-moral
or religious or scientific-seldom Chopin’s ironic glance.’ (Joyce Dyer, 1993, 5)
The stories of a few strong women living at this time have been documented by
historians, women who demonstrated independence in personal lives and those
who campaigned for women’s voting rights in the public realm. New terms for
‘ideal marriage’ were described as follows: ‘…let your Dependence be mutual,
your Independence, equal, your Obligations, reciprocal.’ Elizabeth Candy
Stanton (1815 – 1902), published her radical The Woman’s Bible in 1895 and
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 -1935), a member of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association, published Women and Economics in 1898.
Gilman argued the case for women’s economic independence as the foundation
for better marriages, equal relationships and more humanity for women: ‘marriage
is not perfect unless it is between class equals. There is no equality between
those who do their share in the world’s work in the largest, newest and highest
ways and those who do theirs in the smallest, oldest, lowest ways.’
However, although there were some actual women in the last years of the
nineteenth century who were redefining the meaning of freedom and equality,
most of the representations, of single or divorced women, the new woman or the
widow, offer only traditional and weak solutions, hardly being able to free
themselves from the patterns of marriage and family.
Joyce Dyer (1947), states this as follows: ‘Female passion was thought to be
immoral and unhealthy by even some of the most aggressive proponents of realism
and feminism in the last decades of the nineteenth century’. To suggest otherwise
was to enter extremely perilous waters, the waters in which Edna Pontellier, the
protagonist of The Awakening swims. Consequently, female characters separated
from men-by their unmarried status, their disillusionment with husbands, or
divorce – seldom considered the avenue of liberated sexual behaviour an option.
7
Locating The Awakening:
Background and Context Even Gilman, mentioned in the last paragraph, spoke out strongly against female
eroticism, sex in her views ‘useful for reproduction only’…she argued for the
‘sanctity of marriage…monogamy and fidelity’ claiming that the worst of all
were ‘promiscuous and temporary sex-relations.’
Thus, we need to understand that Chopin is writing against such a socio-cultural
background where her Edna Pontellier is one of the first women to think, and to
express herself and act in the defiant manner in which she does. Chopin’s Dr
Mandelet, who shows insight into Edna’s sexual psychology and is progressive
in his ideas of therapy, is also advanced for her time as other physicians insisted
on the values of domesticity as the cure for women’s nervous and depressive
conditions.The next section will look at the location of the author/ writer/ Kate
Chopin and her work/novel/ The Awakening.
Critics have compared Kate Chopin to other American realist and naturalist writers
who were her contemporaries, such as, Frank Norris, Stephen Crane, Theodore
Dreiser, Henry James, and Edna Pontellier to their heroines: ‘all rather sexless
compared to Edna, and their descriptions of sexual matters in general are tame’.
Not only did Chopin draw a heroine who was not afraid to be a sexual being, she
is honest and bold enough to articulate that extra-marital sex need not be
accompanied by guilt and that a woman was perfectly justified in seeking selfhood
and fulfillment outside the institutions of marriage and motherhood.
In addition, it is also clearly stated that Edna believes herself to be becoming
more of a spiritual being as she continues on her journey of awakening, descending
alongside in the social scale. Both role models of womanhood, Adele Ratignolle
and Mademoiselle Reisz are presented as alternative ways of being, rejected by
Edna Pontellier as they are inappropriate for her. Adele is mother-woman, her
identity subsumed within that of her children; with her husband too the sense of
identification is so complete as to affect a strange kind of merging of selves.
Mlle Reisz is the solitary artist, detached so completely from the real world that
she appears to others as arrogant, or insane.
Edna is a solitary soul too, (and that was the original title of the novel), those
moments in the novel many when she is enjoying her solitude with relish and
abandon, when she takes pleasure in feeling her round arms, eating a hearty
meal, seeing the material objects in her house as though for the first time when
she is by herself, but her art does not sustain her completely; she needs her
fantasies and delusions. When she swims out into the sea alone for the first time,
feeling a sense of her new power and of course in the last scene when she is truly
solitary without even the burden of a piece of clothing, only the hum of the bees
and the fragrance of pinks to keep her company, she is also the hopeless romantic
for whom the vision of the ideal world cannot be substituted by dreary reality.
She is existentialist too, her vision of life – dark and sombre, presented as follows:
‘(there were days) when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and
humanity like worms struggling blindly towards inevitable annihilation.’
The fact that Chopin’s novel had the courage to embody such modernist themes
through language and style that was both explicit and deeply symbolic makes
The Awakening far ahead of other literary writing published in the late nineteenth
century. The times were not prepared to receive it and thus it had to wait for
another seventy years before it could claim its rightful place in the literary canon.
Before we go any further, we might need to look at the sociocultural background/
8
Kate Chopin: The Awakening context of the nineteenth century as well as it was during this period that the
novel was written. This we shall do in the next section.

1.3 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: A SOCIOCULTURAL BACKGROUND
Although The Awakening is an ‘American’ novel, some information about the
general background of nineteenth century socio-cultural contexts, readership and
a more specific literary context may help you to situate and understand it better.
Hence, some facts related to ‘Victorian’ England, and fiction written in the
nineteenth century by British writers such as, George Eliot (1819 – 1880), Charles
Dickens (1812 – 1870), Charlotte Bronte (1816 – 1855), Jane Austen (1775 –
1817), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 63), etc., whom you may have
read about and may be useful to you, are given in this section.

1.3.1 Nineteenth Century Britain
This was a time of great transition, from the agricultural to the industrial, a
discrediting of old tradition and religious faith in favour of accepting a mechanical
natural process, a new sense of empowerment for women and the working classes.
Writing of fiction became a new form of commerce, readership becoming far
more widespread, women accounting for a major share both as consumers and
producers of fiction. Many novels were serialised in magazines and periodicals,
and the readers often played an important role in deciding what the writer would
write, thereby determining the text. Lending and circulating libraries mushroomed
to satisfy growing demands. As regards subject matter, social comment and moral
guidance were important aspects. Thematically, domestic/middle-class settings,
and issues related to family, such as, marriage and morality in relationships were
widely dealt with, but sex was taboo. The ‘fallen woman’ had to be punished,
removed from society so the moral fabric was not compromised. However, by
the last years of the century, there also began to emerge a picture of the New
Woman, and novels engaged with feminist questions such as, employment for
women. Still, sex and relationships that would challenge established moral codes
were hardly discussed, and thus Kate Chopin’s The Awakening would have been
considered too transgressive and explicit to be accepted. We shall look at the
intellectual setting of The Awakening next.

Check Your Progress 1
1) Write a critical note on the nineteenth century background against which
you may find it useful to read The Awakening.
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9
Locating The Awakening:
Background and Context 2) Discuss the influences upon Chopin that you think may have helped to
shape her novel.
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3) Does this make more sense to you with your increased knowledge about
the time in which Chopin lived and wrote? Give specific examples.
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4) How do you think the nineteenth century readership would have affected
the novel?
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1.4 LOCATION: THE WRITER AND THE NOVEL
We will be discussing the novel at length later but just to give you an example of
how the location of the writer and the setting of the novel, has a bearing on the
novel we will be looking at some examples from the novel in this section. Another
crucial aspect of the location of the writer and her novel is the setting within
which the action takes place. It begins on Grand Isle, an island fifty miles south
of New Orleans, a Creole summer resort, and goes on later to be situated in the
city of New Orleans. The city was American, southern and Creole. The Creoles
were the descendents of French and Spanish colonists of the eighteenth century.
They were Catholics and believed in strong and conservative family values, spoke
French, and felt a close sense of community to their own cultural group, (they
formed approximately one-third of the population of New Orleans in 1860) thus,
somewhat separate in identity to Anglo-American society. Their attitude towards
life was easygoing, and they liked to live a life rich in sensual pleasure and
enjoyment. Even so, Louisiana remained a very conservative state, the patriarchal
family being the foundation of society, and even when the Creole women appeared
to be frank, open and sensual, like Adele in the novel, they were in reality
unquestionably chaste, religious and completely committed to their families.
10
Kate Chopin: The Awakening In fact, this is what makes their open manner possible, and we get a sense of this
contradiction reflected in the character of Adele who is openly flirtatious with
Robert and is at the same time the true embodiment of the ideal devoted wife and
mother. Edna is herself not from such a background, rather she is married to a
Creole and at the start of the novel, seems to be thrown into an atmosphere to
which she is a stranger. We hope you’ve done at least one reading of the novel by
now.
If you remember, when Adele notices Edna’s ‘awakening’ in the presence of
Robert, she warns him, asking him to keep away from her, stating clearly, ‘she is
not one of us…she may make the blunder of taking you seriously.’ Edna is
described as Kentucky Presbyterian by birth and her own reserved and rigid
upbringing clashes with the open sensuality she finds here. Not only is she
awakened and subsequently propelled by her infatuation for Robert to become
an unthinking drifting thing who has no anchor to restrain her, she is also attracted
to Adele and Mlle Reisz in this strange seductive scenario where the inviting sea
also plays a part.
New Orleans was also American, Calvinistic and Puritanical, and when Edna
returns to the city at the end of her summer flirtation, newly awakened to selfhood
and sexual consciousness, she has to succumb once more to the conservatism of
her social roles, receiving guests every Tuesday and supervising her husband’s
meals among other boring domestic chores. She does not wish to do any of this
now, and thus, she simply doesn’t. Robert has done the honourable thing by
escaping to Mexico as he is too traditional to seriously imagine a relationship
with a married woman. Even towards the end of the novel, when he returns,
confessing he has been imagining making her his wife despite his best judgement,
he cannot visualise the kind of free relationship based on Edna’s ideas of liberty
and self-definition that she suggests when she says, ‘I give myself where I choose.’
Thus, for the second time in the novel, he runs away, leaving behind a note
saying, ‘Good-by- because I love you,’ clearly indicating a clash of cultures. But
that is something we shall examine in the next section when we discuss the use
of symbolism in the novel.

1.5 SYMBOLISM IN THE AWAKENING
In this section we shall define symbolism and then look at instances of symbolism
in The Awakening. Symbolism, (according to Ross Murfin, and Supriya M
Ray in The Bedford Glossary of Critical and LiteraryTerms), comes from the
Greek symballein, meaning “to throw together”, the serious and relatively
sustained use of symbols to represent or suggest other things or ideas. They also
suggest that along with the writer’s “explicit use of a particular symbol in a
literary work…. the term symbolism sometimes refers to the presence, in a work
or body of works, of suggestive associations giving rise to incremental, implied
meaning.” The French symbolist believed that writers “create and use subjective,
or private symbols in order to convey very personal and intense emotional
experiences and reactions.” They were of the opinion that the “network of such
symbols” form the core of any literary work. With this definition to guide us, we
shall now take a look at the imagery of the sea and its symbolism next.
The clash of cultures mentioned in the earlier section is also represented through
the imagery of the sea that forms the backdrop of Grand Isle, sensuously
11
Locating The Awakening:
Background and Context enveloping Edna in a warm embrace while it beckons her into contemplative
mazes of solitude, and the harsh bleak reality that is her posh home on Esplanade
Street in New Orleans where, she is compelled to live on her husband’s bounty,
and thus, remain one of his ‘possessions.’ Caught between these oppositional
forces she loses herself, unable to adjust any longer to her role as wife and mother,
not courageous enough to soar alone as an artist (like Mlle Reisz can), waiting
for Robert who she thinks can set her free and falling into the arms of Alcee
Arobin. Read the symbolism of the trip to Cheniere Chaminada, set in almost
mysteriously idyllic setting where, finding the atmosphere of the church
suffocating, Edna has to leave and goes into a deep sleep at Madame Antoine’s.
When she wakes up there are the fantasies of telling stories in which Edna and
Robert wake up like lovers in a make-believe world. There is also the duo of the
lovers always present, though nameless and faceless, symbolic in the way they
are lost in each other but lost also to the rest of the world. And the woman in
black, always preoccupied with the beads of her rosary. Having hinted at the
symbolism in the novel we might also need to take a look at some of Kate Chopin’s
other works largely from the point of view of her oeuvre providing a context to
The Awakening, and that we shall do presently in the next section.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Comment on the emerging ‘New Woman’ in the late nineteenth century.
Does Edna Pontellier fit into the description?
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2) Do you think the Creole background is important in reading The Awakening?
Give reasons for your answer.
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3) What role does the sea play in the novel? Use examples from the text to
substantiate your answer.
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Kate Chopin: The Awakening 4) Discuss The Awakening as a symbolic novel.
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1.6 KATE CHOPIN’S OEUVRE
It needs to be mentioned that Kate Chopin has often been compared to other
American realist and naturalist writers who were her contemporaries, such as,
Frank Norris (1870–1902), Stephen Crane (1871– 1900), Theodore Dreiser (1871
-1945), and Henry James (1843 -1916).
Chopin wrote about the life, the circumstances and the people she was familiar
with. She enjoyed instant success with her writings as she dealt with the French
Creoles and the Cajuns she had met and observed during her time in New Orleans
and Cloutierville. The Cajuns also known as Acadians were the descendants of
the French colonisers who had settled in Louisiana and though they were often
described as Creoles, the Cajuns and the Creloes are often portrayed as separate
identities today.
Her short stories and essays examine themes such as, love, independence, passion
and freedom. Chopin attended conferences and gave speeches and was well known
and received most of the times, during her extremely short writing career.
Some information about Kate Chopin’s other work will be a useful background
and will help you to place The Awakening within the context of what she wrote
before it and after. She began writing for publication only in 1890. Kate Chopin
was well known to the readers of Louisiana for her, (what was termed) ‘local
colour stories’ in Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her first
novel, At Fault (1890) is also set mostly in Louisiana. Her collection of short
stories A Vocation and a Voice, which was to be published after The Awakening,
was rejected by her publisher, though it is not certain if that happened as a result
of the negative responses received by the novel The Awakening or was an
independent decision on the part of the publisher. She did not send one of her
stories, The Storm, for publication considering it to be too sexually explicit. Kate
Chopin’s most popular short stories were: “The Story of an Hour”, “The Storm”,
“Désirée’s Baby”, “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, “A Respectable Woman”. Her
other popular work was her Children’s Stories.

We must remember that during the time when The Awakening was published
(1899), the feminist movement, was just starting to be talked about in America.
Louisiana being a southern state was quite conservative and this new fad of
feminism had not reached there yet. In fact, during that time, under Louisiana
law, a woman was said to be the property of her husband. Needless to say The
Awakening would not have been received well in such an environment. The
Awakening discusses quite openly, the emotional and sexual needs of women,
and this would have a taboo topic amongst the Southerners. Chopin herself was
quite surprised and upset about the reception her novel received and she published
only three more short stories before her death. Kate Chopin died of a brain
hemorrhage in 1904.

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Locating The Awakening:
Background and Context Posthumously, Chopin was remembered as a writer of “local color”, as her works
depicted the people of New Orleans, (remember the regional novel discussed in
Unit 2 of Block I). She was not recognised as a great writer till The Awakening
was discovered by Per Seyersted, a Norwegian literary scholar, much later (50
years later) in the 1960s.
However, from where we stand today in history, we realise that the novel is an
honest, open, matter of fact declaration of female sexuality and a woman’s
emotional and sexual needs and that it is very realistically written. The Awakening
has now made a place for itself. But we need to remember that this observation
and our acceptance of the novel are in retrospect.

1.7 LET US SUM UP
In this unit, we have discussed the philosophical ideas that were a part of the
atmosphere of the time during which Kate Chopin wrote. These contexts are
important as such contexts provide a background to the literary text The Awakening
in our case. The unit has also examined the various influences upon Chopin that
helped to shape her novel, and attempt has been made to locate the novel within
the American literary tradition, while tracing connections with some other wellknown texts/drawing significant parallels, to tell you a little about the ‘Victorian’
background and nineteenth century British writing so you can also read the novel
against that literary tradition and analyse the significance of the sea since the
Gulf waters make a critical contribution to the text, both as a setting as well as a
symbol and have given some basic information about Kate Chopin’s other writings
as well.

1.8 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Read sections 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 carefully and cull out your answer from
there.
2) The answer may be found in sections 1.1 and 1.2
3) Having read the sections mentioned above carefully, stop, and think about
what has been said and then try and answer the question keeping in mind
the location of the writer, the times in which she lived and wrote and her
own life as well.
4) Section 1.3 and any other information you might have on particularly
Victorian England could guide your answer.
Check Your Progress 2
1) The answer may be found in section 1.2.
2) Section 1.4 provides the clue to your answer.
3) Sections 1.4 and 1.5 discuss the role of the sea. You may also look at suitable
quotes from the text.
4) Define symbolism briefly and then re-read sections 1.4 and 1.5 and see
how the sea is symbolic or whether there is anything else in the novel that
may be read as symbolic when attempting this answer.
14

Kate Chopin: The Awakening UNIT 2 CONTEXTUALISING THE AWAKENING

Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Contextualising The Awakening
2.3 Biographical Approach to The Awakening
2.4 Kate Chopin’s: Early Life & Background
2.5 The Creole Background
2.5.1 The History of New Orleans
2.6 Edna Pontellier and Kate Chopin
2.6.1 Kate Chopin
2.6.2 Edna Pontellier
2.7 Let Us Sum Up
2.8 Hints to Check Your Progress

2.0 OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this Unit are to help you:
a) understand what the biographical approach to literature is,
b) know some important facts about Kate Chopin’s life so you can see for
yourself if there are any similarities between them and what you find in the
novel,
c) read The Awakening with the help of the biographical approach,
d) discuss the main themes, (i.e. a woman’s awakening to sexual consciousness
and desire, her need for personal autonomy and her right to be an individual
and not only a role such as, that of a wife or a mother, the obstacles that
may come in the way during such a journey), in the light of the biographical
approach.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will introduce the novel so that the important themes can be
presented to you. This will help you discuss and analyse them. You will also be
introduced to the main characters, Edna Pontellier, her husband, Leonce Pontellier,
Robert Lebrun, Alcee Arobin, Adele Ratignolle and her husband, Mademoiselle
Reisz and some less important characters, like Victor Lebrun and Marquieta.

2.2 CONTEXTUALISING THE AWAKENING
The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the story of Edna Pontellier, a twenty eight
year old Creole woman living in New Orleans. It is about her awakening to
sexual consciousness, her discovery and assertion of this new ‘self’ through
rebellion against the conventional role of being a wife and a mother and the
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Contextualising: The
Awakening consequences thereof. The novel is about self-expression and a woman’s right
to be herself, and to be an individual.
Edna is locked in a typical marriage to Leonce Pontellier, a marriage of
convenience made when she was very young, not made with love or romance
though he is a good man and a caring husband. Her romantic urgings and physical
longings have at this stage hardly been articulated and certainly not satisfied.
The family goes to Grand Isle for the summer where she meets and spends a lot
of time with Robert Lebrun, an unattached young bachelor, talking, swimming,
being together (and of course the Creole husband is never jealous, but you will
find out more about this in the section on Creole background). Before they
know it, both Edna and Robert begin to feel an attraction towards each other and
an intensity of emotion they perceive as unusual, unmanageable and somewhat
threatening in the context of their lives and conventional reality. This emotion is
passionate and all consuming, leaving no room for thought or sensible action.
Robert realises the impossibility of the situation, and not knowing how to deal
with it, flees to Mexico to ‘make money’ (we will discuss if he is an escapist, a
coward or an honourable man, or all of the above). Once he’s gone, the truth
confronts Edna with further starkness and clarity. The summer just like the
flirtation, has come to an end and Edna and her family return to their posh home
on Esplanade Street, in the city. But things can never be the same for Edna as
she is a changed person, as a result of her encounter with Robert and her new
self.

This new Edna is a painter. She does not care about her wifely responsibilities or
about keeping up appearances by observing the customs. This new Edna refuses
to stay home on Tuesdays to receive her callers, as her husband excepts her to,
but goes out just because she prefers to do so. Her husband complains about her
lack of supervision of the servants, and he leaves in the middle of a badly cooked
dinner to go out to the club to eat. She becomes careless, and disinterested with
regard to domestic affairs, letting everything on the home front slide as it is no
longer of any significance to her. Her family by now is meaningless and distant
for her, her desire to fiercely possess her identity and be her own person being
now her primary focus. She wants to feel a sense of being financially independent,
not answerable to anybody for her actions, in other words, completely
autonomous. She refuses to go for her sister’s wedding and has no thoughts
about propriety or ‘what the world will say’ with regard to any of her actions. Mr
Pontellier worries about his wife’s health and her strange behaviour, consulting
the doctor about both. Although she appears to be in robust health, a disconnect
has happened which gives the appearance that she’s not quite all there.
Mr Pontellier leaves town on account of business, for a long period, and she
refuses to accompany him. The grandmother takes the children away and she
(Edna Pontellier) stays back alone in the house, perfectly happy to paint and do
her own thing. During this time she also regularly visits Mademoiselle Reisz, a
pianist of exceptional talent but also a strange character that few people like and
whose acquaintance she had made during the summer at Grand Isle. Robert
Lebrun writes on a regular basis to Mme Reisz, seeking of information about
Edna, letters that she shares with Edna. The letters suggest that he is in love with
her, something Mme Reisz reiterates too. Mme Reisz’s music evokes in Edna
the nostalgic times spent with Robert while it also makes Edna remain in a state
of perpetual anticipation and physical longing. She is alone and in the right

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Kate Chopin: The Awakening frame of mind and body for a man of the world, a seducer such as, Alcee Arobin
to come along and make her his prize. She is still very much in love with Robert
but he is not there and her sexual consciousness has been awakened.
Besides, she hardly cares about her actions because of her frustration at not being
able to possess Robert. All this while Edna and Alcee Arobin become more and
more physically intimate with each other, he visiting her regularly as she lives
alone in the ‘pigeon-house’. This is a much smaller house that she has moved
into round the corner from her husband’s posh, expensive and much bigger house
on Esplanade Street. Her reasons for moving, which she plans and implements
during her husband’s absence, are to have a place of her own that she can feel
she can independently deal with financially so, she can be an individual in her
own right rather than being only Leonce Pontellier’s wife.
Of course, her husband disapproves, most bothered as he is about ‘what people
will say’. He saves face too, keeping up appearances by immediately putting up
the big house for major repairs and renovations, thereby, justifying Edna’s move
and trying to prevent the gossip mills from running. Before she moves into the
‘pigeon-house’ she throws a party for a small, select group of friends. This is an
important event in the novel and we will discuss it in some detail later.
Somewhere inside her Edna Pontellier keeps waiting for Robert Lebrun, and
then one day as she waits for Mme Rreisz in her home, he comes and they meet.
She is disappointed and heartbroken that such an accidental meeting should have
occurred between them, instead of one where Robert should seek her out
intentionally as soon as he arrives in town. He walks her home and during the
quiet evening spent together she forces him to articulate his real feelings towards
her. Both express their emotion, albeit in a sad, resigned and nostalgic way. He
tries his best to stay away from her, as from temptation, stating clearly enough
that being a married woman she was not free to belong to him. However, as soon
as they confess their love for each other Edna is called away by her friend Adele
Ratignolle, to assist her during childbirth. She implores him to wait for her return
but when she does return, Robert is gone, having left her a note saying, ‘goodbyebecause I love you.’

Both Adele’s childbirth and then the note are traumatic experiences for Edna as
they reiterate with full clarity, to Edna, that she can hardly live in this world by
the strength of her own desires and convictions alone, that the fact of her being a
mother has to determine her actions. After a despondent night spent in deep
thought and reflection she goes back to Grand Isle the next morning, the location
of her first awakening, and walks away into the waves of the sea, naked and
alone, in search of her final home.

Having presented the outline of the novel, we hope you’ve read the short novel
by now. Let us quickly examine the biographical approach to Literature before
we move further in our exploration of the text and the novel as a genre.

Contextualising: The 2.3 BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH TO THE Awakening AWAKENING

What is the biographical approach to reading a novel?
The biographical approach to reading a novel is when we read about the writer’s
own life in order to know her/his personal story so that we get some clues and
insights into understanding the novel better. Just as it is important to know about
the society, culture and politics of the time when the novel was written and
published it helps to know about the family background, views and beliefs of the
writer. It would be interesting to know what Chopin’s ‘real’ life was like? Was
she ‘independent’ and can we draw parallels between Edna Pontellier and the
writer? What was Chopin’s marriage like? The themes that The Awakening deals
with are contemporary, feminist and were hardly addressed in her time by other
writers. What in her own life gave her the experience and the abilities to discuss
them so freely and successfully? The answer to some of these questions is what
‘biographical criticism’ is about. This information will help us make better sense
of the events that take place in the text. In the next section we shall take a look at
the early life and background of Kate O’ Flaherty or Kate Chopin as she was
later known as.
Check Your Progress 1
1) What do you understand by the term the biographical approach to Literature?
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2.4 KATE CHOPIN’S: EARLY LIFE &
BACKGROUND
Kate O’ Flaherty was born in St Louis in 1850 and she was one of five children,
but she was the only one who survived beyond the age of twenty-five. Chopin
attended a Catholic boarding school and a couple of months later, when she was
just five, her father died in a tragic train accident. She came back home after her
father’s death and lived at home surrounded by only women, all single and fiercely
independent, all widows, her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. When
she was seven, she went back to The Sacred Heart Academy where she was
taught French and Music and was a distinguished student winning medals and
awards. Whether at home or at The Sacred Heart Academy (boarding school
with the nuns), Chopin grew up in the midst of intelligent and independent women.
Since there were no males around her home or in school, during her early years,
she never did witness traditional female submission and male dominant roles.
Had her father not passed away so tragically or had she had a great grandfather
or a grandfather around, she might have witnessed a traditional familial set up
where the male was the patriarch in the family. Hence, she did not have any
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Kate Chopin: The Awakening knowledge or understanding of such marriages and relationships of male
dominance and female submission that defined 19th century marriages (actually
most marriages even today follow this traditional pattern). After graduating from
The Sacred Heart Academy, Chopin became a part of the St. Louis social scene.
But it needs to be noted that even in her youth she was cynical, writing in her
diary, “I dance with people I despise; amuse myself with men whose only talent
is in their feet.” She was desperate to spend more time with ‘my dear reading and
writing that I love so well.’
In 1870 she married Oscar Chopin, the ‘right man’, and son of a prominent
Creole family from Louisiana. They shared similar values and tastes and had a
special kinship of the kind that Edna, in the novel, does not find with her husband.
(The portrayal of the Edna-Leonce Pontellier marriage, according to Chopin’s
biographer Emily Toth, has similarities with that of her parents, who too shared
no common interests or spontaneous warmth).
During their European honeymoon, Kate Chopin was an emancipated woman,
drinking, smoking publicly, walking alone, both she and her husband skipping
church. During her New Orleans years, 1870-1879, she took long walks and
streetcar rides alone, exploring the city and enjoying her own company. Notice
what Edna says in chap 36, ‘I always feel sorry for women who don’t like to
walk; they miss so much-so many rare glimpses of life; and we women learn so
little of life on the whole.’
Kate Chopin was also constantly pregnant-and therefore not to be seen in public.
Forced to stay indoors except for Grand Isle vacations, Kate became a talented
mimic, keen observer and even more a social critic.
Daniel S Rankin, “Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories” Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1932, p.82
Kate Chopin had six children with Oscar Chopin during the first ten years of her
marriage. She as mentioned above enjoyed a wide range of freedom that was
unconventional for her times. She was a good wife and a mother, but when
domesticity became overwhelming, she would escape quietly to smoke or walk
around alone through New Orleans. She had very strong and independent opinions
about most contemporary issues and controversial issues of the day. Oscar Chopin
loved her dearly and admired her intelligence, opinions and her strength. However,
misfortune struck them and his cotton brokerage failed in 1879 after which the
Chopin family moved to Cloutierville, Louisiana, where he owned property. Kate
Chopin managed to adjust to this small provincial town but was also a source of
gossip with her eccentric ways. Her husband died suddenly in 1882 of a swamp
fever and though devastated, Chopin ran his store and plantation for a year. She
was also thought to have encouraged the affections of a married man (Albert
Sampite), who pursued her, but by 1884 she had returned to St Louis to live with
her mother. (Edna too goes to Adele, the ‘mother-woman,’ leaving Robert). When
Chopin’s mother died the following year, and she had to be singly responsible
for the upbringing of her six children, she turned to writing in 1889, a creative
activity that helped her grow and write about her often-strong views on women,
marriage and sex.
Her first published story, “Wiser than a God” (1889), is about a woman who
becomes a great artistic success, but only after her mother’s death. Kate Chopin
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Contextualising: The
Awakening was immediately successful as a writer, had connections with writers, journalists,
and literary figures. She was invited to give a reading at the Wednesday Club,
the most prestigious intellectual women’s club in St Louis. Her second and final
novel, The Awakening was published in 1899. She remained, throughout her life,
unconventional and emancipated, cherishing her freedom and her solitude,
obvious from her decision not to marry again but devote her life to what she
loved best, her writing. Like Edna, she was ‘the regal woman, the one who rules,
who looks on, who stands alone.’ Having discussed the life of Kate Chopin briefly,
let us look at the Creole background in the novel next.
2.5 THE CREOLE BACKGROUND
This section on the nineteenth century Louisiana Creole culture and people is
important because it will help you understand the setting and socio-cultural
contexts that Chopin uses in The Awakening better.
The Paris of Louisiana Creoles is New Orleans…
Daniel S Rankin, Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories, Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1932, p.82
The city of New Orleans had two distinct parts, one American, the other French.
Creoles are described as those descended from European ancestors, French and
Spanish, and in Louisiana those descended from the French were many more.
So, the Creole in Louisiana would consider himself / herself to be basically of
French descent. The picture of the ‘artistic,’ ‘exotic,’ life of social gatherings,
musical soirees and fine dining painted in the novel is clearly drawn from the life
led by the Creoles in New Orleans in the nineteenth century that Chopin was
very much a part of. In the novel, the difference between the ‘American’ Edna,
from a religious Kentucky background and the life on the Creole resort, on Grand
Isle, comes through very clearly, as the Creoles are much more warm, free, open
and flirtatious and she finds this atmosphere very strange. Let us now examine
the similarities or otherwise between Edna Pontellier the protagonist of the novel
The Awakening and Kate Chopin the author.

2.5.1 The History of New Orleans

New Orleans as you may be aware is in the state of Louisiana in the United
States of America. It is on the Gulf of Mexico, with the state of Mississippi to the
East, Texas on the West, and Arkansas to the North. New Orleans has a very
interesting history as it was basically colonised by both the French and the Spanish
at various points in time. In order to get a better understanding of the history of
New Orleans and of the Creole culture it would be pertinent to look at some
critical dates in the history of modern-day North America. For this we would
need to go back a little further in time.

As far back as the beginning of the 17th century, France had already explored the
Mississippi River valley and also established a few settlements in the area. By
the middle of the 18th Century, France had a major dominance over territories in
the United States than any other European power. Her sway extended from New
Orleans to the Great Lakes and towards the North West to the state of modernday Montana. The New Orleans of today was established by the explorer Robert
Cavelier, as Sieur de La Salle in 1682 and was later christened La Nouvelle-
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Kate Chopin: The Awakening Orleans in 1718 by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. New Orleans was to
grow and develop around the Old Square or the Vieux Carré, which was basically
a central square from which the French Quarter evolved. La Nouvelle – Orleans
was the capital of the French Colony in 1723 and grew into a vital hub for trade
and commerce. In 1762, France ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi
River to Spain after the French and Indian War. Hence, from 1763 to 1800, La
Nouvelle – Orleans was under Spanish rule. During these four decades New
Orleans was an important trading and cultural Spanish outpost with friendly ties
to Cuba, Haiti and Mexico. The Spanish period of New Orleans history saw
more liberal views on race and fostered a social class of people known as the
free people of color. We must also remember that America during these early
years of the 19th Century still had a large population of the people of colour
working in the plantations in the Southern States.
In 1800, the Spanish ceded Louisiana back to France but Napoleon Bonaparte,
the Emperor of France, was ready to sell the city and the Louisiana territory to
the United States. As a result of Napoleon’s eagerness to cede Louisiana to the
United States, the United States of America was able to acquire nearly 828,000
square miles of land at a very low cost (almost at the rate of 3 cents per acre).The
treaty between France and the United Sates was drawn up on April 30 and signed
on May 2. In October 1803, the U S Senate ratified the purchase, and in December
of the same year, France transferred authority over the region to the United States
as a part of the 15 million-dollar Louisiana Purchase.
Although the French sold Louisiana to the United States, the inhabitants of New
Orleans chose not to abandon their old ways, their culture and mores. If anything,
they held tighter to their Francophile ways, speaking mostly, French and following
French customs, cooking French cuisine and propagating the opera and the
complex social strata of the French residents of a now newly American city. The
Creoles, who were the American-born offspring of European settlers, many with
French blood, were to create a sophisticated and cosmopolitan society in colonial
New Orleans. New Orleans as you may already know was also the birthplace of
Jazz which emerged during the late 19th century, combining other genres like
ragtime, blues, and the spiritual songs. While Jazz grew prominent much later
(in the 1920s) with the coming of the American songbook (the most influential
canon of American Popular Songs and Jazz standards (between 1920 –50), in
America, New Orleans had already been down that road in the 1800s.
But from what we have read so far about New Orleans, the history, geography,
and culture of the city, what is crucial for our understanding is also who or what
the Creoles were as the Creoles are a large part of the culture in which Kate
Chopin lived and wrote. Moreover, they figure prominently in the novel under
study.

Check Your Progress 2
1) Who were the Creoles?
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21
Contextualising: The
Awakening 2) What is your understanding of Creole culture?
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2.6 EDNA PONTELLIER AND KATE CHOPIN
In this section, we shall examine the biographical accounts of the life of Kate
Chopin in connection with her novel The Awakening first and later look at the
character of Edna Pontiellier as a mouth – piece of Kate Chopin.
2.6.1 Kate Chopin
Chopin also went regularly for Grand Isle summer vacations with her family.
Her life in the city and in the resort on Grand Isle are replicated in the portrayal
of Edna in the novel. In the novel, the resort of Grand Isle lies outside the ‘norm,’
that exotic, unconventional space where during the husband’s frequent absences,
her relationship with Robert grows, and her ‘awakening’ takes place. As a widow,
at thirty-two, Chopin also did not follow convention. In fact, the images of
bereaved women in her writing are those of widows feeling joy at new – found
freedom and their desire/determination to pursue new and exciting interests. Her
biographer, Emily Toth documents that as a young widow Kate Chopin had a
passionate liaison with Albert Sampire, a married man. There are other such
men in her fiction and they are all named Alcee, all “kindle desire and devote
themselves to sexual pleasure.” Toth, 169 (quoted in sourcebook, p 9)
As in the novel so too in real life, Chopin leaves both her lover and her life on the
plantation, to go and live with her mother and take care of her children. However,
we need to remember that the novel only has some input from her life and that it
is NOT autobiography but a work of fiction. Edna Pontellier is Kate Chopin’s
heroine and they are certainly NOT the same person.
Chopin came from a traditional Southern family, her father being a religious
Irishman. Although her education was geared to teaching virtues of duty and
submissiveness, her upbringing by her great-grandmother who was forward
thinking, unconventional and independent had much to do with the kind of
personality and thinking Chopin developed. This duality in Chopin’s life and in
her ‘self,’ making a conventional marriage, following the expectations of society,
went together with a fierce independence of spirit and a flouting of established
norms (like exploring the city on her own, smoking in public, having an affair,
not re-marrying).
2.6.2 Edna Pontellier
Edna too seeks independence, expressing dissatisfaction with her marriage. She
wishes above all to be an individual, not a mere role, such as a wife or and a
mother. In fact, she challenges the notion that all mothers have maternal instincts.
22
Kate Chopin: The Awakening There is a useful description of Mrs Pontellier as a woman and a mother in this
chapter, the writer comparing her to another ‘mother’ in the story, Adele
Ratignolle. Edna was not a ‘mother-woman,’ the children hardly rushing into her
arms to be comforted if they had a fall during play, for instance. Instead they
would pull themselves together and get on. Mr Pontellier felt, rather than
perceived, that his wife failed in her duty towards the children, a fact he was
regretful about. The mother-women, of whom there were many at Grand Isle
that summer, are described as follows:
In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother- woman. The mother-woman seemed
to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about
with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened
their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshipped
their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals
and grow wings as ministering angels.
The Awakening, (Ed., Margo Culley, 1994, Chapter IV, p. 9)
Adele Ratignolle is one such, ‘delicious in the role,’ ‘embodiment of every
womanly grace and charm.’ Madame Ratignolle has been married seven years
and had had a baby every two years, and on her way to having another one and
always talking of her ‘condition.’ She is busy anticipating the future needs of her
children, fashioning and sewing things while Mrs Pontellier does not see the
usefulness or the point of that. Her ‘uneven and impulsive’ fondness for her
children is described in the text and it shows quite clearly that she is not ideally
fitted into the conventional role of the mother, hardly missing them when they
are away and in fact feeling relieved and free. When she is happy she sends them
presents and later in the novel when she lives alone in the city she goes to spend
a week with them at their grandmother’s place at Iberville, giving generously
and freely of herself, ‘filling herself with their young existence,’ as they excitedly
shared with her their present lives in the countryside, full of pigs and cows and
fish and trees. She leaves them with a pang but by the time she reaches the city,
the music of their lives she carries back no longer echoes inside her and she is
alone again.
The writer comments about Edna: ‘a certain light was beginning to dawn dimly
within her, – the light which, showing the way, forbids it.’ This new sensation
confuses her, moving her to dreams and thoughtlessness and tears. For the first
time in her life she begins to perceive herself positioned in the universe as a
human being who has a relationship with the world around and within her. The
narrative comment on such a realisation is that it was like a weight of wisdom
that all women might not have the privilege of receiving. So far she has lived,
and most women might do so for their entire lives, according to the rules and
conventional norms of society and she is now discontented with this situation.
She begins to feel the need to look for a ‘self’ that goes beyond her role as a wife
and mother and this realisation is confusing, disturbing and destabilising for her.
The imagery of the sea describes the voices of the waters she hears as ‘seductive,’
murmuring to her invitingly to lose her being in mazes of contemplation and
solitude. The voice of the sea speaks to her soul as its touch sensuously enfolds
her body in a ‘soft, close embrace.’ Mrs Pontellier has been described as a reserved
and self-contained person, not given to confidences. But here at Grand Isle she
begins to lose some of her reserve under the influence of the beautiful, friendly
and frank Adele Ratignolle. Edna recalls and shares with her friends, the memories
23
Contextualising: The
Awakening of her childhood days when she walked in the green meadows, aimless and
unthinking, just following an impulse. She says too that it was a similar state of
mind, idle, uncertain and unguided, that she felt herself to be in now. Her early
experiences of being passionately infatuated by a ‘dignified and sad-eyed cavalry
officer,’ somewhat attracted by another young gentleman who used to visit a
lady on a neighboring plantation, and then finally as a young lady going through
the climax of emotion for the great tragedian, a well-known Shakespearean actor
(note given later), are described by the narrator. Without meaning to, and even
without realising it, Edna finds herself being talkative and sharing the events of
her past with Adele, resting her head on her friend’s shoulder, their faces turned
to the sea. She felt ‘flushed,’ ‘intoxicated,’ by this unfamiliar mood of her own
which, ‘muddled her like wine, or like a first breath of freedom.’
We are told about Edna’s marriage to Leonce Pontellier too in this chapter,
something that happened purely by accident, without any romantic dreaming on
her part, and more like something that was decreed for her by destiny. The narrator
describes the marriage and the relationship as follows: ‘He fell in love, as men
are in the habit of doing…he pleased her, his absolute devotion flattered her…she
fancied there was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which fancy
she was mistaken. Add to this the violent opposition of her father and her sister
Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the
motives which led her to accepting Monsieur Pontellier for a husband.’ All this
shows us that Edna is a romantic at heart, a part of her wanting to live in a world
of beauty, unreality, romance and dream. Also, she has a rebellious spirit and the
objection of her family to the marriage convinces her that it is exactly what she
herself wanted to do. She decides to become the devoted wife of a man who
worships her, and thereby ‘take her place with a certain dignity in the world of
reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and
dreams.’
Check Your Progress 3
1) Do you find any similarities between the author Kate Chopin and Edna
Pontellier the protagonist of the novel?
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2.7 LET US SUM UP
The story of Kate Chopin’s life can be divided into two neat sections. She belonged
to an upper-middle-class Irish and French family and was married to a young
businessman with promising prospects. She became the mother of six children
between the years 1871 and 1879. The second part of her life was devoted to
writing. As one scholar writes about this clear division:
Chopin in her twenties and thirties, married and bearing six children, was living
one sort of life but quite another through her forties and fifties, writing, publishing,
24
Kate Chopin: The Awakening and involved in literary society until her death in 1904.
Victoria Boynton, ‘Kate Chopin,’ Nineteenth Century American Women Writers:
A Bio- Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Ed., Denise D Knight, Westport,
CT: Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 50
Chopin writes in her diary, on 22 May 1894, about the changes that came into
her life after the death of her husband in 1882 and her mother in 1885: ‘if it were
possible for my mother and husband to come back to earth, I feel I would
unhesitatingly give up everything that has come into my life since they left…. To
do that, I would have to forget the past ten years of my growth-my real growth.’
However, her early family life in Louisiana, both the cosmopolitan Creole life of
New Orleans, and the rural, largely Cajun (Acadian) culture she was part of,
contributed a great deal to her later life as a writer. When she moved to the
intellectual circles of St Louis after her husband’s death, the life and society
there encouraged her innate literary talents and abilities.
According to Chopin’s brother-in-law, Phanor Breazeale, with whom she played
cards and discussed religion, ‘the inspiration and plot of The Awakening came
from the true story of a New Orleans woman’. In her own life, Chopin enjoyed
being alone, independent and having an identity apart from her children. The
novel The Awakening is about sexual freedom, infidelity, transgression of accepted
codes of behaviour. Through the persona of Edna the above themes get displayed
and discussed. In Kate Chopin’s own personal life, we find the same streak of
independence, the same beliefs in the rights of being an individual, and the very
same determination to choose to have her own way.
2.8 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Read section 2.3 carefully and then answer.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Creoles are the descendents of European namely, the French and Spanish.
The Creole in Louisiana particularly would consider himself/herself to be
of basically French descent.
2) The Creoles are believed to be artistic, even exotic, and they led lives of
social gatherings complete with musical soirees, fine cuisine as depicted in
the novel.
Check Your Progress 3
1) Read Section 2.6 both sub sections 2.6.1 and 2.6.2 carefully and then write
your answer.
25
Contextualising: The UNIT 3 CRITICAL RESPONSES TO THE Awakening
AWAKENING
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Critical History of The Awakening
3.3 Summary of Nineteenth Century and Other Early Critical Responses
3.4 Mid – Century Critical Responses until the Novel’s Rebirth in 1969
3.5 Modern Critical Interpretations
3.5.1 Interpreting The Awakening
3.6 Let Us Sum Up
3.7 Hints to Check Your Progress
3.0 OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this Unit are, to briefly introduce to you, the facts around the
publication and reception history of The Awakening. This unit also seeks to
familiarise you with the critical history of The Awakening by providing brief
commentaries and samples of the early reviews, published in the nineteenth
century, when the novel first came out and a brief summary of the reviews in
later years, after 1969, the year of publication of the first authoritative biography
by Per Seyersted, which helped to give the novel new life and meaning for the
modern reader.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The date of publication, 1899, of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, is significant.
Perched dangerously in the last years of the nineteenth century it is also at the
brink of the ushering in of the twentieth. The above fact becomes even more
important when we look closely at the critical history of this novel.
3.2 CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE AWAKENING
Condemned immediately on publication, and later deliberately ignored due to its
discussion of taboo themes – such as, infidelity, a woman’s desire for selfdefinition, independence and sexual liberty, challenging the institution of
motherhood – it is important to know that The Awakening has received enormous
attention in later years. It is obvious that the writer and this novel were much
ahead of the time they were historically located in and thus, The Awakening was
considered completely transgressive and unacceptable in the nineteenth century.
In fact, when Emily Toth, Chopin’s most recent biographer, first read the novel
in 1970, she admits to having been ‘astonished that a woman in 1899 had asked
the same questions that we, in the newly revived women’s movement were asking
seventy years later.’ Cyrille Arnavon, a French academic, re-discovered the novel,
wrote about it in 1946 and translated it into French in 1953 (as Edna). Although
he thought Edna to be ‘regressive’ and the suicide ‘unjustified,’ he claimed the
26
Kate Chopin: The Awakening 1899 work was an American Madame Bovary.’ (Willa Cather in 1899 had made
the same comparison. In fact, several critics drew this parallel at times). He also
encouraged his young graduate student Per Seyersted to continue further research
in this area, who in turn devoted long years of his academic life to this project,
finally publishing both a Critical Biography and Complete Works in 1969.
The time of the novel’s rebirth was also crucial as it coincided with the second
wave of the feminist movement. The readership for Kate Chopin was now ready
and the feminists claimed the novel immediately as they saw that is reflected in
it all their important concerns such as, women’s independence and liberty, selfdefinition and sexuality. It was reprinted several times in the 1970s and has
inspired readers, scholars and critics to continue to engage with it ever since.
The Awakening has made a long journey from being completely forgotten and
ignored to becoming vastly popular. It is now also canonised, that is, it is a part
of several courses being taught to students all over the world – Literature courses,
courses on Feminist Theory, Women’s Writing, and Nineteenth Century Studies,
American Studies, Textual Linguistics, Folklore, Women’s Studies etc. It is a
part of the postgraduate syllabi at University of Delhi and now you, at IGNOU,
are studying it too.
The next section briefly sums up some of the nineteenth century critical responses
to the text before giving you some actual excerpts.
Check Your Progress 1
1) Do you think the date of publication of The Awakening is significant? Why?
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2) Why was Emily Toth astonished to read the book in 1970?
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3.3 SUMMARY OF NINETEENTH CENTURY AND
OTHER EARLY CRITICAL RESPONSES
Almost all critics of The Awakening thought that Edna Pontellier was ‘morally
offensive.’ Frances Porcher, who reviewed the novel for the St Louis Mirror,
was full of praises for the style and description but termed Edna’s passion ‘an
ugly, cruel, loathsome monster.’ She continues, ‘There is no fault to find with the
27
Critical Responses to The
Awakening telling of the story, there are no blemishes in its art, but it leaves one sick of
human nature and so one feels – cui bono!’ Daniel Rankin, Chopin’s first
biographer, said complimentary things about her art but thought the novel ‘exotic
in setting, morbid in theme, erotic in motivation.’ Other critics too thought Edna
was ‘selfish’ and the novel was about ‘moroid psychology.’
In fact most of the reviews praised the novel for its skilful storytelling and style
but almost all reviewers saw the theme as immoral and the portrayal of Edna as
disagreeable, unrefined and vulgar…. ‘flawless art…delicacy of touch of rare skill
in construction, the subtle understanding, of motive…lacks the high motive of
tragedy… (is) not for the young person.’ Some other comments are cited below
and all the reviews from where these have been extracted are quoted in full so
you will have all the publication details:
The worst of such stories is that they will fall into the hands of the youth,
leading them to dwell on things that only matured persons can understand,
and promoting unholy imaginations and unclean desires.
It was not necessary that for a writer of so great refinement and poetic
grace to enter the overworked field of sex fiction.
…the story was not worth telling, and its disagreeable glimpses of sensuality
are repellent.
It is not a healthy book…the poison of passion seems to have entered her
system, with her mother’s milk.
These comments do not carry the details of reviews/reviewers as the details form
a part of the reading list at the end of this block.
C L Deyo, published in the St Louis Post- Dispatch, 20th May 1899, writes
about Kate Chopin’s craftsmanship as a novelist.
There may be many opinions touching other aspects of Mrs. Chopin’s novel The
Awakening, but all must concede its flawless art. The delicacy of touch are skill
in construction, the subtle understanding of motive, the searching vision into the
recesses of the heart – these are known to readers of ‘Bayou Folk’ and ‘A Night
in Acadie’. But in this new work power appears, power born of confidence. There
is no uncertainty in the lines, so surely and firmly drawn. Complete mastery is
apparent on every page.
Nineteenth – Century Responses, Contemporary Reviews, C L Deyo, St Louis
Post – Dispatch, 20 May 1899, reprinted in, Margo Culley ed. The Awakening,
New York: WW Norton & Company, 1994, p. 164
A little further on, he offers his comments on the plot and the use of language in
The Awakening.
Nothing is wanting to make a complete artistic whole. In delicious English, quick
with life, never a word too much, simple and pure, the story proceeds with classic
severity through a labyrinth of doubt and temptation and dumb despair.
Although a lot of writing exists on Kate Chopin’s works, mostly her short stories
are the subject of discussion. The Awakening disappears completely from the
literary scene during the first half of the twentieth century. Joseph Reilly
suggested that a dozen stories selected from Chopin’s two collections of short
28
Kate Chopin: The Awakening fiction would create a single work ‘which those most proud of American literature
would gladly proclaim an addition to its masterpieces.’ However, the novel is
not mentioned by him, he does not even seem to be aware of it.
In fact, the manner of its absolute disappearance from the literary scene during
this time gives a push to the theory that it was banned or taken off library shelves.
But this was a rumour rather than the reality, as Emily Toth establishes through
her research and interviews etc. It was also rumoured that Chopin was so
heartbroken by the reception of this novel that she stopped writing altogether.
This too has been disproved as she did write and publish more short fiction but
all her work following The Awakening was more conventional, less significant,
less vast. The publishers rejected A Vocation and a Voice although no reasons are
offered in any of her papers there are controversial conjectures. Daniel Rankin
assumes that it had a connection with the negative reception of the novel whereas
her later biographers believe it was a business decision on the part of the publishers
that was unrelated to Chopin’s earlier work.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Imagine that you are asked to review The Awakening by a leading newspaper
of the city. Write a short review, expressing your responses.
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3.4 MID-CENTURY CRITICAL RESPONSES
UNTIL THE NOVEL’S REBIRTH IN 1969
In the 1950s, however, the scenario changed somewhat and American critics
began to recognise that The Awakening was an important literary work. Van
Wyck Brooks called the novel the ‘one novel of the nineties in the South that
should have been remembered, one small perfect book that mattered more than
the life-work of many a prolific writer.’ In 1956, Kenneth Eble called it ‘a firstrate novel,’ (one that) ‘deserves to be restored and to be given its place among
novels worthy of preservation.’ He praised ‘its general excellence’ and although
he said also ‘quite frankly, the book is about sex,’ the comment was not disparaging
as in the case of other critics before him.
The mid-century then saw many American critics engaging positively with The
Awakening, calling Chopin’s text: ‘an anachronistic, lonely, existential voice out
of the mid-20th century’….. ‘To discover a novel of such stature in the American
past is both a happiness and an occasion for some shame. Not many readers
would claim to know all of American Literature, but some of us like to think that
at least we know the best of it. The Awakening has been too much and too long
neglected.’
And finally, came the invaluable work of rediscovery by Per Seyersted, that
completed the retrieval of this novel from the recesses of oblivion, placing it
29
Critical Responses to The
Awakening clearly on the literary and feminist map … ‘(the novel is) as modern now as it
probably will be in a still patriarchal tomorrow.’
Check Your Progress 3
1) What was the reaction of the early reviewers when the novel was published
in 1899?
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2) Critically comment on the journey this novel made from 1899 to 1969.
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3.5 MODERN CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS
I will try to sum up important post 1970 responses to the novel so you get a fair
idea about how the critical insights change and develop as new literary theories
begin to shape thinking.
Although critics increasingly began to see The Awakening as a crucial literary
statement about a woman’s quest for emancipation from traditional and
stereotypical gender roles leading to her determination to live life on her own
terms, there was an emphasis that it was not exactly a political work where the
woman was a crusader for women’s rights that she was really a writer who held
a moderate position and did not intend the work to be a feminist document.
Some see her as trapped in a system to which she offers at best some personal
rebellion and resistance. Lawrence Thornton perceives the text to be very
political, as Edna is deceived ‘by her private vision and by the society she
discovers during the summer on Grand Isle,’ speaking also of the ‘labyrinth of
social conventions, marriage, and motherhood that is closing around her like a
vise.’ Linda Huff believes Edna lives as ‘new woman’ in an “‘old’ society, with
its conventions, prejudices and superstitions,” ‘too small’ though to be able to
change anything.
In 1976, Emily Toth saw Edna as embodying nineteenth century feminist criticism
though other feminist critics have seen her as not able to go beyond selfquestioning to a larger engagement with the social structures of oppression. Critics
have recognised Edna’s articulations of important issues like childhood and
motherhood as proving to be ‘disastrous, causing insanity, death, and-of more
significance to Chopin-a woman’s loss of self.’
30
Kate Chopin: The Awakening Several critics have viewed the novel as very ‘modern’ as it does not provide any
final answers. Its ambiguity and mystery, its taking of many-sided perspectives,
the withholding of judgment, are seen as being its real strengths, as this ‘implicates
us in its probing of such moral questions as the nature of sexuality, selfhood, and
freedom, the meaning of adultery and suicide, and the relationship between
biological destiny and personal choice’.
Elizabeth Fox – Genovese in her article ‘The Awakening in the context of
Experience, Culture and Values of Southern Women,’ Approaches to Teaching
Chopin’s The Awakening, edited by Bernard Koloski, says:
The Awakening shocked Chopin’s contemporaries for the same reason that it has
earned the admiration of recent generations: it candidly acknowledges women’s
impulses. Modern readers […] tend to view Edna’s awakening to her sexuality
as logically portending her struggle for liberation. Yet Chopin remains more
ambiguous, thus inviting multiple, even contradictory, readings […]
3.5.1 Interpreting The Awakening
The final section of this Unit, summarises a few important ways of reading and
interpreting the novel, offered by critics during the late nineties and some even
more recently for instance Donald Pizer in his ‘A Note on Kate Chopin’s The
Awakening as Naturalistic Fiction,’ Southern Literary Journal, 33, No.2 (2001),
pp. 5-13, Pizer reads the novel as an example of naturalistic fiction, which he
describes as ‘the principal innovative movement in American fiction of the 1890s.’
He defines literary naturalism as ‘the dramatization of the limitations placed
upon the human will by the biological and social realities within which the will
attempts to find its way.’ He uses Darwinian theories in his essay, focusing upon
Edna’s ‘inability to overcome the biological instincts of motherhood despite her
repeated rejections of the socially imposed expectations of the role.’
Stephen Heath, ‘Chopin’s Parrot’, Textual Practice, Vol.8, No.1, Spring
1994, pp.11-32
This essay is particularly relevant as it compares once more Gustave Flaubert’s
Emma Bovary and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Heath traces Emma’s journey
towards becoming Edna, ‘the married woman (who) moves once more to suicide
after weariness in marriage and knowledge of an adulterous passion.’ He notices
too, however, the sophistication of Chopin, the later writer, well-read in the works
of Charles Darwin, Aldous Huxley and Herbert Spencer and thus, familiar with
the intellectual thought of the time. Analysing the unconventional behaviour of
both heroines (Emma Bovary and Edna Pontellier) as ‘pathological,’ he comments
on the presence of a Dr Mandelet, who suggests she needs ‘an inspired
psychologist,’ thus, anticipating the theories of Freud, whose work was just
emerging at this time: ‘In Emma Bovary’s world there is no understanding; in
Edna’s a glimmering: her doctor at least shows some comprehension, even if
ultimately held in the conventions of what Freud himself will continue to call
‘the riddle’ of woman.’
Stephen Heath points out the following: the theme of lesbianism, hinted at
through the portrayal of Mademoiselle Reisz, the significance of story-telling,
and in both novels the predominance of images of birds, and the motif of flight –
Emma wishes to ‘escape from life and fly away in an embrace,’ Mlle Reisz
speaks to Edna of ‘the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and
31
Critical Responses to The
Awakening prejudice.’ He draws attention to the parrot, who speaks a ‘language which nobody
understood’ suggesting the ‘problem of representation that Chopin faces.’ The
novel ends with the voice of the sea, one to which Edna has responded throughout,
and now awakened and attuned, identifies with. He locates both novels in the
tradition of ‘women’s modernism’ seeing the latter as a continuation of the
modernist project: ‘between the two, parrot and sea, there is the whole process –
the substance – of Chopin’s writing, the difficult course of Edna’s desire for
herself, reaching out ‘for the unlimited’.
Ivy Schweitzer, in her ‘Maternal Discourse and the Romance of Self-Possession
in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening’, Boundary II, vol. 17, Part I, 1990, pp.158-86,
reviews the novel in the tradition of American Literature being about a search
for self, and the theme of conflict between the individual and society, but primarily
as being a male concern (e.g. mainstream American texts like Hawthorne’s The
Scarlet Letter). In the case of this novel these themes are further problematised
by the facts of maternity and motherhood: she writes, ‘(the novel) raises many
genre questions about the differences in a romance written by a woman, and,
most specifically, it raises the question of whether a woman may be the hero of
romance.’ Schweitzer uses feminist theory to examine the complex presentations
of motherhood, responsibilities of the role of mother, ‘metaphors of self-birth
and the seductive, maternal sea which liberate (Edna.)’ She perceives Edna’s
early awakenings as ‘universal’ and not merely ‘gender-specific’ and yet she
also sees motherhood and individuality as ‘mutually exclusive.’ Edna’s models
of individuality are all male, apart from Mlle Reisz, who is also represented as
somewhat strange. However, although she highlights the idea of male subjectivity
in Edna following the ‘pattern of the male hero of romance, defining herself as
self through her desire for another,’ she questions it too by the last image being
one where Edna is starkly reminded of her womanhood (motherhood) while
attending to Adele during childbirth.
Thus, her flight towards freedom (in seeking some kind of ideal relationship),
she realises, has to take into account those ‘antagonists’ (the children). And unable
to reconcile the two conflicting but equally powerful aspects of her ‘self’ she
makes the only choice available to her at that time. Many readers who read the
novel today may assert that the choices for women in Edna’s situation have not
increased remarkably in the century that has gone by, since the time of the
publication of the novel in 1899. That I suppose is what makes The Awakening
important today – modern, relevant, contemporary – and thus, constantly under
discussion by readers, students and researchers. Contemporary criticism is
continuously engaging with new approaches to reading The Awakening,
perspectives informed by movements in literary, theory such as, feminism, post
structuralism, New Historicism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction and recent
developments in the fields of history, economics, philosophy, sociology etc.
3.6 LET US SUM UP
This unit has tried to look at the late nineteenth century novel The Awakening
from the point of view of the kind of critical comments and responses that it
generated particularly at the time when the novel was published. From whatever
has been discussed so far we do discern that the novel was not really welcomed
or even liked at the time of its publication. But we have also come to realise
through the course of this unit that the novel The Awakening was rediscovered
32
Kate Chopin: The Awakening and reborn in the 1970s and that feminists instantly claimed it as addressing
issues of importance to them. Since then the novel has been in circulation, is
even taught and is in fact canonised, all this to my mind, hints at the novel’s
potential appeal to even modern day readers.
Check Your Progress 4
1) How did the critics of the early twentieth century respond to The Awakening?
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2) Discuss the trends of critical opinion in the responses of the post-1970
readers of the novel. What are your views?
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3) Critically comment on the ending of The Awakening.
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4) Imagine Edna Pontellier living in the present time. Do you think her story
would be any different? How?
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33
Critical Responses to The
Awakening 5) Do you think there is any difference between the nineteenth century reviews
of the novel and those in out times? Discuss the difference and comment
upon it?
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3.7 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) The date of the publication of The Awakening is significant as it was
published at the very end of the 19th Century. The world order was changing,
literary trends were changing and above all Kate Chopin’s novel was too
early for that era.
2) Emily Toth was astonished to read the novel in 1970 as she felt that Kate
Chopin had asked all the questions that women and feminists in the twentieth
century were asking. She was amazed that Kate Chopin had the foresight to
even raise these questions.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Read the unit carefully and frame the answer in your own words.
Check Your Progress 3
1) Read the section 3.2 and 3.3 carefully and then answer.
2) Read the Section 3.4 carefully and then answer.
Check Your Progress 4
1) Read Section 3.4 for the answer.
2) Read Section 3.5.
3) The ending of The Awakening is significant as it is symbolic of various
things such as women’s quest for freedom, the re-birth of Edna Pontellier
or more significantly the re-birth of women in general.
4) Read Section 3.5.1.
5) Read the novel, read the block carefully and then think and write out a well
reasoned answer.
34
Kate Chopin: The Awakening UNIT 4 CRITICAL PPROACHES TO THE
AWAKENING: FEMINIST,
PSYCHOANALYTICAL, OTHERS
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Awakening and the Age
4.3 Feminist Approach to The Awakening
4.4 Psychoanalytical Approach to The Awakening
4.5 Symbolism in The Awakening
4.6 Let Us Sum Up
4.7 Hints to Check Your Progress
4.8 Suggested Readings & References
4.0 OBJECTIVES
The objective of this unit is to familarise you with a few critical approaches that
may be pertinent to the analysis of Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening.
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Critical approaches may be defined very simply as David Daiches does in the
Introduction to the second edition of Critical Approaches to Literature as a way
of illuminating “both the nature of literature and the nature of criticism” and as
“important ways” in which literature (in our case the novel, The Awakening) can
be discussed. Keeping this in mind let us begin by looking very briefly at the
novel and then proceed to examining the feminist approach.
4.2 THE AWAKENING AND THE AGE
The novel as you already known was written and published towards the end of
the nineteenth century, 1899 to be precise. It was literally the end of the nineteenth
century and the nineteenth century as we are all aware was the Victorian age in
England, (approximately a period of sixty years from the 1830s to the 1890s) an
age defined by its moral stance and the extreme deference to conventions. It was
an age when a man could not smoke in public (today smoking is banned by most
countries including our own country due to health reasons, but during the Victorian
age, it was thought of as indecorous) or a woman, ride a bicycle!
But it was also the age of relative peace in England while America was faced
with the scars of the Civil War (1861-65) but, at the same time there was also
interaction between the American and the European writers and it was an age of
what Edward Albert calls “spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavour, and
bright aspirations. The novel as we have seen in the earlier unit was a controversial
one as it dealt with issues then thought of to be taboo….and did not receive its
due then. It was re-discovered nearly sixty years later and then promptly claimed
35
Critical Approaches to The
Awakening: Feminist,
Psychoanalytical, Others
by feminists. Given the theme of the novel it obviously lends itself to serious
critical engagement as we may have discerned from the earlier units. In the next
section, we will look at the feminist approach to literature in some detail as a
way of examining the issues that is dealt with in this novel.
4.3 FEMINIST APPROACH TO THE AWAKENING
Let us begin this section by quoting Anand Prakash who says that,
…a significant area of suppressed identities in the contemporary novel relates to
women in all societies, irrespective of race or class. Most of the novels in the
twentieth century present women with a bias. Scarcely any light is shed on the
question of women’s exploitation under the pressure of home, marriage and the
overarching patriarchy.
Such feelings was to create the feminist approach to literature that became a
major contending force in the late 1970s when feminist theory came to be applied
to linguistic and literary material. Much of feminist critical theory is derived
from the works of the French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir in particular
her book The Second Sex or Le Deuxième Sexe published in 1949. Beauvoir’s
main contention was that when men were associated with humanity then women
were very often relegated to a lesser space/ a lower/ inferior position in society.
Critics after Beauvoir strengthened this debate by focusing on language as a tool
of male dominance while looking at the manner in which the man’s point of
view was therefore, presented as the point of view. Then there were critics who
felt that women not only have different experiences from men but also write
differently. Critics such as Hélène Cixous tried to look at the “essential connection
between women’s body whose sexual pleasure has been repressed, and women’s
writing” (Murfin and Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms,
1998, p 123).
This by the way is just the beginning of the discussion on the feminist critical
approach to literature and The Awakening. You could read up more on feminist
theory and feminist critical approaches if you would like to learn more about this
approach. Coming back to the novel The Awakening, let us look at the feminist
issues depicted through the character of Edna Pontellier.
Some of the issues that come to mind are, the notion of women being viewed as
personal property by the men in the novel. For instance, if we look at the time
period and the culture in which the novel has been set, there are innumerable
instances that indicate the fact that men simply thought of their wives as personal
property. It almost appears as if they did not know any better or could not even
conceive of the fact that their wives were independent people with a mind of
their own as is the case with Edna Pontellier. This may also be discerned when
we look critically at what Léonce Pontellier has to say about his wife Edna
Pontellier as well as in the narrator’s voice.
The woman in question, (in this case, Edna) is of course helpless till she is
awakened, and feels a sense of hopelessness and entrapment in her marriage as
well as within the walls of domesticity. The awakening of Edna of course has
disastrous consequences as it ultimately results in her suicide as we see towards
the end of the novel. The Awakening is also a very good illustration of how
society too enforces the norms of conventionality by isolating anybody who
36
Kate Chopin: The Awakening dares defy its norms and particularly so a woman daring to do so. Moreover, the
novel depicts very clearly how society imposes its norms on some women such
as, Adele Ratignolle who, finds both economic as well social reward in conforming
whereas, Edna Pontellier does not do so and society finds this non-conformity a
sign of rebellion and does not look upon these acts of transgression with sympathy.
In fact, society punishes these so called rebels through isolation fearing that
such flawed characters might challenge society’s very existence. Edna Pontellier
after her awakening (in this case the first awakening, which may be looked upon
as a sexual awakening, when she thinks of herself as a woman with desire) is a
changed woman and for her, her artistic as well as sexual desire are important
whereas, tradition and conventionality are seen as those imposed and therefore,
thrust upon women are not desirable. Then again, there are instances when Léonce
Pontellier thinks his wife’s aspirations are merely trivial and frivolous and that
he can actually make her conform to his way of life, which is in a sense a very
difficult thing for Edna Pontellier to accept and she finds the whole exercise
painful and frustrating.
The awakened (sexually awakened, at this stage) Edna also emerges as a character
who, seeks to take control of her own life and her own feelings as someone who
wishes to escape from the confines of marriage, domesticity and even mother
hood more than, cling to the safety of a husband, home and hearth. Moreover,
Edna finds herself struggling with her feelings of motherhood or lack of it, as
she also realises what society dictates as motherhood and being a mother. These
instances that we have talked about are some points indicative of the manner in
which feminists could approach the study of this text.
In the next section, we shall look at what the psychoanalytical approach to
literature is about and we shall try and suggest pointers to examining the novel
under study with this approach in mind.

Check Your Progress1
1) What is the feminist approach to the study of literature?
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2) Can you use the feminist approach to analyse The Awakening?
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37
Critical Approaches to The
Awakening: Feminist,
Psychoanalytical, Others
4.4 PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO THE
AWAKENING
The psychoanalytic approach to literature derives from the work of the Austrian
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) a psychoanalyst by profession. He was the pioneer
of psychoanalytical criticism. He developed “a language that described, a model
that explained, a theory that encompassed human psychology,” (The Bedford
Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 1998, Murfin and Ray, p. 311), all directly
or indirectly related to the nature of the unconscious mind. Freud identified
three components of the human psyche -the id, the ego and the super ego. The id
according to Freud is the “predominantly passionate, irrational, unknown, and
unconscious part of the psyche.” The “ego” which is predominantly rational,
logical, orderly, and conscious.” The ego is also the mediator between the id and
the super ego. The super ego according to Freud is that part of the human psyche
that internalises the norms and mores of society. Implying, that a reflection of
societal norms and mores may be looked at as “external” or “outside the self”
and as a self check in-built mechanism that makes moral judgement and tells us
to make sacrifices even if we know that such sacrifices may not be in our best
interest.
Sigmund Freud also believed that as human beings we all have what he calls
“repressed wishes and fears” (p. 312) that have been pushed under the carpet or
the surface by the super ego in its capacity as moral guardian and that which has
been pushed even further by the ego into the unconscious realm of the human
psyche. These repressions are then manifested in the form of dreams, in language
as the Freudian slip and in creative activity that, as Freud says, “may produce art
(including literature), and in neurotic behaviour” (p.312). Freud also talks about
the Oedipus complex, and used the analysis of dreams as “a tool for uncovering
our repressed feelings and memories.” Freud was of the opinion that “repression”
surfaces in dreams, masked in symbolic form.
Carl Gustav Jung an analytical psychologist developed a theory of “the collective
unconscious, a repository of shared unconscious memories dating back to the
origins of literature” (p. 313). According to Jungian theory, a great work of
literature is not a disguised expression of its author’s repressed wishes (as thought
by Freud), but “a manifestation of desires once held by the whole human race
(but that are now repressed because of the advent of civilisation) (p. 313). The
French theorist Jacques Lacan “focuses more on language and language related
issues. He extends Freud’s theory of dreams, literature and their interpretation;
he has also added the element of language to Freud’s emphasis on psyche and
gender. For Lacan, the unconscious is a language and dreams a form of discourse.
“Thus, we may study dreams psychoanalytically in order to learn more about the
unconscious. Lacan identifies three stages of development: (1) pre- Oedipal stage/
the pre- verbal stage, (2) the mirror stage/ imaginary stage and (3) the “I” stage/
stage of laws, language and society. (p. 310).
38
Kate Chopin: The Awakening Check Your Progress 2
1) What is the contribution of Freud, Jung and Lacan to psychoanalytical
studies?
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4.5 SYMBOLISM IN THE AWAKENING
The reason why I have chosen to talk about the psychoanalytical approach is
essentially to draw your attention to symbols and symbolism in the novel The
Awakening. Symbols stand for or suggest something else, something larger,
something more complex – often an idea or a range of inter- related ideas, attitudes
and practices, (p. 319). The word symbolic as stated in Unit 2 Section 1.5 comes
from the Greek word symballein to mean, “throw together”. Keeping in mind
what has been said about symbols and symbolism there, we shall now proceed to
look at some of the symbols and their significance in The Awakening.
Simply put, symbols may be recognised as objects, characters, figures, or colours
used to represent abstract ideas/ concepts. There are several symbols that come
to mind when I think of The Awakening. You may have noticed these as well but
may or may not have recognised them or looked at them as symbols. Or you may
have already recognised them as symbols and gone ahead and analysed them as
well! In any case, let me begin by talking about the symbol of birds in the novel.
Birds stand for something in this novel. The birds that have been described,
discussed and any bird imagery that is drawn up represents images of entrapment
in The Awakening. The caged birds signify Edna Pontellier’s own entrapment
within the confines of her marriage and children. It could also be indicative of
the entrapment of all women or women in general in the Victorian Age, as we do
know the position of women. Then, Madam Lebrun’s parrot and the mocking
bird could be looked upon as signifying Edna Pontellier and Madame Reisz as
well. Since both the birds are in captivity their movements are restricted, similarly,
the movement of the women in the novel are restricted and limited by the
conventions and traditions laid down by society and particularly a rigid one at
that. They are so severely restricted in their movement that at times, they fail to
even communicate with the world around them. For instance, Edna Pontellier is
not able to articulate her innermost anguish clearly even to her husband or to
herself for that matters, or any other character in the novel. She tries to escape
from the narrow confines of society, the domesticity of her marriage and her
children. She sets up a place entirely for herself away from her husband and her
children: the pigeon house, and finds solace in the fact that her new home is
symbolic of her independence, but we as readers are aware that the pigeon house
is in fact, just “two steps away” and really indicative of her own innate inability
to remove herself entirely from her former life.
39
Critical Approaches to The
Awakening: Feminist,
Psychoanalytical, Others
Her friend Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna Pontellier that she will need to have
very strong wings in order to survive the turmoil that she’ll face if she intends to
act on her love for Robert Lebrun. By the time she sets up the pigeon house, we
know that he has gone away to Mexico. Mademoiselle Reisz warns Edna
Pontellier saying:
The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must
have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weakling bruised, exhausted,
fluttering back to earth”
(Chapter XXVII, p. 79 Edited by Margo Culley, Wordsworth Norton & C: New
York,1994)
Then there are the critics of the novel who also use the final imaginary of the
bird to argue that Edna Pontellier’s suicide at the end of the novel is, in fact, a
sign of defeat, both for her as an individual as well as for all women in general.
A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling
disabled down, down to the water.”
While these critics cite this quotation from Ch XXXIX, p. 108 of the text, as an
example of Edna’s and women’s defeat in general, some other critics argue that
if the symbol of the birds is to signify not Edna Pontellier’s individual defeat but
that of the collective defeat of the women in the Victorian age, then Edna
Pontellier’s suicide/ final awakening may also be looked upon as representing
the fall, tradition/ convention that in a sense, may be said to have been achieved
by Edna Pontellier’s suicide.

We have already talked about the symbolism of the sea in Unit 2, but we can
always take another look at the sea that is a major symbol in the novel, here as
well. The sea has been used as a symbol by many authors and of course we must
not forget the images of the sea in our own myths as well as the images in the
Bible. In particular I am talking about two major works that you must have read
or if not, you must have definitely heard about – Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
(1851) and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (written in Cuba in
1951 and published in 1952). Both these novels (actually the latter is a novella or
a short novel or a long short story, just under a hundred pages) use symbolism
and the sea also figures in these novels in a big way. The sea may be said to be
signalling a sense of space, boundless and timeless, a sense of freedom from
life’s shores and hence, from life’s trials and temptations as well. It is interesting
to note that Edna Pontellier has tried learning swimming unsuccessfully earlier
on but she is taught by Robert Lebrun and learns to swim and feels the sea and
the surf beckoning her throughout the novel. She is said to be seduced by the
sound of the surf, “The voice of the surf is seductive; never ceasing, whispering,
clamouring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of
solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation” (Chapter VI, p. 14),
and she succumbs to the temptation only when she has actually been empowered
(by her act of learning to swim successfully). She is also aware of her and by
extension human being’s place in the scheme of things as is obvious from the
next quote in the same chapter, “In short, Mrs Pontellier was beginning to realise
her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as
an individual in the world within and about her” (p.14). Throughout the novel
there is a sense of the unknown, the wild, – the sea and the surf calling out to her.
40
Kate Chopin: The Awakening Moreover, if we look at the sea not as sea per se but as water then we get another
picture of the symbolism of the sea in The Awakening. If we look at the sea as
water then we would realise that the sea then symbolises ritual cleansing/ the
Christian concept of baptism/ re-birth. And it is therefore, apt that Edna Pontellier
should drown or swim away to her death symbolising her re-birth “ a re-birth of
sorts.
The Awakening is very rich in symbolism as mentioned earlier and it is now up to
you to take the initiative and look at symbols in the novel. We have merely
pointed out what symbolism is and shown you examples of how symbolism
works. We expect you to look for other symbols in the novel as you read it.
However, we’d still like to point out a few major symbols to you in your task but
we expect you to explore the symbolism behind these. For instance, look at the
way in which Edna Pontellier and women in the novel are presented to us (the
readers) in the novel. … The mother- women seemed to prevail that summer at
Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended wings when
any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women
who idolised their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy
privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering
angels” (Chapter IV p.9)
Then look at the treatment of art by Kate Chopin in The Awakening. Art seems to
awaken Edna Pontellier. Take the case of the bird imagery in the novel. Birds
and clothes are other symbols that you could locate and analyse. Then there is
the whole symbolism generated by food/meals, the symbolism of the house, Edna
Pontellier’s desire to learn swimming, the symbol of the moon and finally the
ocean, the gulf or the sea. Your list could also include music, or the playing of
the piano and sleep as a symbol.
Check Your Progress 3
1) Analyse The Awakening from the point of view of symbolism.
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4.6 LET US SUM UP
In this unit, we have tried to look at several critical approaches to literature and
in particular to the novel, in this case, The Awakening. We have also defined
three major approaches and summarised these approaches very briefly while
pointing out instances from the novel or indicating how we could analyse or
approach the novel from the perspectives of these approaches. In particular, we
have dealt with the symbolic approach to the study of The Awakening in greater
detail.
41
Critical Approaches to The
Awakening: Feminist,
Psychoanalytical, Others
4.7 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Feminist approach to the study of literature is when we approach a text
using woman’s perspective and raise questions about women’s issues.
Section 4.3 should be read carefully.
2) Section 4.3 should be read carefully.
Check Your Progress2
1) Read Section 4.4 and then write your answer.
Check Your Progress3
1) Read Section 4.5 then read the novel again and answer this question. You
could begin by defining symbolism and then locating various symbols in
the text, after which you could examine and analyse these symbols.
42
Kate Chopin: The Awakening 4.8 SUGGESTED READINGS & REFERENCES
1) Abrams, M.H A Glossary of Literary Term, Seventh
Edition, 1941; rpt. Delhi: Harcourt,
2001.
2) Allen, Walter The English Novel, 1958.
3) Albert, Edward A History of English Literature, Oxford
University Press: (Calcutta) 1988
4) Bradbury, Malcolm The Modern British Novel 1878-2001,
Revised Edition, England: Penguin
Books, 2001
5) Childers J & G Hentzi (Eds) The Columbia Dictionary of Modern
Literary Terms and Cultural Criticism,
New York: Columbia University Press,
1995
6) Chopin, Kate The Awakening, (Ed) Margo Cullen, New
York: A Norton Critical Edition, 1994
7) Daiches, David Critical Approaches to Literature, Second
Edition, Calcutta: Orient Longman Ltd,
1989
8) Forster, EM Aspects of the Novel, England: Penguin
Books, 2000
9) Murfin, R & Supriya Ray The Bedford Glossary of Critical and
Literary Terms, London: Macmillian
Press, 1998

Block
3
GOPINATH MOHANTY: PARAJA
Block Introduction 4
UNIT 1
Locating Paraja 5
UNIT 2
Paraja: Socio-Cultural Context 18
UNIT 3
Paraja: Themes and Plot 28
UNIT 4
Paraja: A Novel in Translation 45

BLOCK INTRODUCTION
In this block we shall look at an Indian novel in English translation. The novel
we have taken up for study is Gopinath Mohanty’s Paraja, written originally in
Odia. The novel we have dealt with so far, The Awakening and the novel that we
will study in the next block – Things Fall Apart were originally written in English.
This is the first novel that comes to you in Englsih translation. In Unit 1 we are
introduced to the author, his works, and the development of the Odia novel very
briefly as well as a look at the outline of the story of Paraja (the English version).
Unit 2 examines the cultural context of Paraja as it situates the novel in its socio
– cultural and political context. Unit 3 looks at the theme and characterisation in
Paraja, while Unit 4 looks at Paraja critically and places it within the larger
framework of Indian English Literature. As this novel is closer to home, we
hope you’ll read it, and will be able to relate to it with greater ease and also be
able to understand the cultural mores embedded in the text better.
Good luck with your reading!

UNIT 1 LOCATING PARAJA
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Gopinath Mohanty: Biographical Details
1.3 The Odia Novel
1.4 Paraja: The Story in Outline
1.5 Paraja: Detailed Summary
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.7 Glossary
1.8 Hints to Check Your Progress
1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit an attempt has been made to provide you with:
A brief profile of the writer;
The background of the Odia novel;
The outline of the novel Paraja and
A detailed critical summary of the novel followed by a glossary of terms
and at the end, a recapitulation of what has been covered in this unit.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The novel Paraja was written originally in Odia in 1945 and later translated into
English by Bikram K Das in 1987. The writer in his acknowledgement writes
that he is “deeply indebted to Dr Bikram K Das, Professor of English in the
SEAMO Regional Language Center, Singapore, for translating “Paraja”, as none
of his fiction had ever before appeared in English. The translator writes that no
translation can capture the “varied riches of Gopinath Mohanty’s Odia prose
vigorously colloquial and forthright at one moment and sublimely effervescent
and lyrical at the next.” This sad tale about the life of the aboriginal Paraja tribe
of Koraput, Odisha is the story of many such tribes who live secluded lives.
Bikram Das, the translator labels it as a sociological and anthropological
documentation, and its sociological, philosophical concerns that are dealt with
in Paraja are contemporary even though the novel was written way back in
1945. “The choice of the tribal canvas … becomes singularly appropriate to
Mohanty’s theme: the primeval consciousness of his tribal protagonists reflects
perfectly the situation of the archetypal human being …” In the citation of the
Jnanpith Award it was said: “in Mohanty’s hands, the social is lifted to the level
of the metaphysical”. Though a pessimistic novel, yet the pathos highlights
existence, innocence, human endurance, and the will to wage war against a hostile
world. Life is celebrated through dances and songs, festivals and rituals, marriages
and relationships.
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Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja Let us now look at the biographical details of the author Gopinath Mohanty as a
proper understanding of the author, his life, and his works would be crucial to a
comprehensive understanding of the novel Paraja.

1.2 GOPINATH MOHANTY: BIOGRAPHICAL
DETAILS
Gopinath Mohanty (1924-93) belonged to a village called Nagabali in the Cuttack
District of Odisha. After his post-graduation in English Literature from Patna
University he joined the Odisha Administrative Services and retired as Officer
on Special Duty, Tribal Development Project. He is the recipient of the Sahitya
Akademi Award (1955), the Jnanpith Award (1974), and the Padmabhushan
(1981). He has written more than twenty novels and dozens of short stories in
Odia. He is also a prolific translator of literature into Odia. His award-winning
novels are Amurtar Santan (Children of Immortality), and Mati Matala. His other
works are Paraja, Dadi Budha, Siba Bhai, Apahncha and Harjana. All these
novels deal with various aspects of tribal life and the exploited, downtrodden
people. His other novels that tread into the realm of psychology and spirituality
are Darapani, Mara Gahirara Chashe, Rahura Chhaya, Laya Bilaya, and Duie
Pahara. He is considered to be one of the most well-known novelists of Odia
Literature. In the next section we shall look at the development of the Odia
Novel before we move on to Paraja.

1.3 THE ODIA NOVEL
The Odia Novel has been under the influence of Western literature and the
literature from the neighbourhood. Bengali and British literature have played a
vital role in shaping Odia literature as it is today. The Odia language and the
state of Odisha had been denied independent status till 1936 and it was only after
this landmark in Odia history that its literature started gaining importance.
Although authors such as, Ramshankar Ray and Umesh Sarkar made attempts
at writing novels in Odia in the late 19th century the rise of the Odia novel began
with the contribution made by Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843-1918). His trend
setting novel was Chhanana Atha Guntha (1897). After Fakir Mohan Senapati
however, there was no significant input by any other writer. The first Odia novel
on tribals was Bhima Bhuyan by Gopal Ballav Das written in 1898 and published
in 1908. The novel was based on the life of a tribal hero Bhima of the Bhuyan
tribe of Keonjhar District in Odisha. It was in 1931 that Kalindi Charan
Panigarhi’s Matina Manisha gained popularity as it was based on Gandhian
principles and ideals. Pratibha Ray’s Adhibhumi is about the Bonda Tribals
struggling for survival in free India. Thereafter, there was an upsurge in the field
of the Odia novel. Gopinan Mohanty emerged as the most successful writer. His
novels focused on social issues, the life and the cultural practices of the preliterate,
the tribal, the pain, the suffering, the anguish and the agony of the protagonists
who are either from poor or middle economic strata of society. His most popular
novels are Paraja and Amrutas Santan. In the next section we shall look at the
story in outline of Paraja.
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Check Your Progress 1 Locating Paraja
1) Which literatures have influenced the Odia novel?
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2) What were the themes of the early Odia novels?
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3) Write a brief note on Gopinath Mohanty.
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1.4 PARAJA: THE STORY IN OUTLINE
The novel deals with the life of the Parajas, a tribe that lives in the Koraput
District of Odisha. The protagonist of the novel is Sukru Jani, a widower who
has two sons – Mandia and Tikra, and two daughters – Jili and Bili. Life is difficult
for this simple man, as he has to work hard to make ends meet. Despite all these
hardships he is happy. But his happiness is short-lived and a train of misfortune
befalls him and his family. The Forest Guard takes his revenge on the family
after Jili refuses his advances. The Forest Guard’s hostility compels Sukru Jani
to take a loan and in doing so he becomes a goti, as he has been implicated for
felling trees illegally. Gradually, the money – lender usurps his land, and both the
sons become gotis for the former; his daughters work on the road as labourers
and there is no end to the harassment that takes place. Their (Sukru Jani and his
sons’), patience gives way to anger and pent up feelings when they are duped in
court. The subaltern voice that has not been heard before anywhere is raised
only through the murderous act committed by the elder son who hacks the Sahukar,
the trouble – maker. After the incident they go to the police station to surrender.
Thus, it is an endless tale of woes and suffering.
8
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja The tribals of Sarsupadar are forced to resort to violence due to their abject
poverty, their loneliness and alienation, the loss of their lands, and the degradation
of human relationships. It is a realistic story where the protagonist Sukru Jani
lives in a domain of death-in-life realities. And it becomes evident from the story
that in the presence of hunger and poverty, notions of crime, sin and morality are
denounced.
If we appreciate the theme of the story in totality, we realise that the answers to
various questions on exploitation of the tribals by the so-called civilised world is
embedded in the questions itself. The solution is in not being marginalised but in
raising a voice against the exploitative, oppressive state apparatus and the social
system. The novel is neither a romantic story nor a tragic tale; it has neither a
revenge theme nor is it about betrayals. It is a novel about existence, about the
hard realities of life that people face, about life and living; about survival and
undying hope. The next section provides a detailed summary of the novel Paraja.

1.5 PARAJA: DETAILED SUMMARY

The novel consists of 114 chapters; portraying the life and culture of the Paraja
tribe each more emphatically than the other. The events in the novel begin in
winter and trace the misfortunes of Sukru Jani and his family through the span of
a full year (till the next winter/ December). This enables the reader to live through
a complete cycle of year, inclusive of its festivals, crops that are grown and
harvested and other activities of the region.
Chapter 1 begins with an introduction to the mountain pass known as the ‘Dharam
Dooar’–‘The Gate of Truth’ at the foot of which lies the hamlet of Sarsupadar in
the Eastern Ghats. The road links the towns of Koraput and Rayagada. The hamlet
consists of two clusters of thatched huts – the two separate streets of the Paraja
tribe and the Dombs. The chapter enhances our knowledge about the life of the
Paraja tribe inclusive of their food habits, their clothes and their residential
accommodation and all description spells out simplicity. In this chapter we are
introduced to the protagonist Sukru Jani and his family who have been living in
peace. Their needs are simple and their desires limited. Sukru Jani’s wife Sombari
is dead. A man-eating tiger has carried her away and thereafter the husband –
Sukru Jani has been living with his sons – Mandia and Tikra, and his daughters –
Jili and Bili.
Chapter 2 further broadens our vision on the life style of the Paraja. If men
worked in the fields and forests, the women of the house took care of the daily
household chores, whether it was cooking or washing. This chapter introduces
us to the Forest Guard who loiters on the banks of the stream with a shot – gun on
his shoulder. He is easily recognisable as one from the civilised world, because
in those hills, where people went about half-naked, he is dressed in a shirt and
shorts. In the eyes of the hill folk he is a person of high authority, for he is a
forest guard and it is his job to catch people felling trees in the jungle. The
chapter describes the political structure of the village with the Naika as the
headman, Ribini, the Revenue Inspector, Barik the village watchman and the
Forest Guard. Whenever the Forest Guard arrives, every villager brings offerings
for him to please him so that none are on his list of offenders. He is the ‘arm of
law’. Sukru Jani too visits the Forest Guard to pay his obeisance. As an offering
he takes two fat hens and three big jackfruits. Sukru Jani wants a favour from the
9
Guard, that favour is granted and this is to fell trees and to clear the jungle on the Locating Paraja
flat – topped hill where two men of the Domb caste have already cleared ten
acres of land. At the same time the forest guard starts desiring Sukru Jani’s
daughter Jili. Jili’s bosom friend Kajodi is betrothed to Mandia; and Bagla, son
of Rengu Paraja is in love with Jili.
Chapter 3 opens with Sukru Jani’s announcement to his family that permission
to clear the forest and fell trees on the Mali Damaka Hill has been granted.
Thereafter, the children leave for their dormitories that are in the centre of the
village. Unmarried girls and boys sleep in their respective dormitories. The chapter
also introduces us to the folk and tribal songs sung to the accompaniment of the
dungudungu/the drums.
The next chapter pinpoints two things – one, the hard work and labour of the
tribal’s in eeking out their hand-to-mouth existence and two, their ignorance
about environmental conservation, Sukru Jani would often think:
How vast the Forest is! And how nice it would be if all these trees could be cut
down and the ground completely cleared and made ready to raise our crops.
Land! That is what we want …What beautiful lands they are! And all these forest
lands can be reclaimed and crops raised on them! Why there should be forests
when they mean nothing to us, and not crops? … Sukru Jani knew nothing of soil
conservation or the dangers of destroying forests…He was concerned with the
present and with his small personal interests. (pp. 22-23)
Chapter 5 further highlights the authority of the Forest Guard. He bullies Jili
who is both surprised and shocked but is unable to express her resentment. Her
unhappiness is reflected through her eyes, her face and her behaviour. He indirectly
threatens the two girls Jili and Bili by entering their house in the absence of their
father.
The next chapter introduces us to yet another character in the story and in the life
of these poor tribals – the headman’s goti – Kau Paraja. It is he who carries the
message of the Forest Guard to Sukru Jani, the Forest Guard who desires Jili.
Her father – Sukru Jani obviously refuses the offer.
Chapter 7 depicts very clearly the exploitation of the poor, the ignorant and the
illiterate in the hands of the conniving powerful few. The chapter also shows us
how the so called civilised people capitalise on the simplicity and illiteracy of
tribal folk. The Forest Guard returns after a month with officials who question
Sukru Jani about clearing the patch of land for which permission had been sought
from and granted by the Forest Guard. The Forest Guard obviously denies that
he had ever given such permission. Evidence and statements are recorded and as
each tribal and non tribal wishes, to save himself, falsehood is recorded with
great conviction. Sukru Jani is terrified by all the paper work that is going on.
The verdict is that Sukru Jani is guilty and has caused a loss of a few score of
rupees to the Raja and he must pay for his crime.
Thereafter, in the next chapter the misery of the family is described. The people
of the village advise Sukru Jani to raise a loan from the money – lender Ram
Bisoi and in exchange become a debt bound goti or a bonded labourer. Sukru
Jani is not ready to exchange his shelter and freedom as he has never questioned
10
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja the legality of his actions, and has not realised that he is not the owner of the land
he has been tilling as his own.
The despair and misery of Sukru Jani stretches into the next chapter as well.
Visions of the past and the present flash before Sukru Jani’s eyes, but ultimately,
he is aware that he has no choice except to go to the money – lender for help.
The tragic drama that will unfold as a result of his decision to borrow money,
mortgaging himself as a goti or a bonded labourer to Sahukar Ramchandra Bisoi
starts in Chapter 10 and continues through Chapter 11 as well. The tribal folk
also seek loans from him for the bride price that the Paraja men have to pay and
for buying grain etc. In Sukru Jani’s case a loan of fifty rupees is raised, an
agreement signed and smeared with thumb impressions; a deed of which,Sukru
Jani does not understand a word. And that day spells doomsday for Sukru Jani’s
family.
From today we are gotis, my son; we have signed the agreement and from today
we are gotis! ‘His eyes filled with tears and his chest heaved with great sighs.
The ageing father threw his arms round his son, broke into sobs and said: ‘Gotis,
Tikra! From today we are gotis, slaves!’
Chapters 12, 13, 14 and 15 inform us about the details of the bargain between the
Forest Guard, the Naika, and the others who make a part payment to the Forest
Guard with the money raised by Sukru Jani who puts himself and his sons’ freedom
at stake, and they distribute the rest of the money among themselves. The cloud
that passes over Sukru Jani’s family brings tears, sorrow and unhappiness but
saves him from being sent to jail. Sukru Jani and Tikra have to work as gotis for
the money – lender Ram Bisoi who lives eight miles away from Sarsupadar. For
a debt bound labourer each day is of hard labour and the days are never ending.
Chapters 16-19, once again take us back to the life of the Paraja tribe, to the
Sarsupadar village, and to Sukru Jani’s family members who are left behind.
Mandia Jani takes charge of the house and the fields. He intends getting married
to Kajodi, his sister’s friend, but for that he has to pay a bride price and he wants
to offer the bride price only after the harvest. It is not only Mandia who dreams
of getting married to Kajodi but also Sukru Jani who approves of this match.
Then, Mandia decides to brew liquor to get the labourers to reap paddy for them,
in exchange for the home brewed brew. He suggests to his sisters to collect
mahua flowers, and they in return ask for combs. Subtly the author also refers to
the difficult ways of life that these Paraja folk undergo. Their plight can be clearly
visualised – Father and son become gotis for no fault of theirs; there is no labour
to reap the harvest; liquor is brewed illegally; and the daughters grow chillies to
sell them and earn some extra money, but, with each passing day life starts
becoming more and more difficult.
Chapters 20 and 21 reveal the growing friendship between Mandia and Kajodi;
and Jili and Bagla. Chapter 22 takes us to the homestead of the money – lender
and we get a glimpse of the lives of the gotis, (it is also where Tikra works). The
girls who work there look at Tikra with great admiration and interest. Tikra and
the girls work and sing together. Sukri Jani asks for leave but is refused permission
to go home.
The next chapter is a description of the market day at Podagod – a weekly market
that takes place on Wednesdays. The day becomes a social event as women dress
11
up in their brightest clothes and their gaudiest beads; and the place is also meant Locating Paraja
for meeting friends and exchanging gossip.
The chapter following this is about the home coming of Sukru Jani. He has
returned at the last moment for the harvest festival. He had not been allowed to
return in time to harvest his fields. Chapter 25 and 26 are about the harvest
festival. Despite the cold, misty morning the spirits of the people are high. The
day begins early for them and the Paraja are busy with the preparations for the
harvest festival. After an early meal the men go to the jungle to collect wood for
the bonfire while the young women are busy cleaning and painting their houses.
Some are even busy doing their laundry. Thereafter, the personal grooming and
dressing starts from the best of saris to the brightest of bangles and the
beautification aspect occupies the minds of the women. Everywhere in the village
there is feverish fun and activity taking place, except for Sukru Jani’s house. He
feels he has no home, no family to either rejoice with or to even share his sorrows.
For him Tikra is still a child; Mandia too young to be entrusted with the
responsibility of running the household; Jili is too busy dreaming of Bagla and
Bili keeps fantasising about young men. For him the house that was once in
perfect order is now in complete shambles and his safe secure house has fallen
apart. The festival begins at dusk and the dance and the rituals have started. The
next day the ‘Saltu – the Salt and Excise Department’ (p 100) catches Mandia
brewing and selling liquor illicitly, red-handed. The articles are seized and
statements are recorded. Thus, the festival ends on an unhappy note for Sukru
Jani and his family.
Mandia Jani’s becoming a goti is narrated in the next two chapters. Mandia is
tried and found guilty and is fined fifty rupees. Once again, in order to raise a
loan, and to avoid being jailed, a goti is born. The following chapters are a sad
story of the aftermath of Sukru Jani and his sons becoming gotis. They live a life
of not only poverty but also of exploitation and abuse. Jili and Bili too face the
brunt of a harsh life. Initially there is food at home but gradually the stores start
running low. We have to keep in mind the fact that these are people eeking out an
existence. Life is no longer beautiful for the young girls. It is mere drudgery and
a burden.
Chapter 32 describes the house of Ramchandra Bisoi. His house and the
description thereof are a sharp contrast to the poverty of the Parajas. There are
bullock-carts in front of his house. To enter the house, one has to first pass through
his warehouses stuffed with grains that are stored in either jute bags or bamboo
netted containers. In the inner courtyard, oil seeds, chillies etc. are left drying in
the Sun and then one reaches the rooms that he and his family occupy. The
veranda is stocked with bags of grain; a weighing scale, piles of old chairs and
accumulated junk. The entrance is a big wooden door with huge iron knobs. He
is the owner of the fields, orchards, granaries and houses. On either side of the
Sahukar’s empire lies the village of these tribesmen. The villages are a cluster of
ragged, mud-walled huts and half blown thatched roofs, there is dust all around
and the only sound that can be heard is of wailing hungry children. These huts
have their own tales of woes to narrate. The gotis were once hard-working peasants
living lives of dignity. Their ancestors had owned all the land. The first distillery
came up and the money – lender started obliging the tribesmen with liquor/ alcohol
even without money exchanging hands. Thereafter, after a couple of days, he
would insist on the return of the accumulated debt or demand land from them in
12
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja return for the loan rendered for buying country liquor/alcohol. While the
Government had managed to ban the liquor shop, it was a reform that had come
in a little too late as the tribals were addicted to the intoxicating drink and had
already exchanged their lands with money from the local money – lenders. Thus,
grew the power and money of the money – lender. The occupants of the huts / the
tribals lived in perpetual terror as the officials and the police constantly harassed
them. Tales of the brutality of the money – lender did the rounds. The hired help
had to perform all odd jobs and sometimes the tribal girls were also called upon
to dance for the rich moneylenders.
The next ten chapters are about the Spring Festival, the activities that take place
during that time, and the rituals and marriages. The days before the festival are
busy days for everyone – firewood to be collected, jungles to be cleared, fields to
be ploughed and fertilised by adding manure in preparation for the sowing of
paddy; and women having ‘n’ number of jobs to be completed because once the
festivities begin no one will work and all that remains to be done will be dancing,
singing, drinking hunting and feasting. Everyone in the village works except
Bili and Jili who are deeply engrossed in their own sorrow and their hand-tomouth existence. No one helps them except Kau Paraja. He is ugly to look at but
his talents are many. He has a wonderful memory for details and is therefore,
employed as a messenger. He gradually starts dreaming of Jili as his bride.
The soothsayer calculates the day and the time of the celebration of the Spring
Festival and on the auspicious day the traditional prayers, rituals and customs
commence. The incantations to the gods are sung, ceremonies performed and
the festival inaugurated. The night is awake and bright with festivity and dance.
It is on this night that Bagla lifts Kajodi and rushes off into the jungle, a signal of
their inclination to get married. Jill feels desolate, ditched and lonely. The next
day the hunt for wild animals in the jungle commences. Mandia proposes to
Kajodi who refuses to marry him. Chapters 45 and 49 describe the marriage
customs of the Paraja tribe. Bagla and Kajodi decide to marry. The in-between
chapters reflect on the sorrowful state of Sukru Jani’s family. He and his sons
have to return to the money – lender’s house. Jili feels dejected and Bili is still
very immature. In the following chapters Sukru Jani decides to mortgage his
land to free themselves from the money – lender as gotis. Even to decide such a
thing is a difficult task for Sukru Jani. The Sahukar shows no interest at all in his
pleas.
Chapter 52 is an eye opener on how the rich and powerful usurp the land of the
Parajas in particular and of most tribal people in general. The Sahukar’s mentor
is Garaja Surdara, the Ribini or the Revenue Inspector. Ramachandra Bisoi has
modelled himself into a carbon copy of the Ribini. They plan to repossess the
land lost to the Kondhs and the Sahukar is successful in obtaining the land through
illegal machinations. Chapter 53 onwards we witness a turn of events in the lives
of Sukru Jani’s family members. Sukru Jani’s fields lie fallow; Jili grieves over
her first love and Bagla and Kajodi are in the prime of their youth and marriage.
It is the neighbour Diptomani, daughter of the Domb Barik or village messenger
who informs Jili about the new highway that is being built and that the contractor’s
agents are looking for labourers to hire them and that they are being paid in
advances on wages. People have to live in camps. Both the sisters decide to lock
up the house and leave. She cried out: ‘I don’t care about what father will say!
What does he care about us?’ (204). When Sukru Jani learns about this he feels
13
betrayed and is thoroughly confused. Sukru Jani once again asks the Sahukar Locating Paraja to
mortgage his land and free one of his sons. The Sahukar is furious and refuses to
talk about the land. Sukru Jani’s house and fields lie fallow and desolate.
Chapter 60 describes the lives of the labourers on the highway. People from
distant villages have come to work there. The contractor is a Kutchee (Gujarati)
and the young supervisor moves around noting details. The labourers work, laugh
and sing as their hands and feet move with a natural rhythm. Fires are lit in the
evenings for the preparation of meals but after that the dungudungas become
silent and the fires grow cold as the labour camp settles for the night. New
acquaintances turn into friendships as the surroundings become familiar. Payday comes once a week and the camp is transformed into a festival. In the
afternoon, the labourers gather in front of the Supervisor’s hut for wages.
Questions about morality or sexuality are of no importance here given the situation
of the labour camp. It is a common sight to see men and women together. The
Supervisor takes a fancy to Jili. Rami a resident of Champi village works for the
supervisor and she takes the initiative in helping the supervisor meet his wants.
Bili too follows in Jili’s footsteps and the supervisor and other young men give
presents to the two girls in exchange for sexual favours. The gifts are in the form
of coins, saris, cakes of perfumed soap, scented oil, beads and rings. Life is full
of work, dance, song and little assets.
With Chapter 63 once again the reader rolls back into the premises of the Sahukar,
Sukru Jani, Mandia and Tikra. The Sahukar is clever enough to send the Domb
Barik to survey the land and it is evaluated as valueable land. Thereafter, the
Sahukar calls upon Sukru Jani and decides to settle the matter of Sukru Jani’s
land. Later the Sahukar inspects the land and decides to frame an oral agreement
that indicates that Sukru Jani would be released but his sons would remain gotis.
The land could be redeemed when Sukru Jani paid twenty-five rupees to the
Sahukar, but until then it would be the Sahuhur’s. There are no witnesses. Sukru
Jani is set free but this lonely old, helpless man’s heart weighs heavy with the
fact that his sons are still gotis. He returns to his house in the village but is at a
loss as he finds his hut locked and his two daughters missing.
A few days later he decides to look for his daughters and after an endless search
finds them. He wants his daughters to accompany him back to the village but
they have realised that it is futile to do so as there is not enough food for them.
The Supervisor offers work to Sukru Jani as well which he refuses. Jili and Bili
have to pack their belongings and return with their father. Back home they help
their father. Kau Paraja and their friendship grow. Chapter 72 introduces us to a
new character, Nandibali Paraja who has set out to find himself a bride. He is a
young orphan, with no land and owns nothing except his strong, muscular limbs.
He wants a wife, but as bride price is ready to work as a goti for the bride’s
father. It is at this point of time that he meets Bili. He approaches Sukru Jani
who agrees to his proposal and Nandibali becomes a new member of the family.
In the following chapter the Sahukar’s visit to the village is described. He has
bought land and has decided to convert it into an orange orchard and has therefore,
camped in the village. The Sahukar starts desiring Jili and then one evening Jili
is rounded up by Madhu Ghasi who used to come with the Sahukar’s proposal
and presents, and who takes her to what used to be the young men’s dormitory.
Jili’s night outs become a regular phenomenon. In the meanwhile, Mandia and
Tikra are planning to rid themselves of the Sahukar and they have decided to sell
14
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja liquor, earn money and repay the debt. It is Kau Paraja who discovers that Jili
visits the Sahukar’s house and in utter frustration Kau Paraja informs Sukru Jani
about it. Sukru Jani is furious and throws Jili out of his house. Jili has no place to
go to and no one to turn to except the Sahukur and his house.The Sahukar cleverly
proposes marriage to Jili and pays the bride price to Sukru Jani, but Sukru Jani is
not ready to accept the situation. Meanwhile, Jili adjusts herself to her new
house. For a few days the Sahukar plays the role of the infatuated lover and then
decides to leave Jili behind and go back to his village. He sweet talks her into
taking care of everything, making her feel important in unfamiliar surroundings
i.e. at Kadamjholla where she lives with the Sahukar, and where she is actually
lonely and unhappy. She cannot even understand the Kondh dialect. Meanwhile,
Mandia and Tikra begin distilling liquor and selling it illicitly to earn money.
Chapter 103 onwards the preparation for the final blow, the catastrophe for Sukru
Jani’s family begins. Mandia and Tikra offer money to the Sahukar for their
freedom and their land through their father Sukru Jani. Instead of freeing them
he threatens them with the police claiming the money to be stolen. He refuses to
give back their land as decided in the oral agreement. According to him the land
has been mortgaged for thirty years. Nandibali suggests that they move to the
court. The world of law courts is a place they have but seen from a distance and
the tribesmen live in terror of the court. They walk to Koraput town. They meet
the Petition Writer in the court who suggests that they get a written petition and
engage a lawyer. They wait to talk to the magistrate but fail in their efforts. Then
they go back to the Petition Writer who demands two rupees for the paper, five
rupees for the stamp, etc. At last the petition is written and filed. He fills the
simple tribal folk with confidence that they will be able to win back their land.
The Sahukar meanwhile bribes and threatens the Paraja tribesmen of Sarsupadar.
By this time Sukru Jani is drowning in self- pity and is getting tired of the
misfortunes that keep befalling his family, though he tries hard to put on a brave
front. He calls on the Gods:
O Dadi Budha, Soul of my first ancestor; Almighty Dharmu; Dharatini, Mother
Earth: have pity on me! Do not trouble me any more, and I will sacrifice as many
pigeons and fowl as you wish. (p. 355)
Sukru Jani is given the next date for the hearing of the case for when he has to
bring his witnesses. Simultaneously money exchanges hands between the Sahukar
and the petition writer as well. Sukru Jani along with his witnesses go to Koraput
on the fixed date but discover to their horror and shock that the case has been
dismissed as Sukru Jani had not appeared at the hearing. He is duped once again.
By this time Sukru Jani is in a state of frenzy. They decide to talk to the Sahukar.
Sukru Jani and his two sons go to the Sahukar’s place where Jili stays, and
pleads for their land. The Sahukar refuses to help them. In a state of anger Mandia
axes the Sahukar and he, his brother and father also are accomplices to this
heinous crime. Jili runs away and the three go to Lachhimpur police station to
admit their crime and to surrender before the police.

It is on this sad note that the tragic tale of Sukru Jani and his family end. From
sustenance to bondage, from happiness to grief, the lives of Sukru Jani and many
such tribal peasants are constantly eroded and become tales of suffering.
15
Check Your Progress2 Locating Paraja
1) Write an outline story of Paraja.
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2) Who are the main characters in the novel and what is their relationship?
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3) Write a brief character sketch of Sukru Jani.
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4) What is the theme of the novel?
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5) Do you think the novel throws light on tribal life? Support your answer.
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Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja 1.6 LET US SUM UP
In this Unit, we have given you a brief outline of the Odia novel; we have
introduced the author Gopinath Mohanty and his works; and provided an overview
of the story of Paraja, and later a detailed summary of the text to familiarise you
with the novel in brief. Though the novel deals with the life of the Parajas at
large; yet it narrates the sad tale of exploitation, misery and despair of Sukru Jani
and his family in particular. The ruthless system of oppression destroys and
completely ruins many tribal peasants like Sukru Jani. The novel sensitises the
reader to the lives of millions of tortured people. Please read the novel.
1.7 GLOSSARY
Paraja : Aboriginal tribe which has its home among the
rugged mountains of Koraput in Odisha.
Naika : The headman of the village
Ribini : The Revenue Inspector
Barik: : The village watchman
Lord Jhakar : The All – Pervading One (God of the tribes)
Nisani Munda : The Earth Goddess
Goti : Bonded labourer
Kondh, Gadaba, Jhodia : Names of tribes
Saltu : The Salt and Excise department
Kurayi Mahua : Flowers
Kadamba : Trees
Disari : The diviner or the sooth sayer
Beju : A human medium used by Disari for prophecy
Jani : The village priest
Dharmu : The Just One (God)
Basumati : The Earth Goddess
Bagh-Debta : The Tiger God
Kutchee : Gujarati, a person belonging to the Kutch region
of Gujarat
Sahukar : The money – lender
Subaltern : Of inferior rank (includes peasant workers and
other group denied access to hegemonic power
of the ruling classes)
17
Locating Paraja 1.8 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress1
1) Western and Bengali Literature.
2) The novels were largely based on the life and culture of the tribal people
and sometimes on Gandhian principles and social issues.
3) Gopinath Mohanty was born in 1924 and is a highly acclaimed writer. His
novels deal with various aspects of tribal life and the exploited down trodden
people.
Check Your Progress2
1) The Praja are a group of tribals who were constantly exploited then and are
still today and the novel deals with the destruction of the family of Sukru
Jani and how out of sheer helplessness and frustration they hack a man to
death.
2) The father Sukru Jani, his two sons Mandia and Tikra, his two daughtersJii and Bili, the Forest Guard, the Naika Kajodia- the betrothed of Mandia,
Bagla – the beloved of Jili, Ram Chandra BisoI, and the Sahukar who is
instrumental in destroying their lives.
3) Sukru Jani is an honest, God fearing man who has the misfortune of being
born a tribal and illiterate at that, he is weak in terms of material possession
and knowledge of the law, and is gullible as he can be misguided very
easily, but he is also a man of great integrity, has great love for his family
and immense self respect.
4) The theme of the novel is the exploitation of the tribesmen in Odisha but it
could be applicable everywhere and the destruction of a way of life by the
corrupting forces of material society.
5) The novel Paraja deals with the customs, the culture, the festivals and the
songs and dances of the Paraja tribes. It also sheds light on their way of life
and their thinking.
18
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja UNIT 2 PARAJA: SOCIO-CULTURAL
CONTEXT
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Economic Plight of the Tribals
2.3 The Socio – Political Structure in the Novel
2.4 The Subaltern Voice
2.5 Let Us Sum Up
2.6 Glossary
2.7 Hints to Check Your Progress
2.0 OBJECTIVES
On reading this Unit carefully you will be able to:
Understand the socio-economic condition of the tribals
Place the tribals in a social and political hierarchy
Visulaise the life of the tribals
And evaluate, whether or not a tribal has any voice or any say in the sociocultural context.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit, you will go through a discussion that aims to highlight a few important
factors about tribal life in general and about the Paraja community especially the
protagonist and his family in particular. Fiction is considered to be a mirror of
society, as it depicts the political, economic, socio – cultural, ethical and religious
perspectives of society. This form of writing is used as a medium for the
dissemination of ideas and thoughts. A socio –cultural novel is an interaction
between socio -economic and political implications, and moral and cultural values.
The Frenchman Taine said, ‘literature is the consequence of the moment, race
and milieu.’ Thus, the geographical conditions, the historical moment and the
social milieu influence creative writing.
Mohanty’s Paraja is one such text where the local geographical details, the feudal
background, the economic and material resources and the unremarkable bond
between man and nature are manifest in its social custom, rituals and rites and
are fore – grounded effectively. The cultural phenomenon thrives on the politics,
economic power structures and socio-cultural practices that give meaning to a
particular society. An in-depth analysis and interpretation reveals the meaning,
embedded in this phenomenon, which is the product of social forces and
conventions. Culture is alive and changing rather than static and monolithic.
Hence, culture is the ‘practice of everyday life’.
This unit as a whole and the block overall will help you in understanding Paraja
as a novel on tribal life and you’ll be able to understand the text in its cultural
19
Paraja: Socio-Cultural
Context context. In the following section, we shall examine the economic plight of the
tribals as reflected in Paraja.
2.2 ECONOMIC PLIGHT OF THE TRIBALS
The novel Paraja gives ethnographic details about poverty in the Koraput district
of Odisha, especially amongst the tribals of Sarsupadar. At the onset of the story,
on the very first page itself – we have a description of the hamlet – ‘thatched
huts’; ‘patches of green … sown with maize, chillies or tobacco’; ‘mandia, olsi
and kandula … staple food of these tribes.’ The description is a tell-tale narrative
about the poor living conditions of the Paraja folk: single room divided into
compartments with not many accessories, containers made of leaves, clothes
that hang on the walls are just the loin cloths of men and cotton saris of the girls;
dried bottle gourds to carry mandia gruel to the fields; and umbrellas made of
dried palm leaves. They earn their living by working on their small ‘patches of
green’ or as labour/gotis for someone/ especially the money – lender. Neither do
they have high ambitions nor do they have too many desires. They are basically
God-fearing people and believe in Gods and Goddesses associated with nature.
They have firm faith in their own efforts. Women bathe, and wash at the stream
and carry water for their homes. Their dress is mainly a sari and their jewellery
consists of bead necklaces, bangles, etc.
And thus it was that in this land of hills and forests in an unmapped corner of the
wide world, luckless men and women who lived on castaway mango stones and
hid their nakedness in bits of rag huddled together under the torrent of misery
pouring down on their heads, and wept. (p 37)
But who listens to the cries of these people or sees the tears that roll down their
cheeks? To raise a loan of fifty rupees, a tribal has to become a goti (bonded
labourer) for a life – time. It is evident that uneducated, economically poor tribals
are thoroughly exploited. Chapter 32 brings up the various, horrifying aspects of
bonded labour. The gotis live in ragged and tattered huts and men, women,
children, chickens, dogs and swine grovel in the same dust. Women are exploited
constantly as a result of the economic instability of the Paraja menfolk. For the
goti it is fruitless labour as he earns no wages, is paid no salary, but has to sweat
his life away in trying to work off the loan.
A clear comparison has been made between the rich and poor in Chapter 32. The
chapter defines distinctly the differences between the residential palace like house
of the money – lender and the miserable huts of the gotis. This chapter lays bare
the story of how the money – lender becomes the feudal lord and master. Chapter
79 highlights the callousness of these money-minded people. When Dasru Paraja
wails that his brother Sania has been carried off by the tiger, the Sahukar
immediately thinks of his money and tells Dasru Paraja to repay the debt of his
brother or he’ll take him to the court and confiscate his land and ox.
Poverty is horrifying and more so when it leads to exploitation and the exploited
do not feel or even realise that they are being used, exploited. Thus, Chapters 60
and 61 are a description of the life of the people living on the highway. The
labourers on the highway are better off in comparison to the gotis and the
supervisor is better off in comparison to the Sahukar. At least the workers are
paid for their hard work and the poor people can get their daughters married into
families that can pay a good bride price.
20
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja Poverty has been portrayed very clearly by Mohanty:
An entity not seen but actually felt, for everywhere he is a part of human existence.
He lives in derelict houses, empty cooking pots, in heaps of tattered clothing; he
lurks in the dark of the evening. He fills the minds of men with dreams, wave
upon wave; he shows them new paths to follow, pricking them into wakefulness
as they lie curled up in sleep by the fireside. He pushes them out of doors and
slams the door shut after them. He guides men to the prison-cell or to the gallows.
He inspires women to sell themselves in the market place. In him, all want and
hunger are incarnated. (pp 207-08)
Poverty makes people shun all notions of morality. The demarcating line and the
parameters between right and wrong vanish. For Jili, sex has no meaning as she
has been forced unwillingly into it; Mandia does not want to axe the Sahukar but
is forced to perform the heinous act of hacking him because of the illegal methods
that the vile Sahukar has employed in refusing to return the land; the tribal
villagers who betray Sukru Jani unknowingly, have been conditioned to live in
terror of the officials and therefore, they do not have the strength to stand up for
Sukru Jani. The journey to the courts is also an exploitative venture. The witnesses
demand money, meat, liquor, tobacco etc. and all this weighs heavily on Sukru
Jani. Their offerings to high officials are mainly hens, eggs, jackfruits or bananas.
If on the one hand, the novel reflects the miserable condition of the tribals in the
village then on the other it highlights the equally gloomy state of affairs at the
road construction site. While they earn money, they (particularly the women),
also fall prey to other forms of exploitation. Isolation, ignorance and a one-dayat-a-time attitude makes the migrant labourers victims of vicious romances and
a materialistic life.

Thus, we see that at every step, poverty, poor economic conditions, and a lack of
awareness and understanding of legal matters makes the life of these Parajas
miserable. On reading the novel carefully we get the impression that we need to
empower the Parajas, alleviate their poverty, and provide education, better health
facilities and more job opportunities. This will gradually reduce the feudal
structure and we may be in a position to change the mental attitude of the people.
The socio-political structure of the novel Paraja will be taken up in the next
section.

Check Your Progress 1
1) How would you describe the economic conditions of the tribals?
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2) Do you think local geography has any impact on the people?
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21
Paraja: Socio-Cultural
Context 3) Explain the political structure existing in Sarsupadar.
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4) What is the end result of any social structure? (Hint: Growth of a human
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5) Do you agree that contentment within the tribals crumbles with the intrusion
of non-tribal people?
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2.3 THE SOCO- POLITICAL STRUCTURE IN
THE NOVEL
The social and political structure is well defined both in the text and the Paraja
community. The nexus between the village officials, the feudal masters (the
moneylenders) and the government officials are well established. The only people
who remain on the outer margins or the people who benefit the least are the
Paraja tribesmen. They neither know the law nor are they educated enough to
understand the complexities of pen and paper. They are unaware of their rights
and duties. The fear of officials, paper work, prison, court is such that they shirk
away on mention of any of these and are ready to undergo any punishment, any
suffering rather than to hear these words. Little do they realise that their own
people are a part of the nexus. The rich and clever of the village are a party to the
exploitative system that operates within the larger socio-economic and sociopolitical structures. The Naika collects the rent on behalf of the Raja, delivers it
to Ribini/ the Revenue Inspector. Every villager has to pay a plough tax to the
Forest Guard who collects the tax and is the only man of law that they see or
know. Then there are feudal masters like the Sahukar who lend money and in
return ask for the services of tribal folk as bonded labourers and even usurp their
22
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja lands. For any religious matter the priests are there and for all social matters the
elders of the village sit together to sort out all the problems.
The manner in which each one dresses too displays the importance of the
individual’s status. The Naika wears only a loin – cloth below the waist but in
addition to that he also wears a coat, and a puggaree. The Forest Guard is dressed
in a shirt and shorts and carries a shot -gun on his shoulders. He is known as the
Guard or Jaman. Whereas, poor people like Sukru Jani spend their entire lives in
a strip of cloth four fingers wide used as a loin – cloth and the women are draped
in cotton saris, bead necklaces and bangles, and they oil their hair at times
especially on festive occasions.

The social life of the people is the usual routine agricultural life. Most of the men
work in the fields and the women take care of the household chores. On market
days the women go and sell their produce like chillies etc. There is nothing like
inhibition or pretence in these tribesmen and women. They all lead simple lives.
Their dreams and ambitions are to lead a happy life with two square meals a day,
a small piece of land to cultivate and a small thatched hut over their heads. They
do not aspire for too much. Their lives are full of songs, dances and festivity.
Even while they work, they sing songs in a chorus. Every evening the men play
on their dungudungas and the women dance. Their songs are of all kinds. Religious
festivals such as the Harvest festival or the Spring festival are celebrated as
community festivals and each one participates reverently in it. For, it is not in the
blood of these tribal people to annoy their Gods by being disrespectful in any
way.
A sense of helping, sharing and caring as well as reciprocation is a reflection of
the expression of their human emotions. The concern they have for each other is
only restricted by the fact that each one wants his/her share of material wealth
and that is the only limitation. It is Jili’s neighbour Diptimoni who comes to
borrow embers from the former’s fire and who apprises Jili about the information
divulged by Mathia the Christian preacher, that many people are migrating to
Assam as a new road is being built there and that the contractor’s agent is looking
for labourers to hire and that the labourers will be paid advance wages. The men
are to be paid three annas and women two annas. This information is like a life
saving drug for the two sisters because by then their share of misery has grown
considerably, as the food has all gone and their clothes have turned to rags. The
only deciding factor as to whether they should join or not join the contractor’s
bandwagon of labourers is their own mind and behind it, now is their poverty.
Thus, we see how the economic plight of the tribals intervenes into their social
set-up as well. A Paraja‘never sells his labour for wages’, but here, the forced
economic hardships compel him/her to sell his/her labour for wages, for loans
etc. This erodes the ideas of brother-hood and camaraderie and there is decay
and degeneration in tribal attitudes and values. One of the main reasons behind
this phenomenon is tribal migration due to various socio-economic factors such
as misfortunes and non-tribal intervention into tribal territories.The Forest Guard
and the Sahukar are examples of the latter and Jili and Billi’s shift to the highway
an illustration of the former. Tribal manpower is treated as mechanical with no
mind or heart, either to think or to feel. Contrarily, the tribals are deeply rooted
to the socio-cultural and geographical background and it is painful and humiliating
for them to be uprooted. For them their land is their life – the only means to live.
23
Paraja: Socio-Cultural
Context Socio-cultural, economic and political problems of tribal territories cannot be
understood in isolation. These problems are interrelated and the environment
also makes another undeniable contribution to this dilemma. Nature in the life
of the tribals assures its true significance in worship, rituals, customs and day today lives. The novel is about jungles, forests, mountains, land and crops; flora –
mahua, sowing and reaping, hunting and distilling country liquor; marriage and
rituals all enveloped by pastoral, idyllic, picturesque surroundings. There is not
just a physical presence of the above but a spiritual bonding to it and an emotional
support to the inhabitants residing in these panoramic surroundings. Thus, local
geography merges with the emotional geography of the people and this helps in
building the social structure of any place, any tribe, and any community. Let us
look at the tribals as the subaltern in the next section.

2.4 THE SUBALTERN VOICE
The term Subaltern means ‘of inferior rank’, a term adopted from Antonio
Gramsci to refer to those groups in society who are subject to the hegemony of
the ruling classes. Hegemonic notions help the ruling forces to dominate the
suppressed classes by couching and cushioning their imperial power in words
like social order, stability and advancement. Some of the hegemonic central
methods are social discrimination, racial prejudice, gender bias, cultural
differences and a split in humanistic values. Subaltern groups are fragmented
and marginalised because they have either little or no access to the means of
control both in social and cultural institutions. Their dissent or resistance is crushed
and their voice remains unheard. The subaltern is a standard term designating a
subject that has been constructed, colonised and internalised by the authoritative
forces. The marginalised person does try to resist and rebel, but to what extent, is
questionable and debatable.
In the novel Paraja we witness the Paraja or the tribals as the subalterns who are
manipulated by the ruling feudal forces operating in that area. They are the
marginalised people who are unable to raise their fist or voice and even if they
try, their fate is as of Sukru Jani. They are doomed forever. Their resistance is
meaningless. They are devoid of the basic facilities required by human beings.
Sukru Jani an illiterate is roped into the nexus of moneylenders and officials for
no fault of his. He asks for permission from the Forest Guard to clear a patch of
land in the forest for agricultural purposes, which is duly given, but verbally. Let
us not forget that in tribal cultures the oral word carries more weight. Oral tradition
and orature is part and parcel of their lives. Later when Sukru Jani’s daughter Jili
refuses the advances of the Forest Guard, he (Sukru Jani) is harassed and
persecuted by the nexus of officials including the people of the village. He and
one of his sons become bonded labourers; his other son is caught brewing liquor
illegally and to pay off his fine he too has to surrender his services to the money
– lender. The suffering does not end here. Jili is sexually exploited by the money
– lender. Whenever Sukru Jani raises his voice in protest either for land or money,
it is suppressed and with the passage of time he neither has land, nor money nor
a family, Sukru Jani is, a representative of many such people who are faced with
similar problems and those who, at times suffer more than him. When Sukru
Jani knocks on the doors of the court, here too, because of his being uneducated
and unaware of the law, is at the losing end. Money changes hands and once
again he is defeated and feels horribly cheated. The constant oppression and
enslavement enforced by the rich and the socially higher ups results in the apparent
24
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja action of his sons when they hack the money – lender to pieces. And at a subconscious level they make people hear their voices. Lenin had said that ‘the
proletariat has nothing to lose and nothing to gain’. Sukru Jani is a figure in the
novel who, does not have anything to lose in life and is aware that there is nothing
much that he can achieve or gain either. So, he becomes a rebel. The voice of
the subaltern is in rebellion. The speech of the marginalised is in his/her actions.
The fighting spirit of these peripheral people of society is their stand against
oppression.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Define the term Subaltern.
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2) Can the tribals be categorised as the Subaltern? Support your answers.
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3) How does Sukru Jani, our protagonist, represent the marginalised?
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4) What do you understand by ‘Voice of the Subaltern’?
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Paraja: Socio-Cultural
Context 5) Write an elaborate account of the socio-cultural conditions existing in
Sarsupadar, Koraput (Odisha).
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6) Examine the economic structure, as discussed by Mohanty, in any feudal
system.
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7) List out the tribal issues that need to be taken care of even today.
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8) The Subaltern voice is in rebellion /revolution /reform? Elucidate your point
of view.
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9) ‘The novel Paraja is about human existence.’ Explain.
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Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja 2.5 LET US SUM UP
The novel when categorised in the cultural context impels the reader to classify
it as a novel about class struggle. It paints a clear picture of the economic
organisation in a tribal society where the tribal man is on the lowest rung because
he is uneducated, poor and powerless, and therefore, not only suffers but also is
the most exploited person. Actually, he is a step higher than the tribal woman
who is exploited more than even the tribal man. The interests of the dominant,
rich and powerful groups are safeguarded and the marginalised suffer perpetually.
Culture is a partial reflection of the economic paraphernalia because hegemony
penetrates so deeply that the subordinate classes unquestioningly accept their
own oppression.
The novel under study is the story of a marginalised, tribal man Sukru Jani who
has lost everything – land, family, money – to the rich, powerful class and is left
with a sad tale of suffering.
In this unit, an attempt has been made to define culture and along with that one
needs to understand the economic pyramidical structure that exist in society.
The social and political structures are interlinked to the economic organisation,
and all are interactive except the peripheral being -the tribal. S/he remains at the
receiving end. The novel also hints at the fact that the tyrants cannot suppress
and exploit people for long and ultimately the only answer to this is rebellion
and sometimes rebellion can take a gruesome turn as in the case of Sukru Jani. If
his/her pleas cannot be heard then, the pleas would translate into action that
would be seen by all and which would appear frightening and often very violent.
Sukru Jani and his family suffer for a long time but, in the end the act of killing
becomes an external manifestation of their anger, hatred, agony and the plea is
now a stronger voice that says: ‘Stop Exploiting’! ‘Stop Harassing!’The novel is
not only a tale of human emotions, struggles and suffering but is also an account
of a tribal family’s helplessness. A multifaceted observation of socio-cultural
network reveals that tribal identity is closely related to ignorance, innocence and
isolation. Poverty, deprivation and exploitation by non-tribals have sapped tribal
strength and solidarity.
2.6 GLOSSARY
Culture : The arts, customs and institutions of a
nation, people or group
Feudalism : The dominant social system in which the
nobility held lands for military services and
the lower orders of society worked for the
nobles.
Gramsci Antonio (1891-1937) : Italian Marxist thinker and one of the
representatives of Western Marxism. His
major contribution to theory is the groundbreaking work he has done on hegemony.
Hierarchy : A system in which people are ranked one
above the other according to status or
authority.
27
Paraja: Socio-Cultural
Context Hegemony : Is the power of the ruling class to convince
other classes that their interests are the
interests of all. Domination is exercised
not by force but in a more subtle way.
Proletariat : Workers or Working-class people.
Lenin : (1870-1924) the chief figure in the Russian
Revolution who introduced policies based
on Marxist principle.
Marginal : On the periphery, with respect to and
access to power.
2.7 HINTS TO CHECK YOYR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1) Read section 2.2.
They are poor, illiterate, exploited, and caught in the vicious circle of poverty.
2) They live close to nature – draw sustenance from the local flora and fauna.
3) Raja, Ribi, Saltu, Jaman, Sahukar, tribals and the gotis. Power nexus between
the rich and the powerful, while the poor are exploited.
4) Social structures are meant to empower people with education, better health
facilities, job opportunities, but these rarely happen.
5) Yes, tribals as shown in Paraja, appear to be simple people with very few
desires and hopes, and are hence, quite contented but, with the infusion of
non-tribals such as the antagonists in the novel, they to have needs that can
be fulfilled only with the aid of the former and that is their undoing.
Check Your Progress 2
1) The term subaltern means ‘of inferior rank’. (Read section 2.4)
2) Yes. They have often been suppressed and dominated by the non-tribals
through the ages.
3) Read paragraph 2, section 2.4
4) The subaltern were/are marginalised people, implying that they are voiceless/
that they are unheard. The ‘voice of the subaltern’ refers to the resistance
by these hitherto marginalised people.
5) Read section 2.4 carefully and then answer.
6) Read section 2.4 carefully and then answer.
7) Read section 2.4 carefully and then answer.
8) Read section 2.4 carefully and then answer.
28
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja UNIT 3 THEME AND PLOT
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Definition and Meaning of Theme
3.3 The Theme of Paraja
3.4 What is Paraja About?
3.5 Defining Plot
3.6 The Plot of Paraja
3.7 Let Us Sum Up
3.8 Hints to Check Your Progress

3.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit, we shall try to identify certain important aspects of a work of fiction.
After closely analysing the unit, you should be able to understand the concept
and meaning of the following things:
theme and plot of Paraja
the role theme plays in Paraja in determining our understanding of the
novel and
the significance of plot in Paraja for a satisfactory appreciation of the
complex issues dealt with, in the narrative.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier units, you have read in some detail about the history and development
of the Odia novel. You have also learned about the writer, Gopinath Mohanty,
his life and his career as a creative author in Unit 1. Unit 2 was devoted to the
novel Paraja and gave you the story of the novel in brief. For a meaningful
understanding of the novel, these expository units are crucial. But for a more
nuanced and closer reading of a fictional work – one must adopt some more
critical approaches. It is in this context that we shall define theme very simply
and then look at the theme of Paraja as reflected in the novel.

3.2 DEFINITION AND MEANING OF THEME
Every work of art – literature, painting, sculpture or the performing arts such as
music or drama deals with some specific fragment of human experience. We feel
pleasure in reading a work of literature because in it we find the reflection of our
own joys, sorrows, aspirations and dreams. Since a writer holds up a mirror to
life in his/her work of artistic composition, the readers should feel that the
emotions or ideas expressed in the novel, corresponds to our own.There is thus,
a level of identification with the work with reference to the central idea developed
in the text. It also enables the readers to participate in those experiences that
they themselves may never have faced or been faced with.
29
However, it has to be accepted that life is a continuous process involving a Paraja: Themes and Plot
multiplicity of events, episodes, people and points of view. Thus, life as a whole
cannot be included in any work of art since any artistic work must have a complete
and cohesive structure. It has to portray the inception, growth and development
of a certain episode, incident or happening. The characters have to participate in
that event, as part and parcel of a structured experience seen through the
perspective of the individual author. This automatically ensures the fact that the
readers must share the experience from the beginning to the end leading to the
enrichment and fulfillment of character.
A work of art therefore, must be developed around a single, central idea that
encompasses the philosophy and vision of the creative artist in a seminal form.
By organising the work around a central idea and by giving it a carefully conceived
structural design the novelist gives it an aesthetic dimension that helps the readers
derive maximum aesthetic pleasure. The theme therefore, refers not merely to
the subject of a literary work but rather a statement that the text seems to be
making about that subject. Major novels of the English literary tradition centre
round specific central concerns. For instance, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
is said to deal with the theme of money and marriage. Charles Dicken’s David
Cpperfield traces the fortunes of the central character in the midst of chaotic
circumstances. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre portrays a woman’s quest for
identity in a patriarchal world. Let us examine the theme of Paraja next.

3.3 THE THEME OF PARAJA
Let us now focus our critical attention on the primary strands of narratives in
Paraja to come to an understanding on the major preoccupation of the novel.
Paraja is a novel that centres round the joys, aspirations, hopes and failures of
the aboriginal Paraja tribe that has its home among the rugged mountains and
forests of Koraput in Odisha.The very word ‘tribe’ means a social group in a
traditional society consisting of linked families or communities sharing customs
and beliefs. In different parts of India, varied tribes live in their own – cocooned
worlds and thus, are labeled as either uncivilised or backward. Let us not forget
that the definition of what is civilised too is biased and is based on the hegemonic
views of the ruling forces. The White British categorised the Indian Sub-continent
people as browns who had to learn the ways of the modern world through them;
they stamped the Africans as blacks who were tribals, thus, savages, barbarous
and uncivilised and in need of education. The Whites entered with the Bible in
one hand and the gun in the other. Thus, the tentacles of colonialism spread into
the cultures of colonised nations and crippled the existing system. New
definitions, new meaning, new interpretations replaced the old existing order.
Apparently, colonialism is no more but evidently in the form of neo-colonialism,
through economic and military dominations and more emphatically through
cultural colonisation, the domination and its impact persist. Imperial culture
appropriates both colonial as well as postcolonial culture and identity.
In the postcolonial set up, the subaltern suffers and remains the exploited lot.
These include peasants, workers and other groups including tribals who are denied
power and the benefits of mainstream culture. These people remain on the margins,
the periphery of both i.e. power and benefits.Thus, we see that the tribals are
people who are beyond mainstream culture and prefer to reside and live their
lives in remote geographical territories, in the mountains as the tribes of Kinnaur,
30
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, in Uttrakhand, in the North Eastern states
of India, in the plains of Bihar and deserts of Rajasthan, in Madhya Pradesh,
Bengal, Odisha, and various parts of the southern states of our country. The
tribals of different regions speak their own specific language; they believe in
supernatural forces, spirits and myths, and follow their own customs and rituals.
Though they may be poor educationally and economically, yet they are rich in
the zest and love of life.
There is an immense body of tribal literature and many novelists have made
successful attempts at depicting tribal life through their works. Most of the
novels are written in the so – called regional languages or what the Sahitya
Akademi calls ‘Bhasha Literature’ and then translated into English for the benefit
of a wider readership. To list a few of these: Mahashweta Devi’s Aranyer Adhikar
(Bengali) or Jungle ke Davedar (Hindi) or Rights of the Forest (English); “Kunti
and the Nishadi”; Shaani’s Sal Vanoon Ke Desh Mein (Hindi) or An Island of
Sal; Verrier Elwin’s A Cloud that is Dragonish; Rahul Sankrityayan’s
travelogue Kinnar Desh Mein; Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya’s Mrityunjay.
Many films too, have been made on tribal life depicting their association with
the natural environment and the external modern world. Cutting across mediums,
tribal dances are being popularised, art and sculpture bytribals is encouraged
and clothes and jewellery are fashionable ethnic nowadays.
Gopinath Mohanty’s novel Paraja discusses at length the life of the Paraja tribe.
Let us recall that one-fourth of the people of Odisha are tribals and one of the
prominent aboriginal tribes is the Paraja tribe living among the rugged mountains
and forests of Koraput district. In the near vicinity other tribes too reside and
these are the Kondh, Gadaba and Jhodia. Thus, Paraja also refers to a
conglomeration of three-four tribes who live together, celebrate festivals together,
speak a similar language and share similar rituals and customs. Mohanty through
his novel Paraja and through the protagonist of the novel -Sukru Jani narrates
the story of this tribe. Sukru Jani thus, universalises not only his tribe but is also
a representative of many such tribes who prefer to stay in their limited world but
are being encroached upon by materialistic civilisation all because the external
world wishes to gain power. Hence, the novel is an anthropological documentation
as it reveals the past socio-cultural history of that place and people, and the
compulsory changes that keep taking place time-to-time. Woven in between this
simple turn of events of life to a complex narration of evolution, is the tale of
human emotions and the theme of human endurance. The novel explores the
diverse layers of their lives, primarily emphasising on their perpetual struggle
with the hostile forces of both nature and society. In the course of reading the
novel, we get to witness their way of life, customs and mores, festivals and
religious practices, social interactions and cultural attitude. The novelist highlights
in a realistic manner their exploitation at the hands of the money leaders and
officers of law, the excruciating pain arising out of their yearning for love and
the non fulfillment of their dreams. Their desire to live as free human beings on
the land they own, to till it and live off the sweat of their labour with dignity is
constantly thwarted by complex social forces.
Tribal life as depicted in the novel can be broadly categorised into two parts:
i) The infrastructure (ii) the rituals, customs and myths.
Let us first discuss the infrastructure. Mohanty at the very onset of the novel
describes vividly the hamlet of Sarsupadar in the Eastern Ghats that consists of
31
Paraja: Themes and Plot two clusters of thatched huts of the Paraja tribe and the Dombs. He describes the
twenty-two families that live in the village. Their profession is agriculture and
their staple diet is mandia, olsi and kandula (different kinds of millets). Men
wear just loin – cloth while the women wear saris. A description of Sukru Jani’s
house reveals the simple lifestyle of these tribal folk. Sukru Jani’s hut has a
single room divided into three compartments. The central compartment is used
both as a living room and as a store. The two compartments on either side are
only tiny cells. The hut is a low roofed shelter. Preserved in the house are
mango seeds to be crushed into powder, boiled and eaten; seeds of wild hedge –
plant bai-gaba crushed for oil; ten measure of mandia kept in containers made
of leaves sown together and dried bottle gourds used as flasks.
The Headman of the village known as Naiki collects the rent on behalf of the
Raja and delivers it to the Revenue Inspector or the Ribini. The Forest Guard –
the only arm of law collects the tax. Every villager owning a pair of bullocks has
to pay a ‘plough tax’ for the privilege of grazing his cattle in the forest. He is the
only person who is dressed in shirt and shorts. Another dignitary, a Domb –
known as ‘Barik’, the village watchman is always present when either the Forest
Guard or any other official arrives. The Headman’s ‘goti’ is somebody who has
borrowed money and has bound himself to serve his creditor as a slave for as
long as the debt remains unpaid. Tribals particularly those who are far away
from the main stream live under the constant threat of official persecution and
no existence in the jungle is possible unless one learns to play hide and seek with
the Forest Guard or the Law, and is able to lie with great moral conviction. Thus,
they live in constant fear and insecurity. They have an instinctive dread of paper
work and documentation. They are unable to displease officials as they are aware
that the so called civilised people, the powerful ones can handcuff them on some
pretext or the other, and that too within no time at all. Not only this, but the
whole tribe also pays a price for one man’s obstinacy. The officials terrorise the
poor tribals by threatening them. They handcuff the tribals and take away their
belongings, pull down their houses, recover fines and basically maltreat them.
Among the tribals if one is sent to prison one has to lose one’s caste which is
their only prized possession.
A piece of doggerel oft quoted by hill folk was:
The forest Guard’s the rider,
The tribeman is the horse,
And always it’s the rider who
Decides upon their course.
At the centre of the village is a hut that is the dormitory for all unmarried girls
while a little way away is the men’s dormitory. It has been an ancient Paraja
custom for all married boys and girls to sleep in their respective dormitories.
The Men – both young and old – have no education or material wealth but simply
believe in the strength of their sturdy limbs, their weather – proof skin; and their
sickness resistant bodies and work hard either on their lands or earn wages by
carrying loads etc. The women enjoy dressing up, oiling their hair, singing songs,
exchanging jokes, chatting and laughing either at the stream where they bathe or
go to fetch water or when at home while busy cooking or cleaning and completing
house-hold chores. They even go to the forest to collect edible roots, herbal
plants and fruits etc. The temple priest is known as Jani and the Gods of the tribe
are – Lord Jhakar – the All Pervading One and Nisani Munda the Earth Goddess.
32
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja Mohanty’s infrastructure of the village of the Parajas merges with the fictional
landscape. The informative account of tribal geography combines well with the
detailed analysis of festival and customs as depicted in the novel. Living within
a feudal system the people of the primitive/traditional world are like the Mother
earth – patient and enduring, who recoil and withdraw at the slightest interference
from any materialistic quarter, as they are unaware of the evil machinations of
the town/city people. The protagonist of our novel Paraja, Sukru Jani too suffers
on this account. As we have already read, his daughters Bili and Jili are ensnared
in the web woven by the Forest Guard and the money – lender, and Sukru Jani’s
sons Mandia and Tikra also suffer on this account. In the second part we shall
now discuss the customs, ritual and myths associated with the Paraja tribe as
depicted in the novel.
As has already been discussed there were no taboos or restraints imposed on the
younger generations in the village and though the unmarried boys and girls slept
in their respective dormitories yet they met each other outside the hut and if
something were to go wrong the elders would sit together in a conclave and the
culprits would be penalised by being made to offer four annas worth of liquor to
all the villagers; and then they would drink and dance and sing before the altar of
the Earth Goddess and there the matter would end. They believed that God was
a witness to their honesty and sincerity. Boys and girls had the right to elope, and
in order to legalise their relationship the boy had to pay about forty rupees to the
girl’s father as the customary bride price. While courting, the names by which
the people addressed each other – both men and women – were Flower of the
Sand, Fire Sand, Lovely Rice, Lovely Flowers, Red Sand, etc. Thus, a Paraja
marriage required a minimum of formality. As soon as a boy and girl agreed to
live together as man and wife, the marriage was solemnised by tribal custom.
Only the conventional ritual remained; the Disari, or Soothsayer, would select
an auspicious day for the rites; a tiny roof woven from twigs, would be propped
up on supporting sticks three feet above the ground, and pigeons and fowls would
be sacrificed to the sound of drums and bugles. Then the wedding feast, (a
custom that seals the marriage bond) would be given and the ceremonies would
be over. There were only four months in the year when people of the Paraja tribe
may marry, the months being: February, March, April and May.
Chapter 49 has a detailed description of Kajodi and Bagala’s marriage. A smear
of turmeric from the man’s body and a smear of castor oil from his hair are
rubbed on the woman and the ritual is repeated vice-versa. Symbolically, it
represents the union of two people. Thereafter, the man presses the left foot of
the woman with his right foot and spits three times on her face and the women
repeats it. Necklaces and rings are exchanged; ends of clothes knotted; and each
takes a ritual dip in the stream. The priest offers eggs in sacrifice. After this they
go to the square of the ancestral stones, offering sacrifices to God en-route. The
Spirit of the ancestors is propitiated with eggs, rice and mahua wine. The bride
and groom bow low in obeisance before going to their new house. Rice and
turmeric paste is scattered on the heads of the couple amidst mantra chanting by
the priest. A black rooster pecks at the grain of rice on the head before being
sacrificed. The bride is adorned in a silver necklace, gold ear – rings and a gold
nose ring before the ceremonial wedding feast starts. A Paraja girl has the right
to choose any man that she likes and to cast him off and take another if she wants
to. She has the right to make, break and build another home, as she likes and
whenever she wills to do so.
33
Belonging to the forests and associated with the agricultural profession most of Paraja: Themes and Plot
the festivals of the tribals people are invariably related to the harvest. During the
Spring Festival they not only anoint scarlet powder on their face but also colour
other villagers. Such a festival amongst the Paraja is very similar to the other
major Indian festival of Holi. It is a time for revelry, dancing, hunting and feasting.
November is called the month of the festival of lights. In December, the tribes
jointly observe one of their major festivals to mark the gathering of the harvest
that is followed fifteen days later, by the ritual eating of the new grain. At the
time of the Harvest Festival, all men return to their villages to celebrate the
festival with family and friends. On the morning of the festival, people wake up
early, full of enthusiasm and start the day – long preparation for the evening.
After an early mandia gruel meal the men go to the jungle to collect wood for the
bonfire and the women daub their houses with colours – walls are painted in
white and red, verandas are plastered in black and yellow and the floors inside
are smeared with varied hued designs, the wooden frames of the doors and
windows are painted with powdered charcoal mixed in oil. Some women are
busy washing and boiling clothes with wood ash to bleach them or make them
white. Thereafter, they busy themselves in dressing up. They wash and dress up
in colourful saris, tuck flowers in oiled hair, wear bangles and necklaces and get
ready for the evening.
At dusk the festivities begin with loud cries of ‘Thief’! ‘Thief’! The youngsters
stealing from their neighbour’s houses initiate the fun, though the next day the
stolen object is restored to the owner. Thereafter, there is singing and dancing.
Another ritual performed during this festival at the time of the dance is that, a
black rooster is killed in front of a pile of logs, and the fresh blood is allowed to
drain into the soil. Then some liquor, freshly distilled from mahua flowers, is
poured on the same spot and is mingled with the blood. This is the libation to the
Earth Goddess, sealed with an offering of flowers. Next, the rooster dripping
blood is held over a pile of wood; a few flowers are placed ceremonially on the
logs, some more liquor is poured on it, and the flame is lit. A great shout goes up
as the logs crack and blaze. The next day children paint their cheeks white and
black, their clothes are multicoloured and with sticks in hand they go begging
for alms from house to house and they are given handful of rice or mandia. The
festival continues for a month.
The dates of the Spring Festival have to be carefully calculated by the soothsayers
of all the tribes. The Kondh astrologer makes his calculations from the stars; the
Paraja Disari consults his almanacs. The ‘Disari’ is all knowing for the Paraja
tribemen. The God of Spring has to be invoked; the Kondhs desire the rites to be
performed at the exact moment when two stars appear over Elephant Hill, while
the Paraja wait for the appropriate moment that is commenced by the call of
three barking deers in the forest and the village priest of ‘Jani sacrifices a barking
deer at the altar; thereafter, a pigeon is sacrificed on the appearance of the two
stars. During, the interval between the two sacrifices, the headman prostrates
before the altar of the gods with his face to the ground, a bit of straw held between
his teeth and a halter around his neck, as a mark of humility. After the invocation,
the festival begins. All villagers must walk in a procession to the god’s shrine
(men in one file and women in the other) and beg him to grace their festival. For
them, God lives in the deep jungles, far away from human breath, walks on untrodden soils, lives in a shrine housed by bills, overgrown thick forest, and his
divine neighbours are: Basumati, the Earth Goddess; Jhakar, the god for all
34
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja seasons – and Bagh Debta, the tiger god. The shrine is an ancient and enormous
mango tree. The villagers smear the tree trunk with sacred vermilion paste, pigeon
and fowl are sacrificed and offerings of liquor are poured into the soil that is then
decorated with patterns drawn in coloured powders. The drummers beat furiously
on their drums. Suddenly all noises cease and the priest climbs on the top of
huge boulder facing the tree, raises his torch to the sky and then begins the
incantation to the Gods. The parajas then shake various blossoms and tend to the
mango fruits in order to make them fall to the ground in a carpet like manner.
Men and women sing and dance and with this the ceremony ends. The village
folk form ranks and climb up the hill once again. Later at night in the open
square of the village, a bonfire is lit, erect stones representing men, flat ones
representing women are placed in honour of the ancestors and the dance begins.
Death ceremony too in the Paraja tribe is solemnised by placing a stone vertically
for men and laying it flat for women. In a corner of the open space in the center
of the village where the tribal dances and assemblies are held, sheltered by the
shade of an old mango tree is a memorial to all the dead of the village.
The novel describes the lives of tribals in jungles which is basically a question of
survival. Poisonous plants and ravenously hungry animals pose a constant threat
to these people who have to visit the interior of forests either as herdsmen or as
labourers. In Paraja Mohanty highlights various issues of the Paraja tribe subtly.
A number of questions related to the identity and life style of tribals are raised.
For a tribal, his/her life is his/her land, his/her forests, his/her natural environment.
For him/her ecological issues and environmental concerns mean little, as s/he is
still unaware of these issues. The novel also exposes a pertinent fact that the
tribals are still being exploited in this world and because of extreme illiteracy
and poverty they are forced to live in sub-human conditions. The second half of
the novel discusses at length the moving away of the tribals, their migration to
other states, legal difficulties, tribal rights and the question and nature of identity.
The writer emphatically points at the unscrupulous means adopted by non-tribals
in usurping tribal land through unfair methods. The attitudes are changing as
commercialisation infiltrates into the lives of tribals. More and more tribal folk
are getting displaced due to economic and legal reasons. Inequality and bonded
labour has led to pain, anguish and humiliation of these simple tribal people.
Their ignorance adds to their woes, making them easy victims of
exploitation.Thus, the novel if, on the one hand acquaints us with life style, culture,
rituals and customs of tribal folk, then, on the other it highlights the problems
being faced by the tribals.
Gopinath Mohanty portrays diverse aspects of the lives of a Paraja family through
a multiplicity of situations. Sukru Jani longs to plough more and more land to
ensure the economic security of his family, in the pursuit of his longings, he gets
enmeshed in a web of inexplicable economic rules in the hands of the
moneylender, his dreams are unfulfilled and he and his sons take revenge by
butchering the villainous Sahukar. The novelist lyrically depicts the flowering of
human emotions as he shows the young men and women falling in love (Mandia
Jani and Kajodi, Jili and Bagla).
Songs and dance are a vital part of the oral tradition and of tribal life. The songs
in oral literature are narrative and reflective as they broaden our horizons on the
traditions and folklore of that tribe and the age as well. The songs are also termed
as ‘oral formulaic poetry’ that means ‘poetry that is composed and transmitted
35
by singers or reciters’. Its origins are pre-historic and it continues to flourish Paraja: Themes and Plot
amongst population that is illiterate. Additions and deletions take place in the
narrative as it is passed by word of mouth, from one generation to another orally.
Despite the fact that these oral compositions have no fixed variation yet these
poems or songs incorporate verbal formulas – set words, word patterns, and
refrains which help to recall, repeat and readjust to changing times. The themes
of the songs vary from traditional folk epic subjects like tribal heroes, love,
romance and day-to-day routine chores.
Orality and literacy are interrelated and mutually interactive. Mohanty
incorporates songs in his novel Paraja as they form an inevitable part of tribal
life and culture. The songs touch upon all areas of tribal life. These songs underline
the deep-rooted-ness of the tribal’s relationship with his/her surroundings, rituals,
customs, Gods and supernatural forces. Their simplicity is reflected through these
songs and their intentions are mirrored in these orations. The songs are an
inseparable part of the text and one has to understand the theoretical concerns
highlighted through them. These songs correspond to the lives of the various
characters of the novel and exhibit their emotions. They help to build the
atmosphere of the novel. The novel makes use of love, ritual, festival, work,
seasonal, and miscellaneous songs. The songs are an expression of their deepest
emotions – the rasa and the bhava – love, fear, hope, hatred, anguish, pain,
ecstasy, be it at work or in relationships; be it at the altar of God or at the change
of seasons or celebrations of festivals.
Songs are not solely a part of the Paraja community but all over the world in
tribes or in non-tribes as well, they are an expression of feelings on different
occasions; an external manifestation of internal, hidden, unsaid emotions. The
words voice the flow of thoughts. Let us read through these songs:
Love Songs:
The garment of many colours which you wear,
That sari woven in Lower Maliguda,
Wash it clean again, wash it quickly
For my sake, beloved, come out in your very best,
Wear you bangles around your wrists.
Come out quickly; come, my love.
Let us romp together, let us dance
In this village of our forefathers,
That village of your mother’s brother,
The village of your grandfather,
There is no shame,
There is no fear,
You have caught no fish,
You have caught no crab. (20)
That is the song that Bagla sings for Jili and plays on his dungudunga. The song
set off all kinds of visions in his mind.
O my darling jayi flower!
My Sweet malli bud!
36
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja Come with star-white in your dark hair;
I wait.
I know that you will come, beloved;
For you are as unfailing
As death is.
There are only two things I know to be true –
Your love, and the fear of death.
I play each day with death
And so I know that you will come –
Mingling your black hair with the dark clouds;
For the rains have come.
The sky grows dark,
My eyes are blinded by the lightning
The moon’s fire is extinguished, the stars are put out.
The earth gropes in the dark.
The raindrops patter on the thatch-eaves;
The river sings and the mountains join the chorus,
And the frogs make music,
And the kadamba tree listens in ecstasy –
Its flowers bristle, like hairs standing on end.
And your coming to me in the rain
Is the bride’s home-coming.
For the new bride washes the feet of her elders
In the custom of our tribe.
You are the rain, the new bride.
The raindrops fill my heart with joy. (135-136)
This was a love song that the Paraja men sang when the rains commenced.
Work Songs
Daily we labour in this field of mandia
And pour our sweat on this land;
And the crops ripen and are harvested,
Are located in carts and taken away and stored.
For whom are they preserved, my love?
They are for you, darling of my heart.
For you, the maizes in my garden,
And the mandia in my fields;
When, drunk with home-brewed beer.
My eyes are flushed and unsteady,
37
Paraja: Themes and Plot I shall call to you, my darling,
And you must come.
But come secretly, my love,
When the moon is in the sky,
Treading softly on the shadowy patches under the trees;
For though I shall be waiting for you
I have my shame and fear,
In this village of my mother’s brother,
In this village of my father’s brother,
And if I am exposed
I shall run away in fear
But O, my darling,
We have turned our blood into water
And coaxed the mandia to bear fruits;
It is all for you, my beloved,
It is all for you. (58-59)
Festival Songs
Let the bangles on your wrists ring together,
Let them clash, O my beloved!
Let us all join in the dance of the Clashing of the Bangles,
As it was danced by our fathers long ago.
Let his ancient village ring again with the sound of your bangles –
This Village of the Mango Fruit or village of the Blackberry,
Whatever we choose to name it. So dance, and make merry, and laugh,
Till the belly begins to ache. (93-94)
This song was sung when the young men and women performed the dance of the
Clashing of the Bangles.
O god of joy, god of dance and song,
God of the hunt,
Come, make us gay.
Be our guest:
Drink the liquor we have brewed for you,
Accept the fowl and chicken that we offer.
Then, when the few days of the feast are spent,
You may return to your home.
Only come, come , come. (144)
O mighty god of Spring.
Awake!
Shake off your sleep.
See, the trees are heavy with flowers.
The Chaitra moon is in the sky.
We are all dressed up for the dance
38
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja In your honour.
And the young men and girls are waiting.
Wake up, and come!
It is you that the young man remembers
As he stands with his sweetheart
Under the liquor-palm tree,
Arms linked together,
You inspire their songs,
You are the light in lover’s eyes.
You bring the newborn babies to our land,
Like a welcome shower of young mango fruits,
So that we may never lack strong arms
To plough our barren and rocky lands.
Wake up, god of the hunt!
For the trees are beginning to shed their leaves,
And there are fires in the forest
And the wild beasts are driven out of hiding.
The wild boar swarm in the sandy river-bebs;
The spotted bear,
And the king – deer with big, branching horns,
Roam everywhere in the glens.
Of the wild hare also no count can be made.
Come, lead us in the hunting.
And we shall feast together.
Those who were old are dead,
But we shall not mourn them.
For such is life,
And each must go in his turn.
But every year, when Spring comes,
Every year, in the month of Chaitra,
Your rites will be celebrated.
In this sacred valley where you live,
And through your grace
The mango shall blossom again
The crops shall grow in our fields,
And our cattle grow fat,
And men shall prosper
In this land of forests and hills.
This is our scared pledge,
O god of sping! (146-48)

These were the songs sung at the time of the Spring Festival Paraja: Themes and Plot .
Miscellaneous Songs
Old Ballad
Old ballads in the Paraja dialect
Now come, my darling,
Are you as strong as the walls of a stoutly built house?
Are you as stong as the veranda of the brewer’s house?
Come, let me see how robust you are in your youth. (26)
Here today and gone tomorrow,
And money cannot buy it. (186)
It was a song about young love. It continued.
No one can find it,
Though many die searching.
One moment you may see it
By the winding jungle trial;
But it quickly hides again.
Money can buy everything.
But love it cannot buy.
And then the chorus again:
Here today and gone tomorrow,
And money cannot buy it. (186)
Paraja Song
Are you as strong as the veranda of the Sundhi’s house?
Come, my girl, let me test how strong and young you are. (281)
The writer does not explain these self-explanatory songs, but informs the reader
that they are an indivisible part of the people. We understand the contextual
meaning of the song and not the background or historical significance. These
songs can be understood better by those who know and understand the Paraja
custom and language, and are accustomed to their way of life. It is not easy for
the translator to translate songs as the untranslatability factor for certain
expressions and words cannot be ignored. To translate poetry, songs or music is
the most difficult thing. The rhythm, the intensity and sometimes the meaning
are lost in the process of translation. Yet, the translator has made his best efforts
to translate these Paraja songs into English from the source language – Odia, for
the benefit of a wide readership.
However, though Mohanty delineates so many interesting aspects of human
relationships in the form of emotions such as ambition, revenge, love and
exploitation, he does not concentrate on any single idea or notion to highlight it
as the predominant theme of the novel. What do you think?

Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja 3.4 WHAT IS PARAJA ABOUT?
A close analysis of the novel will tell us that the predominant idea of the novel –
the central one that pervades through the entire novel – is the crucial matter of
human existence in the face of antagonistic social constraints. Despite their
uncomplicated and zestful life, the life of the Parajas is characterised by the
shadow of some unseen and inscrutable power whose wrath drives the characters
relentlessly to death and destruction. Sukru Jani always dreams of a hopeful
future:
He feels happy with life. It has been as he wanted it to be, and some kind and
benevolent spirit has made everything bright and beautiful for him. And when he
thinks of his future he has no doubt that it will be brighter still. He fancies that he
can even see it in the far distance, in vivid detail. A number of houses have been
built for him and his sons and his grand sons. Yes, they are all there.
But his vision is not transformed into reality. Ambition, greed and internal conflict
within the tribe create insurmountable odds for Sukru Jani and his family to
procure any help in their moment of crisis. The novelist powerfully depicts two
facets of the Paraja community’s life – firstly, Sukru Jani’s aspirations for a
fulfilling future that are disturbed and doomed due to the indefinable and complex
process by which he and his children are transformed from free men into ‘gotis’
or serfs, bound to the Sahukar for life. Secondly, Mohanty seeks to portray the
undaunted courage, outstanding resilience and never-say-die attitude of Sukru
Jani and each member of his family. In spite of the influx of problems that
overwhelm them at various junctures of their life, they do not give up hope.
Mandia had adjusted to the life of a goti far more easily than the others; perhaps
it was because of his greater resilience. He rarely brooded like his father. The
shock had worn off and he had grown buoyant again. He never bothered to
count his tomorrows, for he was sure that his time would come. Optimism comes
naturally to the tribesman; he is never quite cured of it. (p. 106)
The Parajas as a community and as the individual members of the community
that we come across in the course of the narrative believe in the act of living life
to the full. They toil hard to improve their lot, seek out love and follow their
dreams. The novel constantly focuses on the joy and peace that govern the lives
of the tribals through the narrative. Their buoyant optimism and undying hope,
do not desert them even after they go through a series of misfortunes. On the
other hand, Mohanty’s protagonist Sukru Jani is not merely the primitive tribesman
ensnared by the predatory moneylender from the city. He is also the quintessential
man who wages a heroic but futile war against extra-cosmic and invisible powers
but ultimately has to accept and adjust. He fights hard to undo the decree, but his
endless struggle is of no avail. His plight reminds us of Aeschylus’s comment in
Agamemnon that “as fate has willed so shall it be fulfilled”.

Check Your Progress 1
1) Besides the story of the novel, what are the important aspects in the study
of a novel?
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Paraja: Themes and Plot ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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2) What role does theme play in a novel?
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3) What, according to you is the theme of Paraja?
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3.5 DEFINING PLOT
A close interpretation of the theme of the novel should help us understand an
author’s narrative purpose and authorial vision better. It offers us a better
perception of the content of the novel that we are studying. Another significant
aspect of the novel that we have been acquainted with is the plot of the novel. We
have already talked about plot in Block I, Unit 2 and here we reiterate the definition
of plot for better understanding. Plot in the context of the novel may be defined
as the schematic structure including the major events in the narrative. It is
important at this point to distinguish between plot and story. Story refers to a
narrative of events, ordered chronologically but a plot is much more than this.
The story is the raw material from which the plot is constructed. Crafting a plot
requires choosing not only the elements of a story to be included — and the
order in which they are to be narrated – but also relating the events of a story to
one another so that causality may be established convincingly. This cause and
effect relationship between interrelated events is always taken into critical
consideration by a novelist. A novelist structures his/her narrative by closely
linking character and motivation into the fabric of his/her work. A story can
merely arouse a sense of suspense in the readers’ mind as to what happens next
in the narrative. A novel demands a more careful and nuanced interpretation of
psychology, motivation and human behaviour as we have to follow why a
particular character behaves in a specific manner that ultimately leads to a turn
42
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja in the sequence of events. A plot is the skeletal structure that gives vital support
to the very fabric of the story.
The plot as we may understand finally is the pattern of events and situations in a
narrative work, as selected and arranged both to emphasise relationships – usually
of cause and effect – between incidents and to elicit a particular kind of interest
in the reader or audience such as surprise or suspense. In the next section, we
shall discuss the plot of Paraja.

3.6 THE PLOT OF PARAJA
By now you should have read the novel Paraja. We shall try and trace the pattern
of the plot in the novel in this section. As we have discussed earlier, causality is
the most important ingredient in the plot of a novel. In short, all episodes, actions
and events are closely connected with each other in a novel. One action leads to
another action in a chain of interrelated events, determining the lives of the
characters in the narrative. The shadow of an inscrutable power that overwhelms
the life of the Parajas is not comparable to the issue of chance and coincidence as
in a Hardy novel. In fact, Gopinath Mohanty lays the basis of the narrative
structure in the desire and consequent action of the central characters of the
novel thereby, leading to the intricacies of the plot.
The novel revolves around Sukru Jani, a patriarch of the Paraja tribe whose life
represents the tragic degeneration of a close-knit community. The members of
the Paraja tribe live their lives according to the primary laws of nature and pursue
their lives without much higher ambitions. In spite of the simple and
uncomplicated nature of their lives, Sukru Jani commits an error that initiates a
chain of interrelated events finally culminating in the murder of the Sahukar.
The forest guard, presented in terms of a predator is an alien to the native
community, nursing lecherous desires for the young women of the tribe. In spite
of his knowledge of the intrinsic evil lurking in the character of the forest guard,
Sukru Jani asks for permission to fell trees in order to follow his dream of owing
a piece of cleared land for agricultural purposes. He does not realise that clearing
forest lands for agricultural purposes is illegal. His innocent desire for more land
leads him into the trap of the forest guard most unwittingly. The guard gives his
permission for clearing the land only to boldly express his sexual desires for Jili,
Sukru Jani’s elder daughter. Refused by both father and daughter, the guard wreaks
vengeance on the family by imposing undue and heavy fines on him. The guard’s
manipulation compels Sukru Jani to borrow money from the Sahukar that finally
leads him and his sons into becoming gotis or bonded labourers of the money
lender.
The novelist traces the pitiable degradation of the family unit as the male members
of the family are forced to leave the two girls without any means to look after
themselves. After a period of waiting and employing all strategies of physical
and emotional survival, Jili and Bili become labourers for the town contractor.
Economic depravity, alienation from the tribal way of life and loss of her lover,
goads Jili into becoming the mistress of the contractor. Their father, Sukru Jani
persuades them to come away with him to their dilapidated house, eventually
rescuing both sisters. In course of time Bili manages to find a bridegroom for
herself, while, Jili becomes the concubine of the despicable Sahukar. Jili barters
out her beauty and youth in lieu of cheap luxuries and comforts given to her by
43
Paraja: Themes and Plot the Sahukar. The novel ends in the brutal act of murder, as Sukru Jani and his
sons finally butcher the Sahukar for years of indescribable exploitation and for
shattering the Paraja’s sense of honour by taking the daughter of their family as
his mistress.
After having traced the main events in the plot, let us try to answer a question.
How is the plot of the novel helpful in highlighting the significance of the theme?
The structural mosaic of the plot consists of a strategic arrangement of events
and episodes and explains how the author wants his readers to assess the motives
of the characters. We are led to reflect on whether Gopinath Mohanty wishes us
to interpret the Parajas as powerless individuals suffering untold miseries in the
hands of a few social exploiters, or does he believe in the dictum that “Character
is destiny” to suggest human beings are ultimately responsible for their own
individual actions? The movement of the plot suggests that we pay close attention
to the development of episodes in order to establish effective connections and
finally internalise the vision that the novelist conveys through the plot. The plot
then may be defined as that crucial element of the narrative that holds the action
together.

Check Your Progress 2
1) How would you distinguish ‘story’ from ‘plot’?
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2) What strategy does the novelist adopt to transform mere actions of a story
into a formal plot?
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3) How is the theme of the novel Paraja related to its plot?
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3.7 LET US SUM UP
As we have understood from the earlier sections of the unit, the two most
significant aspects of a work of literature are theme and plot. The theme of a
novel is the salient, central idea that emerges from a literary work’s treatment of
its subject matter embodying the novelist’s vision of life. A plot offers the structural
44
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja foundation on which a novel is built. A well-structured plot is inextricably
connected to the theme of the narrative.
3.8 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Two other aspects of the novel besides the story are theme and plot.
2) The theme helps the novelist give a formal shape to his/her ideas that she
conveys through his/her work.
3) Paraja depicts the rise and fall in fortunes of a tribal patriarch, Sukru Jani
and his family due to a complex network of social and economic
circumstances.

Check Your progress 2
1) Whereas a story is a mere chronology of events, a plot is a complex mosaic
of episodes linked to each other in causal relation.
2) The novelist organises his events in a manner that they may relate to one
another in a logical sequence.
3) The theme of gradual degeneration of fortunes of a tribal family is delineated
through a careful choice of interrelated episodes in the novel, Paraja.
45
Paraja: Themes and Plot UNIT 4 PARAJA: A NOVEL IN
TRANSLATION
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Paraja (English) as a Translated Novel
4.2.1 Language
4.2.2 Colloquialism
4.2.3 Poetic Prose
4.2.4 Words and Echoes
4.2.5 Songs
4.2.6 Considerations
4.3 Translation to & from Other Languages
4.4 The Indian Cultural Context of Paraja
4.5 Paraja as an Indian Tale of Survival
4.6 Let Us Sum Up
4.7 Hints to Check Your Progress
4.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit, we shall attempt to place Paraja in the tradition of the Indian novel
in English. For a critical understanding of the narrative in a specific socio-cultural
context, it is imperative to have an overview of the Indian novel in English. We
shall then identify the Indian elements in Paraja within the broader context of
the novel. This will be related to our reading of Paraja as a tale of survival, and
in order to understand the author’s perspective better, we shall analyse carefully
Mohanty’s art of characterisation. After studying this unit closely, you will be
able to perceive the following:
The status of Paraja as an Indian novel in English.
The manner in which character contribute to the Indianness of the theme.
The way in which Paraja transcends the limitations of its cultural context
to have a universal appeal to larger crosssections of readers.
4.1 INTRODUCTION
We shall now focus our attention on a brief survey of the Indian novel in English
in the post-independence period. In this regard, we have to keep in mind the
significant contributions made in this area by the major trio: Mulk Raj Anand
(1905 – 2004), R K Narayan (1906 – 2001), and Raja Rao (1908 – 2006).
Mulk Raj Anand, in his novels Untouchable (1935), Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves
and a Bud (1937) portrayed the plight of the underprivileged in Indian Society.
R K Narayan depicts diverse aspects of the social order with a delicate blend of
gentle irony and sympathy, quiet realism and fantasy in such representative works
such as Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1937), The Dark Room
46
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja (1938) and other novels. Raja Rao delineates the complex processes of change
that overwhelmed the social order in such sensitive works as Kanthapura (1938),
The Serpent and the Rope (1960) and other novels.
Post-Independence Indian English fiction retains the momentum that the novel
had gained during the Gandhian age. The tradition of social realism established
earlier on a sound footing by authors such as Mulk Raj Anand, R K Narayan and
Raja Rao is continued by novelists like Bhabani Bhattacharya (1906 – 88),
Manohar Malgonkar (1913 – 2010) and Khushwant Singh (1915 – 2014).
Bhabani Bhattacharya’s So Many Hungers (1947), Khushwant Singh’s A Train
to Pakistan (1956) and Malgonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges (1964), significantly
portrays the post-independence, post-partition world from a sensitive
perspective.A notable development in the tradition is also the emergence of an
entire school of women novelists among whom the leading figures were Ruth
Prawar Jhabwala (1927 – 2013), Kamala Markandya (1924 – 2004),
Nayantara Sahgal (1927 -) and Anita Desai (1937 -). Jhabwala’s The Nature of
Passion (1956), Kamala Markandya’s Nectar in a sieve (1954), Nayantara
Sahgal’s A Time to be Happy (1958) and Anita Desai’s Voice in the City (1965),
among many other novels portrayed the circumscribed status of the woman, her
yearning to transcend the limitations of the domestic space and her longing for
an individual identity.
The novel form has developed interestingly in the hands of later writers such as
Amitabh Ghosh (1956), Arun Joshi (1957-93), Salman Rushdie (1947), Manju
Kapoor (1948), Shashi Tharoor (1956), Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1956),
Upammanyu Chatterjee (1959), Arundhati Roy (1961), Anita Nair (1966),
Jhumpa Lahiri (1967), Kiran Desai (1971), and more recently a whole new
generation of younger writers such as Meena Kandasamy (1984), and Rashmi
Bansal (1985). Our primary emphasis in this section was to particularly relate
the developments of the Indian novel in English in the pre-independence and
early phases of post-independence period with Gopinath Mohanty’s novel that
was written originally in Odia in 1945.

4.2 PARAJA (ENGLISH) AS A TRANSLATED
NOVEL
We shall devote this section to an examination of Paraja (English) as a translated
text with reference to the Odia original. Have certain things, that couldn’t be
translated, been left untranslated? Which are the areas where the original text
has defied translation? In what ways does this text written originally in Odia
pose problems for translator? What follows is a comparative assessment of both
the texts keeping in view the issue of translation.
4.2.1 Language
In Paraja, a novel written originally in Odia, one of the most significant aspects
for observation is the use of various kinds of language. The language of the
preliterate contrasts with the language of the literate, colloquial language rubs
shoulders with refined literary language and prose lends towards poetry. By and
large the role that language plays in structuring the novel is considerable.
47
Paraja: A Novel in
Translation The language of the preliterates is totally different from that of the literate
characters, and Gopinath Mohanty makes use of a number of expressions from
the tribal languages; he sometimes inserts into the text a couple of sentences, a
phrase, a few words and expressions taken from the tribal language. At many
points he has carefully explained some of these expressions and at certain other
points he leaves it to the reader’s imagination, and in such situations the context
provides the explanation. Imagine a sentence where half of it is in a tribal dialect
and the other half in standard Odia; pitted against each other both the languages
by emphasis on each other’s importance and identity go a long way in enhancing
the meaningful possibilities of the situation in question. These snatches of tribal
language occur naturally in the text but this kind of an effect cannot possibly be
brought over to the translated version. Let us look at a couple of examples from
the original text and the translated one.
At almost all the points where there is an illustration from the translated text, we
have taken care to provide the corresponding original sections in transliteration
and underlined the words, phrases or sentences for discussion. Besides when
you look at the transliterated lines, the organisation of the sentences, words,
phrases, punctuations too communicate a great deal. Even if you don’t understand
the language, go through the lines, you will perhaps sense a certain rhythm,
certain music, and through that you can decipher some meaning.
Let us look into some of these examples through which we seek to find answers
to some of the queries raised in the initial section.
Here we provide you a transliterated section from Chapter -2 that, deals with the
conversation between the forest guard and the tribal girl – Jili. This passage
includes expression in the tribal language, colloquial Odia and standard Odia
and thus, creates a text that remains intimate to the sense and sensibility the
author intends to convey and the effect is dramatic. Section A2 represents the
translation of Section A1. The lines have been numbered so that it is easier for
you to draw parallel for discussion.
A1
1) Bojha uthila, bujuli uthila, Kandhore bandhuka pokaie jungle
2) Jaman uthila, Chhaie Leuta bela Gannat uthare Jili ‘gurdi’
3) saga dhouthila
4) …jhola se pakhe ataki rahi jaman
5) hankila
6) “Aye Nuni (Toki) Kaaen Karoole (Kona ‘Karuchhu’)?
7) Saag – Babu –
8) “Deiesa? (Debuki?)
9) Ete saag nelu gurdi saag kona koribu babu?
10) Jili Hosila, Ahuri Kete toki paniki
11) Olheiebaku atadaru godile, Jaman bhabila
12) “Aaji Etiki” Se Bato dhorila. (7-8)
48
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja A2
1) As the party waded through the stream the
2) Forest Guard fell back and paused near the
3) bank; then in a bantering tone he hailed the
4) Girl in her own dialect and asked;
5) ‘What are you doing, Girl?’
6) ‘These are leaves for cooking, Sir’.
7) Jili replied.
8) ‘Will you let me have some?’ he asked,
9) meaningfully, Jili laughed.
10) ‘Didn’t you take enough vegetables from
11) our village? What do you want wild
12) gurdi leaves for?’, She said.
13) He could see other girls coming down the slope
14) towards the pool and realised that it was
15) time to go; but he felt at least he had
16) made a start. He turned on his heel and
17) went. (Chapter -2, EP 13)
In A1 look at lines 6, 7 and 8 the italicised words are in the tribal dialect, the
words that you find inside the brackets beside the words in tribal language are
meanings provided by the author in standard Odia. The English translation says
that ‘he hailed the girl in her own dialect and asked’, and then provides the
translation of these lines. Do you get the feel of the tribal language in the
translation? Certainly not!
What you get is only the sense/meaning. Suddenly line ‘9’ in Odia corresponding
to line ‘10’- ‘11’ and ‘12’ in English turns colloquial and when you reach lines
10,11,12 and A1 corresponding to lines ‘13’ to ‘17’ in A2, it is standard Odia and
the contrasting effect that emerges does not escape your notice, but the lines in
the English version fail to display the contradistinction. All the lines find a
homogenised expression in the English language.
In the following passage the purpose is to show you how the author inserts snatches
of colloquial language even while we find colloquial words in the same sentence.
Apart from that, here it is also indicates that the translator leaves some specific
expressions as they are in order to enable the readers of the target language get a
feel of code mixing and also for the purpose of achieving precision.
B1
1) Puni pani Chhinchadi – “ Kaha kotha etey bhabuchhulo,
2) aye Bagli!”
3) “Bhak!”
4) “Kotha Kahibu nahin?”
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Paraja: A Novel in
Translation 5) Jili Kohila, “Kona Kahuchhiu, aye bhauja?”
6) Mo garaja podichhi yanka bhauja hebaku-”
7) Joma tikie ichha nothibo para-”
8) Kajodi dimuhan jhadi jhadi kohilla,
9) “Aame nichu nichu (amora darakar nahin)
10) Amora “bhato” (bhinoie) Katha Kaha,
11) Sunibaku bhola lagibo” (8)
B2
1) She splashed more water at Jili and asked:
2) Tell me, Mrs. Bagla, of whom you are
3) thinking so deeply?
4) “Oh, do be quiet!”
5) “No, tell me!”
6) Jili laughed and returned.
7) Why don’t you tell me what I can do for
8) you, my dear sister-in-law?
9) ‘Who wants to be her sister-in-law?
10) Kajodi muttered.
11) “Who indeed!” Jili said
12) “Nothing could be further more from your thought”. (EP -14)
In passage B1, look at the 9th and 10th lines. The italicised phrase and the italicised
words are in tribal language and the rest of the words in the sentence are in
standard Odia. Can the same effect be created in the English version of the text?
As you find in this sentence, similarly all over the text you will find a number of
words and phrases taken from the language of the Parajas incorporated in the
fabric of the novel on purpose for effect. If you look at the translated lines in B2
that effect is simply not there.
We have chosen this passage in order to point out another fact- how a translator
skips some of the specific expressions while trying to capture the essential
meaning. If the original lines in 9 to 11 in B1 are translated literally with word
for word correspondence then it would perhaps read like this. “We don’t want,
don’t want, tell me about your brother-in-law, I would like to listen to that”. In
the translated version it has been rendered in a single line “Nothing could be
further from your thought”. The specific reference to the brother-in-law in the
original lines is not there; the particular mention in the original disappears into
the pervasive sense of the whole sentence in a very precise manner. It is one of
the facts to be noticed however, it is not to say that this is a flaw. May we remind
you that this is the manner in which in a literary translation, the translator
negotiates meaning between the source and the target language. We leave it to
your imagination as to how effective it would be if the original tribal words and
expressions were retained in transliteration along with the literal translation of
these lines under consideration.
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Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja C1
1) Sukru Jani Torani Pujhariku pocharila,
2) “Tuie Koiluski naien babu, panchata Mangalabar dina
3) Sakshi lokankue neyie kocheriki asibaku?
4) “Lekhuku”
5) “Aau tuie misha Koilusha Babu – ?” (434-435)
C2
1) Sukru Jani turned to the Pujari
2) And said: ‘Didn’t you tell us, Sir, that we
3) should come here in the sixth Tuesday?’
4) He turned to the writer and said: And you
5) told us the same thing’. (365-366)
In Section C1 the italicised sentences ‘4’- ‘5’ refer to the unexplained words
from the tribal languge, corresponding to lines ‘2, ‘4’ and ‘5’in Section C2, the
translated version. Probably these unexplained words make an attempt towards
bringing the character closer to the reader. These words seem to reduce the
distance between the reader and the character though they come in flashes; put
the same words not in tribal language but in standard Odia or English and the
magic is probably gone.
4.2.2 Colloquialism
Colloquial language refers to words and expressions that belong to familiar speech
and not to standardised or elevated speech. In dialogues between different
characters in the novel you find innumerable colloquial expressions that are deeply
rooted in the culture of the place, and the translator can at best make an effort
towards approximation due to the lack of equivalents in the target language. If
some of the colloquial words and expressions are given literal translation, then
there might be misrepresentation, the import and its effect remaining in the
original. To render colloquial expressions that have their roots deep in the
tradition and culture of a people into other language is in fact, extremely difficult
because another language means another people, another culture, and another
tradition.
Here are some illustrations from the text:
D1
1) ‘Uth, bhak, bhak pala bhumi Chhadi Devi’
2) Potkar qyalpamane, hoiere scholae,daba
3) Pokai thilo mo upore?’ (444)
D2
1) The Sahukar felw into a rage kicking them
2) Away and roaring. ‘get up: get out’. I’m
51
Paraja: A Novel in
Translation 3) To give you the land back, am I? You rascals?
4) Take me to court, would you? And what did
5) the court decide? Are you going or shall I
6) have you sent to jail?” (372)
E1
1) Ja ja baya qualap – gali kole adhikari
2) Agoku taninibi, dekhibu setebele – (435)
E2
1) ‘Go you idiot.’ The writer, shouted back.
2) If you make trouble. I’ll drag you to the
3) magistrate and then you’ll feel”. (429)
F1
1) Sukrujani Kohilla,
2) “Haan ghara bhitore oichha kuch kuchakori hanibo se.” (429)
F2
1) ‘Certainly,’Sukru Jani said,
2) He’ll hack him to pieces inside our own house.’ (361)
These are sections that provide snatches of conversation from the novel. The
colloquial expressions contrast sharply with the language of the tribals on the
one hand, and with standard Odia on the other. In the English rendering the
translator cannot provide the features of the colloquial, but can only try to provide
the meaning of these words without the colloquial dimension. Even if Odia is
spoken throughout Odisha, the dialect spoken in the coastal belt is not the same
as that spoken in the Western part, nor it the same in the south in the Koraput
district. Therefore, it is evident that the colloquial language gives a sense of
place too.
In Section D1 – line 2, the phrase ‘patkargyalpamane’ has been rendered as
“you rascals” whereas, the very same phrase in E1 –line 1, has been rendered as
“you idiot” and this expression in slang, a feature of the colloquial language
cannot possibly be translated exactly as in the original. In section D1 – line 2,
the world “Salae” means “brother-in –law” , but if the translator, renders it literally
in the target language, the word would loose its sting, and so here, the translator
has included it in the sense of ‘you rascals’. The author switches over from the
tribal language to the colloquial; from the colloquial to standard Odia; and from
the standard Odia to deep poetic lines – the effect this switching (what is also
called ‘code switching’ and ‘code mixing’), creates remains untranslatable. The
colloquial tongue is spoken in the tribal dialect but we cannot possible point out
that a certain conversation is going on in the colloquial language. Besides, there
is also a lot of interplay of these varieties of language in the fabric of the text.
52
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja 4.2.3 Poetic Prose
Gopinath Mohanty follows a lyrical style in his novel. At times it becomes difficult
to distinguish the borderline between poetry and prose. In the text, we find profuse
use of songs, lyrics, and incantations (mantras). In addition, the text itself is
poetic in style. And the poetic segments of the novel fit into the narrative with
felicity and ease while posing problems, as does the translation of poetry. At
times the narrative while portraying situations and contexts turns very deep.
Even in prose one feels a certain rhythm, and resonance achieved through diction,
images, symbolism and metaphors. Whatever best could be taken in translation
in terms of images and metaphors and symbols come to the English translation
but the nuances of contrast, parallels, echoes remains in the source text, that is to
say, in the Odia text.
Go through the passage that follows:
A1
Eka funkake sabu udigola, chutia mushara
Sabu dhana daulata gala. (25)
A2
In the same way, a single puff of wind can
destroy what has taken a field mouse a lifetime to amass. (36)
B1
Kintu bayasa ashe, jeteble tiki
Ghara chatia chadheiti madhay basa bandhibaku
unchhonna hue, ethu sethu kathi kuta neie pokae
Setebele prajapatira melakhola saukhin
jeevan bhala lage nahin, Kandha aape
juali khoje … (91-92)
B2
But the time comes when every sparrow begins to build
its nest, when the butterfly grows tired of its flight,
and human shoulders ache for the yoke.
C1
Kuhudi chiri chiri dura kondha gaanra
Jodi boienfire goetae purana kondah ragini
duietara, Khudi upare Khali godia godi – (427)
C2
Through the mist came the sound of two
kondh flutes played together, the notes
chase each other through the mist ……… (359)
53
Paraja: A Novel in
Translation While going through the textual illustration look at the images, analogies,
thoughts, emotions and imagination involved in shaping the lines. When he
talks of the field mouse’s wealth getting blown off by a single puff of wind in
A1/A2, when he tries to draw an analogy between a certain stage in human life
and in the life of the butterfly, when he describes the notes of the Kondh flutes
chasing each other, don’t you sense poetry? Do these lines tell you something
deep through poetic devices? Look at the transliterated lines and see the
organisation of the words. For in poetry, the choice and organisation of the words
means much. It is nothing but poetry. That is the feel of the original. Can these
sharp contrasts and their subtle nuances ever be realised in a translation?
As we have pointed out even in the prose passages by Gopinath Mohanty you
discover some rhythm, some music that remains one of the most important aspects
of poetry. Look into these following lines, read them aloud and then look at the
translation. Listen to these lines.
M1
Phaguna –
Kheta Khan Khan akashare poshe boli
Kuhudi nahin, hau hauan akashatole hau hauan kheta podichhi
jete durokukiba akhi podichhi, kudo kudo abu abuka pahadora
chulo upare nalicha nalicha nuan patra menchi menchi jungle,
dhadi dhadi denga denga sondhi gochha, jaha dura gaan bhitore
sarahada, au jungle tole totle Kasora Kheta, gochha nahin patra nahin (83)
M2
It was the month of Phaguna – that is February – and spring had arrived. The
fields still bare after the harvest, gaped at the sky, which was unrelieved by even
a single cloud. The hilltops were almost bald; a few vivid red leaves were
beginning to sprout on the slender trees.
Make a comparison between the translated and the original just by reading and
listening to the words. Do you miss anything, in the translated text? Is it the
music? Or is it the rhythm? It is clear that the intentionality of the original
sentences has not been achieved fully. These translated lines lose much of their
communicative power and strength. In fact, it is near impossible for the translator
to reconstruct the exact import and effect of the original work.

4.2.4 Words and Echoes
In the translated text you will find quite a few terms and expressions either in
Odia or in the tribal language, terms like – Goti, Gotinood, Putti, Sahukar,
Dharmu, Dhartino, Garod, Duduma – have been explained in the translated text
in most of these cases or they can be easily understood from the context. Dharmu
has been explained as: ‘the Just One’, ‘Duduma’ has been explained as waterfalls,
Goti – debt-bound slave. The meanings have been provided, though the words
have been retained. Some of the phrases, expressions and allusions are peculiar
to the experience of a people and in some deep way they convey a meaning and
a message that may not be available in another tongue.
54
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja F1
Pruthibira Keun ajanata Konare jungle bhitare
‘monishachhua’, mencha menchi hole
Koieh Koien Kandile’ antare dora
Kaupuni, Khaibaku, mondae amba
Koieli jaau, motha upare asaranti dukhara
dhara. Debota hasile, monisha Kandile. (25)
F2
And thus it was that in this land of hills and
forests in an unmapped corner of the wide world,
luckless men and women who lived on castaway
mango stones and hid their nakedness in bits of
rag huddled together under the tyranny of misery
pouring down on their heads, and wept. (37)
G1
Dosha jona ekathi hoie raa dhari “rabile”
Jaha bujhanti tohinre biswas ashe. (419)
G2
When ten people join in shouting a slogan
they begin to believe in it. While convincing
each other they begin to convince themselves. (354)
In Section F1 we would like to draw your attention to the word – ‘monishachhua’ ‘monisha’ means human and ‘chhua’ means ‘baby’ or ‘babies’ in Odia.
This is a rare combination, one normally talks about “kukurachhua”, which means
puppies, or “baghachhua” which means tiger cubs; almost always the young
ones of birds, beasts and animals are referred to as “Chhua” along with the name
of the species, but normally nobody says “moinshachhua”, if at all human babies
are referred to, then, they are simply called “Chhua”. The picture that the author
provides in this context instantly evokes the images of ‘crying puppies’ huddled
together as one finds them in the chill of winter. And this peculiar turn of phrase
calls for echoes and suggestions beyond its surface meaning.
Similarly in passage G1, the use of the verb ‘rabile’- seems interesting. This
Odia verb refers generally to the call of birds and specifically to the cawing of
crows but in the given context the word has been used for men, thus, connecting
picturesquely the habit of the crows with that of human beings. In the English
version – there is no reference to the crow or no kind of association is generated
from its use. It becomes a simple expression “shouting a slogan”. So in these
kinds of usage too the translated text loses something.
55
Paraja: A Novel in
Translation 4.2.5 Songs
The novel makes use of a number of songs and song-poems at different junctures.
Musicality is probably the most dominant ingredient of songs and song-poems,
and when they are read out in original form this aspect can be realised very
distinctly but in translation, we hardly find the music. That is why the reader of
the English version of the novel does miss the music of the songs used in the
text. The translator would indicate as – That, that was the song they sang: and
then s/he will provide the translated version of the songs; but when you go through
the lines you feel, despite the best efforts of the translator – that the lines are not
musical and you would probably, ask – “Where is the song?”
Many other expressions and phrases, sentences and words from the tribal
languages used in the novel have not been explained at many points; in the case
of songs too the author has left them unexplained at certain points. It is true that
neither the sonorous expression of the incantations nor the rhythm or cadence of
the bangles – clashing dance-song could be rendered in English. But when the
author intends even in the original version to keep certain songs unexplained in
prose translation, in standard Odia he certainly means to keep it on purpose and
an attempt to render it in translation is to annihilate its very purpose.
Shelley said, “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts”, and
here we present a somewhat sad song that Mandia sings for his lost beloved. In
the original version, unlike other songs, this song has not been rendered in prose.
The description that precedes and follows the song expresses a heaviness in the
breast of Mandia – a lovelorn lover. And here is the song in transliteration. Go
through it:
Jaie Hulu bolimi molli dadu bolimi,
Baandunia juloie elution kosoien
Heendi deku tobeni begi kachu abeni,
Koien kelu rubeku sodikelu rubeni,
Maranaru bosidu dungaraku tosiru, aro gureru
Jetu anu maruli barasha juli ashuli
Andaru ho molukoien bijuliho jutukoien
Sodamari giture nerka mari giture.
Lipu jona lipuli lipu tara lipuli,
Jotaru ho hienti goduru ho chendili.
Sone pani jhipuli ruhlih jhipuli,
Gadu goli Kunnani jodi goli kunnani.
Janu raye rabuna sunu kedi kodommu,
Bichule ho midule nede panikadule
Jotaru ho hiertie goduru ho chendillee. (242-43)
It is said that a song communicates even before it is understood. Having gone
through the song you must have realised something of its significance. The
translated text provides only one translated stanza:
56
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja O my darling jayi flower,
slender and sweet;
my darling malli bud,
Sparkling and fragrant
your thick, black, glossy hair
Interlaced with star-white flower;
I know you will come to me: (229-230)
So, you mark very well the evident gap between the original text and the translated
one. You, perhaps, don’t get the exact meaning of those words but the overall
effect is overwhelming when you recite the words of the tribal song aloud.
4.2.6 Considerations
No translation is complete, and no translation is perfect in the sense that all the
intentions of the original text cannot be carried over to the target language text.
And it is more so with a novel like Paraja that makes use of the tribal language
in a text written in a regional language along with colloquialisms, and Mohanty’s
use of deep dense poetic language makes it even more difficult. In translating
this novel one of the toughest tasks lies in retaining the distinction between the
varieties of language used for effect quite in keeping with the characters and
their background. That apart, some other dimensions like the musicality of the
songs, the deep poetic language, the turn of phrases peculiar to a people, too,
pose problems for purposes of translation.
With that realisation and understanding the translator aptly remarks – “No,
translation can hope to capture the varied riches of Gopinath Mohanty’s Odia
prose, vigorously colloquial and forthright at one moment and sublimely
effervescent and lyrical at the next. Perhaps like every translation of great
literature, all that this English rendering can do is place before a wider audience
something of the flavor of the original work”. Maybe in the process of translation
some of the subtleties and potentialities of the novel have been lost resulting in
the erosion of its communicative power, but the objectives of the author have
been met with as far as the novel reads like an English novel. The story has been
told, the message and meaning have been brought home, attempts have been
made to retain all the features of the original in the English rendering though the
fact remains that the original narratives does all that with even more strength and
power. Let us now look at translations to and from other languages next.

4.3 TRANSLATIONS TO & FROM OTHER
LANGUAGES
In the multi-lingual context of India, translation has a vital role to play in bringing
about an understanding among people belonging to various language areas.
Unless an Odia text is translated into other Indian languages, it is bound to stay
confined to the borders of Odisha. If a text written in a regional language is
translated to a language like English then on being translated it reaches out to
people and places beyond our country. One vital example that could be cited
here is the fact that Tagore’s Gitanjali was originally composed in Bengali. But
when translated into English, it found a large audience all over the world.
57
Paraja: A Novel in
Translation You must have come across some of the translations into English from various
‘regional’ languages or ‘bhasha’ languages like Odia, Kannada, Bengalee,
Marathi, Assamese, Tamil, Malayali, Hindi etc. On examining some of the
translations from the ‘regional’/ ‘bhasha’ languages you will realise the resistance
of the original text and the responsibility involved in the act of translation. You
can also observe how a literary text belongs to the whole of humanity while
belonging at the same time to a cetain people, culture and language.
Find a novel in an Indian language, you know, that has been translated into English
and then look into it to appreciate the translated text at hand. Premchand’s
Godan could be possible choice! In the next section, we shall examine the cultural
context of Paraja.

Check Your Progress 1
1) Outline the kinds of language used in Paraja (Odia). (150 words)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
2) How do you define colloquial language?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3) Why do you think Gopinath Mohanty’s prose is poetic?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
4) What does a literary text lose in the process of literary translation?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
58
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja 4.4 THE INDIAN CULTURAL CONTEXT OF
PARAJA
Paraja essentially presents the plight of the aboriginal Paraja tribe in the hands
of such social exploiters as the forest guard, the Sahukar and some members of
the native community. What is striking about the background of the novel is the
way in which the specifically Indian theme has been developed with particular
reference to the social and cultural elements of its context. The novelist establishes
the Indian identity of the novel in three ways – first, he provides a vivid description
of the physical landscape that forms the setting of the novel –
The huts in each of the two settlements stand in parallel rows, flanked by patches
of green- tiny squares of land sown with maize, chilies or tobacco and fenced in
by hedges of the wild Tania shrub. Beyond the hedges are fields of mandia, olsi
and kandula – different kinds of millet which form the staple food of these tribes.
(p.2)
After having evoked a realistic image of the fauna and flora of the place, Mohanty
depicts the peculiarities of the tribal social background with a close eye for such
details as inter-personal relations among tribe members, cultural practices of the
community and religious beliefs of the native people, as he writes.
He sits wondering who those magical spirits might be, and which of them created
the sky, the forests, the evening and the night, which spirit confers happiness and
good fortune and man, and which brings storms and misery and evil days.
(p.4)
Thirdly, Mohanty also depicts the social hierarchy of the Parajs – the opposition
between the Parajas and the Dombs, meticulous portrayal of the village power
structure with Naika, the headman at the apex of power as he related everything
to the Revenue Inspector, locally known as Ribini. Another important figure
was the Barik or the village watchman. He shows the crucial role played by
such powerful non-tribal entities as the Forest guard and the Sahukar.
Each element of the gender relations, the exploitation of the powerless villagers
at the hands of the non-tribals and even members of their own tribe unfold in a
subtle manner the cultural and social identity of every character of the tribe.
Would it be right to call Paraja an Indian tale of survival? Let’s take a look next.
4.5 PARAJA AS AN INDIAN TALE OF SURVIVAL
As we have discussed earlier, Paraja can be linked to the tradition of social
novel written in the pre-Independent period in the Indian English tradition, such
as Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935) or Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938).
These novels, like Paraja seem to suggest that a novel must have a social purpose.
It must place before the reader a relevant issue related to the social context.
Mohanty’s Paraja exposes the oppressive nature of the social hierarchy where
the Sahukar, the forest guard or even the contractor can be looked upon as
fountainheads of exploitation in the village. The artist in Mohanty can go beyond
the limitations of simplifying ideologies to touch the polymorphous truth of rural
life.
59
Paraja: A Novel in
Translation Sukru Jani is caught up in a complex network of irremediable circumstances that
actually begins with hisasking for permission to clear a piece of land from the
villainous forest guard. In course of time, his entire family is reduced to a state
of abject poverty, suffering inexplicable misery and treated like pawns in a game
of power. Yet, Mohanty does not diminish the traces of hope in the hearts of the
innocent villagers. As long as they live, each individual survives with the hope
for a better life. How does the author treat the characters in the novel? How does
he deal with characterisation? The enxt section will try and shed some light on
this important aspect of the novel under consideration.

4.5 LET US SUM UP
Gopinath Mohanty’s Paraja is a most significant contribution to Indian English
Literature. Like other social novels in the pre-independence period, Paraja is
‘born out of passionate social awareness’ Mohanty portrays uniquely, the manner
in which urban, material civilisation encroaches upon and gradually destroys a
primordial way of life. Mohanty however dos not merely narrate a tale of suffering.
On the contrary, it is tale of survival. In spite of the decline in the fortunes of
Sukru Jani and his family, we as readers admire his heroic resilience and neversay-die attitude to life. The novel bears an unmistakable Indian identity as
Mohanty graphically delineates each and every detail of the physical landscape
and social background of the characters. Yet, the novel is not essentially culturespecific in nature as in its final reading; it transcendsthe barriers of time and
space and has universal appeal. Sukru Jani represents the dilemma of the
quintessential man, waging a heroic but futile war against social forces, like
Sisyphus rolling up the stone against the steep slope of the hill. Ultimately
Mohanty conveys his vision of life through an interesting range of complex
characters. It is through a vital life of each character that we get to visualise, feel
and experience the essence of Mohanty’s philosophy of life.
4.6 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Read Section 4.2 entirely and then frame your answer in your own words.
2) Read Section 4.2.2 and then frame your answer in your own words.
3) Read Section 4.2.3 and then frame your answer in your own words.
4) Read Sections 4.2 and 4.3 and then frame your answer in your own words.
4.7 SUGGESTED READINGS & REFERENCES
Abrarns, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms, Seventh
Edition, 1941; rpt. NewDelhi: Harcourt,
2001
Allen, Walter The English Novel, 1958
Ashcroft, Bill.,Gareth Griffiths Key Concept in Post-colonial Studies. and
Helen Tiffin London: Routledge, Indian rpt. 2004
Dipple, Elizabeth Plot (The Critical Idiom Series), 1970
60
Gopinath Mohanty: Paraja Elwin, Verrier Songs ofthe Forest, 1935, (Allenand
Unwin: London)
Forster, E M Aspects ofthe Novel, 1 927
Hatim, B and I Mason Discourse and the Translator, 1990,
(Longman: London & New York)
Leavis, F R The Great Tradition, 1 948
Lefevere, A Translating Poetry: Seven Strategies and a
Blue Print, 1975, (Assen: Van Gorcum)
Mansinha, Mayadhar History of Oriya Literature, 1962, (Sahitya
Acaderni: Delhi)
Mohapatra, Sitakanta The Awakened Wind, 1983, (Vikas
Publishing House Pvt Ltd: New Delhi)
Newmark, P Approaches to Translation, 1981, (Oxford:
Pergamnon)
Milligan, Ian The Novel in English: An
Introduction, 1983.

Block
4
CHINUA ACHEBE: THINGS FALL APART
UNIT 1
Africa: A Brief Historical Survey 5
UNIT 2
Chinua Achebe: Life, Works, Literature and
Society in Nigeria 16
UNIT 3
Things Fall Apart: Detailed Analysis 34
UNIT 4
Specific Features of Things Fall Apart 46

BLOCK INTRODUCTION
In the previous blocks we discussed an early Nineteenth Century Novel and or/
twentieth century Odia Novel in English Translation. This block will discuss a
twentieth century African novel – Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Achebe,
as you know, is a Nigerian novelist of international renown who has made a
great contribution by putting African Literature on the literary map of the world.
It is only in recent times that public attention has been drawn to African Literature
and you may not find much material pertaining to it in your local bookshop or
library.
Hence, we have given you a brief historical survey of Africa in Unit 1 so as to
provide you with some background information. In Unit 2, we introduce you to
the life and works of Chinua Achebe, and to Literature and the society that gave
rise to this Literature. In Unit 3 we offer a detailed analysis of Things Fall Apart
and finally in Unit 4, we examine the specific features of Things Fall Apart.
The novel itself is readily available in India these days so please purchase it and
read it for a better understanding of the Novel.

UNIT 1 AFRICA: A BRIEF HISTORICAL Survey
SURVEY
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Pre-Colonial Africa
1.2.1 Africa and the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation
1.2.2 Africa after the End of the Egyptian Civilisation
1.3 African History: First Contacts with the Outside World
1.3.1 Africa and Europe: Early Contacts
1.3.2 Africa and the Slave Trade
1.3.3 Africa and European Colonial Powers
1.4 Africa under Colonialism
1.4.1 Africa: Two Models of Colonialism
1.4.2 Africa and Foreign Settlers
1.4.3 Black Africans as Bonded Labour
1.4.4 Disruption of Social Life
1.4.5 Colonising the African Mind
1.4.6 European Languages and European Systems of Education in Africa
1.5 The Decolonising of Africa
1.5.1 Africans and World War II
1.5.2 Struggle for Freedom
1.5.3 Asian and African Struggle for Independence
1.5.4 Colonial Responses to African Struggles for Independence
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.7 Glossary
1.8 Hints to Check your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of this unit is to trace, very briefly, the history of the
African continent since pre-historic times. Special attention will be paid to life
under colonialism and also the process of decolonisation. This will help us
understand African literature in general and Things Fall Apart better because, as
we know, there is a close relationship between literature and the society, which
produces it.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
In most books of history written by Europeans, the continent of Africa is referred
to as ‘the dark continent’. This expression – the dark continent – was most probably
first used by travellers and missionaries who happened to visit the African
continent much before political claims on its territory were made and it was
colonised by various European powers. The term ‘dark’ has been used for
describing the continent of Africa because, firstly, these early travellers as well
as missionaries considered anything mysterious that they did not understand much

 

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart about. Secondly, and more importantly, these first visitors considered Africa to
be inhabited by people who were primitive, uncivilised and savages. The colour
of ignorance, as we know, is black. According to these early missionaries, the
Africans believed in magic and other irrational rituals and customs. Once again,
magic is associated with the colour black for example, the term ‘black magic’.
Finally, there was the most obvious reason for calling Africa the black continent
its inhabitants had very dark skin. These opinions, particularly about the Africans
being primitive and uncivilised were accepted blindly by most Europeans who
entered the continent either for trade or for colonisation. In fact, the colonial
administrations built upon this myth of primitivism of the Africans by stating
that Africa had no history, no culture, hence, no past.
There was a sound reason behind accepting such an image of the Africans. The
European powers used the excuse of ‘civilising’ these savages for entering Africa
and for staying on for the economic and political exploitation of its people.
However, as later researches into the history, political and social organisation
and cultural achievements have shown, Africa was neither primitive nor
uncivilised before the Europeans occupied it. Civilisation, as we know, is much
more than technological progress and cannot be equated with the possession of
fly-by-wire aircrafts, coloured television sets, personal computers/ laptops/tabs/
ipads, cordless mobile telephones, air-conditioned cars and microwave ovens. If
this were so, people belonging to the most ancient civilisations like the Indian,
the Chinese, the Egyptian and the South American, would all be primitive and
uncivilised. Like these, ancient Africa also boasted of various centres of
civilisation with well-organised social and political systems and significant
achievements in the fields of fine arts like music and dance. Let us now look at
the pre-colonial history of Africa in the next section.
1.2 PRE-COLONIAL AFRICA
Africa and the Evolution of Man
By now enough archeological and anthropological evidence is available to show
during the evolutionary process our ancestor – Australapithecus Africans or manape, as he was called – first emerged on the African continent. The Rift valley
region in East Africa was the most probable place where it happened. Excavations
at the Oldwvai Gorge in what is now called Tanzania have produced ample
evidence of being one of the oldest sites of world culture. Discovery of primitive
tools of hunting like the hand axe in not only East Africa but also in the Congo
Basin and Zimbabwe shows a parallel development of this culture. This also
compares well with the developments in other similar centres in India, China
and parts of Europe.

1.2.1 Africa and the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation
However, the most fascinating evidence about the cultural development in Africa
is provided by a Senegalese scholar – Cheikh Anta Diop who claims that the
ancient Egyptian civilisation was set up and nurtured by black Africans more
than ten thousand years ago. Relying upon evidence from various sources
including historical accounts, Cheikh Anta Diop convinces us that when the great
Sahara started drying up about 7000 BCE, before which it was a huge lake, a
section of Africans began to trek along the route of the river Nile. They finally
7
Africa: A Brief Historical
Survey settled in the valley at the mouth of the Nile delta before it empties its water into
the Mediterranean. Here they set up the great ancient Egyptian civilisation with
unprecedented progress in speculative scientific research. This cycle of the
civilisation progress lasted many thousands of years during the course of which
these black Africans colonised neighbouring territories inhabited by the whites.
The Semitic world of today is perhaps a result of a free crossbreeding between
the two races.
1.2.2 Africa after the End of the Egyptian Civilisation
However, like many other ancient civilisations, this civilisation set up by black
Africans in the valley of the Nile also ran out of steam. In the course of time it
was overrun by the Persians. Then, came the Macedonians, the Romans, the
Arabs and the Turks in that order. More recently, the French and the English
occupied the territory. This prolonged colonisation resulted in the snapping of
the links between the delta and original centres of civilisation back in Africa.
These centres lost touch with not only the Egyptian part but with one another as
well, surviving for some time as isolated pockets during which period they
concentrated more on the social, political and moral organisation of their societies
rather than on material development. In the meantime, Europe benefited from
the ancient Egyptian civilisation via the Greeks and the Romans. Thus, while
Africa lagged behind in technological progress, Europe marched ahead full steam.
The great empires of Ghana, Mali and Ife in West Africa, Ethiopia in the East,
Zimbabwe in the West and the Congo in the South West are a testimony to the
great civilisation that the Africans built thousands of years ago.
Whether this hypothesis of Cheikh Anta Diop is wholly true or partially false is
really not so important for us for the time being. What matters is the fact that it
establishes, beyond any doubt, that Ancient Africa at that time was as much
primitive or developed, as much barbaric or civilised as any other part of the
world, including Europe. It, therefore, proves as false the opinion of the European
powers that when they arrived in Africa they found its people to be primitive
savages with no history, no culture, and no past. In the next section, we shall
look at Africa’s first contact with the outside world.
1.3 AFRICAN HISTORY: FIRST CONTACTS WITH
THE OUTSIDE WORLD
While there is evidence of the ancient Africans having trade links with India and
China, more recent links with the outside world were established when during
the 8th century the Arabs came to the east coast with the mission of spreading
Islam. They, however, stayed on not only to trade, particularly in ivory and gold
but they also occupied territories to set up their own political control over them.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar on the Zanzibar Island near what is now Tanzania is
an example of such an occupation of African territory by the Arabs.
1.3.1 Africa and Europe: Early Contacts
African contacts with Europe were made on its west coast during the 15th and
16th centuries. Countries like Holland, Spain and Portugal, which had, become
strong naval powers launched big missions for discovering sea routes to the near
and far eastern parts of the world. As we know through our own history, these
8
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart
missions were launched for eventual control of the riches of India and China
about which they had heard stories from the European and Arab travellers.
Believing the earth to be round, such naval missions were launched in opposite
directions of the Atlantic Ocean. One of these was to go along the west coast of
Africa, go round what is now known as the Cape of Good Hope and come out in
the Indian Ocean on the eastern side. We also know that it was on one such
mission that Vasco Da Gama reached Calicut on the Southern coast of India.
Since the primary aim of these missions was to reach the near and far east, no
attempts were made to occupy African territories en route, except some small
strips of land that were occupied on the coast to set up military garrisons. These
were meant to provide replenishment of supplies to the ships and to provide
recuperation facilities to the sailors and also ensure safe passage. Once again,
the activities of these Europeans, like those of the Arabs on the east coast, were
confined to areas close to the ocean and no major attempts were made to strike
inland and occupy territories in the heart of the African continent.
1.3.2 Africa and the Slave Trade
However, things changed dramatically for Africa because of something, which
happened thousands of miles away. At the other end of the Atlantic Ocean
Columbus discovered America. It was feasible to annex the vast virgin lands
from the American natives and develop them for large-scale economic gains.
This, however, needed a very large input of labour. It was then decided by the
kings of Spain, Portugal, etc. to take away, by force, people from Africa and use
them for developing American lands. Thus, began one of the darkest phases in
the history of not only Africa but the whole of humanity. Millions of black Africans
were forcibly captured by the Arabs, the Spaniards, the British, the French and
the Portuguese and sold as slaves to be taken away to America. Millions more
died either resisting capture or braving extremely inhuman conditions of shipment.
1.3.3 Africa and European Colonial Powers
Africa therefore, suffered a colossal decimation of its population. This in turn
led to weakening their resistance further, particularly when greedy traders,
adventurers and religious missionaries swarmed the continent during the 18th
and 19th centuries. Their stories of rich mineral wealth, huge hoards of game and
miles of virgin fertile land whetted the commercial appetites of their mother
governments back home. These also included the English and the French who
had, in the meantime, supplanted the Spanish, the Dutch and the Portuguese as
superior naval powers. The alibi of stopping the inhuman slave trade came in
handy for making their entry into the continent. Rival political claims were
made on various African territories by the English, the French, the Germans, the
Dutch, the Portuguese and many other European powers. The French claimed
northern parts of Africa, as also territories in equatorial and West Africa. The
British preferred claims to parts of east, west and South Africa, while the Dutch
confined themselves to the south only. The Germans claimed parts of east and
South Africa while the Belgians rushed to the southwest parts of the Continent.
This led to, at times, military clashes between these powers. For instance, the
Dutch and the British fought a war for supremacy over South Africa. During all
this time, none of these powers cared at all about the original inhabitants of the
continent, namely the black Africans who were pushed out of these territories
with the help of superior gun-power. The discovery of diamond and gold in the
9
Africa: A Brief Historical
Survey last quarter of the 19th century in South Africa accelerated the pace of such
interventions. In fact, the scramble for Africa began in right earnest after these
discoveries were made.
Check Your progress1
Answer the following questions briefly on the basis of what you have read in the
preceding sections of this unit.
1) Why is Africa referred to as ‘the dark continent’?
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2) What was the reason given by Europeans for ‘entering’ Africa?
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3) Was ancient Africa ‘primitive’? If not, what were the various centres of
civilisation in ancient Africa?
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4) In what way did the discovery of America affect the fate of Africa?
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10
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart 1.4 AFRICA UNDER COLONIALISM
Division of Africa
As stated in the previous section many European countries began to clash with
each other in their scramble to grab as much African territory as possible. In
order to put an end to this, a conference of the various contending powers was
held in Berlin in 1884-85 where the continent of Africa was apportioned among
them by earmarking the area of influence of each one of them. Once again, no
attention was paid to the possible fate of black Africans as a result of this act of
the Europeans.

1.4.1 Africa: Two Models of Colonialism
Once the division had taken place, two kinds of models were practiced for
exploiting these territories. One was to take over the administration of these
areas in the name of the mother country and governed through a colonial
administration. The other was to invite people from abroad, primarily from the
mother country to come and settle there. As an incentive they were promised,
land for cultivation or for mining either free or for a very nominal sum of money.
France, for instance, followed the first model in territories like Senegal and the
British followed the latter model in Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa.

1.4.2 Africa and Foreign Settlers
The induction of foreign settlers created quite a complicated situation in countries
where this model was followed. For skilled labour work they could not rely on
the native Africans and so they imported indentured labour from another colony
of theirs. In Kenya, for example, such labour was imported from the Indian subcontinent for constructing the railways. The Africans were, however, used for
working on the farms or in the mines. But, first they were ousted from the areas
which were most fertile or mineral rich and forcibly taken away to far flung
semi-arid areas called ‘reserves’ or ‘locations’ where they were herded together
in the most inhuman conditions. Blatantly discriminatory laws were passed to
legalise such forcible removal of the Black Africans. In Kenya, for instance, the
Gikuyu tribe was removed from the most fertile area called the Rift valley region
and their land was ‘appropriated’ to the crown of England. They were removed
from these areas where they had lived for thousands of years and taken away to
arid areas up north. Since the Gikuyu are primarily agriculturists, their social
organisation was completely disrupted: Similarly, the Masai tribe, who are
primarily cattle breeders were also removed from Masailand, which was full of
green pastures. Other tribes which suffered as a result of this policy in Kenya
were the Kamba and the Nandi tribes. In South Africa, the Native Areas Act of
1913, disallowed the Xhosa, the Zulu and scores of other tribes from land rights
anywhere in the country, leading to unprecedented misery for the black South
Africans who at times had no land – literally – even to bury their dead.

1.4.3 Black Africans as Bonded Labour
However, the settlers needed large inputs of labour to work on their farms.
Therefore, they pressurised their respective colonial administrations to force the
Africans out of the ‘reserves’ or ‘locations’ and to work for them. As a result the
11
Africa: A Brief Historical
Survey colonial administrations passed laws, levying all kinds of taxes on the black
people of Africa for which they had to earn money and this money could be
earned only by working for white settlers. Moreover, since such supply of labour
had to be continuous and for a long period of time, additional primitive laws
were enacted whereby monetary fines could be imposed on them on the most
flimsy grounds and the Africans would have to earn their living by working on
the farms or the mines. As if that were not enough, carrying an identity card and
a certificate about the status of his/her employment duly signed by the employer
was made compulsory for every black African. Since in most cases such
certificates were not issued by the employers, most Africans were forced to stay
on the farms and work, salary or no salary. In case they were found without such
certificates, they were arrested on charges of running away illegally from
employment. This was in effect nothing but bonded labour.

1.4.4 Disruption of Social Life
Long absences away from the family also caused complete disruption of family
life in which each member had a certain social as well as economic role cut out
for him or her. Women were forced to work on the family fields in place of their
men as also able-bodied male members of the clan were forced to become wageearners on farms or in factories and mines instead of remaining farmers or cattlebreeder. The subsistence-oriented barter as the major form of trade, was now
changed into a market economy with money becoming the basis of trade. In due
course of time, women too were made victims of the disruption of their system
of social organisation when they too had to look for jobs.

1.4.5 Colonising the African Mind
The colonising forces of Europe were well aware that their hold on the people of
the continent would not be complete without a hold over their minds. A slave can
remain a slave perpetually only when his/her mind is enslaved, only when s/he
acquires the mentality of a slave. In order to achieve this objective the colonising
countries of Europe introduced into the African territories under their control,
their own religion, a system of their own cultural traditions, their own language,
and above all their own system of education. Christianity replaced the African’s
own religious practices which were generally called animism and condemned
by the Europeans as barbaric, inferior forms of religion which could not save the
souls of the people. All rituals, social customs and various kinds of ceremonies
were similarly labeled as ‘savage’ and most of them were disallowed. The practice
of polygamy, that is the practice of having more than one legal wife, a common
practice among Africans, was disallowed by condemning it as inhuman. Similarly,
circumcision of girls, which was a kind of initiation ceremony for girls at the
onset of puberty, was condemned as savagery and was disallowed, which in
hindsight was a good thing to disallow the mutilation of female genetalia which
could put many lives at risk unnecessarily. In certain communities, the
performance of certain types of dances and singing of certain kinds of songs was
condemned as obscene and uncivilised and therefore, banned.

1.4.6 European Languages and European Systems of Education
in Africa
Finally, the western system of education was introduced in place of the native
system of education, which was quite different from the European system of

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart institutions. A policy of carrot and stick was used for popularising the western
systems of education. That is to say, those with such education were preferred
for petty jobs. Once it had been impressed upon the African’s minds that western
religion and the western system of education were better, those practicing African
social customs like polygamy and circumcision of girls were denied access to
either church or school. Above all, Africans were disallowed from speaking their
own mother tongues in school situations and they were forced to speak the
languages of their colonial masters, namely English, French or Portuguese, as
the case may be. In the case of the French, the use of French language was made
compulsory for pupils even outside the school situations and the black African
students were encouraged to complain against one another for disobeying this
rule. Thus, cultural imperialism, as this imposition of foreign European culture
has been called, was enforced on the black African with the extreme intention of
controlling their minds and perpetuating colonial rule on their territories. Such
impositions resulted successfully in filling the minds of most Africans with an
extreme form of inferiority complex about everything, which was African. It
created the myth of the white man’s superiority and invincibility in the minds of
most Africans thereby making them skeptical about their being capable of
managing even their own affairs. Colonialism to them appeared to be their only
salvation. The African’s misery under colonialism was thus, complete and there
seemed to be no way out of it. Such was the situation of most African colonies
towards the end of the twenties and early thirties of the 20th century. Their
economic and political exploitation at the hands of the European powers was at
their worst. The next section will now deal with the decolonising process of
Africa.

1.5 THE DECOLONISING OF AFRICA
Early Resistance against Colonial Rule
Historical records bear testimony to the fact that Africans began resisting foreign
attempts to occupy their lands as soon as such attempts were made. For instance,
the Xhosa, the Zulu and the Shona in Southern Africa and the Mazrui in eastern
Africa led violent resistance against the European powers. However, as stated
earlier, these attempts failed primarily because of the military and technological
superiority of the Europeans. Although such resistance was never given up
completely, it definitely received serious setbacks as the grip of the colonising
powers tightened over the various African territories.

1.5.1 Africans and World War II
In the twenties and the thirties as the atrocities on the Africans increased, such
resistance began to gain strength. In the meantime great political upheavals were
taking place in Europe and towards the end of the thirties – in 1939 to be precise
– Europe plunged into a war of unprecedented intensity. Hitler together with
Italy and some other friendly nations after overrunning neighbouring countries
had declared war on Britain and France. Africa was once again drawn into World
War II as Britain and France began to draw upon the African’s resources – human
as well as material – to support its war efforts. Africans were recruited in large
numbers as combatants to fight in Europe, the near east and the far East to fight
on behalf of their colonial masters. Thus, a lull occurred in the struggles by the
Africans against their respective colonial regimes.
13
Africa: A Brief Historical
Survey 1.5.2 Struggle for Freedom
The end of World War II saw an unprecedented increase in the misery of the
Africans. Large-scale demobilisation of Africans from the colonial armed forces
led to large-scale unemployment, which was already rampant due to post-war
recession in the world economy. As the war-ravaged European nations began to
reconstruct their economies at the expense of their colonies by increasing the
imports of food and agricultural products, the misery of Africans increased
manifold due to scarcity of food items and steep price-rise. This fuelled further
the simmering discontent among the people and the struggle by Africans now
broke into full-fledged freedom struggle.

1.5.3 Asian and African Struggle for Independence
African combatants who had fought together with the soldiers from the colonising
countries in various theatres of war brought back the impressions that their white
masters were not invincible. Moreover, they had also seen for themselves similar
struggles for national independence being waged in other parts of the world,
particularly Asia. The success of the Indian struggle for independence soon after
the end of World War II inspired similar struggles in Africa. As it is, the weakened
European nations were finding it difficult to run the administration of the colonies.
Intensified struggles compounded their problems further and put additional
financial burdens on their fragile economies

1.5.4 Colonial Responses to African Struggle for Independence
These intensified struggles for independence in various parts of Africa
immediately after World War II elicited two kinds of response from the colonial
administrations. The first reason was that the administration cracked down on
such movements resulting in struggles such as these becoming not only long
drawn out but also more violent and bloody. This, for instance, was the case with
Kenya, Zimbabwe, Algeria and Congo. Secondly, the administration, seeing the
writing on the wall, initiated talks with the leaders of the movement leading their
freedom with relative case. This happened in the case of Ghana and Nigeria. The
process of decolonisation of Africa began with the independence of Ghana in
1956. Soon more African countries became free. The sixties came to be known
as the decade of decolonisation of Africa and by the early seventies most of
Africa was free with the exception of Southern Africa. However, soon the people
of Africa had to wage other struggles, this time against their governments, which
denied them basic democratic rights and failed to provide them with the basic
necessities of life like employment, food and shelter.

Check Your Progress 2
1) What were the two different ways in which Africa was colonised?
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14
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart 2) What were the two ways in which the colonial powers responded to the
freedom struggle launched by Africans in various countries?
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1.6 LET US SUM UP
Contrary to the propaganda by Europeans, ancient Africa was a very vibrant
society. It boasted of significant developments in the fields of socio-political
organisations as well as culture. In fact, the ancient Egyptian civilisation was the
gift of Africa to the world. However, African civilisation fell into a decline around
the beginning of the Christian era. Building on its achievements, Europe
progressed to a scientific and technologically superior society. As a result, most
parts of Africa were colonised by a number of European powers between the 16th
and 19th centuries and exploited for the economic development of Europe. The
Europeans also tried to dominate the minds of Africans by imposing their own
religion, their language, their systems of education and their culture. At the same
time they filled the African’s mind with an inferiority complex by condemning
the African’s religious and cultural practices as savage and barbaric. The real
aim behind all this was to hold on to Africa forever and exploit it perpetually.
This exploitation was resisted by the Africans right from the beginning but
organised resistance was offered after World War II. Such struggles soon became
the struggle for national independence. In the early sixties (1960s), a number of
African nations gained independence and by the end of the seventies most of
Africa with the exception or Southern Africa was free. However, the African
people had to once again wage struggle against their own governments for
democratic rights and the basic needs life.
1.7 GLOSSARY
anthropological pertaining to the science of man, especially the beginnings,
development, customs and beliefs of mankind
apportioned divided, distributed
archaeological pertaining to the study of ancient things especially remains
of prehistoric times e.g. tombs, buried cities
decimation killing or destroying one-tenth or a larger part of
demobilising release from military service
hypothesis idea or suggestion put forward as a starting point for
reasoning or explanation
indenture agreement binding an apprentice to his/her master
recession slackening of business or industrial activity
15
Africa: A Brief Historical
Survey recuperation recovering one’s strength or health becoming strong again
replenishment fill up again
1.8 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1) Africa is referred to, as the dark continent because its people were considered
to be primitive and uncivilised. Secondly, its socio-culture activities were
considered to be related to irrationality and magic by early Europeans.
Finally, its inhabitants have dark skins. Refer to section 1.1 in this unit.
2) They ‘entered’ Africa on the pretext or excuse of ‘civilising’ its people. The
real reason, of course, was the economic exploitation of its human and
material resources.
3) No. Contrary to the false stories spread deliberately by the Europeans, Africa
is neither primitive nor savage. It had built not only the ancient Egyptian
civilisation but also many other well-known centres of such development.
The empires of Ghana, Mali, Ife and Zimbabwe are some of these. Refer to
sections 1.2.1 and 1.2.2.
4) After America was discovered by Europeans, Africans were taken there by
millions as slaves for developing those virgin territories for economic
exploitation by Europeans. This led to not only a very inhuman treatment
of Africans but also the depopulation of the African continent, which made
its subsequent conquest by Europeans easier.
Check Your Progress 2
1) The two distinct models of colonisation of Africa were one, by settling
Europeans in the occupied territories as was done in the case of Kenya,
Rhodesia and South Africa and two, by administering the territories directly
in the name of the mother country as was the case with Nigeria and Senegal.
2) In some countries the colonial powers-initiated negotiations for handing
over power to the Africans as was done in the case of Ghana and Nigeria
while in the case of some others the administrations cracked down on the
freedom movements.

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart UNIT 2 CHINUA ACHEBE: LIFE, WORKS,
LITERATURE & SOCIETY IN
NIGERIA
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Nigeria: Socio- Political Development through the Ages
2.2.1 South West: The Yorubas
2.2.2 South East: The Ibo People
2.2.3 Nigeria: Independence and After
2.3 Early Nigerian Writings & The Nigerian Novel in English
2.3.1 Early Writings in Yoruba
2.3.2 Written Literature in Hausa
2.3.3 Ibo Literature
2.3.4 The Nigerian Novel in English
2.3.5 Amos Tutola
2.3.6 Cyprian Ekwensi
2.3.7 T M Aluko
2.3.8 Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa
2.3.9 John Munyone and Others
2.4 Chinua Achebe (1930-2015)
2.5 The Beginning: Ancestor Worshipper
2.5.1 Things Fall Apart (1958)
2.5.2 No Longer at Ease (1960)
2.5.3 Arrow of God (1964)
2.6 Later Novels: The Contemporary Scene
2.6.1 A Man of the People (1966)
2.6.2 Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
2.7 Other Writings
2.7.1 Morning Yet On Creation Day
2.8 Let Us Sum Up
2.9 Hints to Check Your Progress

2.0 OBJECTIVES
The twin objectives of this unit are to survey briefly, the history and social
organisation in Nigeria through the ages as also to look at the tradition of writing
in Nigeria including the tradition of writing novels. The second objective is to
familiarise you with major events in the life and the literary career of Chinua
Achebe. This will help you understand him better as a writer. This unit will help
you understand not only Ibo society in Nigeria about which Chinua Achebe writes
in his novels, including Things Fall Apart but, it will also help you know more
about other ethnic groups in Nigeria and the contribution these groups have made
to the development of Nigerian literary writings, particularly the novel written
in English. We shall also summarise briefly the themes of Achebe’s writings,

Chinua Achebe: Life, Works, Literature and Society in Nigeria

which will help you in understanding his development as a writer. Finally, we
shall examine his views about literature, society and the role of a writer as
expressed in his book of essays called Morning Yet On Creation Day.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
The Federal Republic of Nigeria lies in the Gulf of Guinea on the West Coast of
Africa, that is, to say on the Atlantic coast. In terms of population, Nigeria is the
fourth largest African country with the Hausa, the Fulani, the Yoruba and the
Ibo as its principal ethnic groups. Surrounded by two other famous seats of ancient
civilisations, namely Ghana and Mali, Nigeria has been one of the oldest seats of
human habitation where human organisation reached significant levels of social
and technical development. Excavations at the Nok village in the Province of
Zaria have shown that the Nigerians made good pottery and used baked clay for
making figures of humans and animal. They also worked in iron and bronze and
the world famous ‘The Bronzes’ and ‘Benin Heads’ are Nigeria’s gift to the
sculptural world of today.
Since most of the Nigerian languages which number about three hundred were
without a developed script, not much is known about the literary achievements
of this ancient seat of civilisation. However, a fair guess about its developed
state can be made from the folk literature, sayings and proverbs as also the customs
and rituals which survive even today.Besides the various African languages,
Nigeria today has two more languages in its linguistic profile. These are English
which is its official language and pidgin which is a fascinating blend of English
and some of the African languages. In the next section, we shall look at the
socio-political development of Nigeria through the ages.
2.2 NIGERIA: SOCIO – POLITICAL
DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE AGES

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In the early parts of the 19th century, the Hausa people in the north were overrun
by the Fulani who waged a holy war against them in the name of a purer and
truer Islam under the leadership of Usuman Dan Fodio (1754 – 1817), who was
a Fulani religious teacher, revolutionary, military leader, writer, and promoter of
Sunni Islam and the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate. The Fulani divided the
area into small states called emirates and ruled over them through emirs. These
emirs also conquered Ilorin in the south and began to trade in slaves towards the
end of the 19th century, thereby providing the British who were present on the
west coast with an excuse to intervene. By 1903, the northern part of Nigeria had
been brought under the British protectorate and was ruled through the emirs
without any interference in the social, cultural, religious and educational affairs
of the Hausa people.

2.2.1 South West: The Yorubas
The southern part of Nigeria was inhabited by the Yoruba people who were
primarily farmers by profession and pagan in terms of religion. The Berbers had
conquered parts of their territory around the year 1000 ADE but they had failed
to impose their religion or their language on the Yoruba people. Soon the Fulani,
who had overrun the North also came down south and conquered Ilorin. They
joined in the slave trade that had been operating from the west coast by capturing
the Yoruba and selling them to the Europeans. Once again the British intervened
and by 1861, the island state of Lagos had been annexed. Instead of trading in
slaves, they introduced trading in palm oil. They, however, were scared of malaria,
which was rampant in the region and had therefore no intention of setting up a
permanent political structure. However, the presence of the French and the Dutch
in the vicinity forced them to conclude treaties with many local chiefs and the
Yoruba territory too had been annexed. The missionaries followed suit and soon
the “payan”, Yoruba had been converted into Christianity in very large numbers.
2.2.2 South East: The Ibo people
The East which was inhabited by the Ibo people has had a less advanced socio
political organisation than the Hausu and the Yoruba. Lesser material progress
could be a possible reason for this. In modern political jargon, lbo socio-political
organisation could be described as comprising ‘village democracies’ with the
clan as the basic unit. Like the Yoruba, the lbos too were pagan in their religious
beliefs. We can learn more about the socio-cultural life of the Ibo people from
our reading of Things Fall Apart, which is a novel, based on the life of the Ibos.
2.2.3 Nigeria: Independence and After
As stated in Unit 1, the end of World War II saw the rise of nationalism in various
parts of Africa, including Nigeria, primarily due to increased economic hardships
faced by the people in European colonies. Unemployment was rampant and
inflation runaway. Three major political parties emerged on the political scene in
Nigeria. These were the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) backed
by the Ibo people and led by Zik, the NPC backed by the Hausa and the Fulani
people and led by Anubaker Tafawa Balewa and the Action Group backed by
the Yorubu and led by Obafemi Awolowo. Internal autonomy was granted to the
Eastern and Western Regions in 1957 and to the Northern Region in 1959. A
year later, that is on October 1, 1960, Nigeria attained independence and
20
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart
Abubaker Tafawa Balewa became its first Prime Minister heading a coalition
government. However, internal struggle started soon after for the control of power,
since there were not only various ethnic groups but also there was a big difference
between the developed south and the under developed north.
In 1966, the army intervened. Tafawa Balewa was killed and the power passed
into the hands of the army. Simultaneously, large-scale killings of Ibo people at
the hand of the Hausa people started, leading to the declaration of independence
by the Ibo people calling their eastern land Biafra.

The civil war, which ended only in 1970, claimed more than 150,000 lives. The
Biafran cause was lost. Nigerian economy boomed with the soaring oil prices in
the seventies and the early eighties but slumped later. Having survived various
coups and military rule, as of 2019, Muhammadu Buhariwho was re-elected
for a second term in office is the 15th President of Nigeria. In the next section, we
shall begin looking at the literary history of Nigeria.
2.3 EARLY NIGERIAN WRITINGS &THE
NIGERIAN NOVEL IN ENGLISH
As has been stated in Unit 1, literary efforts in various Nigerian languages were
oral because the languages lacked scripts or systems for writing them down. The
tradition of written literature begins in the middle of the 19thcentury with the
arrival of the missionaries who introduced the British system of education, which
laid sufficient emphasis on learning with the help of books. The printing press
was introduced and translations of the Bible, other religious books as well as
some creative literature were introduced. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was a
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Chinua Achebe: Life, Works,
Literature and Society in
Nigeria
favourite prescribed text. The only exception to this paradigm was the northern
region where Arabic had been introduced and some written literature in it had
existed since the 14th century. The introduction of the British education system,
Christianity, the market economy together with the development of towns led to
the complete disruption of the homogeneous socio-cultural lives of Africans which
favoured oral forms of literary compositions-stories, plays and poems. Let us
begin by looking at the early writings that emerged from Nigeria before we begin
to talk about the Nigerian novel in English.
2.3.1 Early Writings in Yoruba
Isaac Thomas’s (1896-1961), The Autobiography of Segilola: The Lady with
the Delicate Eye Balls was perhaps the first attempt at imaginative writing in
Yoruba. It was written in the form of letters written by a prostitute to the editor of
a newspaper, describing her plight in Lagos. Later, the book was to inspire
Cyprian Ekwensi (1921-2007), to write about metropolitan life, particularly of
Lagos, in his novels of which Jagua Nana is the most well known. Ekwensi
writes in English.
D D Fagunwa (1903-63), is the most important Yoruba writer whose blend of
reality and fantasy in The Brave Hunter in the Forest of the Four Hundred Gods
and The Forests of Oldumare are adventure stories with heavy doses of morality.
Fagunwa has inspired a number of writers to follow his style of mixing reality
with fantasy. Among the better known of such writers is Amos Tutuola (1920-
97), whose novel The Palm Wine Drinkard is equally well known. Didacticism
is a distinctive feature of Fagunwa’s writings.
2.3.2 Written Literature in Hausa
The Arabs had come to the land of the Hausa people in northern Nigeria around
the 8th century. Arabic had established itself in the region and learned written
texts appeared on government and religion. By the 17th century early attempts
creating literature in Arabic were made and these were in the form of praise
poems. Wali Dan Marina, Muhammad B Muhammad and Usuman Dan Fodio
were pioneers in this respect. Wali Dan Marina was a celebrated 17th to early 18th
century scholar and saint christened Muhammad Ibn Al-Sabbagh. Among the
prose writers in Hausa, who came much later, are Muhammadu Bello and
Abubaker Bello. The first Prime Minister of Nigeria Abubaker Tafawa Balewa
was also a prominent Hausa novelist.
2.3.3 Ibo Literature
In 1935, Pita Nwana’s short novelette Omenuko was published after it had won
a prize in a literary competition and it became the first Ibo literary effort in
writing. The story of a slave trader who after various adventures and misfortunes
finally repents for his sins, it is full of didacticism. The book was to inspire
Chinua Achebe to write about the life of the Ibo people in English.
L B Gam’s adventure story Odumodu’s Travels is modelled on Gulliver’s Travels
and has allegorical implications. D N Achara’s Ala Bingo is an allegory too. Let
us look at the Nigerian Novel in English next.
22
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart 2.3.4 The Nigerian Novel in English
The novel is a form alien to Africa. It is a literary import from Europe. However,
being a form, which is a kind of hold “ all, the novel is easily adaptable and thus,
the Africans adopted it to serve their artistic needs’’. Since the oral story was the
dominant form of literary expression in Africa, a number of Nigerian novelists
have very skillfully made use of that form while writing novels. Take the case of
D D Fagunwa and Amos Tutuola. Both of them bind together, very skillfully, a
number of short narratives to create a longer tale. In fact, most Nigerian novelists
in English, like their counterparts writing in other African regions, have continued
to write short stories along with novels. The names of Chinua Achebe, Cyprian
Ekwensi and Flora Nwapa spring to one’s mind immediately.
2.3.5 Amos Tutuola
Amos Tutuola, as we have stated earlier, is the first major Nigerian novelist in
English whose The Palm Wine Drinkard published in 1952 sent European critics
into raptures. While they praised it sky-high for its novel use of English,
particularly his deliberate ignoring of the regular structure of the language,
Tutuola’s fellow Nigerian writers were embarrassed by his ‘incorrect’ use of
English. However, Tutuola’s novel which is the story of the adventures of a
palm-wine addict in search of his dead palm-wine tapper is a serious attempt to
fuse folklore with modern life and Tutuola succeeds fully in doing so. In fact,
therein lies, the intrinsic value and strength of his book and not in his ‘new’ use
of English as had been made out by his European critics. Tutuola repeated his
success in My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle,
The Brave African Huntress, and Feather Woman of the Jungle.
2.3.6 Cyprian Ekwensi
Cyprian Ekwensi began as a writer of cheap, love stories meant primarily for
titillating the young. When Love Whispers belongs to this phase. Ekwensi soon
graduated to the realm of serious novelists and specialised in exposing the seamy
side of city life. People of the City and Jagua Nana, The Drummer Boy and An
African Night’s Entertainment all deal with the theme of city life.
2.3.7 T M Aluko
T M Aluko (1918- 2010), unlike Chinua Achebe (1930-2015) whose work we
shall be discussing later in this Unit, Aluko believes in debunking the tradition.
He believes that all was not well with many traditional aspects of Nigerian life.
One Man, One Wife and One Man, One Matchet are his well-known novels. To
Aluko nothing is sacrosanct, nothing above criticism and in a typical style of
African humour, Aluko satirises the whole gamut of African traditions and beliefs.
Kinsmen and Foremen and Chief the Honourable Minister are his other novels.
2.3.8 Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa
Buchi Emecheta (1944 – 2017), and Flora Nwapa (1931-93), are among a host
of women writers who enriched the Nigerian novel in English by highlighting
the problems of women both in pre-independence and post-independence Nigeria.
They also provided the necessary women’s perspective to various aspects of
Nigerian social, political and cultural life. While Destination Biafra, Joys of
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Chinua Achebe: Life, Works,
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Motherhood, Bride Price and Second Class Citizen are well-known works of
Buchi Emecheta who lived in London and publishes from there, Efuru, Idu and
One is enough are well-known novels by Flora Nwapa.
2.3.9 John Munyone and others
John Munyone’s Only Son and Obi and Nkem Nwanko’s Danda are powerful
statements about the clash between the two cultures – European and African.
Ben Okri (1959), who was awarded the Booker Prize for his Famished Road,
uses the Yoruba myth of children who are unwilling to be born, to survey and
critically evaluate the whole gamut of contemporary Nigerian life and its history.
Wole Soyinka (1934), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature and who is
primarily a poet and a playwright has also written a few novels.
Check Your Progress 1
Answer the following questions in your own words:
1) What are major ethnic groups in Nigeria and which parts of the country do
they live in?
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2) What kind of socio-political organisation did the Ibos have? How was it
different from the political organisation among the Hausa and the Yoruba
people?
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3) What factors helped in the development of the written form of literature in
Nigeria?
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24
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart 4) How is the novel as a literary form different from the other literary forms,
which were prevalent in pre-European Africa’s?
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5) Which literary form from the oral literary tradition helped Nigerians in
writing and how?
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2.4 CHINUA ACHEBE (1930-2015)
Chinua Achebe is the best-known novelist not only from Nigeria but from the
entire continent of Africa. He is perhaps the first African writer whose books
have been prescribed as a part of the curriculum in Africa, although his earlier
writings were definitely aimed at foreign audiences in Europe and America. As
the first black novelist from Africa, not only has he got an appreciative global
readership but also an acclaim which is richly deserved. He is now one of the
most widely translated novelists in the world and also one of the most universally
respected ones too. For example Things Fall Apart is an important part of the
heritage of world literature and is considered a classic. Achebe was born in Ogidi
near Onitsha on the banks of the river Niger in 1930. His father was a missionary,
one of the earliest Ibos to take to that profession. By the time Achebe went to
school major changes had already taken place due to the intervention of
colonialists in Nigeria and was a reality.
His school education was at Umuahia Govt. Secondary school. After having
been selected for medicine and after spending a year in that course, Achebe
strayed back at the University College of Ibadan to do a graduate degree in
humanities. This brought him in close contact with European culture and
particularly the European literary traditions. Simultaneously, his interest in the
history of Nigeria grew and he started filling the gaps in his readings by asking
questions about the pre-colonial society, although remnants of it were still around
in the day-to-day lives of the people. However, when Achebe began to write in
the latter part of the fifties, he was quite conscious of the fact that he was writing
about a part of the world with which his foreign readers in Europe and America
would be quite unfamiliar. While analysing the details of societies and assessing
their cultural worth, which were strange to the modern world, Achebe evokes
values, which go beyond the narrow confines of space and time. Like his other
fellow African writer Achebe too finds himself in a unique situation as an
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Chinua Achebe: Life, Works,
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interpreter of a society whose traditions have been disrupted by the intervention
of colonialism. His novels, therefore, reflect on the changes which have come
about in Ibo society in particular and Nigerian life in general as a result of what
he calls a ‘chance encounter’ between Europe and Africa during the colonial
period.
Achebe’s novels are unique and quite different from those written by his
counterparts in England, although attempts have been made to fit them into the
tradition of novel writing in England. While it is true that his formative years
were saturated with the influence of Christianity as well as the English school
system and he has acknowledged that a number of European writers, particularly
Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, have influenced his
development as a writer. This is because Achebe, once again like other African
novelists, has modified the novel form as a genre while adopting it for the specific
needs of his society where the tradition of literature has been primarily oral and
has been entrenched for hundreds of years. Honoured with scores of awards,
medals, honorary degrees, fellowships and the editorship of a series of publications
of African literature, Chinua Achebe passed away on 21st March, 2015.
2.5 THE BEGINNING: ANCESTOR WORSHIPPER
Once asked to describe himself, Achebe called himself an ‘ancestor worshipper’.
On another occasion he stated that, “I would be quite satisfied if my novels
(especially the ones set in the past) did no more than teach the readers that their
past with all its imperfections was not one long night of savagery.” Chinua
Achebe’s first three novels – Things Fall Apart, (1958) No Longer At Ease, (1960)
and Arrow of God (1964) — may also be read as a trilogy of related themes, as all
are about societies and persons which/who were divided between the past and
the present, between the old world and the new and between Europe and Africa.
All the three novels are about the people of the two worlds’ who were bewildered
by both the scale and the suddenness of these changes. While attempting to come
to terms with them, they meet their tragic ends. Although Achebe was a child of
colonialism who began to write when Nigeria was almost free, Achebe’s
veneration for the past is very transparent in all the three novels. However,
Achebe’s respect for the past is not uncritical. As he himself put it, “we cannot
pretend that our past was one long technicolour idyll”. In fact, in this lies the
strength of Achebe as a novelist.
2.5.1 Things Fall Apart (1958)
Chinua Achebe’s first novel Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 and was
an instant success with his readers. In fact, it was the first novel written by an
African that put the literature from the continent immediately on the map of
world literature. While we shall analyse the text in greater details in the next
Unit, it will be sufficient to outline here that the novel is about Iboland, in the
eastern region of present day Nigeria during the fifty odd years of the mid 19th
and early 20th centuries. This was the period just prior to and after the arrival of
white men in this part of West Africa. Expressed in the idiom of the Ibo villagers,
which he translates into standard Nigerian English, the conflict highlighted
through the fate of Okonkwo, the protagonist and other villagers, Umuofia and
its neighbourhood who are out manoeuvred by white-men representing a
26
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart technologically superior European culture. Finally, Ibo society falls apart and is
annihilated by European colonialism.
2.5.2 No Longer at Ease (1960)
No Longer at Ease is the sequel to Things Fall Apart in the sense that its
protagonist Obi is the grandson of Okonkwo who was the hero of Things Fall
Apart. He is the son of Nwoye who had converted to Christianity and had taken
the name Isaac. The action takes place partly in the same village of Umuofia and
partly in Lagos the big city, the likes of which had developed all across Nigeria
since the days of Okonkwo. The theme of the novel is public corruption – a
phenomenon, which likes many other ills, is the direct offshoot of the introduction
of colonialism in Nigeria. Obi Okonkwo has returned from England after obtaining
a BA degree and is excitedly looking forward to some responsible position in the
Civil Service. However, he is soon caught in a web of pressures of various kinds
– from the people of his own village who had financed his trip to England and
who now want special favours in return, from his girlfriend Clara who wants to
legitimise their relationship through marriage, from his parents who refuse to
permit him to marry outside the clan and finally from the people at large. Pressed
from all sides, Obi succumbs to temptation and accepts a bribe. He is caught and
is awaiting trial, public humiliation and punishment.
As we can see, once again Achebe is concerned with changes, which have been
brought about in Ibo society after its encounter with colonialism. Once again, he
highlights it through the havoc colonialism has wrought on the people’s lives
through bribery, graft and corruption. The major difference between the fate of
Obi and Okonkwo, his grandfather in Things Fall Apart, is that while Okonkwo
dies for his convictions however rigid and unreasonable those might be, Obi
totally lacks the moral courage in sustaining whatever convictions he has. In
fact, Achebe had hinted at the shape of things to come at the end of Things Fall
Apart itself when he had shown the villagers of Umuofia, rich with money from
the sale of palm-oil and kernels, refusing to support Okonkwo’s killing of the
District Commissioner’s emissary who brings the message that their meeting
had been disallowed by the District Commissioner. Moral rot has set in since
then and has hollowed the society completely. Once again, Achebe’s sense of the
loss of a simple but morally vibrant Ibo society of pre-European days is quite
evident throughout the novel.

2.5.3 Arrow of God (1964)
Arrow of God is Achebe’s third novel of the series in which he explores further
the ‘encounter’ theme at greater length since it is the most voluminous of the
three books. In terms of time frame, it is located somewhere between Things
Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. It is a period when colonialism had become
well established in Nigeria. The locale is Umuaro, which like Umuofia earlier, is
a cluster of villages – this time six instead of the nine in the earlier book. While
commenting on his repeated return to the past, Achebe had remarked that he felt
that ‘My first book is no longer adequate. I have learned a lot more about these
particular people …my ancestors or and something … has to be done before I
move on to the contemporary scene’. In Arrow of God, like in Things Fall Apart
earlier, the forces of a primitive, self-sufficient society are pitted against the
forces of colonialism – church, government and trade. Once again, the resultant

Chinua Achebe: Life, Works,
Literature and Society in
Nigeria
crisis destroys not only the protagonist but also the very roots of tribal life. The
protagonist Ezeulu – is a more complex character. He is the chief priest of Ulu –
a newly created god by the people of those six villages of Umuaro, Ezeulu has to
fight simultaneously on two fronts – one, the internal strife represented by Nwake,
a powerful chief and Ezidemili, chief priest of another god Idemili, and two,
European culture and religion represented by Captain Winter Bottom, the head
of the local colonial political administration. So Ezeulu loses at the end.
Achebe’s Ezeulu, although similar to Okonkwo, is a more complex character.
He thinks about the causes of various events and has an open mind. He is even
ready to come to terms with Europeans, Christianity and colonialism but only up
to a certain point so that his dignity and self-respect is not compromised. Pushed
beyond that, he fights and meets the same tragic fate as Okonkwo did in Things
Fall Apart. While dealing with this more complex situation, Achebe also invokes
more complex details of tribal life – births, deaths, marriages, celebrations, and
religious ceremonies. Customs and rituals which may, at times, appear to have
been introduced for their own sake, but like the details in Things Fall Apart are
an integral part of the life of the people which is what he intended to highlight
through his protagonist. Achebe’s first three novels, therefore, enliven very
dramatically and powerfully both in personal and societal terms, the past of the
Ibo people. However, the manner in which Achebe tells the tragic tale of those
people raises it to a higher level, making it a part of the ebb and flow of human
history, which, incidentally, is the real ‘hero’ ofall the three novels.

2.6 LATER NOVELS THE CONTEMPORARY
SCENE
As stated by Achebe himself, he was ready to move over to the contemporary
scene (of the time he wrote the novels), after writing Arrow of God, which was a
kind of swan song tribute to the Ibo way of life that was.
2.6.1 A Man of the People (1966)
With the publication of A Man of the People, Achebe plunged into the
contemporary way of life in Nigeria. Glossing over the period in which the
freedom struggle was launched and independence achieved after quite an intricate
interplay of conflicting ethnic sentiments egged on by the colonial and imperialist
forces, Achebe made post-independence Nigeria the theme of A Man of the People.
It is a Nigeria in which, like in many other newly independent nations in Africa
and elsewhere, a nexus between politician and criminals had emerged and
entrenched itself to loot the national wealth in collaboration with imperialist
forces represented by powerful multinationals. And all this was done by befooling
the people in the name of democracy, which in effect was only a facade for a
coterie of vested interests. The media too played a major role in dividing the
people in the name of ethnic loyalties and by diverting their attention from the
real issues facing the people. The chief characters in the novel are Chief M A
Nanga, who has risen from being a band – master in a school to a minister’s
position by jumping on to the political bandwagon at an appropriate time and
Odili a young teacher who is full of idealism and is determined to expose the
likes of Chief Nanga. Crowded with details of political intrigues within the ruling
party and even the cabinet, the role of money and muscle power in elections
including murders, political confrontations and compromises in the name of

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart ideology, exploitation of the ordinary people, particularly of women in the name
of both tradition and modernity, the novel could be located in any other modern
nation-state by merely changing the name of Nigeria, it could serve as predicting
the shape of things to come. The ending of A Man of the People shows the military
intervening in the sordid political affairs of the country – something which was
unthinkable in Nigerian polity at that time. However, within a few months of the
publication of this novel (1966), a military coup actually took place in Nigeria
and political power had passed into the hands of the army with which it stayed
more or less for a long period of time. In fact, between 1966 and 1999 the army
held power in Nigeria without interruption apart from a short-lived return to
democracy sometime between 1979 and 1983. In 1999 however, Nigeria adopted
the constitution of the Fourth Republic and the former military ruler Olusegun
Obasanjo was elected and sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Thereafter, Umaru Yar’Adua became President
in 2007, till his death in 2010. Goodluck Jonathan became the third President
(Interim) and later won the election the following year. Muhammadu Buhari
became President on 28th March 2015, and is still in power having won a second
term.
Let us look at his Achebe’s next novel Anthills of the Savannah published nearly
20 years later.
2.6.2 Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Achebe’s next novel Anthills of the Savannah was published, after a gap of more
than twenty years – twenty-one to be precise after the publication of A Man of the
People. So much had happened in Nigeria during this time. Nigeria had gone
through a very bloody civil war – the Biafran war – in which more than 150,000
people had been killed. The worst sufferers were the Ibo people – the ethnic
community that Achebe also belonged to. Achebe himself had to suffer for
allegedly aiding the secessionists. During this time, Nigeria had also seen the
bubble of prosperity bloom and burst as oil prices rose and crashed in the
international market. During this period, Nigeria had a brief brush with democracy
before things went out of hand. Once again the military intervened. The novel
Anthills of the Savannah is a result of the literary maturation of Chinua Achebe
subsequent to all this.

The theme of the novel is the now familiar theme of a Nigeria plagued with
inequality, poverty, social injustice, public betrayal and political and military
intrigues, with repression, intimidation and calculated murder being the order of
the day. Since violence begets violence, those trying to remedy the situation are
also forced to resort to violence. So we have a military coup in order to get rid of
a military coup. The locale this time is an imaginary Republic of Kangan and the
dictator is President Sam. Pitted against him are Ikem, Chris and Beatrice. By
showing a woman – Beatrice —take over the leadership, Achebe seems to be
suggesting that women could perhaps prove to be better leaders and better
managers of political affairs too. A look at some of his other writings will follow
next.
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2.7 OTHER WRITINGS
It has been mentioned in Unit 1 earlier that story telling was the forte of African
literature before the arrival of the Europeans and their literate culture. It has also
been mentioned that it came in very handy when African writers took to novelwriting which was a form of writing alien to Africa. The result was that most
African novelists also continued to tell stories, this time in writing. Achebe too
wrote and published stories through the ups and downs of Nigeria. Some of
these works like Chike and the River (1966) are exclusively for children in the
tradition of the father telling stories every evening to his children whom he called
to his obi. There are others like Girls at War (1973), which portray both the
traditional and the modern life. Chinua Achebe was a poet too. His collection
Beware Soul Brother (1971) is a very moving portrayal of the tragedy of the
Biafran war. Achebe has also written a book about the problems of Nigeria – The
Trouble with Nigeria (1984).
A large number of African writers like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (1938), Sengho
(1906-2001), Wole Soyinka (1934), Alex La Guma (1924-85), and Nadine
Gordimer (1923-2014), have expressed their well-thought out views about the
relationship between literature and society, the role of a writer in society, the
choice of a particular language as the medium of creative writing and a host of
other related matters. While Nadine Gordimer talks about the ‘unshakable limits’
imposed on a writer’s creativity by the policy of apartheid, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
pleads for decolonising the mind. While Senghor would like the superiority of
the black African asserted through a concept like ‘negritude’, Wole Soyinka
would like to join issue with him by dubbing his concept of ‘negritude’ as racist.
All these views and opinions are a part of another struggle being waged by African
writers “ to free African literary criticism or evaluation of African literature from
the bondage of European theories of literary criticism’’. These writers would
like African literary texts to be judged by a different set of criteria primarily
because Europeans, having never been colonised, are simply incapable of
evaluating adequately literary responses of societies where colonialism has been
a fact of life for prolonged periods of time. In other words these writers are
pleading for a different aesthetics – either an exclusive one for Africa or one
which it shares with other former European colonies in Asia and Latin America.
Chinua Achebe too has expressed his views about some of these very significant
matters, some of which have been collected in his book of essay called Morning
Yet on Creation Day, which we summarise below:

2.7.1 Morning Yet On Creation Day
Writing about the role of art – and this includes literature – in society, Achebe
says that ‘Art for art’s sake is just another piece of deodorised dog-shit’. Achebe
believes that art is, as it has always been, ‘in the service of man’. All myths,
legends and stories have been created for ‘a human purpose’. Artists – and that
includes writers – created their works ‘for the good of that society’. This is what
Achebe writes in Africa and her Writers, a leading essay in the collection.
As for Europe, Achebe says that ‘somewhere in the history of European
civilisation the idea that art should be accountable to no one and needed to justify
itself to nobody except itself, began to emerge’. On the other extreme, Achebe
tells us, is yet another stream in Europe where ‘a poet is not a poet until the

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart writers’ Union tells him so’. Achebe pleads with African writers to look to their
own sources for a definition of art. ‘The making of art is not the exclusive concern
of a particular caste or secret societies’. Art belongs to all and is a ‘function’ of
the society.
We have stated in Unit 1 that Europeans condemned everything African as
barbaric, savage and uncivilised. And this was not confined to their customs and
rituals alone but applied as much to their dances and songs and attire. The result
was that over the years Africans developed extreme inferiority complex. They
were ashamed of everything that was African – even the African weather. Now
Achebe thinks that as a novelist it is his duty and also of other fellow novelists,
to ‘educate’ such Africans and restore their faith and confidence in themselves,
their heritage and to help them ‘decolonise’ their minds. According to Chinua
Achebe, therefore, a novelist is primarily a teacher.

A controversy has been raging among African writers for quite some time now,
since 1962 to be precise, about the choice of language in which they should
express themselves creatively. There are those who would have nothing to do
with the languages of the former colonial masters. They are for shedding the
legacy of colonialism completely and going back to their own ‘tongues’. Then
there are others who shout that language is not the private property of any single
community or nation. Achebe defended his use of English by saying that for him
it was a matter of pragmatism and not principle. ‘A language spoken by Africans
on African soil, a language in which Africans write, justifies itself.’ ‘I feel’, said
Achebe, ‘that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African
experience. But it will have to be a new English still in full communication with
its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings’.

Check Your Progress 2
1) Why does Achebe call himself an ‘ancestor worshipper’?
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2) Which major changes brought about by colonialism in traditional Ibo society
are highlighted by Chinua Achebe in his novels?
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31
Chinua Achebe: Life, Works,
Literature and Society in
Nigeria
3) Why had Achebe’s A Man of the People suddenly catch the attention of
people in Nigeria?
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4) Why have most African writers including Chinua Achebe expressed their
opinion about the relationship between literature and society?
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2.8 LET US SUM UP
Nigeria has been the seat of a famous ancient civilisation. It is inhabited by four
principal ethnic groups – the Hausa, the Fulani, the Yoruba and the Ibo. The
Hausa and the Fulani are primarily Muslim by religious faith and live in the
north while the Yoruba and the Ibo are Christian or pagan by religious faith and
live in the southern and eastern parts of Nigeria respectively. Since the British
missionaries first came to the south and the east and established schools there,
the Yoruba and the Ibo cornered a greater share in development and occupied
important positions in the administration, leaving the Hausa and the Fulani far
behind. This led to inter-ethnic tensions in the post-independence era leading to
a civil war – The Biafran war – from 1967 to 1970 in which over 150,000 people
lost their lives.
Early Nigerian writing showed the influence of Christianity. Although novel
writing was foreign to African literary traditions, Nigerians have adapted
themselves well to this new form. Amos Tutuola, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian
Ekwensi, T M Aluko, Ben Okri, Wole Soyinka, Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa
are well-known Nigerian novelists. Achebe’s choice of writing about the precolonial Ibo society has been a deliberate one. His respect for the positive aspects
of that society is reflected very clearly in his first three novels – Things Fall
Apart, No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God. The tragic loss of that society
occurred because of their encounter with a technologically superior society. Also
there were some inherent weaknesses like rigidity in Ibo society. The themes of
those novels based on the post-independence situation in Nigeria have been
political intrigue and thuggery and the exploitation of the people through a nexus
between the politician and the criminal. Since this is true of most newly liberated
nations of the world, Achebe’s novels have found an appeal, which goes much
beyond the confines of Nigeria or Africa.
32
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart Achebe viewed the role of a writer in a society similar to that of a teacher. This
is so because literature in Africa, unlike its counterpart in Europe, still affects
people in their day-to-day life. It is still ‘functional’. Achebe did not feel any
pangs of guilt for using the English language as the medium for his literary
activities instead of the use of his mother tongue because he felt that he had
modified English sufficiently to serve his purpose.
2.9 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1) The Hausa, the Fulani, the Yoruba and the Ibo are the major ethnic groups
in Nigeria. The Hausa and the Fulani live in the north, the Yoruba in the
south and the Ibo in the east.
2) The socio-political organisation of the Ibos was village based and each unit
was a small autonomous village democracy. Unlike them, the Yoruba, the
Hausa and the Fulani had much larger socio-political units with a strong
central authority.
3) The written form of literature developed primarily because of the
introduction of the British education system in Nigeria. Conversion to
Christianity and the introduction of the printing press facilitated the change
over from oral to written form of literature. The process of urbanisation
and the introduction of a market economy also played their role in it.
4) Stories, poems and plays were the prevalent literary forms in pre-European
Nigeria and were all suited to the community-oriented cultural activities
which were primarily oral. Novel, on the other hand, is more suitable to
written form and does not need group participation.
5) Oral story is the form, which helped Nigerians in taking to novel writing.
Early novels were a string of stories bound together skillfully. Tutuola and
Fagunwa are well known examples of these kinds of writings.

Check Your Progress 2
1) Achebe calls himself an ‘ancestor worshipper’, because of his love and
respect for the positive aspects of the pre-European Ibo society. This is
quite evident from his first three novels.
2) Achebe highlights primarily the clash between Christianity and African
religious practices, Ibo ways of socio-political organisation and the European
manner of government and finally the Ibo system of economic organisation
and the European concept of trade. Naturally these clashes also led to a
clash between the socio-cultural values as well.
3) Achebe’s A Man of the People caught the attention of the Nigerian people
because of its prophetic prediction about Nigeria’s first-ever military coup.
It took place within a few months of the publication of the book.
4) Achebe, like many other African writers, believes that because of different
socio-political circumstances between Europe and Africa, European criteria
for evaluating African literary texts are grossly inadequate. The basic
33
Chinua Achebe: Life, Works,
Literature and Society in
Nigeria
difference of Europe having never been colonised makes all the differences.
Hence these writers, including Chinua Achebe have expressed their opinions
to highlight the need for a new aesthetics for Africa and other newly-liberated
nations of Asia and Latin America.
34
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart UNIT 3 THINGS FALL APART: DETAILED
ANALYSIS
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Things Fall Apart: Detailed Analysis
3.2.1 Part I
3.2.2 Part II
3.2.3 Part III
3.3 Let Us Sum Up
3.4 Hints to Check Your Progress
3.0 OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of this Unit is to analyse chronologically and in detail
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. This is being done with the express aim of
supplementing your reading of the novel and is not, in any way, a substitute for
your reading of the novel. Additionally, an attempt will be made to highlight
those aspects of the novel – events as well as characterisation – which are
significant and will help us in evaluating the novel critically.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 and it was this novel,
which put African Writing in English on the map of world literatures in English.
It inspired scores of writers across the continent of Africa who shed their
differences and began to write in European languages in a big way. Since then
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has been translated in about forty languages across
the world and has sold millions of copies which is an adequate testimony to its
significance not only as a great African novel but as part of the human heritage.
Although Chinua Achebe wrote two more novels in continuation of Things Fall
Apart to form a trilogy, yet Things Fall Apart remains a class apart. We begin
with a detailed analysis of the novel next.
3.2 THINGS FALL APART: DETAILED ANALYSIS
Things Fall Apart which is divided into two parts and twenty-five chapters opens
with a description of Okonkwo, a resident of a cluster of villages called Umuofia.
Okonkwo, as we come to know on reading the novel, is the principal character
around whom the whole plot of the novel is woven.

3.2.1 Part I
The author tells us in the first chapter that Okonkwo was a famous person,
primarily because of his physical powers. He had defeated the strongest man –
Amalinze in a wrestling contest when he was only eighteen. Now he is thirtyeight and he is still considered a very strong person. The author further reveals to
us that Okonkwo was a man of short temper and very little patience. He had no

Things Fall Apart: Detailed
Analysis respect for people who were physically weak. His own father was one such person
and therefore Okonkwo did not have much respect for his father Unoka.
The author draws a contrast between the father and the son, between Okonkwo
and Unoke, by stating that not only was Unoko very weak but he was also lazy
and managed his household affairs very badly. However, like his son, Unoko too
was a famous person. While the son Okonkwo was known for his physical strength
and power his father Unoka was well known for his musical qualities. Unoka
was perpetually in debt to his neighbours and friends. And he was quite unashamed
in acknowledging this. He was also a bad payee as the author shows us a
conversation between Unoka and his friend Okoyo who had lent Unoka some
money. Unlike his father, Okonkwo was not only physically strong but he also
managed his household affairs well, as a result of which he had become quite
rich.

The first chapter gives us a good peep into the Ibo society of the times. It was a
society in which people were respected and publicly honoured for physical
strength. It was a society in which people judged a person on his or her own
performance and not on the basis of the status of the parents. It was a society in
which a person’s wealth could be judged from the number of public titles he
possessed or the number of wives he had because for acquiring both – a title as
well as a wife-a person had to pay a substantial amount of money. Okonkwo had
both – a number of titles as well as a number of wives. We also come to know that
the Ibo were quite fond of speaking in proverbs, that is to say, they liked saying
things indirectly by referring to anecdotes and stories. This is a sign of a culturally
sophisticated society. Achebe ends the first chapter by referring to an ill fated
child named Ikemefuna who comes to stay with Okonkwo thereby, creating the
necessary suspense and curiosity for what follows in the next chapter.
The second chapter opens with the crier informing the residents of Umuofia to
gather at the market place the next day. Okonkwo discerns a distinct tragic note
in the voice of the crier and wonders as to what could have happened. The next
morning sees about ten thousand men gathered to listen to Ezeugo, who is a
powerful narrator. Ezeugo soon informs the audience that a woman of Umuofia,
the wife of Ogbuefi Udo, has been murdered by the residents of Mbaino, a
neighbouring cluster of villages. As was the custom in such situations, it was
decided to serve an ultimatum to Mbaino that they choose between a compensation
of a virgin and a young man or the onslaught of a war. Since Umuofia had the
reputation of being very strong both in terms of warriors as well as in casting
magic spells, neighbours were afraid of going to war with it. Mbaino also decides
to pay the compensation. The girl was to replace the murdered wife of Udo while
the boy’s fate would be decided by the residents of Umuofia later. This is how
Ikemefuna, the ill-fated boy from Mbaino comes to live in Okonkwo’s house
during the interim period. It is once again emphasised that Okonkwo was a strong
man who created a sense of fear even among his wives and children. Okonkwo
hands over Ikemefuna to his second wife whose own son Nwoye is of the same
age. Ikemefuna was completely clueless about the reasons for his being taken
away from his parents and brought to a far-off strange place together with a girl
whom he never sees again after reaching the new place.
Once again, we come to know more things about the Ibo people and their customs.
Apart from the description of the manner in which public gatherings are held
and households managed, we come to know that the society was very rigid and

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart cruel in many ways. Justice was based on the principle of revenge as is clear
from the surrendering of a virgin girl and an innocent boy as a compensation for
a murdered woman. An individual’s life, therefore, was completely in the hands
of the clan or the tribe. That is why an innocent Ikemefuna is surrendered to the
residents of Umuofia although he had nothing to do with the murder of the woman
personally.

Chapter three recalls the struggle Okonkwo had to go through to set himself up
as an independent farmer even when his father Unoka was alive. Since Okonkwo
did not have resources of his own, he went and borrowed 800 yam seeds from a
wealthy farmer Nwakibie and four hundred more from another friend of his
father’s. As per the practice of share cropping prevalent in that society, Okonkwo
would be entitled to only one third of the total crop. But he had no choice since
his father had nothing to support him with, which makes Okonkwo quite angry.
That year the crops fail badly since it does not rain at the right time. After
Okonkwo had planted the first part of his seeds of yam, instead of rains, a
scorching sun burns the seedlings. Half of his seeds were lost. When he planted
the other half after clearing the fields once again, it was excessive rains that
destroyed everything this time. Okonkwo was ruined. But he, being a die-hard
optimist and an extremely hard-working young man said to himself that if he
was able to survive that particular year, he would be able to survive subsequently
because nothing could be worse than what had happened that year. The chapter
also tells us more about the social organisation of the society: how to honour
guests and how to please elders. It also tells us that the Ibo people believe in the
spirit of the ancestors as well as in an almighty oracle or God whom they consult
in times of need. Certain superstitions are also referred to. For instance, anyone
struck with the disease of swelling of the stomach or other limbs is abandoned to
die in the jungle. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father had been struck with this disease and
left to die like that. The chapter has a number of proverbs as manners of expression
for certain specific situations.

Chapter four brings the story back to the present and shows how after initial
resistance, Ikemefuna grew to accept Okonkwo’s household as his home. Not
only does be become quite friendly with Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, but he also
earns the love of Okonkwo himself, although Okonkwo never shows emotions
openly, as he considers that to be weakness in a man. Ikemefuna even calls
Okonkwo his father. The chapter details how preparations are made for the sowing
season of yam, which is a kind of plant species that forms tubers. The Ibo people
observed a week of peace before the sowing started. This was done to be in the
right frame of mind for the hard work. That year Okonkwo had disturbed the
peace by beating one of his wives during the week and he had to appease god
and the priest.
The next chapter describes the Feast of the New Yam in Umuofia, which is to be
held just before the harvesting begins and it also coincides with the beginning of
the New Year. It is held to honour Ani, the goddess of earth and fertility. There is
a lot of feasting on this occasion. Okonkwo’s household also celebrates the feast
with a lot of pomp and show and the most excited is Ikemefuna. The second day
of the celebration is reserved for wrestling which also generates a lot of
enthusiasm. It is on one of these occasions that Okonkwo had defeated Amalinze,
the Cat and had won the heart of Ekwefi, who had become his second wife, after
deserting her husband. The chapter once again describes in great detail the

 

Things Fall Apart: Detailed
Analysis household chores as well as the manner in which various wives of a man manage
their respective duties.
Chapter six gives an extensive account of the wrestling match and also a brief
conversation between Ekwefi and another woman named Chielo who also doubles
as the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle or the God.
Chapter seven is a very crucial section of the novel, which describes first, how
Ikemefuna’s stay in Okonkwo’s home for three years has had a very positive
influence on Nwoye. Nwoye whom Okonkwo had earlier considered to be lazy
like his own father Unoka, is now quite enthused about undertaking difficult
masculine tasks like splitting wood or pounding food. Okonkwo considers the
change to be a result of Ikemefuna’s company. He has grown quite fond of
Ikemefuna. Okonkwo often called them to his obi-his hut “ and told them the
stories of the land’’. Since the harvest season is over, Okonkwo has enough time
for this. During one of these days Ogbuezi Ezeudu comes to visit him and brings
him the unhappy news that the clan has finally decided to kill Ikemefuna. He,
however, warns Okonkwo not to have a hand in Ikemefuna’s death since the boy
loves him and even calls him father.
The next day it is all worked out by the elders in Okonkwo’s house and Ikemefuna
is informed that he will be taken home the following day. On the ill-fated morning,
the men set out with Ikemefuna. Okonkwo is one of them. Ikemefuna is made to
carry a pot of wine. At sunset they are in the midst of a jungle. Although
apprehensive, Ikemefuna is oblivious of any harm because Okonkwo walks right
behind him, Okonkwo whom he loves as his own father. He starts thinking of his
mother and sister, as he has not seen his family since the last three years. He has
very vague mental pictures of them. He is not sure if his mother is still alive.
Suddenly a man draws Ikemefuna’s attention by clearing his throat and as the
child looks back, the man strikes him with his machete which is a kind of sword.
As Ikemefuna cries and appeals to Okonkwo for help, Okonkwo himself strikes
him down with his machete. This he does lest his fellowmen consider him to be
‘weak’. This ends an important section of the novel.
Chapter eight begins with Okonkwo feeling completely disoriented for a couple
of days after the killing of Ikemefuna and at his own role in the killing. Soon his
friend Obierika comes to invite him as his daughter’s suitor is coming to settle
the bride price. In most African societies, it is customary for the young man to
pay a mutually agreed price to his in-laws for asking a girl’s hand in marriage.
While they discuss the relative merits of their sons, Obierika tells Okonkwo that
he has not done well by taking part in Ikemefuna’s killing and the goddess of the
earth might punish him for that. The chapter then describes in detail the custom
of settling the bride price and feasting after it has been settled. This is done when
the bride price for Akueka, Obierika’s daughter is being settled. In the concluding
conversation it is hinted that some white men have been seen passing through
their area, particularly a man named Amadi. This appears to be the first contact
the area has had with the people with the ‘white skin’.
Chapter nine begins with his favourite daughter Ezinma suddenly becoming ill
with shivers. Okonkwo goes out looking for some medicinal leaves, grass and
barks of trees, which could cure this disease, which he calls iba, a kind of fever.
While he is out looking for those herbs, the author gives us a background about
the life of Ezinma and her mother Ekwefi. Ekwefi has lost nine of her children in

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart infancy. When a woman loses her children one after another, the Ibo people
believe that it is the same wicked child entering its mother’s womb again and
again. The cure lies in the hands of a medicine man. A medicine man is like an
astrologer or a Tantrik in Indian societies who finds a solution to a problem
through various ritualistic practices. One such medicine man named Okogbue
has cured the mother of the curse and the next child, Ezinma, has survived. Soon
Okonkwo returns with the required leaves and barks which are boiled to a certain
specific limit Ezinma is given a steam bath which cures her of the shivering and
fever.

The next chapter tells us of the details of another ritual among the Ibo. It shows
how disputes between the people of nine villages of Umuofia are resolved at the
hands of a group of nine adjudicators who represent the spirits of the ancestors
collectively and who are called egwugwu. The adjudicators are from amongst
the people and are transformed into egwugwu after performing some rituals
including the wearing of masks.

Chapter eleven describes yet another ritual – that of the Agbala, or the Oracle.
Chielo a woman from the village who is Agbala’s priestess who comes out on
this particular night and goes to Okonkwo’s hut saying that the Oracle wanted to
see Ezinma, his daughter. She puts the child on her back and disappears in the
dark of the night screaming the name of Agbala. Ekwefi, Ezinma’s mother is
scared to death about the well being of her child and she follows her till the
mouth of the cave of the Oracle into which the Agbala’s priestess has disappeared
with the child. Ekwefi waits outside the cave and is pleasantly surprised to find
Okonkwo coming there with his sword and both of them wait outside till Chielo
comes out of the cave.

In chapter twelve which opens on the day after Ezinma’s visit to the Oracle,
Obierika, Okonkwo’s friend is celebrating his daughter’s Uri which is a kind of
engagement ceremony, Okonkwo has been invited to Obierika’s compound along
with his entire family. A lot of cooking for the feast is going on. Soon the in-laws
arrive with fifty pots full of palm-wine. The ceremony ends with a lot of eating,
drinking and singing and also a dance by the bride.
Chapter thirteen which is the last in Part One, begins with the news that Ezeudu,
a village elder universally respected has died. Since his was a warrior’s funeral,
guns are fired as the time for the burial draws near. Suddenly an accident happens:
the dead man’s sixteen year old son is killed by Okonkwo’s gun going off
accidentally. Ibo people believe that manslaughter is a major crime against the
earth goddess and the man has to flee from his home and clan along with his
entire family. Since Okonkwo’s crime was inadvertent, he could return after seven
years of exile. Okonkwo flees to Mbanta, a nearby village of his mother’s kinsmen.
His house is then ransacked and burnt as a part of the ritual of revenge for the
earth goddess. We find Obierika musing over the fate of people suffering for
doing something inadvertently. He recalls his having thrown away his twin
newborn children for such was the custom in their society.

3.2.2 Part II
Chapter fourteen which is the first chapter in Part Two, opens with Okonkwo
beginning his life afresh in Mbanta where he is given a piece of land for building
his compound and another two or three pieces of land for farming. His uncle and

Things Fall Apart: Detailed
Analysis his cousins help him by giving him yam seeds. Okonkwo works hard but his
heart is not in it. He hopes to become one of the lords of the clan and had worked
towards it but this accident has shattered his hopes and has forced him to flee
from his clan. His chi or personal god has not destined him to do great things.
However, Okonkwo’s mother’s brother – Uchendu –comforts him and asks him
to realise that his was not the greatest suffering in the world.
Chapter fifteen opens with Obierika, Okonkwo’s friend paying him a visit at the
end of the second year of his exile. He brings the shocking news that the village
of Abame nearby has been wiped out by white men and some of the survivors
have fled to Umuofia. He then goes on to narrate how a white man on an iron
horse has come to Abame. Scared, the villagers of Abame had killed him and had
tied his iron horse to a tree. In retaliation, three white men and some Africans
who had come after many days had fired and killed most villagers on a market
day. While they are all disturbed at the news, Obierika also tells them that he has
heard the stories about the white men making very powerful guns and taking
away Africans and selling them as slaves across the seas. About two years pass
and the white missionaries were already in Umuofia. This is the news which
Obierika brings on his next visit about which we read in chapter sixteen. There is
already a church and also a few converts although these converts are not important
people. Obierika remarks that Okonkwo’s son Nwoye has been seen with the
missionaries in Umuofia.

Soon we discover that a white man accompanied by some Africans had come to
Mbanta and had persuaded the villagers to adopt his religion. He has appealed to
them stating that the gods they believed in were all ‘false gods’. While most
villagers had made fun of the white man’s views about their gods, there was one
amongst them who had appeared to be impressed – not so much by the lecture of
the white man as by the singing which had followed the lecture. That young man
was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son. While listening to the hymns, Nwoye had
recalled the harrowing experience of Ikemefuna’s killing as well as the throwing
away of new born twins, both of which were a part of their religion (the African’s
religion). The hymns had given him a strange sense of relief and peace.
Chapter seventeen continues with the story of the preaching of the Christian
gospel by the missionaries in Mbanta. When they asked the villagers for a piece
of land for building their place of worship, the villagers had given them a piece
in the ‘evil forest’, which was a place where no one lived because it was there
that those who had died of dreadful diseases like leprosy and small pox were
buried. The people believed that any one inhabiting such a place would himself
be dead before long. However, when nothing happens to the missionaries after
living there for many days, a whisper starts that perhaps the god of the white
men is more powerful than that of the Africans. A couple of Africans also convert
to the white man’s religion. When Okonkwo discovers that Nwoye too has
converted, he threatens him as a result of which Nwoye leaves home and goes to
work in the missionary school for the converts at Umuofia. This is a big blow to
Okonkwo and his male ego but he cannot do anything except sulk.
The next chapter opens with the news that the white man has brought not only
their religion but also a government. They have built a place of judgement in
Umuofia for protecting the converts to the religion of ‘Jesu Kristi’. There is also
the story that an African has been hanged for killing a missionary. In Mbanta a
crisis arises when the converts from the village refuse to sit with Osu converts,

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart who are some kind of outcasts. As the missionary Mr Kiaga questions such beliefs
he and the mission staff as well as the converts clash with the people.
Chapter nineteen opens with Okonkwo making preparations to leave Mbanta for
Umuofia since his seven years of exile is coming to an end. He organises a big
thanksgiving feast where after the feasting and expression of gratitude, one of
the elders warns them against the impact of the new religion on their children
and their lives. ‘I fear for you; I fear for the clan;’ is the warning he gives and as
subsequent events show his words prove to be prophetic.

3.2.3 Part III
Chapter twenty which is the first chapter of Part Three opens with Okonkwo’s
return to Umuofia. He, however, is a sad man because he knows he has lost his
chance of taking the highest title of the clan and also of leading his fellow men in
the war against the new religion. He has been struck a major blow when his son
Nwoye converted to the white man’s religion. He also finds that the Umuofia he
has returned to is a different place with a court of justice having been set up by
the white man where a district commissioner judges cases of dispute. There is
even a jail where African employees of the white man’s government, Kotma, as
they are called, beat people mercilessly irrespective of their status in the clan.
People were punished for obeying their African customs and rituals. While
Okonkwo advocates they fight back the white man and is confident that they
would be able to defeat him, his friend Obierika is not so sure because they have
been hopelessly divided. The clan does not act in unison any more since the
converted people from the clan side with the white man. ‘He has put a knife on
things that held us together and we have fallen apart’, Obierika says to Okonkwo
and both fall silent.

Chapter twenty-two shows how the white man has gradually changed the entire
way of life in Umuofia. Besides the religion and the government, there is also a
trading store where palm oil and kernels could be sold for money. Umuofia has
become rich. Mr Brown, the white missionary, has also exercised restraint upon
his followers by asking them not to provoke those who had still not converted to
Christianity. He has, therefore, come to be respected even by the clan. Clever as
he is, he wants to win them indirectly and not through a frontal attack. So he has
a hospital built in Umuofia and also had a school built for the children of the
people. He also told them that if their children did not come to the school and
learn to read and write, Africans from the outside would come and rule them by
serving the District Commissioner like the Kotma who had come from Umuru
on the banks of River Niger.

Mr. Brown had succeeded in bringing people and their children to his school.
Thus, church and education went hand in hand in Umuofia and the neighbouring
villages. However, Mr. Brown had failed to make a dent in Okonkwo’s mind
despite the fact that Okonkwo’s son Nwoye, now called Isaac, had been sent to a
training college for teachers in Umuru. Okonkwo had turned Mr. Brown out of
his obi when Mr. Brown had come to see him. Soon Mr. Brown leaves Umuofia
due to bad health. The chapter closes with Okonkwo feeling grieved not only for
himself but ‘for the clan which he saw breaking up and falling apart’. The next
chapter shows Reverend James Smith, Mr. Brown’s successor, condemning his
policy of ‘compromise and accommodation’. He believed in open confrontation
between evil and good, between black and white. He encouraged overzealous

Things Fall Apart: Detailed
Analysis converts like Enoch who had once killed and eaten the python that the villagers
considered sacred.
Enoch had unmasked an egwugwu during the annual ceremony in honour of the
earth deity. He had ‘killed’ an ancestral spirit. Next day, the egwugwu from the
entire area of nine villages had descended in Umuofia and destroyed the church.
Okonkwo felt very happy at these developments. This is how chapter twentythree begins. But his happiness is short-lived because soon the leaders – six of
them – are summoned by the District Commissioner for discussion and are
arrested. Okonkwo is one of them. They are ill treated and beaten in the lock-up
by the African guards. The village is asked to pay a fine of 250 bags of cowries
(small shells used as money in parts of Africa) to save them from hanging.
Chapter twenty-four finds them released since the village has paid the fine.
However, the six men are sullen from the humiliation they have suffered while
in the lock-up. Okonkwo is seething with anger for revenge. At the next day’s
meeting the people of Umuofia are horrified to hear a group of messengers come
and tell them to stop the meeting since it has been declared illegal by the District
Commissioner. Okonkwo is furious and in a fit of anger he draws his matchet
and beheads the messenger. There are murmurs among the people, asking: ‘Why
did he do it’?
The last chapter shows the body of Okonkwo hanging from a tree when the
District, Commissioner comes to arrest him. Finding himself completely isolated
from the villagers, Okonkwo commits suicide. However, his fellow villagers
have refused to even touch his body since it is sinful to touch someone who has
taken his own life. In fact, he cannot even be buried as per the normal customs
and rituals. Thus, Okonkwo’s tragedy is complete: once an aspirant to the highest
title, of the land, he has now died the death of a pariah dog. As his friend Obierika
put it to the District Commissioner – ‘That man was one of the greatest men in
Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself and now he will be buried like a dog…’
The District Commissioner, however, is busy thinking about his book on the
Ibos. He decides to devote a whole chapter to the story of this man who had
killed the messenger and then committed suicide.

Check Your Progress 1
Answer the following questions on the basis of your reading of the text of Things
Fall Apart and this Unit.
1) What do the following expressions mean:
a) Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten. (Chapter one)
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42
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart b) If a child washed his hands he could eat with the kings. (Chapter three)
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c) A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing. (Chapter four)
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e) Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit
should not forget to be humble. (Chapter four)
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f) When a man says yes, his chi says yes. (Chapter four)
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2) Why was Okonkwo ashamed of his father Unoka?
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43
Things Fall Apart: Detailed
Analysis 3) Why did Ezeudu advise Okonkwo not to have a hand in the killing of
Ikemefuna? Why did Okonkwo not heed his advice?
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4) Who were the egwugwu? What was their specific function in Ibo society?
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5) In what way did the Christian missionaries confront the Africans in Mbanta?
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6) What were the consequences of the white man’s arrival in Umuofia?
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7) List the major traits of Okonkwo’s personality.
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Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart 3.3 LET US SUM UP
The first part of the novel describes how Okonkwo was able to move up in life
through sheer hard work although his father had the reputation of being both
physically weak and lazy. It also describes the circumstances under which a boy
from one of the neighbouring villages comes to Umuofia and is assigned to stay
in Okonkwo’s house. It describes how Ikemefuna was finally killed by the
villagers of Umuofia as revenge for one of their own women having been killed
by a person from the village to which Ikemefuna belonged. The closing chapter
of Part One describes how Okonkwo had to flee from his village and clan because
he had killed a boy from the village accidentally.
Part two of the novel describes primarily Okonkwo’s life in Mbanta during his
exile for seven years. It also describes how during those years the white man –
first the missionaries and later the administrators – had come and entrenched
themselves in Umuofia and its neighbouring villages.
The last section of the novel describes how Okonkwo, disappointed at his not
being able to earn the highest title of the land through a quirk of fate, decides to
show his personal valour and courage by confronting the white man’s
administration. Finding himself isolated after he has killed the white man’s
messenger, Okonkwo commits suicide. In the Ibo code of ethics, committing
suicide is so abominable a sin that he cannot get even a proper burial. Thus, ends
the tragic tale of an individual who at one time was the most respected individual
in Umuofia but who had been defeated by his temperament as well the changed
circumstances. So was the Ibo society which too like Okonkwo had grown too
rigid to recognise the need for adapting itself to changing circumstances. Both of
them are swept away by the onslaught of a more powerful and cunning -the
European – way of life.

3.4 HINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1) a) Proverbs facilitate expression; they help us express things better and
more effectively.
b) If one works hard and prepares himself/herself well, one can achieve
the highest goal in life.
c) Unusual events arise because of significant reasons.
d) One should be grateful for one’s good-luck.
e) God helps those who help themselves.
2) Because his father was a weak and lazy person and in the Ibo society only
physically strong and hardworking people were respected.
3) Because Okonkwo had brought up the boy for three years and Ikemefuna
looked up to Okonkwo as his own father. As per Ibo customs, this would be
a crime against the earth goddess. Okonkwo did not heed the advice of his
friend Ezeudu because he was afraid that others would consider him a
coward.
4) The Egwugwus were the adjudicators representing the spirits of the ancestors
of the clan. They were members of the clan itself in whom the spirits of the

Things Fall Apart: Detailed
Analysis ancestors were – believed to have entered after the performing of certain
rituals. Their specific task was to dispense justice in cases of dispute among
the members of the clan.
5) The Christian missionaries successfully challenged the superstitious beliefs
of the Ibo traditional society thereby claiming a superiority for their own
religion – Christianity-over the traditional religious practices of the Ibos.
6) The society was divided among the converts and the non-converts. Once
the clan stopped speaking in a unified voice, the white man took over the
function of the administrator of the society. The white man also introduced
trade by way of monetary incentive, thereby further dividing the hitherto
homogeneous Ibo society.
7) Okonkwo was physically very strong and hardworking. However, he was
impatient and short tempered, often resorting to physical violence to assert
his superiority. He was very conscious of his public image and did everything
to guard it. Okonkwo was very rigid in his views and outlook and refused
to adjust himself to the changed situations. While imposing his will and
views upon others, he refused to grant them the freedom to have an
independent opinion or outlook. As a result of this inflexibility in his
character, Okonkwo failed to view and assess a situation realistically and
this proved to be the primary reason of his isolation from fellow Umuofians
and his tragic end.

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
UNIT 4 SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THINGS FALL APART

Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Simplicity
4.3 Universality
4.4 Man- Woman Relationships
4.5 Folk Material: Proverbs, Sayings and Metaphors
4.6 Language and Style
4.7 Let Us Sum Up
4.8 Hints to Check Your Progress
4.9 Suggested Readings & References
4.0 OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of this Unit is to highlight those specific aspects of Things
Fall Apart which have made it a favourite text of not only readers all over the
world, but also of critics, translators and teachers of literature.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Chinua Achebe’s first novel – Things Fall Apart – remains the most favourite of
his novel with his readers and critics, despite the fact that he himself considers
Arrow of God as his most powerful work -his tour de force. Since the publication
of Things Fall Apart more than sixty years ago, Achebe wrote four more novels,
a book of short stories, a couple of story books for children, a book of poems and
a book of essays. And yet his reputation as a writer rests most firmly on Things
Fall Apart. It is one of the most widely discussed novels of our times. If one
were to collect all the critical material published on Things Fall Apart, it would
run into scores of volumes if not more, there would perhaps be hardly any
expression from the book which would have been left without a comment. Such
has been the impact of Things Fall Apart on the modern literary scene.
Things Fall Apart derives its mesmerising strength from a number of specific
features which make it an ideal text. Achebe’s sensitive perception of an ancient
society at the crossroads of history, his artful mastery of telling a complex story
quite simply and his effective blending of the techniques of oral narration with
written discourse is the strength of the novel and makes it what it is a modern
classic. Some of these features are: simplicity, universality and the language as
well as the style of narration. Let us examine each one of these in detail.

4.2 SIMPLICITY
Things Fall Apart appears to be, on the face of it, a simple tale of the rise and fall
of an obstinate man, Okonkwo, who was also impatient and short-tempered. His
47

Specific Features of Things
Fall Apart insistence on participating in the killing of Ikemefuna whom he had treated like
his own son for a number of years is an example of Okonkwo’s obstinacy. Again,
the author tells us in the very first chapter about Okonkwo’s impatience with
people who were physically weak. It is because of this that Okokwo had no
patience with his own father. A typical example of Okonkwo’s short-temper is
his beating his wife during the week of peace which the people of Umuofia
observed immediately before the beginning of the sowing season for yams.
The novel appears to have no complexity by way of either depth of character
portrayal or plot construction. These virtues have been considered essential for
any novel of significance and have been extolled by almost all western critics of
the novel art form, ranging from Henry James to E M Forster. It appears that
the character of Okonkwo is portrayed by the author with the help of a few
incidents like wining a wrestling match, killing Ikemefuma, beating one of his
wives, killing his friend Obierika’s son accidentally and beheading the white
man’s messenger. There is no attempt, it is suggested, to delve deep into the
psyche of Okonkwo to find out if there are any hesitations and dilemmas, hopes
and fears or regrets and elations about some of these acts of his. In short, the
author appears to have provided no psychological dimension to the character of
Okonkwo. As for the other characters, they are simply peripheral and they have
not been provided with any major roles even in events and happenings. Finally,
it has been suggested that at the level of style, Things Fall Apart is primarily told
in simple structures and with very few words.

However, this quality of simplicity is quite deceptive in the case of Things Fall
Apart. It is not, as has been made out to be, the story of the rise and fall of a
single individual namely Okonkwo. It is, in fact, the story of a whole clan, a
whole society, a whole way of life which meets its tragic end at the crossroads of
history. The Ibo society on the eve of colonial takeover is ‘the real hero’ of
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It is because of this that Achebe-has included a
number of incidents which have no direct bearing on Okonkwo’s character but
which are very significant from the point of view of depicting the Ibo society at
Umuofia.

We must, therefore, look for the depth of character in this ‘real hero’ rather than
in Okonkwo or Obierika and others, although this is not to say that there is no
depth of character in Okonkwo. The complex society that the pre-European Ibo
world was, it is presented in its awe-inspiring glory through details of its various
customs and rituals, its daily chores, its travails and jubilations, through its
mourning and celebrations. In the first chapter itself we are told about the society
and its norms “ respecting those who have physical strength and pitying those
who had none’’. The contrast between Okonkwo and his father Unoka has been
presented to highlight the difference in character. While the father Unoka is lazy
and physically weak, the son Okonkwo is strong both physically and mentally.
The mental strength of Okonkwo is brought to light through an incident in which
occurs the death of a woman of Umuofia at the hands of residents of Mbaino and
the demand for a virgin and a young boy as compensation “ the latter for killing’’
which has been described in details in the second chapter. This incident highlights
yet another aspect of the Ibo society namely, blood for blood. It also highlights
the plight of ordinary people who were in total control of their leaders. Thus,
Ikemefuna has to pay with his life for a crime in which he had no hand. As the
novel progresses we see Achebe describe in detail the manner in which justice
48
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart was publicly dispensed with the help of egwugwu masks, how fertility gods
were propitiated by the observance of a peace week before the sowing season
and how a man had to pay a very heavy price even for accidentally killing
someone. Achebe gives us enough evidence of various other customs and rituals
connected with marriage and death. (All these details have been provided by
Achebe for that matter was not primitive but quite complex. It is this society
rather than individuals like Okonkwo who are the focus of Achebe’s study in
Things Fall Apart.)

As for individual characters like Okonkwo, we have already listed in the last
Unit the traits of his personality. He is strong, he is hardworking, he is impatient,
he is short tempered, he is ‘correct’ in behaviour, he is conscious of his public
image and he is rigid in his views. This makes him quite a complex character.
However, Achebe follows a different technique in character building. Instead of
dilating on the details of each of these qualities, Achebe reveals them through
brief references to certain episodes. Things Fall Apart has, therefore, a deceptive
aura of simplicity around itself, only half revealing a very complex text within,
which is a major strength of the novel.

4.3 UNIVERSALITY
Achebe has stated in one of his essays titled “Novelist as Teacher” (included in
Morning Yet on Creation Day) that one of the primary purpose of his novels is to
educate his readers about the glory of their past, pre-colonical life. This he does
with the intention of ‘correcting’ the distortions which were deliberately
introduced by Europeans into the history and culture of Africa in order to create
an inferiority complex in the minds of Africans. It is with this aim -in mind that
they went on repeating the statement that Africa had no culture, no history, and
no past. They justified their colonisation of Africa by stating that they had come
to Africa to ‘civilise’ them. The frequent use of the expression ‘white man’s
burden’ for black Africans shows the same frame of mind of Whiteman’s
superiority as well as his philanthropic spirit. Obviously, this statement about
African being without any history, or culture is blatantly false. In fact, this was a
strategy to perpetuate their hold over the minds of the colonised people. In this
respect, Things Fall Apart is a text about a specific society – the Ibo people –
with a specific aim of restoring their self-confidence.

However, Things Fall Apart is more than that. It is, at another level, the story of
individuals or societies who/which grow rigid in their outlook with the passage
of time and refuse to recognise changes in their circumstances, let alone coming
to terms with them. This in turn puts them out of tune with contemporary reality,
leading to their tragic end. This is true not only of Okonkwo and the Ibo society
of the late 19thcentury but also of any other society at any other time. This is, for
instance, equally true of ancient Chinese, Indian, Greek and Egyptian civilisations.
In this sense the novel is about the human predicament itself and is universal in
character. It is not that Achebe is unaware of this dimension of his novel or that
this universal element has ‘crept’ into the text unintentionally. Let us not forget
that when it came to choosing a title for his book, Achebe chose it from a poem
– The Second Coming – by the famous Irish poet William Butler Yeats which
talks about the cyclic movement of human history in terms of order and anarchy.
This shows quite clearly that the idea of creating a text that, although beginning
with the story of a specific people but expanding to encompass mankind at large
49
Specific Features of Things
Fall Apart was very much present in Achebe’s mind from the very beginning. Let’s quickly
look at how man – woman relationships are discussed in the novel.

4.4 MAN- WOMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Achebe portrays man-woman relationship in Ibo society primarily through
Okonkwo and his three wives. In the very beginning of the novel, we are told
that Okonkwo
…ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest,
lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did the little children. (p. 9)
We get a proof of this when Okonkwo berates Nwoye’s mother:
“Do what you are told, woman”, Okontwo thundered and stammered. And so,
Nwoye’s mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no more questions.
(pp 10-11)
This behaviour on the part of Okonkwo was because Okonkwo as a member of
the Ibo social organisation, believed that –
No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and
children (and especially his women) he was not really a man (p 37)
Okonkwo is portrayed by Achebe to be a man of short temper but he is particularly
harsh with women. There is an episode in the novel in which he is preparing
some herbal medicine for his daughter Ezinma. Ekwefi, his wife and Ezinma’s
mother gives him a pot full of water and pours some on the herbs and asks
Okonkwo, “Is that enough?” He shouts at her… “A little more…I said a little. Are
you deaf?” (p.60). Apparently the shouting is absolutely unnecessary but is in
keeping with Okonkwo’s belief about ‘ruling his household with a heavy hand’.
In fact, Okonkwo even resorts to beating his wives. He beats Ojiugo, his youngest
wife during the Peace Week for failing to cook his afternoon meal on time. On
another occasion, his second wife is beaten for killing a banana tree. This practice
of wife beating however seems to be common among the Ibos.
While we may draw a conclusion from the above that man is the undisputed boss
in the family, it may not be wholly correct to deduce that women were forced to
submit completely to men in the Ibo societal organisation. For instance, women
in most ethnic groups in Nigeria, including among the Ibo, did enjoy economic
independence. Again, educated urban women could not be dominated as
completely as their uneducated rural sisters. In the next section, we shall look at
how folk material is used in the novel.

4.5 FOLK MATERIAL: PROVERBS, SAYINGS AND METAPHORS

One of the unique strengths of Things Fall Apart is the use of folk material
employed by Achebe in his narration. As stated elsewhere in this block, Ibos
were renowned for the extensive use of proverbs, sayings and metaphors in the
50
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart
communication. In fact, communication had been fine tuned to be an art and
there were contests held to choose outstanding communicators. The art of
conversation itself is described with the help of the following proverb:
Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
Achebe builds this into his own narrative by weaving these folk elements into
the tapestry of his narrative. Among the Ibo, proverbs are used to describe a
person’s interaction and relations with others, focusing especially on his/her status
or place in the society. Among them, for instance, they had a saying “if a child
washed his hands he could eat with kings’’ meaning thereby that one could raise
one’s social status by one’s behaviour. Okonkwo is shown to be such a person.
Another proverb that fits Okonkwo is -A man who pays respect to the great
paves the way for his own greatness. Okonkwo’s potential is recognised by his
fellow villagers because you can tell a ripe corn by its look. While his father
could not raise a loan because lending him was full like pouring grains of corn
into a bag of holes, Okonkwo had no such difficulty when he went to borrow
yams for planting.
When showing temper to an untitled person, Okonkwo is reminded by an Elder
that, “those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit
should not forget to be humble”.
In another situation when Okonkwo is being dissuaded from participating in the
killing of Ikemefuna, especially because the latter called him ‘father’, Okonwo
tries to allay the fears of those who were apprehensive that retributive Wrath
would be on him, and says:
A child’s fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into
its palm. The implication is that it was only his societal obligations that he was
fulfilling by participating in the killing of Ikemefuna.
Okonkwo is disappointed in his son Nwoye who does not show signs of
aggressively pursuing the goals of life as he himself had done. He tells his friend
Obierika, A chick that can grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.
When the bride price for Akueke, Obierika’s daughter is being settled, the suitor’s
brother uses the following expression:
As the dog says, ‘If it fall down for you and you fall down for me, it’s play.
The implication is that there should be a happy compromise in all such matters.
Given below are more such proverbs and sayings that Achebe uses in Things
Fall Apart.
A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch. If one says no to the other, let his wing
break.
An animal rubs its aching flank against a tree, a man asks his kinsman to scratch
him.
A toad does not run in the day time for nothing.
Eneke the bird says that since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has
learnt to fly without perching.
51
Specific Features of Things
Fall Apart I have learnt that a man who makes troubles for other is also making trouble for
himself, said the Tortoise.
The clan is like a lizard; if it lost its tail it soon grew another.
Achebe makes clear that these proverbs and sayings are a part of the inherited
wisdom of the Ibos, by preceding the proverbs of sayings by words such as “As
our elders say”, “as the saying goes among our people”, etc.
To drive home the full import of the sayings, Achebe translates them directly in
a very simple language. This way he is able to convey the linguistic prowess of
his people. This is also one of the most powerful aspects of the narrative strategies
employed in Things Fall Apart. We shall look at the use of language and comment
of Achebe’s style next.

4.6 LANGUAGE AND STYLE
One of the strongest virtues of Things Fall Apart is its style and the use that
Achebe makes of the English language to weave this apparently simple but highly
sophisticated story of the passing away of a way of life.
The language is very simple and direct and so is the syntax. This is very much in
keeping with firstly, the art of oral narration which was a significant feature of
the society Achebe describes in the novel and secondly, with the ‘educational’
role that Achebe assigns to his novel.
However, as in the case of the story and the characterisation this simplicity at the
level of style is also very deceptive. Look at the case with which Achebe builds
a large number of Ibo words into his English language structures. While it is true
that Achebe provides a glossary of such terms at the end of the novel, it is also
true that in most cases a reader is able to ‘guess’ the meaning from the context.
Let me take a couple of examples. In chapter one, the following sentence occurs:
He could hear in his minds ear the blood-stirring and intricate rhythms of the
ekwe and the udu and the ogene and he could hear his own flute weaving in and
out of them decorating them with colourfuland plaintive tune.
It is not difficult to guess as to what the Ibo words ekwe, ude and ogene stand for.
They must be musical instruments. The ease with which we are able to make the
guess is not only because of their being juxtaposed with words like ‘rhythm’ and
‘tune’ but also because of the naming of one of the instruments – flute – in English.
Let us take another example, this time from chapter twelve:
On the following morning the entire neighbourhood wore a festive air because
Okonkwo’s friend, Obierika, was celebrating his daughter’s uri. It was the day
on which her suitor (having already paid the great part of her bride-price) would
bring palm-wine not only for her parents and immediate relatives but to the wide
and extensive kinsmen called umunna.
We can immediately ‘guess’ that uri must refer to some kind of an engagement
ceremony. However, as stated above in 4.5, the most important feature of Achebe’s
style in Things Fall Apart is the use of Ibo proverbs. Even a cursory reading of
the novel draws one’s attention to a very extensive use of proverbs by Achebe as
an important stylistic device. First, their use lends authenticity to Achebe’s
52
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart portrayal of the Ibo society in which not only is the use of proverbs in day-to-day
life quite popular but it is highly prized as well. Those who can use these proverbs
frequently during a conversation are considered to be better speakers. This is
also true of the Yoruba people in Nigeria itself and the Ashante people in Ghana.
Secondly, the use of proverbs fits in well with Achebe’s didactic function that he
assigns to every novelist. Every proverb, as we know, has some kind of amoral
or lesson to draw from. Finally, proverbs lend an element of precision to Achebe’s
style of writing. What may need paragraphs of elaboration may be put more
easily and effectively through the use of a proverb. Here is an example: instead
of saying that to coexist is a virtue and it is advisable to do so without coming
into conflict with another person, an Ibo would simply say –‘let the kite perch
and let the eagle perch’, or, signifying the importance of appropriate behaviour,
the Ibos say. ‘If a child washed his hands, he could eat with the kings.’ Again,
Ibos believe that circumstances are favourable to only those who try to do things
themselves and this they say in the following manner: when a man says yes, his
chi says yes. Chi incidentally is the personal god or spirit assigned to every Ibo
individual at the time of his/her birth and is supposed to stay at his/her shoulder
all the time.
Thus, Achebe’s use of lbo words, Ibo proverbs translated into English and the
use of simple structures that are a characteristic of the oral style of narration
make up the style of Things Fall Apart. Add to this his frequent use of irony and
you have quite a formidable style of writing.

Check Your Progress 1
1) Things Fall Apart is both specific and universal in character. How?
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2) Is it correct to call the style of Things fall Apart simple? If not, why?
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4.7 LET US SUM UP
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has been a favourite book with readers, critics
and translators all over the world. It is sometimes suggested that the book is a
very simplistic account of the life of a character that lacks depth of complexity.
The impression of Things Fall Apart is enormous. The novel, in fact, is quite a
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Specific Features of Things
Fall Apart complex portrayal of a society that is in itself, quite complex. In fact, this societythe Ibos towards the end of nineteenth century – is the ‘real subject’ of the book.
Achebe also builds into his analysis of the society a universal element that sets
the book free from fetters of time and place. The novel is about human predicament
itself. This makes Things Fall Apart specific and universal at the same time.
It is also suggested that the style and the language of the book, like its structure
and characterisation, is very simple. Once again, this is not true. Achebe has
borrowed a large part of his technique from the oral art of narration which is
quite common among the Ibos and which gives the impression of being simple
but is not really so. Achebe makes use of Ibo words quite frequently, weaving
them skillfully into his structures of English. Again, extensive use of proverbs
which he translates from Ibo- sometimes literally, sometimes after modifying
them significantly – also lends complexity to his style and the use of language.
It is because of these specific features that Things Fall Apart is considered a
modem classic.

4.8 HINTS TO CHCEK YOUR PROGRESS
i) Things Fall Apart is both specific and universal because while dealing with
specific characters in a specific society at a specific point of time, Achebe
invokes the very predicament of man. The novel thus transcends and barriers
of time and place.
ii) The style of Things Fall Apart is simple in appearance only. It is so because
Achebe adopts the style of oral narration. However, on closer scrutiny we
find many features of style and uses of language, which make it quite
sophisticated. The use of Ibo words and proverbs is the most prominent of
these features.

4.9 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES
1) Achebe, Chinua, Morning Yet on Creation Day (Heinemann,
London), 1975
2) Dathorne, O. R., African Literature in the Twentieth Century
(Heinemann, London), 1975
3) Dheram, Prema Kumari., Deprogramming through Cultural
Nationalism: Achebe and Ellison.
4) Killam, G.D., Chinua Achebe (Heinemann, London). 1969
5) Larson, Charles. R. The Emergence of African Fiction- (The
Macmilan Press Ltd, London), 1978
6) Palmer, Eustace, An Introduction to the African Novel
(Heinemann, London), 1972
7) Wright, Edgar, The Critical Evaluation of African
(Heinemann, London), 1973.
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Chinua Achebe: Things Fall
Apart 8) Roscoe. Adrian Mother is Gold (Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge), 1971.
9) Wauthier, Claude, The Literature & Thought of Modern Africa
{Pall Mall Press, London), 1964
10) Yanksa, Kofi, E. Chinua Achebe’s Novels: Socio Linguistic
Perspective, (Pacific Publishers: Nigeria),
1990