Disha's Assignment
Sunday, 2 April 2017
Paper no: 15 (MASS COMMUNICATION AND MASS MEDIA)
Name: Trivedi Disha Hiteshbhai
Paper no: 15 (MASS COMMUNICATION AND MASS MEDIA)
Topic: TYPES OF
COMMUNICATION.
Year: 2015-2017
M.A.Sem=4
Submitted to: Smt. S.b.gardi department of English (M.K.B.U)
What is
communication?
Communication (from
Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share") is the act of conveying
intended meanings from one entity or group to
another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules.
Types of
Communication
Communication
Communication is a process of
exchanging information, ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions through speech,
signals, writing, or behavior. In communication process, a sender(encoder)
encodes a message and then using a medium/channel sends it to the receiver
(decoder) who decodes the message and after processing information, sends back
appropriate feedback/reply using a medium/channel.
Types of
Communication
People communicate with each
other in a number of ways that depend upon the message and its context in which
it is being sent. Choice of communication channel and your style of
communicating also affects communication. So, there are variety of types of
communication.
Types of
communication based on the communication channels used are:
1) Verbal Communication
2)
Nonverbal Communication
Verbal communication refers to
the the form of communication in which message is transmitted verbally;
communication is done by word of mouth and a piece of writing. Objective of
every communication is to have people understand what we are trying to
convey. In verbal communication remember the acronym KISS(keep it short
and simple).
When we talk to others, we assume
that others understand what we are saying because we know what we are saying.
But this is not the case. Usually people
bring their own attitude, perception, emotions and thoughts about the topic and
hence creates barrier in delivering the right meaning.
So in order to deliver the right
message, you must put yourself on the other side of the table and think from
your receiver’s point of view. Would he understand the message? how it would
sound on the other side of the table?
Verbal
Communication is further divided into:
1)
Oral Communication
2)
Written Communication
3)
Oral Communication
In oral communication, Spoken
words are used. It includes face-to-face conversations, speech, telephonic
conversation, video, radio, television, voice over internet. In oral
communication, communication is influence by pitch, volume, speed and clarity
of speaking.
Advantages of Oral
communication are:
-It brings quick feedback.
-In a face-to-face conversation, by reading facial expression and body language one can guess whether he/she should trust what’s being said or not.
-In a face-to-face conversation, by reading facial expression and body language one can guess whether he/she should trust what’s being said or not.
Disadvantage of
oral communication
In face-to-face discussion, user is unable to deeply think about what he is delivering, so this can be counted as a
In face-to-face discussion, user is unable to deeply think about what he is delivering, so this can be counted as a
Written
Communication
In written communication, written
signs or symbols are used to communicate. A written message may be printed or
hand written. In written communication message can be transmitted via email,
letter, report, memo etc. Message, in written communication, is influenced by
the vocabulary & grammar used, writing style, precision and clarity of the
language used.
Written Communication is most
common form of communication being used in business. So, it is considered
core among business skills.
Memos, reports, bulletins, job
descriptions, employee manuals, and electronic mail are the types of written
communication used for internal communication. For communicating with external
environment in writing, electronic mail, Internet Web sites, letters,
proposals, telegrams, faxes, postcards, contracts, advertisements, brochures,
and news releases are used.
Advantages of
written communication includes:
-Messages can be edited and revised many time before it is actually
sent.
-Written communication provide record for every message sent and can be saved for later study.
-A written message enables receiver to fully understand it and send appropriate feedback.
-Written communication provide record for every message sent and can be saved for later study.
-A written message enables receiver to fully understand it and send appropriate feedback.
Disadvantages of
written communication includes:
-Unlike oral communication, Written communication doesn’t bring instant
feedback.
-It take more time in composing a written message as compared to word-of-mouth. and number of people struggles for writing ability.
-It take more time in composing a written message as compared to word-of-mouth. and number of people struggles for writing ability.
Nonverbal
Communication
Nonverbal communication is the
sending or receiving of wordless messages. We can say that communication other
than oral and written, such as gesture, body
language, posture, tone of voice or facial expressions, is
called nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is all about the
body language of speaker.
Nonverbal communication helps
receiver in interpreting the message received. Often, nonverbal signals
reflects the situation more accurately than verbal messages. Sometimes
nonverbal response contradicts verbal communication and hence affect the
effectiveness of message.
Nonverbal
communication have the following three elements:
1)
Appearance
2)
Speaker: clothing, hairstyle, neatness, use
of cosmetics
3)
Surrounding: room size, lighting, decorations,
furnishings
4)
Body Language
5)
facial expressions, gestures, postures
6)
Sounds
7)
Voice Tone, Volume, Speech rate
Types of
Communication Based on Purpose and Style
Based on style and purpose, there
are two main categories of communication and they both bears their own
characteristics. Communication types based on style and purpose are:
1) Formal Communication
In formal communication, certain
rules, conventions and principles are followed while communicating
message. Formal communication occurs in formal and official style. Usually
professional settings, corporate meetings, conferences undergoes in formal
pattern.
In formal communication, use of
slang and foul language is avoided and correct pronunciation is required.
Authority lines are needed to be followed in formal communication.
2) Informal Communication
Informal communication is done
using channels that are in contrast with formal communication channels. It’s
just a casual talk. It is established for societal affiliations of members in
an organization and face-to-face discussions. It happens among friends and
family. In informal communication use of slang words, foul language is not
restricted. Usually. informal communication is done orally and using gestures.
Informal communication, Unlike
formal communication, doesn’t follow authority lines. In an organization, it
helps in finding out staff grievances as people express more when talking
informally. Informal communication helps in building relationships.
THANK
YOU....
Paper no: 14 (THE AFRICAN LITERATURE)
Name: Trivedi Disha Hiteshbhai
Paper no: 14 (THE AFRICAN LITERATURE)
Topic: Things Fall
Apart As historical Fiction
Year: 2015-2017
M.A.Sem=4
Submitted to: Smt. S.b.gardi department of English (M.K.B.U)
Things Fall Apart As historical
Fiction
Tribal Society
Things Fall Apart was
published in 1958 just prior to Nigerian independence, but it depicts pre-colonial
Africa. Achebe felt it was important to portray Nigerians as they really
were—not just provide a shallow description of them as other authors had. The
story takes place in the typical tribal village of Umofia, where the
inhabitants (whom Achebe calls the Ibo, but who are also known as
the Igbo) practice rituals common to their native traditions.
The Ibo worshipped gods who
protect, advice, and chastise them and who are represented by priests and
priestesses within the clan. For example, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves
grants knowledge and wisdom to those who are brave enough to consult him. No
one has ever seen the Oracle except his priestess, who is an Ibo woman who has
special powers of her own. Not only did the gods advise the Ibo on community
matters, but also they guided individuals. Each person had a personal god, or
chi, that directed his or her actions. A strong chi meant a strong person;
people with weak chi were pitied. Each man kept a separate hut, or shrine,
where he stored the symbols of his personal god and his ancestral spirits.
A hunting and gathering society,
the Ibo existed on vegetables, with yams as the primary crop. Yams were so
important to them that the Ibo celebrated each new year with the Feast of the
New Yam. This festival thanked Ani, the earth goddess and source of all
fertility. The Ibo prepared for days for the festival, and the celebration
itself lasted for two days. Yams also played a part in determining a man's
status in the tribe—the more yams a man has, the higher his status. Trade with
other villages was facilitated by small seashells called cowries which were
used as a form of currency.
Within the village, people were
grouped according to families, with the eldest man in the family having the
most power. On matters affecting the whole village, an assembly of adult men
debated courses of action, and men could influence these assemblies by
purchasing "titles" from the tribal elders. This system encouraged
hard work and the spread of wealth. People who transgressed against the laws
and customs of the village had to confront the egwugwu, an assembly of
tribesmen masked as spirits, who would settle disputes and hand out punishment.
Individual villages also attained various degrees of political status. In the
novel, other tribes respect and fear Umuofia. They believe that Umuofia's magic
is powerful and that the village's war-medicine, or agadi-nwayi, is
particularly potent. Neighboring clans always try to settle disputes peacefully
with Umuofia to avoid having to war with them.
Christianity and
Colonization
While Christianity spread across
North and South Africa as early as the late fifteenth century, Christianity
took its strongest hold when the majority of the missionaries arrived in the
late 1800s. After centuries of taking slaves out of Africa, Britain had
outlawed the slave trade and now saw the continent as ripe for colonization.
Missionaries sent to convert the local population were often the first
settlers. They believed they could atone for the horrors
of slavery by saving the souls of Africans.
At first, Africans were
mistrustful of European Christians, and took advantage of the education the
missionaries provided without converting. Individuals who had no power under
the current tribal order, however, soon converted; in the novel, the
missionaries who come to Umuofia convert only the weaker tribesmen, or efulefu.
Missionaries would convince these tribesmen that their tribe worshipped false
gods and that its false gods did not have the ability to punish them if they
chose to join the mission. When the mission and its converts accepted even the
outcasts of the clan, the missionaries' ranks grew. Eventually, some of the
more important tribesmen would convert. As the mission expanded, the clan
divided, discontent simmered, and conflicts arose.
English
Bureaucrats and Colonization
After the arrival of the British,
when conflicts came up between villages the white government would intervene
instead of allowing villagers to settle them themselves. In the novel, a white
District Commissioner brings with him court messengers whose duty it is to
bring in people who break the white man's law. The messengers, called
"Ashy-Buttocks" for the ash-colored shorts they wear, are hated for
their high-handed attitudes. These messengers and interpreters were often
African Christian converts who looked down on tribesmen who still followed traditional
customs. If violence involved any white missionaries or bureaucrats, British
soldiers would often slaughter whole villages instead of seeking and punishing
guilty individuals. The British passed an ordinance in 1912 that legalized this
practice, and during an uprising in 1915, British troops killed more than forty
natives in retaliation for one dead and one wounded British soldier.
One of the most important results
of Europe's colonization of Africa was the division of Africa into at least
fifty nation-states. Rather than being a part of a society determined by common
language and livelihood, Africans lived according to political boundaries.
The divisions often split ethnic groups, leading to tension and sometimes
violence. The cohesiveness of the traditional society was gone.
Nigerian
Independence
British colonial rule
in Nigeria lasted only fifty-seven years, from 1903 to 1960. Although
Nigerians had long called for self-rule, it was not until the end of World War
II that England began heeding these calls. The Richards Constitution of 1946
was the first attempt to grant some native rule by bringing the diverse peoples
of Nigeria under one representative government. The three regions
(northern, southern and western) were brought under the administration of one legislative
council composed of twenty-eight Nigerians and seventeen British officers.
Regional councils, however, guaranteed some independence from the national
council and forged a link between local authorities, such as tribal chiefs, and
the national government. There were three major tribes (the Hausa, the Yoruba
and the Igbo) and more than eight smaller ones living in Nigeria. This
diversity complicated the creation of a unified Nigeria. Between 1946 and 1960
the country went through several different constitutions, each one attempting
to balance power between the regional and the national bodies of government.
On October 1, 1960, Nigeria
attained full status as a sovereign state and a member of the British
Commonwealth. But under the Constitution of 1960 the Queen of England was still
the head of state. She remained the commander- in-chief of Nigeria's armed
forces, and the Nigerian navy operated as part of Britain's Royal Navy.
Nigerians felt frustrated by the implication that they were the subjects of a
monarch living over 4,000 miles away. In 1963, five years after the publication
of Achebe's novel, a new constitution would replace the British monarch with a
Nigerian president as head of state in Nigeria.
Literary
Traditions
Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart just
before Nigeria received its independence. He intended the book for audiences
outside Africa; he wanted to paint a true picture of precolonial Africa for
those people who had no direct knowledge of traditional African societies. As a
result of the Nigerians' acquisition of independence, the Nigerian educational
system sought to encourage a national pride through the study of Nigerian
heritage. The educational system required Achebe's book in high schools
throughout the English-speaking countries in Africa. The book was well
received. Chinua Achebe has been recognized as "the most original African
novelist writing in English," according to Charles Larson in The
Emergence of African Fiction. Critics throughout the world have praised Things
Fall Apart as the first African English-language classic.
Themes
THE STRUGGLE
BETWEEN CHANGE AND TRADITION
As a story about a culture on the
verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality
of change affect various characters. The tension about whether change
should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal
status. Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders
because he feels that they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly
if he consents to join or even tolerate them. To some extent, Okonkwo’s
resistance of cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal
status. His sense of self-worth is dependent upon the traditional standards by
which society judges him. This system of evaluating the self inspires many of
the clan’s outcasts to embrace Christianity. Long scorned, these outcasts find
in the Christian value system a refuge from the Igbo cultural values that place
them below everyone else. In their new community, these converts enjoy a more
elevated status.
The villagers in general are
caught between resisting and embracing change and they face the dilemma of
trying to determine how best to adapt to the reality of change. Many of the
villagers are excited about the new opportunities and techniques that the
missionaries bring. This European influence, however, threatens to extinguish
the need for the mastery of traditional methods of farming, harvesting,
building, and cooking. These traditional methods, once crucial for survival,
are now, to varying degrees, dispensable. Throughout the novel, Achebe shows
how dependent such traditions are upon storytelling and language and thus how
quickly the abandonment of the Igbo language for English could lead to the
eradication of these traditions.
VARYING
INTERPRETATIONS OF MASCULINITY
Okonkwo’s relationship with his
late father shapes much of his violent and ambitious demeanor. He wants to rise
above his father’s legacy of spendthrift, indolent behavior, which he views as
weak and therefore effeminate. This association is inherent in the clan’s
language—the narrator mentions that the word for a man who has not taken any of
the expensive, prestige-indicating titles is agbala, which also means
“woman.” But, for the most part, Okonkwo’s idea of manliness is not the clan’s.
He associates masculinity with aggression and feels that anger is the only
emotion that he should display. For this reason, he frequently beats his wives,
even threatening to kill them from time to time. We are told that he does not
think about things, and we see him act rashly and impetuously. Yet others who
are in no way effeminate do not behave in this way. Obierika, unlike Okonkwo,
“was a man who thought about things.” Whereas Obierika refuses to accompany the
men on the trip to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo not only volunteers to join the
party that will execute his surrogate son but also violently stabs him with his
machete simply because he is afraid of appearing weak.
Okonkwo’s seven-year exile from
his village only reinforces his notion that men are stronger than women. While
in exile, he lives among the kinsmen of his motherland but resents the period
in its entirety. The exile is his opportunity to get in touch with his feminine
side and to acknowledge his maternal ancestors, but he keeps reminding himself
that his maternal kinsmen are not as warlike and fierce as he remembers the
villagers of Umuofia to be. He faults them for their preference of negotiation,
compliance, and avoidance over anger and bloodshed. In Okonkwo’s understanding,
his uncle Uchendu exemplifies this pacifist (and therefore somewhat effeminate)
mode.
LANGUAGE AS A SIGN
OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
Language is an important theme
in Things Fall Apart on several levels. In demonstrating the
imaginative, often formal language of the Igbo, Achebe emphasizes that Africa
is not the silent or incomprehensible continent that books such as Heart
of Darknessmade it out to be. Rather, by peppering the novel with Igbo
words, Achebe shows that the Igbo language is too complex for direct
translation into English. Similarly, Igbo culture cannot be understood within
the framework of European colonialist values. Achebe also points out that
Africa has many different languages: the villagers of Umuofia, for
example, make fun of Mr. Brown’s translator because his language is
slightly different from their own.
On a macroscopic level, it is
extremely significant that Achebe chose to write Things Fall Apart in
English—he clearly intended it to be read by the West at least as much, if not
more, than by his fellow Nigerians. His goal was to critique and emend the
portrait of Africa that was painted by so many writers of the colonial period.
Doing so required the use of English, the language of those colonial writers.
Through his inclusion of proverbs, folktales, and songs translated from the
Igbo language, Achebe managed to capture and convey the rhythms, structures,
cadences, and beauty of the Igbo language.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
CHI
The concept of chi is
discussed at various points throughout the novel and is important to our
understanding of Okonkwo as a tragic hero. The chi is an individual’s
personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or
lack thereof. Along the lines of this interpretation, one can explain Okonkwo’s
tragic fate as the result of a problematic chi—a thought that occurs to
Okonkwo at several points in the novel. For the clan believes, as the narrator
tells us in Chapter 14, a “man could not rise beyond the destiny of
his chi.” But there is another understanding of chi that
conflicts with this definition. In Chapter 4, the narrator relates, according
to an Igbo proverb, that “when a man says yes his chi says yes also.”
According to this understanding, individuals will their own destinies. Thus,
depending upon our interpretation of chi, Okonkwo seems either more
or less responsible for his own tragic death. Okonkwo himself shifts between
these poles: when things are going well for him, he perceives himself as master
and maker of his own destiny; when things go badly, however, he automatically
disavows responsibility and asks why he should be so ill-fated.
ANIMAL IMAGERY
In their descriptions,
categorizations, and explanations of human behavior and wisdom, the Igbo often
use animal anecdotes to naturalize their rituals and beliefs. The presence of
animals in their folklore reflects the environment in which they live—not yet
“modernized” by European influence. Though the colonizers, for the most part,
view the Igbo’s understanding of the world as rudimentary, the Igbo perceive
these animal stories, such as the account of how the tortoise’s shell came to
be bumpy, as logical explanations of natural phenomena. Another important
animal image is the figure of the sacred python. Enoch’s alleged killing and
eating of the python symbolizes the transition to a new form of spirituality
and a new religious order. Enoch’s disrespect of the python clashes with the
Igbo’s reverence for it, epitomizing the incompatibility of colonialist and
indigenous values.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters,
figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
LOCUSTS
Achebe depicts the locusts that
descend upon the village in highly allegorical terms that prefigure the arrival
of the white settlers, who will feast on and exploit the resources of the Igbo.
The fact that the Igbo eat these locusts highlights how innocuous they take
them to be. Similarly, those who convert to Christianity fail to realize the
damage that the culture of the colonizer does to the culture of the colonized.
The language that Achebe uses to
describe the locusts indicates their symbolic status. The repetition of words
like “settled” and “every” emphasizes the suddenly ubiquitous presence of these
insects and hints at the way in which the arrival of the white settlers takes
the Igbo off guard. Furthermore, the locusts are so heavy they break the tree
branches, which symbolizes the fracturing of Igbo traditions and culture under
the onslaught of colonialism and white settlement. Perhaps the most explicit
clue that the locusts symbolize the colonists is Obierika’s comment in Chapter
15: “the Oracle . . . said that other white men were on their way. They were
locusts. . . .”
FIRE
Okonkwo is associated with
burning, fire, and flame throughout the novel, alluding to his intense and
dangerous anger the only emotion that he allows himself to display. Yet the
problem with fire, as Okonkwo acknowledges in Chapters 17 and 24, is that it
destroys everything it consumes. Okonkwo is both physically destructive he
kills Ikemefuna and Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s son emotionally destructive he
suppresses his fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma in favor of a
colder, more masculine aura. Just as fire feeds on itself until all that is
left is a pile of ash, Okonkwo eventually succumbs to his intense rage, allowing
it to rule his actions until it destroys him.
THANK
YOU...
Paper no: 13 (NEW LITERATURE)
Name: Trivedi Disha Hiteshbhai
Paper no: 13 (NEW LITERATURE)
Topic: Themes in the white tiger.
Year: 2015-2017
M.A.Sem=4
Submitted to: Smt. S.b.gardi department of English (M.K.B.U)
The White Tiger Themes
By: Arvind Adiga
Summary:
Introducing a major literary
talent, The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering
suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating,
and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen.
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant, Philosopher, Entrepreneur, Murderer Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.
Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.
Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations. Sold in sixteen countries around the world, The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation -- and a startling, provocative debut.
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant, Philosopher, Entrepreneur, Murderer Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.
Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.
Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations. Sold in sixteen countries around the world, The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation -- and a startling, provocative debut.
Use of
symbols in novel:
The White Tiger: Balram
earns this nickname when he impresses a visiting school official with his
intelligence and reading skills. It’s a symbol for rare talent – only 1 in
10,000 Bengali tigers are white.
“The Darkness”:
The poverty-stricken, rural area of India where Balram's village, Laxmangarh is
located. It is fed by The Ganges, “The River of Death”, where millions of
India's dead are cremated.
The Black Fort: The
architectural centerpiece of Balram's village. As a child he is afraid to go
alone, but he conquers this fear as he gets older. It later becomes his
sanctuary, where he goes to contemplate his misfortune. The fort is located
high on a hill, and as he looks down on his village, he vows to escape from The
Rooster Coop and never to return.
The Chandelier: Hanging
in Balram’s Bangalore office is a vintage chandelier. He frequently looks to it
for “inspiration,” confessing to “staring” for long periods of time. The
chandelier comes to symbolize the “Light” of Bangalore and Balram’s new life.
Honda Citizen: This
is the more luxurious of the 2 cars owned by the Stork's family. When Balram is
1st hired as a driver, he is never allowed to drive this car. When he is
promoted and able to drive the Honda, he feels like he has “made it” in life.
Later in the story, Balram secretly takes the car out at night on his own,
pretending to be wealthy.
The Rooster Coop: A
metaphor Balram employs to describe the Indian servant/master system. One day
in the marketplace, Balram sees roosters being slaughtered next to other live,
caged roosters. The roosters know they are next, but they do not rebel. Balram
observes that servants in India remain trapped in servitude – but no one breaks
out of the “Rooster Coop” because of family honor.
Themes
Corruption in
India
Throughout Balram’s
narrative, Adiga constantly exposes the prevalence of corruption throughout all
of India's institutions. Schools, hospitals, police, elections, industries and
every aspect of government are thoroughly corrupt, while practices such as
bribery and fraud are entirely commonplace. Balram's approach to this truth
largely involves a deeply cynical humor. However, there is an ugly component to
his character arc. In order to escape the "Darkness" and enter into
the "Light," Balram must himself become a part of this system. His
victory is thus bittersweet; while he has succeeded in elevating his social
position, he continues to live in a country paralyzed by corruption, which
prevents true progress from taking place. Adiga's ultimate point seems to be
that corruption necessarily breeds corruption, unless of course a greater
revolution remakes society.
Globalization
The India described by Balram is
in the throes of a major transformation, heralded in part by the advent of
globalization. India finds itself at the crossroads of developments in the
fields of technology and outsourcing, as the nation adapts to address the needs
of a global economy. Balram recognizes and hopes to ride this wave of the
future with his White Tiger Technology Drivers business in Bangalore, but this
force of globalization has a darker component for him as well. It threatens and
disenfranchises those adhering to a traditional way of life, such as his family
in Laxmangarh. Hence, he must change who he is in order to compete in this new
world. Adiga thus vividly conjures the tension between the old and new India,
suggesting that succeeding in this world (as Balram does) requires a flurry of
ethical and personal compromises.
Social Mobility
Balram frequently discusses the
issues of social mobility in the new social hierarchy of India. Having
idolized Vijay from childhood, Balram recognizes the possibility of
moving up in the world, but has to confront the reality of such movement
throughout his story. One of the big issues is how India's social system has
changed. Under the caste system, people's fates were predetermined, but they
were happy, believing they belonged somewhere. However, the new social
structure promises the possibility of social mobility, but actually only offers
two social divisions: the rich and the poor. The poor are kept in an eternal
state of subservience and servitude to the rich by the mechanism that Balram
dubs "The Rooster Coop." However, they are now more unhappy because
there is a possibility of social mobility that nevertheless remains out of
their grasp. Balram ultimately finds a way to break from the Rooster Coop, but
it requires him to compromise his ethics and personality - he has to kill his
master and betray his family. That social mobility is a specter captured only through
such difficult means is a comment on the unfortunate reality of a world built
more on limitations than possibility.
Identity
The White Tiger is largely a
story of self-fashioning, as Balram undergoes a transformative journey to
construct his own identity. Inspired by his childhood hero, Vijay, who also
rose from a humble background to achieve success in the upper echelons of
Indian society, Balram dedicates himself to self-improvement, so much so that
he is willing to destroy who he once was. He sees identity as fluid and
malleable, a fact articulated through the many name changes he employs
throughout the story. Ultimately, he even chooses a new identity for himself in
imitation of his master, calling himself Ashok Sharma. And yet the novel
is full of dramatic irony revealing that Balram cannot fully repudiate the
person he once was. He remains full of unresolved guilt and provincial
superstitions, reminding us that while identity might be entirely fluid, it is
also entirely immovable as well.
Morality
Ultimately, The White
Tiger is a tale about morality, suggesting that morality can be viewed as
either rigid or flexible. Balram eventually embraces the latter option. In
order to justify murdering Ashok and risking his family's lives, Balram develops
an alternate moral system. He reasons that the money he steals from Ashok is
rightfully his, since servants are exploited by the rich, and he convinces
himself of his exceptionalism as "the white tiger" in order to
rationalize his decisions. Believing he is the only one who has truly woken up
to the truth of the "Rooser Coop," he feels compelled to change his
life. In this sense, Balram has become a version of Nietzche's
"ubermensch," or over-man, who believes himself to be above the moral
and legal limitations of society. Adiga poses a question through Balram: do we
blame a criminal for his decisions, or do we try to understand those decisions
as reactions to an overly oppressive and restrictive society? Assuming that a
reader does not have a definitive answer, Adiga suggests then that morality is
a fluid and unfixed concept.
Pairs and
Dualities
The White Tiger abounds with
instances of twinned pairs and dualities, each corresponding to one half of a
central dichotomy: the rich and the poor halves of India. Balram poses India as
broken up into two sections, the "Darkness" and the
"Light." Examples of twinned pairs from each of these two halves
include: the "men with small bellies" and "men with big
bellies;" the hospital where Balram's father dies and the city hospital
visited by the Stork; the beautiful blonde prostitute visited by Ashok and
the uglier, faux-blonde prostitute hired by Balram; the apartment building in
Delhi and its servants quarters below; and the two versions of all markets in
India (one for the rich, and a smaller, grimier replica for the servants). The
most significant of these twinned pairs is, of course, Ashok and Balram
themselves. It is telling that Balram, the narrator, views the world as split
into halves. It reveals the extent to which oppression has ruined his
worldview.
Another means by which Adiga explores this theme is through
the symbolic rearview mirror, which doubles everything through a reflection and
hence functions as a conduit for the confrontation between Ashok and Balram. This
particular image suggests that identity can be transferred across the divide -
one can move from one area to another. Other instances of dualities in the text
serve to further highlight the extent of Balram's transformation; for example,
the two car accidents (Pinky Madam's hit-and-run and the death of the bicycling
boy) demonstrate just how far Balram has come in his quest to become a
successful entrepreneur. Balram was once a pawn in the game, whereas in the
latter case he has found the power to be a representative of the more fortunate
"Light."
Family
The extended Indian family plays
an incredibly significant role in the traditional way of life in the Darkness.
The family is the core social unit, so all its members are expected to act with
selfless devotion to its interests. Though the poor ostensibly view this
construct as a strength, Balram comes to see it as another way through which
the poor are kept in the "Rooster Coop." Firstly, the expectations of
family enforce limitations that can quash individual ambition (as they almost
do with Balram). Further, since a servant's disobedience is visited upon his
family, servants remain trapped by the whims of their masters. Social mobility
becomes impossible. In order to break free and live the life of a successful
entrepreneur in Bangalore, a city representing a new India, Balram must
sacrifice his family. This conundrum seems to suggest that in order to thrive
in the modern world and embrace the potentials of a New India, this traditional
attachment to the family must be relinquished in favour of a newfound emphasis
on individualism.
Thank
You...
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Hamlet as a tragic hero
M.K. Bhavnagar
University Dept. Of English
NAME: Trivedi Disha Hiteshbhai
ROLL NO: 40
M.A SEM-1
BATCH OF YEAR: 2015-17
Paper No: 1
Topic: Hamlet
as a tragic hero
Submitted to: Smt. S.b.gardi
Dept. of English
Respected sir,
Here I give my opinion about Hamlet as a
tragic hero.
Hamlet as a tragic hero
# Brief introduction of writer.
·
‘Hamlet’ play written by William Shakespeare he is one of the most
famous writer and greatest dramatist of his age.
·
Ben Johnson
called him:
“The soul of the age”
And
“He was not of an age,
But for all time”.
Carlyle, too, rightly observed:
“The empire will go,
At any rate some day,
But this Shakespeare does not go,
He lasts
forever with us,
We cannot give up our Shakespeare”.
Today we can
find his many famous books. His hundreds of editions of play have been
published and translations in all major languages.
# Character sketch of Hamlet:
Hamlet, the prince of
Denmark, generally agreed to be William Shakespeare’s most fascinating hero. No
brief sketch can satisfy his host of admirers or take into account more than a
minute fraction of the commentary now in print. The character is a mysterious
combination of a series of literary sources and the phenomenal genius of the
playwright. Orestes in Greek tragedy is probably his ultimate progenitor, not
Oedipus, as some critics have suggested. The Greek original has been altered
and augmented by medieval saga and Renaissance romance. Perhaps an earlier Hamlet,
written by Thomas Kyd, furnished important material; however, the existence of
such a play has been disputed. Hamlet is a mixture of tenderness and violence,
a scholar, lover, friend, athlete, philosopher, satirist, and deadly enemy; he
is larger than life. Torn by grief for his dead father and disappointment in
the conduct of his beloved mother, Hamlet desires a revenge so complete that it
will reach the soul as well as the body of his villainous uncle. His attempt to
usurp God’s prerogative of judgment leads to all the deaths in the play. Before
his death, he reaches a state of resignation and acceptance of God’s will. He
gains his revenge but loses his life.
He is one of the most complex and challenging
characters ever drawn on the pages of any drama. Hamlet is the greatest human
composition. He has many sided personality like a prince, courter, philosopher,
an intellectual, a worrier, scholar, etc,..Here we shall Endeavour to note the
salient characteristics of his personality.
Over the
centuries critics have explained for Hamlets behavior, but none of them has
would been able to…
“Pluck out
the heart of my mystery”.
As Hamlet puts it himself.
Ophelia’s …..
“O what a
Nobel mind”.
Speech is
one of many suggesting that Shakespeare meant us to think of him this way.
While the earliest view was that Hamlet
simply a victim of circumstances, later critics saw him as a beautiful but
ineffectual soul who lacked the strength of will to avenge his father. Hamlet
doesn’t want money, richness, kingdom or empire, etc….His kingdom is the
kingdom of mind, and his thoughts are dearer to him than the common realities
of everyday life.
Hamlet has
been a student and scholar at the Wittenberg University Germany. Still he
allows sufficient time to make sure of his grounds. He is skeptical about the
ghost also.
“The spirit
that i have seen;
May be the dived
‘he says
’Frailty, name is woman!”
If all his
feelings translate themselves into thought, it is on less true that all his
thought are impregnated with feelings. He loved Ophelia deeply but Ophelia is
unable to offlgrstand his depth and does not act and response proper. Hamlet
also loves his mother a lot but he hate her to as a wife of his uncle Claudius.
Dr. Bradley
thinks that ‘Hamlet’ melancholy is the key to his character. He was not born
melancholy. He was cheerful but the ciralmsthance have made him so. This father’s
death has given him a great shock. He is tired of life and wishes to dies.
“o that this
too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into dew”.
He suffers
from depression and militates suicide. The problem of madness is perhaps the
most important and the most bewildering and most maddening problem in Hamlet.
There are certain who believe that Hamlet is really mad where as there are
certain other critics who believe that Hamlet is only pretending to be mad.
Hamlet is a disturbed soul and tortured man.
He says himself:
“Sir in my heart these was a king of
fighting/
that would
not let me sleep”.
#Feminist approach in “hamlet”
As we can see in the “hamlet’ we find two
female character are main in the play.
1) Gertrude
and 2) Ophelia
Gertrude is
a mother of hamlet and queen of Denmark. She is loved a lot hamlet and he also
loved his mom but after his father death hamlet opinion changed for his mother
because one day king hamlet ghost come and tell him everything what happen with
him and who is doing every think and say his secret of his death. After knowing
everything he decides to take revenge of his father death. All thinks are come
in his mind and thinking how it this possible for any woman can do re marriage
just after her husband’s death only passing 2 months. Because it it very short
time to growing up. No doubt Gertrude give her all time best for Hamlet.
Ophelia is a
beloved of Hamlet. Allover she is very beautiful and innocent girl in play. But
Ophelia’s father used to her every time likes a puppet. He all time force to
her doing this or this.
In Hamlet we
find many approaches every character drawing very well.
Hamlet used
most famous soliloquy.. “To be or not to be” that is the question:
Annotations:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them ? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
In many senses,
Hamlet is the quintessential tragic hero. Not only does he begin with the
noblest motivations (to punish his father’s murderer) but by the end, his
situation is do dire that the only plausible final act should be his death.
Like the classical tragic hero, Hamlet does not survive to see the full outcome
of his actions and more importantly, this is because he possesses a tragic
flaw. While there are a number of flaws inherent to his character, it is
Hamlet’s intense identification with and understanding of the power of
words and language that
ultimately bring about his requisite tragic ending. Hamlet’s deep connection
with language and words causes him to base his perceptions of reality on his
interpretation and understanding of words and he allows himself to become
overwrought with creating meaning. As this thesis statement for
Hamlet suggests, eventually, his
own words and philosophical internal banter are his end since being a highly
verbose and introspective man, this is both one of his greatest gifts as well as
his tragic flaw.
# Conclusion
“Hamlet” is revenge play written by world famous writer
William Shakespeare. In Hamlet we find hamlet as a critical study and
analysis.
Claudius was aware of power, clearly when he observed of
Hamlet’s apparent madness that “madness in great ones must not unwatched go”.
With equal truth Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might have observed that power in
great ones also must not unwatched go.
# Some of
the Last lines of Hamlet#
O, I die Horatio;
The patent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England,
But, I do prophesy the elections lights on Fortinbras:
He was my dying voice so tell him,
With the occur rents more and less which have solicited-
The rest is silence”.
Hear play
was end and ending with Hamlets death..
Thank you…………
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